We were staying at a place in an untidy little square situated directly behind the Doumo of Naples so it was easy to squeeze in a visit in between an afternoon on the busy streets and preparing for an evening pizza meal.
The Doumo is a fine building with a grand façade that gleams like polished stone in the sunlight and an impressive interior but it is known most of all for being the repository of the blood of Saint Januarius, the Patron Saint of Naples.
An unusually absurd tale…
Posted in Europe, History, Italy, Postcards, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Januarius, Nales Pizza, Naples, Naples Cathedral, Saint Patrick, Saint Paul, saint Spyridon. Life
“In this city of Naples, they believe in one of the wretchedest of all the religious impostures one can find in Italy –the miraculous liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius. Twice a year the priests assemble all the people at the Cathedral, and get out this vial of clotted blood and let them see it slowly dissolve and become liquid– and every day for eight days, this dismal farce is repeated, while the priests go among the crowd and collect money for the exhibition.” Mark Twain – The Innocents Abroad
We were staying at a place in an untidy little square situated directly behind the Doumo of Naples so it was easy to squeeze in a visit in between an afternoon on the busy streets and preparing for pizza.
The Doumo is a fine building with a grand façade that gleams like polished stone in the sunlight and an impressive interior but it is known most of all for being the repository of the blood of Saint Januarius, the Patron Saint of Naples.
Januarius was Bishop of Benevento and is a martyr and Saint of both the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Churches. Whilst no contemporary sources on his life are available, later sources and legends claim that he died during the Great Persecution of the Emperor Diocletian during which he was beheaded after first being fed to wild bears that refused to eat him. These religious fantasy stories often beggar belief!
And so we go on…
Januarius is the patron saint of Naples where the faithful gather three times a year in the Cathedral to witness the liquefaction of what is claimed to be a sample of his blood kept in a sealed glass ampoule.
These religious fantasy stories often beggar belief!
According to legend the blood of the Saint was mopped up after his execution by a woman called Eusebia who put it into a couple of ampoule jars. Then, over the following two and a half centuries official reports began to appear declaring that the blood spontaneously melted, at first once a year, then twice, and finally three times a year.
Thousands of people assemble to witness this farce in Naples Cathedral, on September 19 (Saint Januarius’s Day, commemorating his martyrdom), on December 16 (celebrating his patronage of Naples and its archdiocese), and on the Saturday before the first Sunday of May (commemorating the reunification of his relics).
It can also spontaneously liquefy at other convenient moments as well such as a Papal visit for example. It is said that if the blood fails to do its magic then Naples will suffer a disaster. Maybe it can predict the next eruption of Mount Vesuvius?
It is a lot of holy nonsense of course and the Pope and the Catholic Church steadfastly refuse to permit any scientific analysis less the religious scam is revealed as just that. Anyway, we visited the Cathedral and found the place where it is stored, safely of course under strong lock and key so that the genie can never be let out of the bottle.
My favourite nonsense bible story still remains the water into wine thing, I wish I could do that, it would save me a lot of money that’s for sure!
In the United States, the “Feast of San Gennaro” is a highlight of the year for New York’s Little Italy, with the saint’s polychrome statue carried through the middle of a street fair stretching for many streets. The procession featured in a scene in the movie ‘Godfather Part II’.
It is a good story but possibly not my favourite. That has to be the tale of Saint Spyridon on the Greek island of Corfu. Spyridon is a very important Saint in Corfu who at various times is said to have saved the island from foreign invaders and from outbreaks of deadly disease and because he does his best to try and deliver on the requests of the visitors to his tomb.
This is my absolute favourite part of the story – it is said that at night when everyone is gone and the town is empty he rises from the silver sarcophagus and walks the streets of Corfu granting people’s wishes. Every year he wears out a perfectly good pair of shoes and every year he has to be fitted up for a new pair. Really.
These religious fantasy stories often beggar belief!
This is the statue and the view from our apartment balcony…
Blogger Denzil also has a good post about Holy Blood
Other Unlikely Saint Stories…
Posted in Cathedrals, Europe, Food, History, Italy, Malta, Postcards, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Januarius, Nales Pizza, Naples, Naples Cathedral, Saint Patrick, Saint Paul, saint Spyridon. Life
I don’t know if this was a special day in Corfu for Saint Spyridon but I suspect it might have been because inside the place was so busy it resembled the first day of the Harrods January sale and people were pushing and shoving and waiting in a long line for their turn to visit the silver casket and to make a request for a miracle cure or for the winning lottery numbers.
“He lies in hibernating stillness in his richly wrought casket, whose outer shell of silver is permanently clouded by the breath of the faithful who stoop to kiss it” – Lawrence Durrell
Wandering around the labyrinth of tiny twisting streets we finally arrived at the focal point of the city, the tall, red domed church of Agios Spyridon where lies the mummified body of the patron saint of the island, Saint Spyridon and inside tourists jostled with Corfiots to push their way into a side chapel to visit his elaborate silver tomb.
Outside and around the church there were old fashioned stores selling various cards or pieces of pressed aluminium each with a picture of a part of the body. If you have a bad leg then you buy a leg picture, a poorly arm an elbow picture, a hangover a brain picture and so on and then you take this to the Church and ask for a cure and leave it there so that God doesn’t just forget about it after you have gone and these were securely fastened in bunches to railings and picture frames.
In return for this service it is the custom to light a candle which is as tall as yourself and leave it burning at the door. Six foot candles were burning away with such intensity it might have been what it was like to be caught in the middle of the Great Fire of London and it all looked rather dangerous to me but there were men on hand whose job it was to extinguish the flames as soon as the pilgrim that had left it there was an appropriate distance away down the street and then whisk the unburned portion away for immediate recycling and to cut down and sell to a shorter pilgrim!
We duly noted this and went through the heavy doors into an alternative world of black robed beardy priests, local worshippers and travelling pilgrims all lining up to kiss the lavish icons of their favourite Saint.
I don’t know if this was a special day in Corfu for Saint Spyridon but I suspect it might have been because inside the place was so busy it resembled the first day of the Harrods January sale and people were pushing and shoving and waiting in a long line for their turn to visit the silver casket and to make a request for a miracle cure or for the winning lottery numbers. And the queue wasn’t moving very quickly because having stood in line for so long the pilgrims had plenty of time to draw up an expanding list of requests and having finally made it to the front no one was inclined to rush the experience of an audience with the preserved corpse and everyone seemed to stand around for eternity kissing the icons and the casket and saying personal prayers.
After almost two thousand years the preserved relics are not in great shape and the right hand is missing altogether because that is in Rome so the mummified skin and bone is covered in a sort of embroidered carpet, I assume so that it doesn’t scare the children half to death!
All of this icon kissing means quite a lot of unwanted spit and saliva of course so to deal with this, cleaning ladies with spray cleaners and dusters circulated constantly to deal with the slobber and the germs on a continuous and never ending polishing circuit of the church.
Spyridon is a very important Saint in Corfu who at various times is said to have saved the island from foreign invaders and from outbreaks of deadly disease and because he does his best to try and deliver on the requests of the visitors to his tomb. He is so important to Corfiots that apparently Spiros is even today the most common boys name on the island.
This is my favourite story – it is said that at night when everyone is gone and the town is empty he rises from the silver sarcophagus and walks the streets of Corfu granting peoples wishes. Every year he wears out a perfectly good pair of shoes and every year he has to be fitted up for a new pair! Really!
Sadly there really wasn’t time to stand in the line of people and shuffle slowly to the chapel containing the relics and I couldn’t really think of anything to ask for anyway, except perhaps could Leicester City not get relegated this year, so choking on incense and elbowing our way past genuine pilgrims we made our way to the door and back out into the sunlit street.
Posted in Cathedrals, Europe, Greece, Greek islands, History, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Corfu, Culture, Ionian Islands, Pilgrims, saint Spyridon. Life
Have Bag, Will Travel 