THE MIRACLE OF ST. JANUARIUS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IX, Issue 434, 5 August 1881, Page 13

THE MIRACLE OF ST. JANUARIUS.

The following interesting account of the miracle of the Liquefaction of the Blood of St. Januarius, is taken from the London Tablet. The writer seems to be Bishop Vaughan of Salford, who was present at the latest occurrence o£ the miracle :—: — The miracle of the liquefaction of the blood takes place regularly on two occasions every year ; the first on the Feast of the translation of the relics of St. Januarius, the 30th of April, and it continues every day during the Octave ; and the second on the Saint's Festival, the 19th of September. We had intended returning to Rome on the 29th, but we determined to delay in order to witness the procession and the miracle. In the morning the procession was formed from the cathedral, to carry the head of St. Januarius to the Royal Church of St. Clare. It is called a Boyal Church because it was the Church of the Kings of Naples, and the burial place of many royal personages, the venerable Queen Christina among the number, and the famous Robert Guiscard, of chivalrous and Catholic memory. The King of Naples had his throne in this Church — a throne like a bishop's — only outside the sanctuary. And although there was no king to occupy it, it was erected as usual upon this occasion. Inside the sanctuary was the Nuncio's seat — now occupied by the Vice-Nuncio — for the Church and convent of St. Clare, like some five or six others in Naples, are under the immediate jurisdiction of the Pope, and there is still a Vice-Nuncio in Naples to represent the Pope's interest and authority in such matters. The Church of Sta. Chiara is a magnificent building, and attached to it is the convent, with a present community of 120 Poor Clares. They are nearly all members of the aristocracy, some of them belonging to the highest families. Six Franciscan Confessors are attached to the community. The fact of the Church being called a royal possession and the community being frequently composed of members of the Royal Family as well as of the nobility, secured the privilege to this Church of a visit once a year from St. Januarius and of the blood which liquefies. The Kings desired that the nuns of this convent should have this consolation, and it has long since become a tradition. The head of St. Januarius is enclosed in a magnificent silver bust, surmounted by a mitre. The bust is covered with a red cope, and this again with precious stones, crosses of diamonds and golden chains — one of which was given by Victor Emmaneul. In the afternoon took place the procession of the blood. It was a gorgeous sight. We were placed behind the High Altar and at the centre of the recredos, where the grandeur of the tabernacle was realised ; we could not only see all down the Church, but could witness the miracle with great ease, as it takes place upon the altar. Presently the procession entered the Church. First there came four or five banners, then one by one the Patron Saints of Naples. They were represented by magnificent silver busts, some being as large as life, some much larger. They rested on handsome gilt frames or pedestals, which were carried on the shoulders of six or eight men. Naples has nearly fifty principal patrons, whose feast days are kept as doubles of the First Class with tfloria and Credo. They are all represented in the procession ; when they come into the Church they are incensed as they reach the High Altar, they then salute the head and bust of St. Januarius and file off solemnly, each with his own company of attendants, through a side door and return to their places in the chapel of the Tesoro in the Duomo. Among the statues and patrons I noticed the Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph with the Holy Child, St. Michael with his drawn sword, St. Raphael with the fish, St. Gabriel with the lily, St. Peter with his keys. St. John the Baptist, St. Euphibius, St. Severus, St. Augustine, St. Francesco d'Assisi, St. Domenico, St. Tommaso, St. Ignazio, St. Fillippo Neri, St. Gaetano, St. Andrea Avellino, Sta. Teresa, St. Antonio Abate with a little tinkling bell on the crook of his staff, St. Luigi Gonzago, St. Francesco Girolamo, St. Rccca, Sta. Chiara, St. Emilio, St. Francesco Carracciolo, St. Francesco di Paula and St. Alfonso. There was something wonderfully fairy-like in the scene and something strikingly spiritual. You hardly realised that they were but costly and beautiful silver statues, the ideal seemed to impress itself so strongly on the mind of the beholder. It was a Kind of heavenly procession of the patron saints of the city coming to salute and do honour to the principal patron who was preparing to renew

the wonderful miracle of the liquefaction of his blood. Last of all came the Archbishop of Naples under a handsome canopy of red silk bearing the vial which contains the blood. When he had reached the sanctuary he laid the vial upon the High Altar and incensed it. He then came up to the altar surrounded by canons and clergy ; we were close to the altar on the opposite side and could observe everything minutely. First, we saw the vial of blood. The vial appeared to be rather more than half full of perfectly solid matter — in quantity it might be equal in bulk to a plover's egg, but it was hard, dry, and of a brown colour approaching black. The vial itself is enclosed in a kind of circular box with glass on the two sides, very much like that part of a monstrance in which the Sacred Host is exposed, only instead of rays there is a thick silver rim. This circular case is surmounted with a solid silver crown, and from the lower part projects a silver stick, which is let into a socket or stand when it is carried in procession, or put away in the Treasury. The Archbishop turned the vial upside down repeatedly to see whether the blood was liquefying. He then began the prayers— the Apostles' Cr«ed, the Athanasian Creed, the Litaby of Our Lady, the Salve liegina, the Miserere, and other prayers. It was a perfect picture to see the fervor with which the prayers were recited. And while the clergy were praying at the altar, a crowd of some forty or fifty persons, called the family of St. Januarius, on the Gospel side of the altar, outside the sanctuaiy, were praying away independently and aloud ; they seemed to be chiefly engaged in reciting the Rosary. The first half hour passed and the second without any change in the vial. The Archbishop again and again examined it, and held it in every position, coaxing it, as it were, to flow, but it remained perfectly hard and of the dull colour already described. The prayers went on, the Salve liegina was again said most fervently, then a change was perceived taking place in the vial; the fervour increased, the Athanasian Creed was again recited, followed by the Miserere. We could now all distinctly see that the sides of the mass of blood had become softened, and that the whole mass began to slip as the vial was moved. The Master of Ceremonies was about to give the signal that the miracle was wrought by tinkling the silver hand-bell which was on the altar, but the Archbishop said " No," and again began the Litany of the Blessed Virgin and the Salve liegina. When these were finished he once more turned the vial slowly upside down, and, behold, the entire mass of blood flowed or slipped with the motion of the vial. The miracle was wrought after the prayers had been recited for seventy-five minutes, and the little bell now gave notice of it. There was a kind of scarcely suppressed expression of feeling of delight manifested throughout the church. I was then able to take the vial into my hands, and to hold it close against a candle to examine its contents moie carefully, and to balance it backwards and forwards to test the liquidity of the blood. In colour it had now become of the appearance of half-melted red currant jelly ; it did not flow like a stream of liquid blood, nor did the mass separate into portions, but the whole seemed to adhere together, the external parts becoming of the consistency of half-melted jelly and transparent, while a heavy clot remained in the centra unmelted and solid. The liquefaction sometimes takes place after a few minutes* prayer, sometimes after an hour's, sometimes after two or three hours* prayer. On some occasion the delay into the night has been so long that they have taken it back to the Duomo and it has liquefied on the way ; but sooner or later the miracle always takes place. Again, sometimes the blood boils up and bubbles, filling almost the entire vial, and at other times it liquefies as it did on the present occasion ; at other times the whole mass liquefies more fully, and sometimes a very small portion of it changes. After the people and nuns have kissed the vial it is taken back to the Duomo, and after the recitation of prayers the same miracle is repeated in the Duomo each day of the octavo. You may now ask, Who was St. Januarius, and when did he live ? He was Bishop of Benevento in the fourth century. Hearing that some of his friends had been cast into prison at Pozzuolo he went to visit and console them. After a time he was cart into prison himself for his faitb, and with two of his deacons marched before th« Governor's car and then exposed to the wild beasts, who refused to touch him. He was then beheaded at Pozzuolo in 305. It was not till 1497 that Naples obtained final possession of his body. If you ask wbat is the meaning of this miracle, all that can be Baid is that it certainly helps to maintain men's faith in the supernatural, in the power of God and the intercession of the Saints. God's ways are inscrutable and we can set no measure to them. Why be should choose one saint not another, one form of intervention not another, one time, one people and not another — all this is beyond our ken. But is the miracle true? It has been tested again and again. Science cannot account for it : Sir Humphrey Davy and other Protestant men of science have examined it and have admitted that there is no human way of accounting for the phenomenon j quite recently a scientific inquiry into it has been published in Naples, the conclusion of which is that no law in nature can explain the occurrence of the liquefaction. As to believing in it people can do as they please : the Church leaves us free to form any opinion we please ; but, granted the existence of the supernatural and of miracles, it seems to me to require a greater effort of reason to disbelieve than to believe All kinds of evidence and of tests converge towards one conclusion — why then not accept it? or rather, how cau you reasonably refuse to accept it 1 In ending this brief account of the miracle of St. Januarius I will make a confession. I had had no desire to witness it, and it was with some difficulty that I had allowed myself to be persuaded to remain two days longer in Naples in order to see it — not that 1 at all disbelieved, but I did not feel curious or anxious to see it. lam now very glad that I beheld it — the order, reverence and faith of the whole proceeding was most edifying, and the sight of the miracle tends to strengthen one's faith in the supernatural and in the goodness of God. — I am, sir, yours, ice, S.