Sept. 19 Feast of San Gennaro: Il miracolo e fatto

[DemBones DemBones]

Naples hails annual miracle of liquefying blood

NAPLES, Italy (Reuters Life!) - Roman Catholics in Naples crowded the city's cathedral on Wednesday to witness the annual miracle of Saint Gennaro, who died in the 4th century but whose dried blood is said to turn liquid on his feast day. In a ritual first recorded in 1389 -- more than 1,000 years after the martyrdom of Gennaro, also known in English as Saint Januarius -- a church official waved a white handkerchief to the crowds to signal that the dried blood had liquefied on schedule when brought close to relics which are said to be his body.

Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, archbishop of Naples, then showed the glass phial of blood to the congregation and paraded it to the crowds outside, where fireworks were lit in celebration. "It is a prodigious sign that shows the Lord's closeness and predilection for our beloved and long-suffering city," he said. The "miracle of the blood" is also celebrated in May to mark the relocation of the saint's mortal remains to Naples. Legend has it that when Gennaro was beheaded by pagan Romans in 305 A.D., a Neapolitan woman soaked up his blood with a sponge and preserved it in a glass phial.

Sometimes it liquefies immediately, other times it takes hours. Locals pray to the saint to protect them from earthquakes or the volcano Vesuvius and believe that if the blood should fail to liquefy, something terrible will happen to Naples.

More scientifically minded sceptics say the "miracle" is due to chemicals present in the phial whose viscosity changes when it is stirred or moved.


Reuters story, see it here: http://in.news.yahoo.com/070919/137/6kye3.html

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I'm a biologist and very much a "scientifically minded sceptic" about some "miracles" but I don't understand what chemicals the sceptics think are in the vial that would cause dried blood to liquefy when it is moved. This miracle has been occurring since 1389 so the chemical would have to have been something known that long ago.

If it really is San Gennaro's blood, it's supposedly been in the vials since 305, when he was beheaded on the orders of Diocletian. San Gennaro was bishop of Naples and was beheaded because he refused to honor pagan idols. Even if the blood was transferred from older vials into the ones it's in now, this miracle has been going on since 1389.

I tend to think that the vials are the original ones because they don't fit that well in the reliquary, being different shapes. New vials to fit the reliquary perfectly could have been acquired if the bishop of Naples was willing to risk transferring the blood in or before 1389. I'm fairly sure the reliquary was built to house the existing vials as best as possible.

Also, sometimes the blood doesn't just liquefy, it appears to boil. And it doesn't always liquefy.

I cannot think of a chemical explanation for dried blood doing three different things when carried to the altar: liquefying, appearing to boil, or remaining dry.

I've seen a photo of the phials/vials of blood, which are encased in a silver reliquary at least three feet tall, with a glass window in front of them so you can see whether the blood is dried or liquid. The reliquary is carried to the altar on a flat surface, with four men supporting the four corners of the board (it's a fancy board, probably has a specific name but I don't know it; it's the sort of thing statues are carried on in processions as well.)

One is a round-bottomed flask, the other seems to be a flat-sided flask, to the side and a little further back in the reliquary than the round-bottom flask. They're tightly stoppered, of course.

The round-bottomed flask is more than half-filled with liquid blood and the flat-sided flask appears to be full of blood. The flat-sided flask is to the side and perhaps a little farther back in the reliquary than the round-bottomed one so it's more difficult to see but I think it is full of blood, not just an artifact of the photograph, caused by a shadow, for example. Photographing through a glass window can distort but there's no obvious distortion in the photo. I'd like to see a photo from the other side, to see the flat-sided flask better. Even better, I'd like to be in Naples on September 19 some year to see the miracle myself.