Januarius
Saint Januarius | |
---|---|
volcanic eruptions[1] |
Januarius (
Januarius is the patron saint of Naples, where the faithful gather three times a year in Naples Cathedral to witness the liquefaction of what is claimed to be a sample of his blood kept in a sealed glass ampoule.
Life
Little is known of the life of Januarius,[3] and what follows is mostly derived from later Christian sources, such as the Acta Bononensia (BHL 4132, not earlier than 6th century) and the Acta Vaticana (BHL 4115, 9th century), and from later folk traditions.
Legend
According to various
History
The earliest extant mention of him is contained in a 432 letter by Uranius,
Legacy
Celebrations
The Feast of San Gennaro is celebrated on 19 September in the General Roman Calendar of the Catholic Church.[6][n 3] In the Eastern Church, it is celebrated on 21 April.[8] The city of Naples has more than fifty official patron saints, although its principal patron is Saint Januarius.[9]
In the United States, the Feast of San Gennaro is also a highlight of the year for New York's Little Italy, with the saint's polychrome statue carried through the middle of a street fair stretching for blocks.
Relics
According to an early
At the instigation of Cardinal Oliviero Carafa, his body was finally transferred in 1497 to Naples, where he is the city's patron saint. Carafa commissioned a richly decorated crypt, the Succorpo, beneath the cathedral to house the reunited body and head properly. The Succorpo was finished in 1506 and is considered one of the prominent monuments of the High Renaissance in the city.[13]
Blood
Saint Januarius is famous for the annual liquefaction of his
Thousands of people assemble to witness this event in Naples Cathedral three times a year: on 19 September (Saint Januarius's Day, commemorating his martyrdom), on 16 December (celebrating his patronage of Naples and its archdiocese), and on the Saturday before the first Sunday of May (commemorating the reunification of his relics).[20]
The blood is also said to spontaneously liquefy at certain other times, such as
Ritual liquefaction
The blood is stored in two hermetically sealed small
Separate reliquaries hold bone fragments believed to belong to Saint Januarius.For most of the time, the ampoules are kept in a bank vault, whose keys are held by a commission of local notables, including the
The liquifaction sometimes takes place almost immediately, but can take hours or even days. Records kept at the Duomo tell that on rare occasions the contents fail to liquify, are found already liquified when the ampoules are taken from the safe,[25] or liquify outside the usual dates.[23]
Scientific studies
While the Catholic Church has always supported the celebrations, it has never formulated an official statement on the phenomenon and maintains a neutral stance about scientific investigations.[23] It does not permit the vials to be opened, for fear that doing so may cause irreparable damage. This makes close analysis impossible. Nevertheless, a spectroscopic analysis performed in 1902 by Gennaro Sperindeo claimed that the spectrum was consistent with hemoglobin.[26] A later analysis, with similar conclusions, was carried out by a team in 1989.[27][unreliable source?] However, the reliability of these observations has been questioned.[14] While clotted blood can be liquefied by mechanical stirring, the resulting suspension cannot solidify again.[14]
Measurements made in 1900 and 1904 claimed that the ampoules' weight increased by up to 28 grams during liquefaction. However, later measurements with a precision balance, performed over five years, failed to detect any variation.[14]
Various suggestions for the content's composition have been advanced, such as a material that is
A recent hypothesis by Garlaschelli & al. is that the vial contains a thixotropic gel,[14][31] In such a substance viscosity increases if left unstirred and decreases if stirred or moved. Researchers have proposed specifically a suspension of hydrated iron oxide, FeO(OH), which reproduces the color and behavior of the 'blood' in the ampoule.[32] The suspension can be prepared from simple chemicals that would have been easily available locally since antiquity.[33][unreliable source?][34]
In 2010, Giuseppe Geraci, a professor in the Department of Molecular Biology at Naples's
Similar rites
Although Naples became known as "City of Blood" (urbs sanguinum),[
Museum of the Treasure of St. Januarius
The Treasure of St Januarius is a collection of magnificent works and donations collected in seven centuries from popes, kings, emperors, famous and ordinary people. According to studies done by a pool of experts who have analyzed all the pieces in the collection, the Treasure of St Januarius is of higher value than the crown of
Today, the Treasure is exhibited in the
See also
- Feast of San Gennaro, as held annually in New York, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas
- Order of St. Januarius
- Museum of the Treasure of St Januarius
- Saint Januarius, patron saint archive
Notes
- ^ For further details on these locations, see the Catholic Encyclopedia's article on "Saint Januarius".[3]
- ^ Latin: Ianuarius, episcopus simul et martyr, Neapolitanae urbis illustrat ecclesiam.[4]
- kalends of October or 19 September.[7]
- ^ Hagiographies of St Januarius are compiled in the 6th volume of the Acta Sanctorum Septembris.[10]
- ^ A condensed account of the removals of the relics is given by Norman.[12]
References
- ^ "Star Quest Production Network: Saint Januarius". Archived from the original on 2 April 2008. Retrieved 13 April 2008.
- ISBN 978-0-521-15255-6.
- ^ a b c d Herbert Thurston (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).
- ^ Surius as Epistola "De Obitu Sancti Paulini" Online versionaccessed on 2009-06-20.
- ^ "Uranius" Archived 2009-11-06 at the Wayback Machine in Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities edited William Smith (1870).
- ISBN 88-209-7210-7).
- ^ J. O'Connell, "The Roman Martyrology" [London 1962] s.v. September 19.
- ISBN 978-0-19-280290-3)
- ^ "Sant' Aspreno di Napoli". Santi e Beati. 19 April 2002. Retrieved 29 August 2008.
- ^ Carnandet, J., ed. (1867), Acta Sanctorum Septembris, Vol. VI, Paris, pp. 761–892
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link). (in Latin) - ^ Norman (1986), p. 331
- ^ Norman, Diana (1986), "The Succorpo in the Cathedral of Naples: 'Empress of All Chapels'", Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, Vol. 49, No. 3, pp. 323–355.
- ^ Norman 1986:323-355.
- ^ a b c d e f g Garlaschelli, L.; Ramaccini, F.; Della Sala, S. (1994). "The Blood of St. Januarius". Chemistry in Britain. 30 (2): 123. Archived from the original on 26 April 2017. Retrieved 28 July 2009.
- ^ (1382) Croniche de Inclyta Cità de Napole In Altamura, Antonio (ed.), Cronaca di Partenope, Napoli, 1974
- ^ Chronicon Siculum [1340-1396], ed. Giuseppe De Blasiis, Naples, 1887, p. 85
- ^ Norman 1993:332 and note.
- ^ Cesare Baronio, Annales Ecclesiastici, Rome 1594, vol. 2, p. 803.
- ^ de Ceglia Francesco Paolo, "Thinking with the Saint: The Miracle of Saint Januarius of Naples and Science in Early Modern Europe" in Early Science and Medicine 19 (2014), p. 133-173
- ^ Chiesa di San Gennaro - Duomo (Napoli)
- ^ "Blood of St. Januarius liquefies during Francis' visit to Naples". Catholic Herald. 21 March 2015.
- ^ Benge Nsenduluka (23 March 2015). "Pope Francis Performs 'Miracle' In Naples; Turns Dry Blood to Liquid". Christian Post.
- ^ a b c d San Gennaro: Vescovo e martire (in Italian)
- ^ "Sir Francis Ronalds' Travel Journal: Naples and the Miracle". Sir Francis Ronalds and his Family. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
- ^ "Sangue di San Gennaro liquefatto prima della processione" Corriere dell Sera, 4 May 1997, p.15
- ^ Gennaro, Sperindeo and Raffaele Januario (1901), Il Miracolo di S. Gennaro, 3rd ed., Naples, D'Auria, p. 67-72.
- Michele Cardinal Giordano(1990), Prolusione, in Proceedings of the Symposium on the VI centenary of the first liquefaction of the blood (1389–1989), December 1989, Napoli, Torre del Greco (Napoli), p. 10.
- ^ Eusèbe Salverte, Des sciences occultes ou essai sur la magie, les prodiges et les miracles, Paris, Baillière, 1826.
- ^ Henri Broch. Le Paranormal (1985); ed. ext., Paris, Seuil, 1989, p. 109
- ^ Joe Nickell, John F. Fischer, Mysterious Realms, Buffalo, Prometheus Books, 1993, p 159.
- ^ Christopher, Kevin (22 September 2000). "The Miracle Blood of Saint Januarius". Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Archived from the original on 6 February 2007. Retrieved 2 March 2007.;
- ^ Luigi Garlaschelli (2002), Sangue Prodigioso. La Chimica e l'Industria., 84 (6), p.67-70 Online version Archived 2011-01-08 at the Wayback Machine accessed on 2009-06-20. (In Italian).
- Journal of Scientific Exploration. 6: 233–246. Archived from the original(PDF) on 17 July 2009. Retrieved 2 March 2007.
- ^ Owen, Richard (20 September 2005). "Naples blood boils at miracle's 'debunking'". The Times. London: Times Newspapers Ltd. Retrieved 2 March 2007.
- ^ "San Gennaro, spunta una seconda ampolla con dentro il sangue". Naples: Metropolis Web. 5 February 2010. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
- ^ a b Piedimonte, Antonio Emanuele (5 February 2010). "Geraci, la rivelazione 11 anni fa al Corriere "Il sangue c'è e l'ho visto, il miracolo no"". Naples: RCS Corriere del Mezzogiorno. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
- ^ De Lucia, Michele (5 February 2010). "Miracolo di San Gennaro, un test dimostra che nell'ampolla c'è sangue umano". Naples: Positano News. Archived from the original on 7 February 2010. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
- ^ ISBN 9781576076538.
- ISBN 9780813172125
- ^ a b Jordan Lancaster, In the shadow of Vesuvius, Tauris, 2005
- ^ Nickell, Joe. "Examining Miracle Claims" (Excerpt from an article that appeared in March 1996 issue of Deolog). Hidden Mysteries: Religion's Frauds, Lies, Control. Retrieved 2 March 2007.
- ISBN 9781591023913
- ^ Official website, Museo San Gennaro. (in Italian)
External links
- Delehaye, Hippolyte (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). p. 155.
- CICAP: "The Blood of St. Januarius"
- San Gennaro
- New York's Feast of San Gennaro
- The Blood Still Boils by Doug Skinner, Fate, July 2006