Templar Devotion of Saint Blaise

Saint Blaise, a fourth century bishop and physician, appears in Templar chapels, altars and relic lists. A statue of him stands near the church of Chamberaud, once a Templar site. Did the order really venerate him, and does the statue prove it?

Who Was Blaise
Blaise was a fourth century martyr, bishop of Sebastia and a physician [1].

Chapels, Altars and Relics
The historian Jochen Schenk names two Templar chapels dedicated to Saint Blaise, at Hyères and Montfrin in Provence [1]. Relics of Blaise appear in the inventories of Avignon and Grasse, both houses with an altar of Saint Blaise, and of Peñíscola [1]. Paris is documented in the trial record itself. In the Paris hearings of January 1311 (the year is deduced here from the weekdays in the record, which gives day and month only), two brothers stated that they had been received into the order in the capella sancti Blasii domus Templi Parisius (chapel of Saint Blaise of the Temple house in Paris), one about 1287 under Peter Normani, then commander of Laudinesio, the other about 1297 under John de Turno, treasurer of the Paris Temple [2]. Schenk writes of an altar in his main text and of a chapel in a footnote [1]; the trial record supports a chapel. The head is a separate matter. In May 1311 the sergeant Peter Maurini told the commissioners that a knight, Peter of Vienna, had said at Château Pèlerin (a Templar fortress until 1291) that a head in the Temple treasure, which touched the cords brothers wore, was of Saint Peter or Saint Blaise [3]. That is hearsay about one head in the East, and Maurini added that he had never heard of an evil head or idol in the order [3].

The Chamberaud Statue
Chamberaud lies in the Creuse. The monuments database, which lists the church of Saint Blaise, says the Templars held an establishment there whose chapel depended in 1282 on the church of Frauséches, and that the place later became a commandery of the Order of Malta, the Hospitallers [4]. The commune adds that the Hospitallers settled in 1313, that the chapel was then dedicated to John the Baptist, and that the church has been dedicated to Saint Blaise only since the eighteenth century [5]. Neither source mentions a statue.

What the Evidence Shows
The Templar devotion is documented in Provence, Avignon, Grasse, Peñíscola and Paris [1][2]. The Chamberaud statue is not part of that evidence: the dedication to Blaise there came centuries after the Templars. The place was Templar first, then Hospitaller.

This blog, an improved version of an earlier one, is original work by TemplarsNow^TM based on an AI-assisted quick scan on the topic. References and further reading, Open Access if available, all links verified October 27, 2026 and all sources checked but not all studied in detail: [1] Schenk, J. (2017) Templar Religion, in the author’s accepted version, Glasgow: University of Glasgow Enlighten (published pp. 199-211, Routledge), pp. 10-11 of the eprint, notes 47-49; [2] Michelet, J. (1841) Procès des Templiers, vol. 1, Paris, pp. 409-410 (Adam de Vollencourt, hearing of 18 January) and p. 447 (Robert le Brioys), full text of the Internet Archive copy; [3] Michelet, J. (1851) Procès des Templiers, vol. 2, Paris: Imprimerie nationale, pp. 238-240 (Peter Maurini, hearing of 19 May), full text of the Internet Archive copy; [4] Ministère de la Culture (n.d.) Église Saint-Blaise, Chamberaud, Base Mérimée, notice PA00100028; [5] Commune de Chamberaud (n.d.) Église de Chamberaud, Association pour la valorisation du patrimoine historique.

Illustration: The illustration shows a statue of Saint Blaise near the church of Chamberaud (Creuse, France), first Templar, from 1313 Hospitaller. Photo ©TemplarsNow.

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