Januarius

Januarius, ST, or SAN GENNARO, a martyr of the Christian faith under Diocletian, was a native of Benevento, or at least became bishop of that see in the later part of the 3d century. According to the Neapolitan tradition, he was taken prisoner at Nola; and the place of his martyrdom, in 305, was Pozzuoli, where many Christians suffered the same fate. His body is preserved at Naples, in the crypt of the cathedral, and in a chapel of the same church are also preserved the head of the martyr, and two phials (ampullæ) supposed to contain his blood. On three festivals each year—the chief of which is the day of the martyrdom, September 19, the others the first Sunday evening in May and the 16th December—as well as on occasions of public danger or calamity, as earthquakes or eruptions, the head and the phials of the blood are carried in solemn procession to the high-altar of the cathedral, or of the church of St Clare, where, after prayer of longer or shorter duration, the blood, on the phials being brought into contact with the head, is believed to liquefy, and in this condition is presented for the veneration of the people, or for the conviction of the doubter. It occasionally happens that a considerable time elapses before the liquefaction takes place, and sometimes it altogether fails. The latter is regarded as an omen of the worst import; and on those occasions when the miracle is delayed beyond the ordinary time the alarm and excitement of the congregation rise to the highest pitch. Those who are curious as to the literature of the controversy regarding this celebrated legend will find many documents in the sixth volume of the Bollandist Acta Sanctorum for September. For a good account of the modern ceremony, see E. N. Rolfe and H. Ingleby's Naples in 1888.