Is there really a patron saint of healthy throats?

Yes! On the feast of St. Blaise, February 3, Catholics can have their throats blessed after Mass. The priest holds two blessed candles in criss-cross fashion around the throat of each individual, while praying for that person to be “delivered from every ailment of the throat and every other evil. St. Blaise, a bishop and martyr of the fourth century, was a physician before becoming a priest and then a bishop. During a resurgence of Roman persecutions, a small boy, choking on a fish bone, was brought to St. Blaise who was awaiting a martyr’s death in prison. Because no one knew the Heimlich maneuver back then, praying was all that could be done. After St. Blaise blessed the boy, the fish bone popped out of his mouth miraculously, and the boy’s life was saved.

From the book, Catholicism for Dummies by Trigilio and Brighenti