TRANSLATION OF THE RELICS OF SAINT JANUARIUS
At 5.18 pm on 2 May, 2021, during the second day of prayer, the miracle of the liquefaction of the blood of Saint Januarius was repeated. The blood of St. Januarius 1st began to liquefy in 1389. Last year, the blood did not liquefy in December 16; this was thought to be a warning from above of the pandemic. The text of the homily delivered by Archbishop Don Mimmo Battaglia in the celebration of May 1st in the Cathedral is available below. Also this year, due to the health crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the procession was not held which, according to tradition, on the Saturday afternoon preceding the first Sunday in May, always moved from the Duomo to the church of Saint Clare, with the Teca containing the blood and with the bust of the Patron Saint of Naples and Campania, together with the statues of some patron saints.
On this occasion, the prodigious event of the liquefaction of the blood of the martyr Gennaro (Januarius) took place (as it does almost always). The procession took place in memory of the Translation of the Relics of the Saint from the cemetery located in the countryside of Marciano, in the territory of Fuorigrotta, to the Catacombs of Capodimonte, then called, for this reason, of Saint Januarius.
This procession was also called «of the infrascati», due to the custom of the participating clergy to protect themselves from the sun, covering their heads with wreaths of flowers. The silver crown that dominates the canopy which, in public, holds the shrine with the blood of the saint and which bears in the center an enormous emerald, of Central American origin, a gift from the city of Naples, is a reminder of this.
For the reasons mentioned, even on this year's anniversary only the Eucharistic Celebration was celebrated in the Cathedral Church, with the overall presence of two hundred people and live TV and web coverage by Canale 21.
In the following days, from 2 to 9 May, from 9 to 12.30 and from 16.30 to 19, the faithful can go to the Cathedral, to the High Altar, to pray in front of the relics and venerate the patron saint. At 9, 10 and 12 on weekdays, as well as at 18.30 the celebration of Mass.
Here is the text of the homily delivered by the Archbishop :
Dear brothers and sisters,
today my first impression takes place - not in front of you but with you all - with what one would instinctively say "something", the blood, the blood guarded and jealously venerated for centuries, of a witness of Christ. I said with "something", something fascinating and mysterious, but in reality, it is the impact not with something, but the filial and devoted encounter, moved and anxious with Someone, with the martyr and bishop Gennaro, the Saint Januarius universally known in the world, as intensely and passionately kept, as well as in a display case, in the heart of every Neapolitan.
On this day , our Church remembers the translation of the body of the bishop and martyr Saint Januarius and traditionally does so with a procession whose route winds through the streets of the city . However, this year too it is not possible due to the pandemic emergency and that is why we find ourselves in the cathedral, with a contingent number of faithful, but with a clear certainty: if today's liturgy cannot unfold through the streets of Naples ... are the streets of Naples, with its inhabitants and the thousand stories of the alleys and neighborhoods , which make their entrance into this cathedral church through our prayer and our remembrance .
In fact , every time we sit at the Lord's table we bring with us " the joys and hopes, sadness and anguish of today's men, especially the poor and all those who suffer " , in the awareness that we are all branches of only vine, guarded and blessed by the Father. L ' E ucarestia is the lifeblood, is the presence of the Lord who gives himself to us so that we learn to give ourselves for each other. Being united with him does not mean custing his love and life like a jealous treasure but , rather , letting them flow , giving us fruits., to then donate them and share them with those who are close to us, with those we meet every day on the paths of our daily life, without turning the other way. Remain in Jesus means res tares in the motion of love , not away from it, whatever the cost. Isn't that what martyrs do? Is this not what the martyr Gennaro did, captured to bring consolation and instill courage to the brothers imprisoned for their faith? And this love to his brothers and faith in the risen Lord , have not perhaps driven to donate anch 'he lives to martyrdom?
Sisters and brothers , like Gennaro we are called to be united with the Lord, to remain in His words , to listen, nourish and transmit His love. As L ui , we are called to annunciar and to denounce and give up.
We proclaim the Gospel without fear , with a prophetic witness, capable of affecting the whole of our life. The city, our city needs to receive the good news of the Gospel, it needs its lifeblood to return to hope, it needs all Christ's disciples to sprinkle with the lifeblood of trust and love the many deserts that are hidden behind its alleys, in its suburbs , in condominiums and houses.
We denounce what pollutes the social fabric, what makes the community inhuman, everything that distances the people from the dream of God which is peace, justice, communion. Our martyr with her getting close to suffering fellow h to denounced the littleness of earthly powers, showed that a believer not retreat one millimeter before the good, but that it is also capable of giving life. As a community, will we be able to do the same by denouncing the underworld, the Camorra culture, the corruption that prevails in the name of the Gospel of justice?
We decisively renounce the idolatry of the self by learning to decline as a we. Waiver mo to the mentality of the small backyard garden for rediscovering the only farmers who has been entrusted: our city. Waiver mo to stop on the threshold of dreams and learn together they become signs concrete of the future of God . Waiver mo to a fragmentation that serves only to our selfishness narcissistic but that has little ch and make the Kingdom of God and the common good. It is these verbs - announce, d enunciate, renounce - that must awaken the memo in us of our martyr today.
Brothers and sisters, today I beg you not to give in to the temptation to stand on the threshold of the surface, intrigued by the prodigy, seized by the desire to read in it good wishes or ominous omens for our future : blood, whether it melts or remains in its unchanged sacredness, it refers us to the blood of Christ, in whose paschal mystery we still find ourselves and who is the only one that gives meaning to the great and intense icon of the blood that melts, for remind us that it is always alive in the suffering and in the hope of all of you - of all of us, I am there too, Neapolitans - and of all the men and women we know to be saved by Jesus, whose immense pact we will evoke and update of love today too, soon: "this is my blood, the blood for the new and eternal covenant, shed for you and for all" .
I will have the task of holding this case in my hands, with all the moving veneration that I feel towards a Great One in faith and with all the evocative devotion of this blood to the blood of every oppressed man, of every human being struck by the violence of other beings suddenly become inhuman, or simply by a misfortune, a disease or whatever else has poured it on the earth. Yes, on this earth and on earth in general, an earth that paradoxically becomes more human in receiving it. The earth itself, in fact, claims humanity and justice for the shed blood of every man, because, like Abel, "although dead, he still speaks" (Heb 11: 4).
Yes, dear friends, it is with the trepidation of those who have in their hands and in their hearts so much suffering and so much testimony, testimony of love and faith, proof of a disproportionate struggle against the adversities of life and of tenacity in carrying on their family that we all feel involved and moved by the blood of Saint Januiarius. We feel so involved that we hear the cry of justice, as well as the appeal to veneration, which comes to us from that blood and from that of any brother, because each of them brings us back to Christ, "to the Mediator of the New Covenant and to the blood of the sprinkling of the voice more eloquent than that of Abel "(Heb 11:24).
In fact, what is this cruet? What treasure is it part of ? These are the questions that must dig our hearts every time the martyr Gennaro comes to meet us with the sign of his blood. The blood of the martyrs is not a museum piece or a simple relic to be cherished but it is a living sign for the today that is given to us, a clear indication for this time that we are called to live, a prophecy of the way in which we must live and a clear reference to what is worth dying for.Around this reliquary and with those who suffer in the first place, we are the Church of God, a people of witnesses and martyrs, because as he claims, recalling some fathers of the Church, even someone who was my theology teacher, the Church begins with the first sacrifice of an innocent, the first blood shed by a brother who gave him to drink to the earth which, while welcoming it, still does not resign itself, does not make it capable of it: the blood of Abel. As disciples of the Risen One, let us therefore learn to read together, without anachronistic fears, the powerful " road signs " that this blood shows us and to set out together with the martyrs of every place and every time, along the paths of evangelical witness.and of a fidelity to God that is made credible by the service to man lived without reserve and with "waste of generosity" .
The blood speaks and is alive, just as the thirst for justice and the need for a "normality" of closeness, proximity, a need made even more urgent by the current pandemic remain alive. This living blood tells us about Maurizio, who died in order to defend his daughter from the Camorra tradition of abuse; of Giovanni, who spent every day of his life to ensure a future for his disabled son and who died without the certainty of a community capable of looking after him. Today , these ampoules lead us to Ornella and Fortuna who, due to male violence, have shed their blood struck by the hands of those they had loved. Today ,this blood introduces us to the peripheries of existence, at the feet of Concetta and the many invisible elderly people forgotten by all, left alone by the community that would have had to pay off the debt between generations with care . Today , this blood tells us about Salvatore and Tina and all the boys of Naples, from whom an economic system, a selfish lifestyle and the cancer of the Camorra are stealing the future. Today , this blood tells us of the wounds of the many families of Whirlpool and of the many unemployed who ask for nothing more than a job capable of guaranteeing the dignity of themselves and their families: on this May 1st my thoughts and my closeness to them !
These names, these stories, the faces and the names of Naples are the deliveries of Saint Januarius , whose testimony does not cease to echo the blessing sending of the wounds of the Risen One: t adorned in the world to heal the wounds of the body and soul of every man and every woman ; and live with all your strength that more human blood is shed on the earth ; disassociate yourselves, however, at any cost, from those who still claim to get rich by shedding and making the blood of every human being shed ; be ready to take your commitments today and not tomorrow, responding to personally and not leaving it to others; is above all, love more, love always, love everyone, but especially those who need love most.
We are the Church of Christ, C hurch suffering, but that is not resigned to suffering, because it seeks to overcome it in others and in themselves. It is not true that we were born to suffer. We were born to love. To love anyway and always even when this should involve suffering and personal involvement.
Brothers and sisters , in these ampoules flow like perennial tributaries the streams of blood that gush from the open wounds of this city, from the vulnerabilities of its people, from the pains of its children. There is no social wound and community wound that does not have the right of citizenship in this precious reliquary, the marvelous apex of the entire treasure of Saint Januarius. But don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about precious stones, nor about the gems set between golden mitres, nor about the silver busts of the saints. The real treasure of Saint Januarius is its people, its people and , in it , those who sit on the edge of the vine , the last, the most fragile. ISthis treasure which , as a Church, together with the institutions and all men and women of good will, we are called to safeguard with fidelity and courage, drawing on the immense patrimony hidden among the shadows and lights that compose it: I speak of the patrimony of humanity of this city, of the desire for redemption of its people, of the solidarity of its people. It is from this treasure that S. Gennaro asks us to leave together. It is this treasure that the Lord asks us to increase, making it bear fruit in everyday life, with generous enthusiasm and indomitable courage. This is the true “Saint Januarius operation” from which we must never give up, to which the Gospel itself invites us. In the film of the same name, one of the characters, Don Vincenzo, played by the great Tot ò, says: "To have a grace from Saint Januarius you have to talk to him from man to man."
And here is Bishop and Martyr Januarius, who as a man and in the name of the men and women of the Church of Naples , I turn to you !
The whirling us to discover and comprehend , and among the bright reflections of your ampoules
the drops of blood of the poor, the little ones, the least.
Help the Neapolitan Church , with the testimony of your faith,
to announce the beauty of the Gospel with fresh words and passionate gazes .
Support, with the example of your courage,
those who set out on the paths of justice and peace,
free them from the fear of the powers of death and remember the gold that the fragility of love
it is the only weapon capable of changing the world.
Help us all to give up the comfortable and superficial life,
made of indifference and selfishness
and remind us that the stage of the history of this city
it is not traced with the attitude of the spectator,
but with the enthusiasm of the protagonist .
And don't stop whispering to our hearts
that your most precious treasure is us,
your people of Naples,
your city kissed by the sea and caressed by the sun,
called to be for the whole world
a parable of welcome and communion,
a people who despite so much darkness
it has never stopped and will never stop seeing, living and announcing
the light.
Your blood has split and will split time with love for the good.
Amen
FULL TEXT Source: https://www.chiesadinapoli.it/traslazione-delle-reliquie-di-san-gennaro/
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