Januarius (pronounced JAN-yoo-AIR-ee-us; Latin: Ianuarius; Neapolitan and Italian: Gennaro), also known as Januarius I of Benevento, was the Bishop of Benevento. He is considered a martyr and a saint in the Catholic Church. No records from his time remain, but later writings and stories say he died during the Great Persecution, which ended when Diocletian stepped down in 305.
Januarius is the patron saint of Naples. People in Naples gather three times a year at Naples Cathedral to see a sample of his blood, which is said to be kept in a sealed small container, turn into liquid.
Life
Not much is known about Januarius's life. Most information comes from later Christian writings, such as the Acta Bononensia (BHL 4132, written no earlier than the 6th century) and the Acta Vaticana (BHL 4115, from the 9th century), as well as later folk traditions.
According to stories about saints, Januarius was born in Benevento to a wealthy family that claimed ancestry from the Caudini tribe, part of the Samnites. At age 15, he became the priest in his local church in Benevento, where the Christian community was small. At 20, he became the Bishop of Naples and met Juliana of Nicomedia and Sossius during his religious training. During Emperor Diocletian's persecution of Christians, which lasted one and a half years, Januarius helped hide fellow Christians to protect them. However, when he visited Sossius in jail, he was arrested too. He and others were sentenced to be thrown to wild animals in the Flavian Amphitheater at Pozzuoli, but the punishment was changed to avoid public unrest. Instead, they were beheaded near the Solfatara crater. Other stories claim the wild animals refused to harm him or that he was thrown into a furnace but emerged unharmed.
The earliest historical mention of Januarius appears in a letter by Uranius, bishop of Nola, dated 432, about the death of his teacher, Paulinus of Nola. The letter states that the spirits of Januarius and Martin of Tours appeared to Paulinus three days before Paulinus died in 431. The letter only notes that Januarius was "a bishop and martyr, a respected member of the Neapolitan church." The Acta Bononensia mentions, "At Pozzuoli in Campania [is honored] the memory of the holy martyrs Januarius, Bishop of Beneventum, Festus his deacon, and Desiderius lector, along with Sossius, deacon of the church of Misenum, Proculus, deacon of Pozzuoli, Eutyches, and Acutius, who after being imprisoned were beheaded under Emperor Diocletian."
Legacy
The Feast of San Gennaro is celebrated on September 19 in the General Roman Calendar of the Catholic Church. In the Eastern Church, it is celebrated on April 21. The city of Naples has more than 50 official patron saints, but its main patron is Saint Januarius.
In the United States, the Feast of San Gennaro is a major event in New York’s Little Italy. A colorful statue of the saint is carried through a street fair that stretches for several blocks.
According to an early story, Januarius’s relics were moved by Severus, Bishop of Naples, to the Neapolitan catacombs, which were located outside the city walls. In the early ninth century, the body was moved to Beneventum by Sico, prince of Benevento, while the head stayed in Naples. Later, during the time of Frederick Barbarossa, the body was moved again to the Territorial Abbey of Montevergine, where it was found in 1480.
In 1497, Cardinal Oliviero Carafa arranged for the body to be moved back to Naples, where it is now the city’s patron saint. Carafa ordered the creation of a decorated underground chamber called the Succorpo, located beneath the cathedral, to hold the reunited body and head. The Succorpo was completed in 1506 and is considered an important example of the High Renaissance.
Januarius is known for the annual liquefaction of his blood, which, according to legend, was saved by a woman named Eusebia after his death. A 1382 record about Naples describes the worship of Saint Januarius but does not mention the relic or the miracle. The first confirmed report of the blood melting was in 1389. Over the next 250 years, official accounts began to describe the blood melting once, then twice, and finally three times a year. Some later claims suggested the blood melted because it recognized the saint’s skull, as if it was eager to be reunited with the body. This idea was later dismissed in the 18th century.
Thousands of people gather in Naples Cathedral to witness the event three times a year: on September 19 (Saint Januarius’s Day, marking his martyrdom), December 16 (celebrating his role as Naples’s patron saint), and the Saturday before the first Sunday of May (commemorating the reunification of his relics).
The blood is also said to melt during special events, such as papal visits. It melted in the presence of Pope Pius IX in 1848 but not during visits by Pope John Paul II in 1979 or Pope Benedict XVI in 2007. In 2015, Pope Francis prayed over the dried blood during a visit to Naples Cathedral and kissed it. Archbishop Sepe later said the blood had partially melted, showing that Saint Januarius loves the pope and Naples.
When the blood does not melt, some people believe it is a bad omen. Some years when the miracle did not occur are linked to wars or pandemics. These years include September 1939, September 1940, September 1943, September 1973, September 1980, December 2016, and December 2020. The blood usually takes between 2 minutes and 1 hour to fully melt, but it can sometimes take days.
The blood is stored in two small, sealed glass containers inside a silver reliquary. These containers have been kept since the 17th century and are about 12 centimeters wide. The smaller, cylindrical container has only a few red spots, as most of its contents were reportedly taken to Spain by King Charles III. The larger, almond-shaped container holds about 60 milliliters of a dark red substance and is about 60% full. Separate reliquaries hold bone fragments believed to belong to Januarius.
The containers are kept in a secure vault, and the keys are held by a group of local leaders, including the mayor of Naples. The bones are stored in a crypt under the main altar of Naples Cathedral. On feast days, the relics are taken in a procession to the Monastery of Santa Chiara. The archbishop holds up the reliquary to show the contents are solid, then places it on the high altar next to the saint’s other relics. After prayers by the faithful, including people who claim to be related to Saint Januarius, the larger vial usually appears to melt. The archbishop then holds it up again to confirm the liquefaction. The containers remain on display for eight days, and priests move or turn them regularly to show the liquid remains.
Sometimes the liquefaction happens quickly, and sometimes it takes hours or even days. Records from the Duomo show that the contents sometimes do not melt, are already melted when the containers are opened, or melt outside the usual dates.
The Catholic Church has always supported the celebrations but has not made an official statement about the phenomenon. It does not allow the vials to be opened, fearing they might be damaged. This makes scientific analysis difficult. In 1902, a test suggested the substance might be similar to hemoglobin, a protein in blood. A similar test in 1989 reached the same conclusion, but the results have been questioned. While clotted blood can be stirred into a liquid, it cannot solidify again.
Measurements in 1900 and 1904 claimed the vials gained up to 28 grams during liquefaction, but later tests using precise scales found no change in weight.
Scientists have proposed various explanations for the substance, such as a material that reacts to light, absorbs moisture, or has a low melting point. However, these ideas face challenges, like the unpredictable nature of the phenomenon and its lack of connection to temperature.
A recent theory suggests the vial contains a type of gel that becomes thicker when still and thinner when moved. Researchers believe this gel could be a suspension of a substance called hydrated iron oxide, which matches the color and behavior of the "blood" in the vial. This material can be made from simple chemicals that were available in ancient times.
In 2010, Giuseppe Geraci, a professor at Naples’s Frederick II University, tested a vial containing old blood from the 18th century. He found that shaking the vial caused the blood to change from solid to liquid, similar to the blood of Saint Januarius. He also showed that his own blood, stored under similar conditions, behaved the same way. He wrote, "There is no clear scientific explanation for these changes. It is not enough to say movement diss