Januarius

Januarius (Gennaro) (d. c.305), bishop of Benevento, martyr. His martyrdom somewhere near Naples is testified in early 5th-century writings and pictures of him with a nimbus of the same date, and by the presence of his name in early calendars of East and West. But the details given by his Acts are suspect. Early in the 5th century Naples obtained his relics from the church dedicated to him near the Soltfara. During the Norman wars they were translated to Benevento and Monte Virgine but returned to Naples later. They are specially famous because of the alleged liquefaction of his blood which is claimed to take place every year in connection with his three feasts. This was first recorded in 1389. Often attacked by sceptics, some of whom claim that there is a mixture of wax in the blood which is melted by the heat, the prodigy does still take place, whatever its explanation may be. In fact there is no correlation between the temperature and the variable speed of the liquefaction, but there is variation in weight and in the apparent bulk of the blood in the glass phial. It also sometimes behaves unpredictably: there are recorded examples of liquefaction taking place during repairs and several times it has not taken place for the December feast, to the intense consternation and anger of his devotees. Unexpectedly the blood liquefied at Cardinal Cooke's visit in 1978; the last time the expected prodigy did not occur is said to have been when Naples elected a Communist mayor. Some other less famous blood relics in Naples are also claimed to liquefy. Feast: 19 September, translation of relics on first Saturday in May; the feast of 16 December marks his patronage of Naples and the anniversary of a threatened eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 1631.

Bibliography
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• AA.SS. Sept. VI (1757), 761–891 with C.M.H., p. 517; H. Thurston in Catholic Encyclopedia, viii. 295–7 and id., ‘The Blood-Miracles of Naples’, The Month, cxlix (1927), 44–55, 123–35, 236–47 and id., ‘The “Miracle” of St. Januarius’, ibid., clv (1930), 119–29; H. Delehaye, ‘Hagiographie napolitaine’, Anal. Boll., lix (1941), 1–33; see also Bibl. SS., s.v. Gennaro and D. Sax, Relics and Shrines (1985), pp. 158–60