NAPLES (ChurchMilitant.com) – The liquefaction of the blood of Saint January in Naples, a scientifically examined phenomenon, did not take place as expected on Wednesday. The Neapolitans interpreted it according to tradition as a sign of plagues, war, famine and adversity.
The coagulated solid blood from the sealed glass vial did not turn into liquid, despite the faithful praying for hours in the morning and a special Holy Mass in the afternoon.
“When I took the relic from the safe, the blood was absolutely solid and remains absolutely solid,” said Fr. Announced Vincenzo de Gregorio, the abbot prelate of the Royal Chapel of the Treasury of St. January in the Cathedral of Naples.
Even if the Church does not officially recognize the manifestation as miraculous, Neapolitan Catholics consider the failure of coagulated blood in the mysterious liquidation to be a sign of divine discontent and future punishment.
When the owner’s blood failed to liquefy on September 19, 1980, the devastating earthquake in Irpinia struck southern Italy on November 23, killing more than 3,000 people.
Italy marked 40 years since the earthquake last month, and memories of what has been called the Republic’s “worst catastrophe” are fresh in the national consciousness.
The “Miracle of San Gennaro” is expected to take place three times a year – the Saturday before the first Sunday in May (the feast of the January translation), September 19 (the feast of the celebration of his martyrdom) and December 16 (the feast honoring him as a patron saint). in Naples).
On December 16, the “miracle” of liquefaction is repeated in memory of the eruption of Vesuvius in 1631, when liquefied blood and magma flow miraculously stopped and did not invade the city, explains the site of the cathedral on St. January.
Speculation: punishment?
“The fact that the blood of San Gennaro (St. January) failed to liquefy was curiously viewed even by the media, often in terms that are not very respectful, as the secular media confuses religion with superstition.” The illustrious epidemiologist Dr. Paolo Gulisano told Church Militant.
“It is seen as an ominous, potential harbinger of a worsening pandemic. But I think it is rather a sign from Heaven that shows the widespread lack of faith in the Catholic Church,” the former professor of medical history told the University. of the Bicocca State of Milan.
Professor Gulisano cried:
Our clergy deprived the faithful of religious assistance, suspended the Mass, imposed Holy Communion. Disrespect for the Eucharist is, unfortunately, common because faith decreases. I think our clergy should read the signs of the times, but in a transcendental perspective, not an exclusively human one.
Wednesday, Cdl. Crescenzio Sepe urged his flock, saying: “If something has to melt, it is the heart of the people.”
When I took the relic from the safe, the blood was absolutely solid and remains absolutely solid.
Sepe, whose resignation as archbishop of Naples was accepted by Pope Francis on Saturday, had announced in September – at a cathedral largely empty due to Wuhan virus restrictions – that his blood had “completely liquefied without any clots.”
“I have a great announcement to make: Even in this time of the coronavirus, the Lord through the intercession of St. January liquefied the blood!” Sepe said September 19.
The miracle of the blood of Saint January in Naples, Italy
In May, the vial of coagulated blood is taken in procession from the cathedral to the nearby church of Santa Chiara, and the liquefaction took place there. In September, the liquefaction takes place on the altar of the cathedral.
I think it is a sign from heaven that indicates the general lack of faith within the Catholic Church.
In December, the vault that stores blood is unlocked, and if the blood is found liquid or becomes liquid, it is shown to the people of the Cappella del Tesoro (Treasure Chapel).
The blood remains liquid throughout the service, sometimes solidifying before being returned to the safe, while very rarely fails to liquefy.
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Anna, a virologist, told the Italian newspaper Quotidiano that God remembered the miracle because “we are blasphemous, pessimistic, depressed; we think more about shopping than about prayer. ”
“The virus will stay with us for years to come. This vaccine will not be enough because COVID is a monster,” Anna warned.
The last time the blood did not liquefy was in December 2016, and locals say the miracle occurs less frequently on December 16.
The Martyrdom of Saint January
Saint January, the bishop of Benevento in the third century, a province northeast of Naples, is believed to have been martyred during the Christian persecution of Emperor Diocletian for visiting and encouraging a deacon named Sosius.
In January, Sosius and other clerics were thrown into the wild in the amphitheater, but when that didn’t work, the Campaign governor ordered them beheaded.
The bones and blood of the saint are kept in the cathedral of Naples as relics and, according to tradition, his blood was collected by a woman minister from the stone on which he was beheaded in January.
The virus will stay with us for years. This vaccine will not be enough because COVID is a monster.
There are two ampoules of blood, one about two-thirds filled with dry blood and the second containing only a few drops.
Scientific analysis
Scientists at the University of Naples verified that the vials contained blood (possibly contaminated with a foreign substance) by performing a spectroscopic analysis of the blood in 1902.
In 1989, a further examination of the blood was performed using spectroscopic analyzes similar to those used in 1902, but with photographic detection that confirmed the 1902 results.
The Catholic Church accepts physical miracles as authentic only in very few cases. It is largely skeptical when there is no religious message associated with such phenomena, scientists Michael Epstein and Luigi Garlaschelli write in the Journal of Scientific Exploration.
Skeptical scientists, after formulating various hypotheses, conclude that the blood of St. January, as well as another liquefying miracle blood, may actually be a thixotropic gel – a gel that liquefies when agitated or agitated.
However, Epstein and Garlaschelli are not able to answer a number of questions raised by the phenomenon, including its occurrence only on certain days of the year.
— Campania 31540 —
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