Showing posts with label St. Blaise. Show all posts
Showing posts with label St. Blaise. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 1, 2023

Saint Blaise

The man who would become known to Western Europe as Saint Blaise was Bishop Vlasi of Sebastea in Armenia. His life was written about 400 years after his death, in the Acts of Saint Blaise:

Blaise, who had studied philosophy in his youth, was a doctor in Sebaste in Armenia, the city of his birth, who exercised his art with miraculous ability, good-will, and piety. When the bishop of the city died, he was chosen to succeed him, with the acclamation of all the people. His holiness was manifest through many miracles: from all around, people came to him to find cures for their spirit and their body; even wild animals came in herds to receive his blessing. In 316, Agricola, the governor of Cappadocia and of Lesser Armenia, having arrived in Sebastia at the order of the emperor Licinius to kill the Christians, arrested the bishop. As he was being led to jail, a mother set her only son, choking to death of a fish-bone, at his feet, and the child was cured straight away. Regardless, the governor, unable to make Blaise renounce his faith, beat him with a stick, ripped his flesh with iron combs, and beheaded him.

This incident forever joined the saint's name to throat ailments, but he is also the patron saint for infants, animals, builders, stonecutters, carvers, drapers, wool workers, wool industry, veterinarians, physicians, healing, the general sick, choking, and Ear Nose and Throat illnesses.

As well as a plethora of causes for which one might appeal to Blaise, there were numerous locations that claimed his patronage: several towns in Italy, in Sicily, Sebastea, and Dubrovnik, whose Republic of Ragusa even has his likeness on their flag! Dubrovnik and others have parades and festivities on 3 February for the saint's feast day.

Blaise was very popular in the Middle Ages, with many churches and locations named for him. A shrine near where he was martyred was commented on both by Marco Polo and William Rubruck.

Outside of works on saints' lives, he was mentioned by Aëtius of Amida, a medical writer, for his healing abilities. Aëtius is interesting for many reasons, one of which is the typographical error in one of his works that named a near-universal medical issue. But that's a story for tomorrow.

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

The Invention of Acne...

A copy of his work [source]
...was a typographical error.

The word "acne" does not come from a classical language root; that is, not in the way we usually derive our modern medical terms. It was described by a Greek physician and then mis-transcribed in a later volume of his work.

Aetius of Amida was a contemporary of Theodoric the Great (454 - 526; mentioned here in connection with Grammar). He was known for the breadth of his learning; his writings show a great knowledge of those who came before him as well as personal skill. He came out of Mesopotamia and learned medicine at Alexandria, known for its medical school.

His famous work was Sixteen Books on Medicine, in which he compiles knowledge from Galen and others of whom we would otherwise have little information: the surgeons Rufus of Ephesus and Leonidas, and the obstetricians and gynecologists Soranus of Ephesus and Philumenus. He is not completely derivative, however. He includes original treatments for eyes, ears, nose and throat, as well as goiter and rabies and others. He also addresses surgical procedures such as for a fistula or tonsilitis.

Although a Christian, he was not immune to the cures that came from non-Christian sources. He relates spells and charms popular in Egypt at the time. Also, in explaining how to help a person suffering from a bone stuck in the throat, he makes the earliest reference to St. Blaise.

As for the condition in which the skin is covered with small eruptions or peaks, he used the Greek word ἀκμή ["acme"; point]. Unfortunately, a scribal error in a later copy turned this into ἀκνή ["acne"]. The popularity of his text made this the common name for the affliction, and so it remains.