Bishop Blaise

(No. 16. p. 247.).—Four lives of the martyr Blasius, Bishop of Sebaste in Cappadocia, are to be found in the Bollandine *Acta Sanctorum*, under the 3rd of February. It appears that the relics and worship of this saint were very widely spread through Europe, and some places seem to have claimed him as indigenous on the strength merely of possessing one of his toes or teeth. The wool-comb was one of the instruments with which he was tortured, and having become a symbol of his martyrdom, gave occasion, it would seem, to the wool-combers to claim him as their patron, and to ascribe to him the inve…