I am glad that Sancte Pater picked up the ANSA story about the miracle of the blood of St. Januarius, in Italian San Gennaro, the bishop of Benevento near Naples who was martyred during the persecution by Diocletian around 305.
Blood of San Gennaro is preserved in a crystal phial. It miraculously re-liquifies three times a year. First, on the anniversary of the saint’s martyrdom, 19 September, next on 16 December the anniversary of an eruption of the volcano Mt. Vesuvius in 1631 which was halted by the intervention of the saint, and also on the Saturday before the first Sunday in May. The first historical reference to the miracle is from 1389.
This event is a HUGE deal in Naples. When the martyr’s blood does not re-liquify, bad things happen. On one occasion, 1527, plague killed tens of thousands of people. In 1980 3,000 people were killed in an earthquake.
UPDATE 21 Sept 1427 GMT:
Be sure to read Fr. Alexander Lucie-Smith’s piece at The Catholic Herald. He recounts his own experience of “il miracolo“.
