He became pope after the man before him was killed by the plague in the 590s, and it’s thought he used to say “God bless you” whenever someone sneezed around him. The idea was that he was hoping someone would be healthy and the bodily function wasn’t a sign that they’d caught the deadly illness. So far so good, this is all pretty believable. read more
Some people believed that a sneeze causes the soul to escape the body through the nose. Saying "bless you" would stop the devil from claiming the person's freed soul. Others believed the opposite: that evil spirits use the sneeze as an opportunity to enter a person's body. read more
The practice of saying, “God bless you,” when someone sneezes does not come from the Bible, nor is there any mention of the practice in the Bible. However, the saying God bless you was used both by Hebrews (Numbers 6:24) and the early Christians as a benediction. read more