Januarius

What is known

Januarius, Gennaro in Italian, was bishop of Benevento at the time of the persecution of Diocletian. According to the Acts, which are late and legendary in their details, he went to visit the deacon Sossius, who was in prison at Pozzuoli for the faith, and was arrested with him. Condemned to the beasts at the amphitheatre, which would not touch them, the group was beheaded at the Solfatara, the sulphurous crater above Pozzuoli, in or about 305. That much the earliest calendars support. His companions, Sossius, Festus, Desiderius, Proculus, Eutyches and Acutius, share his feast.

What Naples keeps

His relics were moved to Naples in the fifth century, carried off to Benevento and Montevergine in the Middle Ages, and brought home in 1497. The cathedral of Naples holds his skull and two small glass ampoules said to contain his blood, collected at the martyrdom. Since at least 1389 the dried contents have been observed to liquefy when the ampoules are brought near the reliquary of the skull, on the Saturday before the first Sunday of May, on 19 September, and on 16 December, the anniversary of the eruption of Vesuvius in 1631 that stopped, Neapolitans say, when the relics were carried in procession towards the lava.

The Church has never defined the liquefaction as a miracle; it permits the veneration and leaves the question open. Naples does not leave it open. Years in which the blood stays solid are remembered alongside the war, the cholera and the earthquake. The saint’s feast day is a public holiday in the city, and San Gennaro is invoked in ordinary speech for anything from a lost wallet to the football.

Collect

O God, who grant us to venerate the memory of the Martyr Saint Januarius, give us also the grace to rejoice in his company in blessed happiness for all eternity. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son.