The Blood of Saint Januarius

Januarius, San Gennaro in Italian, was bishop of Benevento. He was beheaded near Pozzuoli, on the Bay of Naples, around the year 305, during the persecution of Diocletian. He is the patron saint of Naples, and his relics rest in the city’s cathedral.

In a silver reliquary in the cathedral are two small glass ampoules, one of them nearly full of a dark, dried substance venerated as the saint’s blood. Since at least 1389 it has been recorded that when the ampoules are brought near the relics of his head, in the presence of the praying faithful, the dried blood turns liquid, sometimes in minutes and sometimes after hours or days. The Archbishop then holds up the reliquary and announces, “The miracle has happened,” and the people applaud.

The liquefaction takes place three times a year. Neapolitans have long regarded a failure to liquefy as a bad omen. The Church has never formally declared it a miracle, but it has always allowed and encouraged the devotion. Scientists have studied it without reaching agreement on an explanation.

The photograph shows the Gothic reliquary of the blood given by King Robert of Anjou in the fourteenth century, a treasure of the Chapel of San Gennaro.

Where

Chapel of the Treasure of San Gennaro, Naples Cathedral, Naples, Italy

When to see it

Brought out three times a year for the liquefaction: on the Saturday before the first Sunday of May, on his feast day (19 September) and on 16 December.

Map

Find it on OpenStreetMap