THE SAXON CATHEDRAL AT CANTERBURY
with a cord) of copper gilt, without gems, but with a large round crystal, through which the relic might be viewed.
Also some of the bones of this saint were kept in a large white box of wood; in a small cupboard (armariolo) behind the High Altar near his shrine, was kept the canola, or silver tube containing a relic; and in a large ivory horn hanging from the beam behind the High Altar was a bone of the saint. A tooth was also kept in a reliquary in the form of a cross of gold belonging to Archbishop Stephen Langton, with a ruby in its head and two emeralds at the sides.
The shrine of St. Blaise, the coffer and bones, etc., if not destroyed at the despoiling of the shrine of St. Thomas in the time of Henry VIII (1538), more probably disappeared under the injunctions issued by Edward VI in 1547.
St. Blaise was the Armenian Bishop who was martyred in the persecution of Licinius by command of Agricolaus, the Governor of Cappadocia; the miracles which were effected by the veneration of his relics were mostly the cure of sore throats. There is a legend that St. Blaise cured a boy at the point of death from choking owing to swallowing a fish bone, by praying and touching his throat. In Roman Catholic churches, on February 3, is still observed the custom of blessing the throats, and the prayer certainly dating from the thirteenth century, is used: "Through the intercession of St. Blaise, Bishop and Martyr, may the Lord deliver thee from all evil of the throat, through Christ Our Lord, Amen." He is the titular Patron of the Woolcombers, and his day is still kept at Norwich amongst the fraternity.
St. Furseus, A.D. 650 (see page 19), has already been mentioned as the son of the Irish King Fintan. He was of the seventh century, and was first abbot of a monastery in the diocese of Tuam, where now stands the Church of Kill-fursa (Colgan). His two brothers, Folian and Ultan, were both known as saints; with them he travelled through England, and with the help of King Sigibert he founded the Abbey of Cnobbersbury, now Burgh-castle in Suffolk. He then went to France, where with the assistance of the French King, Clovis II, he founded the monastery of Lagny on the Marne. He acted as Deputy to the Bishop of Paris, and has thus been thought to be a Bishop. He died in A.D. 650, whilst building another monastery at Peronne.
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