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The One True Church

St. Januarius

Feast 19 September

Bishop of Benevento. The blood that liquefies in Naples.

St. Januarius

Sacred art

Statues and images

The portrait kept with St. Januarius is the image this library has of Januarius. The honour goes to the person, and through the person to God. It is not a machine, and it is not a substitute for the life written below.

The whole treasury

Martyr of the Diocletian persecution in the old file. Three times a year Naples watches a vial. The Church permits the cult; the Church does not hang the faith on the vial.

Signs that name Januarius

If it belongs to Januarius, it is here, with a door back into the story.

The Blood of St. Januarius — Naples
RelicLong veneration

The Blood of St. Januarius

NaplesFirst recorded liquefaction 1389; martyr c. 305

A sealed vial of dark, solid matter, kept in the cathedral of Naples, becomes liquid several times a year in the sight of a packed church. It has done this for centuries. No one has a laboratory-complete explanation that the city accepts.