HUNTERSVILLE — In a Catholic tradition that is being revived in several parishes across the diocese, hundreds of people young and old came to St. Mark Church to get their throats blessed Feb. 3, the feast day of St. Blaise.
Father Melchesideck Yumo, parochial vicar, and Deacon Richard McCarron blessed people by placing two blessed candles, tied together in the shape of a cross with a red ribbon, and invoking the saint’s intercession saying, “Through the intercession of St. Blaise, may God deliver you from every disease of the throat and from every other illness. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
The parish also displays a relic of St. Blaise, patron saint of throat diseases and illnesses, in its side nave.
— Amy Burger