St. Blaise, ora pro nobis!

@onegroovynun Lightsabers would be awesome for St. Blaise day too. ☺️ pic.twitter.com/GSnohm0XFM

— Briana Grzybowski (@brianagrzy1) February 3, 2016

TheCompass: Saints for the deer hunting season

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St. Eustace and St. Hubert share some common elements in their stories

Deer hunting season is upon us. Whether it’s bow season — Sept. 12 through Jan. 3 in Wisconsin — or deer gun season coming up — Nov. 21 to 29 — taking to the woods is a tradition going back generations.

When one talks about patron saints of hunters, two names come up most often: St. Eustace (also called Eustáchius) and St. Hubert (also called Hubertus). Their stories are similar and there is speculation that the life of the earlier of the two was more a pious story than the true tale of a true person.

However, St. Eustace is listed as a saint and, in fact, is one of the 14 Holy Helpers (a list which includes St. Christopher and St. Blaise). Eustace was born a Roman and became a very successful general under the Emperor Trajan in the second century. He was known as Placidus before his conversion to Christianity, and that conversion is where the hunting story comes in.

continue at The Compass

There is some debate on which is the patron saint of Jägermeister.

St. Eustace, patron saint of Jägermeister, ora pro nobis!

According to legend, prior to his conversion to Christianity, Eustace was a Roman general named Placidus, who served the emperor Trajan. While hunting a stag in Tivoli near Rome, Placidus saw a vision of a crucifix lodged between the stag's antlers. He was immediately converted, had himself and his family baptized, and changed his name to Eustace.

A series of calamities followed to test his faith: his wealth was stolen; his servants died of a plague; when the family took a sea-voyage, the ship's captain kidnapped Eustace's wife Theopista; and as Eustace crossed a river with his two sons Agapius and Theopistus, the children were taken away by a wolf and a lion. Like Job, Eustace lamented but did not lose his faith.

He was then quickly restored to his former prestige and reunited with his family; but when he demonstrated his new faith by refusing to make a pagan sacrifice, the emperor, Hadrian, condemned Eustace, his wife, and his sons to be roasted to death inside a bronze statue of a bull or an ox, in the year AD 118.

Eustace became known as a patron saint of hunters and firefighters, and also of anyone facing adversity; he was traditionally included among the Fourteen Holy Helpers.

The saint's cross-and-stag symbol is featured on bottles of Jägermeister. This is related to his status as patron of hunters; jägermeisters were senior foresters and gamekeepers in the German civil service at the time of the drink's introduction in 1935.

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I in fact had some last evening, not because of the vigil, but because I have a nasty cold. Seriously, I'm convinced the stuff could cure leprosy.

Fourteen Holy Helpers, orate pro nobis!

Source

The Legend

St. Denis at Basilika Vierzehnheiligen

Fourteen Holy Helpers from the original Cathedral in La Crosse (since been removed)

Wiki: The "fourteen angels" of the lost children's prayer in Engelbert Humperdinck's fairy opera, 'Hansel and Gretel', are the Fourteen Holy Helpers. The English words are familiar:

When at night I go to sleep,
Fourteen angels watch do keep,
Two my head are guarding,
Two my feet are guiding;
Two upon my right hand,
Two upon my left hand.
Two who warmly cover
Two who o'er me hover,
Two to whom 'tis given
To guide my steps to heaven.

St. Blaise, ora pro nobis!

  

St Blaise in Switzerland

 

Icon of St Blaise with St Paul

 

St Blaise in Basilika Vierzehnheiligen

(Basilica of the Fourteen Holy Helpers)

in Bavaria, Germany

St. Blaise is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers.  For those of you with German roots, the 14HH devotions carries a special place.  The story goes like this....

The year was 1445, when the shepherd of the monastery Langheim (in Lichtenfels), Hermann Leicht, 24 September against the evening in a field, a crying child appeared. As he approached supervention wanted, the child was gone. In a second vision, he again saw the child, but now on both sides of each candle. The following year, on 28 June 1446, he again looked at the child, this time with a red cross on the heart and surrounded by fourteen children, all dressed alike, half white, half red. The child at the center told the shepherds: 'We are the fourteen helpers and want to have a chapel, also graciously rest here. " In response, the crowd of children disappearing into the clouds. On the report of the shepherd to the monastery was built in the same year at the site of the apparitions of the cross. A few days after the last appearance of the shepherd, a first miracle was announced: A terminally ill girl from Langheim was cured after receiving a complaint of the fourteen auxiliary saints. The news got around fast, and now more and more people seeking help came to Frankenthal, as the area around the future of grace Vierzehnheiligen 

Update: This is actually a repost from last year.  Br Stephen at Sub Tuum has some more great info for us.