St Januarius, Bishop of Benevento and His Companions, Martyrs

From Fr Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints:

From Bede and other Martyrologists. The modern acts of St. Januarius were compiled by John, a deacon belonging to the church of Naples, about the year 920, who complains that the memoirs he made use of had been adulterated by certain superfluous circumstances foisted into them. See Tillemont, t. 5, and F. Putignano Soc. J. de Redivivo, Sanguine D. Januaril, Neapoii, 1723, in three volumes quarto. Stilting, t. 6, Sept. p. 762. et seq.

AD 305.

ST. JANUARIUS, a native some say of Naples, others of Benevento, was bishop of this latter city, when the persecution of Dioclesian broke out. Sosius, deacon of Misenum,* Proculus, deacon of Puzzuoli, and Eutyches, or Eutychetes, and Acutius, eminent laymen, were impressed at Puzzuoli for the faith, by an order of Dracontius, governor of Campania, before whom they had confessed their faith . Sosius, by his singular wisdom and sanctity, had been worthy of the intimate friendship of St. Januarius, who reposed in him an entire confidence, and for many years had found no more solid comfort among men than in his holy counsels and conversation his. Upon the news that this great servant of God and several others were fallen into the hands of the persecutors, the good bishop determined to make them a visit, in order to comfort and encourage them, and provide them with every spiritual succor to arm them for their great conflict; in this act of charity no fear of torments or danger of his life could terrify him; and martyrdom was his reward. He did not escape the notice of the inquisitive keepers, who gave information that an eminent person from Benevento had visited the Christian prisoners. Timothy, who had just succeeded Dracontius in the government of that district of Italy, gave orders that Januarius, whom he found to be the person, should be apprehended, and brought before him at Nola, the usual place of his residence; which was done accordingly. Festus, the bishop's deacon, and Desiderius, a reader of his church, were taken up as they were making him a visit. They had a share in the interrogatories and torments which the good bishop underwent at Nola. Some time after the governor went to Puzzuoli, and these three confessors, loaded with heavy irons, were made to walk before his chariot to that town, where they were thrown into the same prison where the four martyrs already mentioned were detained: they had been condemned, by an order from the emperor, to be torn in pieces by wild beasts, and were then lying in expectation of the execution of their sentence.† The day after the arrival of St. Januarius and his two companions, all these champions of Christ were exposed to be devoured by the beasts in the amphitheater; but none of the wild animals could be provoked to touch them. The people were amazed, but imputed their preservation to art-magic: and the martyrs were condemned to be headed. This sentence was executed near Puzzuoli, as Bede testifies, and the martyrs were decently interred near that town. Some time after the Christian faith was become triumphant, towards the year 400, their precious relics were removed. The bodies of SS. Proculus, Eutyches, and Acutius were placed in a more honorable manner at Puzzuoli: those of SS. Festus and Desiderius were translated to Benevento: that of Sosius to Misenum, where it was later deposited in a stately church built in his honor.

The city of Naples was so happy as to obtain possession of the relics of St. Januarius. During the wars of the Normans, they were removed, first to Benevento, and, some time later, to the abbey of Monte-Vergine; but, in 1497, they were brought back to Naples, which city has long honored him as its main patron. Among many miraculous deliverances which it ascribes to the intercession of this great saint none is looked upon as more remarkable than its preservation from the fiery eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, now called La Somma, which is only eight miles distant, and which has often threatened the entire destruction of this city, both by the prodigious quantities of burning sand, ashes, and stones, which it throws up on those occasions to a much greater distance than Naples; and, by a torrent of burning sulfur, nitre, calcined stones, and other materials, which, like a liquid fire, has sometimes gushed from that volcano, and, digging itself a channel (which has sometimes been two or three miles broad), rolled its flaming waves through the valley into the sea, destroying towns and villages in its way, and often passing near Naples.* Some of these eruptions, which in the fifth and seventh centuries threatened this city with destruction, by the clouds of ashes which they raised, are said to have darkened the sky as far as Constantinople, and struck terror into the inhabitants of that capital1.1 The intercession of St. Januarius was implored at Naples on those occasions, and the divine mercy so wonderfully interposed in causing these dreadful evils suddenly to cease thereupon, especially in 1685, Bennet II. being pope, and Justinian the younger emperor, that the Greeks instituted a feast in honor of St. Januarius, with two yearly solemn processions to return thanks to God. The protection of the city of Naples from this dreadful volcano by the same means was most remarkable in the years 1631 and 1707. In this last, while Cardinal Francis Pignatelli, with the clergy and people, devoutly followed the shrine of St. Januarius in procession to a chapel at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, the fiery eruption ceased, the mist, which before was so thick that no one could see another at the distance of three yards, was scattered, and at night the stars appeared in the sky.2

The standing miracle, as it is called by Baronius, of the blood of St. Januarius liquefying and boiling up at the approach of the martyr's head, is likewise very famous. In a rich chapel, called the Treasury, in the great church at Naples, the blood is preserved, in two very old glass vials, and the head of St. Januarius. The blood is congealed, and of a dark color; but, when brought into sight of the head, though at a considerable distance, it melts, bubbles up, and, upon the least motion, flows on either side. The fact is attested by Baronius, Ribadeneira and countless other eye-witnesses of all nations and religions, many of whom most attentively examined all the circumstances. Certain Jesuits, sent by F. Bollandus to Naples, were allowed by the archbishop, cardinal Philamurini, to see this prodigy; the minute description of the manner in which it is performed is related by them in the life of F. Bollandus.3 It happens equally in all seasons of the year, and in variety of circumstances. The usual times when it is performed are the feast of St. Januarius, the 19th of September; that of the translation of his relics (when they were brought from Puzzuoll to Naples), the Sunday which falls next to the calends of May; and the 20th day of December, on which, in 1631, a terrible eruption of Mount Vesuvius was extinguished, upon invoking the patronage of this martyr. The same is done on extraordinary occasions at the discretion of the archbishop.* This miraculous solution and boiling of the blood of St. Januarius is mentioned by Pope Pius II. when he speaks of the reign of Alphonsus I. of Arragon, king of Naples, in 1450; Angelus Cato, an eminent physician of Salerno, and others, mention it in the same century. Almost two hundred years before that epoch, historians take notice that King Charles I. of Anjou, coming to Naples, the archbishop brought out the head and blood of this martyr. The continuator of the chronicle of Maraldus says the same was done upon the arrival of king Roger, who venerated these relics, in 1140. Falco of Benevento relates the same thing. From several circumstances this miracle is traced much higher, and it is said to have regularly happened on the annual feast of St. Januarius, and on that of the translation of his relics of him, from the time of that translation, about the year 400.4

Miracles recorded in holy scripture are revealed facts, and an object of faith. Other miracles are not considered in the same light; neither does our faith rest upon them as upon the former, though they illustrate and confirm it; nor do they demand or admit any higher assent than that which prudence requires, and that which is due to the evidence or human authority upon which they depend. When such miracles are proposed, they are not to be rashly admitted: the evidence of the fact and circumstances ought to be examined to the bottom, and duly weighed; where that fails it is the part of prudence to suspend or refuse our assent. Also if it appears doubtful whether an effect be natural or proceed from a supernatural interposition, our assent ought to read according to the greater weight of probability, and God, who is author of all events, natural and supernatural, is always to be glorified. If human evidence sets the certainty of a miracle above the reach of any doubt, it must more powerfully excite us to raise our minds to God in feelings of humble adoration, love, and praise; and to honor him in his saints, when, by such wonderful means, he gives us sensible proofs of the glory and favor to which he exalts them, and of the tenderness with which he watches over their mortal remains to raise them one day in a state of glorious immortality.