Milan, a futuristic city of skyscrapers, still retains, in the shadow of the Madonnina, some of its ancient traditions, linked to a past with a peasant flavor and a city that had not yet embarked on the road to becoming a metropolis.
Among these is the almost obligatory tradition of eat a bite of the last panettone left over until February in San Biagio.
San Biagio is a Milanese tradition little known outside the city limits, but very useful for finishing leftover panettone from the Christmas holidays. Why is it called the “panettone of San Biagio?” Quickly said: February 3rd is the day on which the Church remembers San Biagio, a figure who according to the popular Milanese tradition “benedis la forza e él nas”, in short “blesses the throat and the nose”.
The Milanese, in fact, they usually eat panettone on this very day (even if it’s not very fresh, actually better).
Saint Blaise was an Armenian doctor who lived in the 3rd century AD: it is said that he performed a miracle when a desperate mother brought her dying son to him due to a bone stuck in his throat. Saint Blaise gave him a large crumb of bread which, going down his throat, removed the bone, saving the boy. Needless to say, after suffering martyrdom, Biagio was made a saint and declared protector of the throat.
The connection with the city of Milan, however, came much later and refers to a peasant legend: a housewife brought a panettone to a friar before Christmas so that he could bless it. Being very busy, the friar – who was called Desiderio and was evidently very greedy – told her to leave it for him and come by in the following days to get it back.
The woman forgot about it and Brother Desiderio, after blessing it, began to nibble on it, until he realized he had finished it. The woman came back to ask for her blessed panettone on February 3rd, the day of San Biagio: the friar prepared to give her the empty wrapping and apologise, but when he handed it over he noticed that a panettone twice as big as the original one had appeared in the wrapping.
The miracle was attributed to San Biagio, who started the tradition of bringing a leftover panettone to be blessed every February 3rd and then eat it for breakfast with the family to protect against throat ailments.
