THE MIRACLE OF THE BLOOD OF ST. JANUARIUS. - The name of St. Januarius is universally linked with the famous miracle of the liquefaction of his blood, which has been repeated annually, for centuries, on various occasions. The blood is contained in two glass ampoules, of different size and shape, perfectly sealed and fixed in a circular metal case about 12 cm. in diameter, itself sealed on its two flat faces by two thick, colorless glasses. The larger ampoule is helicoidal in shape and has a capacity of about 60 cm.²; the smaller is cylindrical and has a capacity of about 25 cm.². The quantity of blood in the large ampoule reaches a little more than half its height; in the small one, on the other hand, at present only various stains and clots are seen, scattered along the walls. The days on which the miracle occurs are: a) some on fixed dates:
the Saturday preceding the first Sunday of May (the anniversary, according to most, of the first translation of the Saint's bones from the ager marcianus to the catacombs) and on the eight following days; September 19 (the anniversary of the martyrdom) and on the eight days of the octave; December 16 (votive feast for the anniversary of the terrible eruption of Vesuvius in 1631); b) other days are on movable dates: visits of illustrious personages, exposition of the case on the occasion of public calamities, repair of damage to the case (cf. the various dates from 1489 to 1913 in Alfano-Amitrano, op. cit. in bibl., pp. 36-40).
According to common opinion the miracle consists, as has been mentioned, in the liquefaction of the blood, ordinarily solidified; in reality, however, the fact is accompanied by several other phenomena, repeatedly verified, which present quite singular appearances, beyond the laws of physics: 1) the substance contained in the phials does not present a constant melting point, thus freeing itself from the fundamental physical law according to which every substance or mixture of substances has its fixed melting point, unchanged for a given pressure. The substance of the ampoules, on the contrary, liquefies at very different temperatures. N. Fergola, for example (op. cit. in bibl., p. 51), notes that in May 1795, on the first day, the liquefaction occurred at a centigrade temperature of 24.4°; on the fourth day, of 26.4°; on the fifth, of 23.8°; on the seventh, of 25°; on the ninth, of 19.4°. P. Punzo (op. cit. in bibl., p. 10) reports the observations made in September 1879 by professors De Luca and Gori; on the first day the melting temperature was 30°; on the third, 27°; on the seventh, 25°. Whence one must conclude that the substance of the ampoules melts in the same environment at very different temperatures, indeed in very different times and not in relation to the temperature. 2) The time taken for this fusion to occur varies: sometimes it happens after a very short wait; at others, even at the same temperature, after hours; at still others, when the case is taken out of the tabernacle, the substance is already melted. For example, in a function celebrated on January 1, 1662, the substance melted as soon as the case was placed on the altar; whereas before Philip V (April 18, 1702) the wait was almost three hours; in May 1678, on the first and third day the wait was brief, while on the second it reached ten hours. 3) In the different liquefactions the substance of the phials varies in volume "and not in any measure whatever, but enough to double before the eyes of all, passing, in the same time that it is exposed to common veneration, from half the phial to filling the entire phial, mostly on the days of May, and descending by as much in September; yet in various proportions, without any fixed law" (P. Silva, op. cit. in bibl., p. 30). This is clearly ascertainable, given the perfect fluidity of the liquid, even through the very light veil which, in the movements, adheres to the glass walls. Nor can the fact be attributed to coefficients of cubic expansion according to the different temperatures, since these are very small and do not correspond to the phenomenon, whereby the volume of the substance sometimes increases almost twofold and is about 30 cm.² and the rise in the level of the liquid is 3 cm. 4) The substance, in liquefying, also varies in the quantity of its mass and therefore in weight. Prof. G. Sperindeo (op. cit. in bibl., p. 60), for example, with experiments conducted with the greatest diligence, found that the case with the phial full weighed kg. 1.015; whereas, with the phial reduced by half, it weighed kg. 0.987 (cf. also P. Silva, op. cit. in bibl., p. 32).
To the question whether the substance contained in the phials is really blood, the experiments made by G. Sperindeo on September 26, 1902, repeated several times by prof. R. Januario, and by Fr. P. Silva in 1904, provide an answer. When the substance was subjected to spectroscopic examination, one saw repeatedly "appear in the spectrum, after the D line (of Fraunhofer), the dark band characteristic of blood, followed by the other in the green, and between the two a clear zone."
Around the miracle, naturally, many discussions and polemics arose and many hypotheses were put forward to explain how the blood would become liquid through simple natural or artificial causes, or to prove that the substance of the phials is not pure blood, but some mixture resulting from conscious or unconscious fraud. But every attempt has so far failed to give a sufficient explanation of the characteristics of the liquefaction mentioned above; and the various attempts made to repeat and reproduce the phenomenon came to nothing (v. Alfano-Amitrano, op. cit. in bibl., pp. 92-119; P. Silva, op. cit. in bibl., pp. 36-51). To complete the question it must be mentioned how, more recently, even Catholic scholars have sought to resort to more recondite hypotheses: to possible phototropic, hygroscopic and psychic effects, due to the passage of the relic from darkness to the full light of the temple; to water vapor from the presence of such a crowd; to the heat deriving from it; to a residue of the vital fluid of the person to whom the blood belonged; to the intense concentration of the concordant will of those present; and even to the fact of the existence, in the same ancient Kingdom of Naples, of other relics of bloods, which reproduce the same miracle as the blood of St. Januarius. But even of such hypotheses, which are not entirely new, one must repeat that they fail to give a sufficient natural explanation; that indeed they clash with the most diverse circumstances attested and documented (cf. Alfano-Amitrano, in Scuola Cattolica, op. cit. in bibl., p. 174 ff.).
The question remains whether the blood contained in the phials is truly that of St. Januarius (H. Delehaye, Hagiographie napolitaine, in Anal. Boll., 59 [1941], p. 12). In the present state of research, setting aside the doubtful testimonies of Lupus de Speis and of the Carthusian monk Maraldus, which would place it at much earlier dates, the oldest and most reliable written tradition goes back to 1329, of which year a chronicle by an uncertain author says: « Sequenti die XVII augusti (1389) facta fuit maxima processio propter miraculum... de sanguine beati Ianuarii, quod erat in pulla et tunc erat liquefactum, tamquam si eo die exisset de corpore beati Ianuarii » (G. de Blasiis, Chronicon Siculum incerti auctoris ab a. 1340 ad a. 1396 [Naples 1887], p. 85). This document is all the more important in that it reports a miracle that occurred outside the fixed dates, without expectation, nor suggestion of crowds, nor because of a customary feast, but because in Naples there was a little peace after many years of war, and grain arrived after many months of famine (G. B. Alfano, in L'osservatore romano, see bibl., p. 3, col. 5ᵃ). And Enea Silvio Piccolomini, later Pope Pius II, having gone to Naples on an embassy in 1456, notes: « Et si quis audire petierit (respondebo) sacrum illum divi Ianuarii cruorem, quem modo concretum, modo liquatum ostendunt, quamvis ante annos mille ducentos pro Christi nomine sit effusus » (Aeneae Ep. Senensis, In libros A. Panormitae poetae: de dictis et factis Alphonsi regis memorabilibus commentarius, Basel 1538, l. II, pp. 288-89). As can be seen, Piccolomini speaks of the prodigy as of an already customary fact; and he shows that the substance contained in the ampoules has always been regarded as the blood of St. Januarius.
The reliable historical accounts of the prodigy do not go back beyond the 13th century. For the earlier centuries the tradition reaches back to the second half of the 4th century, when the transfer of the Saint's relics from the agro marciano to the present catacombs took place. At that time, while the solemn procession was passing along the Via Antiniana, a certain Eusebia is said to have moved toward the bishop and handed him the two phials containing the martyr's blood, which she herself had collected. On that occasion the blood is said to have become liquid. A simple tradition, but one supported by the existence of two very ancient little churches on the hill of Antignano in Naples, S. Gennarello al Vomero and S. Gennaro ad Antignano.
Finally, the fact that no accounts of the prodigy are available earlier than the 14th century, as has been mentioned, does not affect or weaken the authenticity of the miracle of liquefaction, both for the simple reason that in the centuries before the 13th century the head and the phials of the blood of St. Januarius were enclosed in the "confessio" of the central nave of the basilica of the Stefania, and because otherwise it would be transferring the question from the physical fact to the historical one, which would not resolve the question of the prodigy.
BIBL.: sources
Celestino Testore
FOLKLORE
The Saint, patron, together with many others, of the city of Naples, enjoys there an ancient, lively and widespread popular cult, which gives rise to characteristic manifestations. In connection with one of the most significant episodes of his legend, the martyrdom in the flames of the furnace from which the Saint emerged unharmed, he is invoked as a protector against the dangers of fire, and especially against the eruptions of Vesuvius; consequently also against earthquakes and other calamities, such as plague, cholera, drought, etc., which can strike the entire population. His thaumaturgic virtues therefore extend, in the conception his devotees have of him, to the whole sphere of human life. Hence also the great importance attached to the miracle of St. Januarius, as a sure sign of protection for the good course of the year and for the granting of favors requested by individual faithful.In the ceremony that takes place in May, the relics of the blood, kept in the reliquary, and of the head, enclosed in a silver bust with a pale gold face, are carried in a double procession from the Cathedral to the church of St. Clare, where the miracle is accomplished. The procession was called "of the garlanded" because of the use made there of garlands of roses and other flowers: in it, besides the relics of the Saint, are carried the statues or busts of the other numerous patrons of Naples (St. Anthony, Aspren, Michael, Roch, Joseph, Andrew Avellino, etc.). Greater solemnity attends the feast of September 19, which takes place inside the Cathedral itself, where the relics are kept in the Chapel of the Treasure of St. Januarius. High ecclesiastical authorities often take part, and always an immense crowd of the faithful. A canon draws the bust with the head of St. Januarius and an ostensorium with the two ampullae from their reliquaries and places them on the high altar, to show them to the people. Amid prayers and litanies the relics are carried in procession through the naves of the church, and again and again the recitation of the Creed is repeated in a loud voice. Once the miracle has occurred, the canon shows the ampulla in which the liquefied blood seethes; and then the crowd breaks into loud exclamations of jubilation, while the canons intone the Te Deum. Thousands of the faithful come forward to kiss the ampullae and have their foreheads touched with them, and this ceremony goes on for hours and hours. From the particular ways in which the miracle is accomplished, the people are accustomed to draw definite prognostications.
Very vivid manifestations of popular devotion have been revived through the centuries on the occasion of eruptions of Vesuvius or public calamities. Others, more modest, consist in the display of images of the Saint at street corners, for the collection of offerings.
Devotion is also intense in the pilgrimage to the Saint's catacombs. - See plate II.
BIBL.: sources