To be drunk as blazes comes from a feast day created by the Orthodox church to honor a sainted Armenian bishop named Blais.
Blais was beheaded by the Roman Emperor Licinius for refusing to deny his faith in 316 A.D.
The excessive drinking on St. Blais’s day caused the revellers to be referred to as “drunken Blaisers”.
And soon anyone anywhere who was overly intoxicated was said to be as drunk as blazes.
