.png)
The Miracle liquefication of the blood of the patron saint of Naples, Italy, has occurred once again: the announcement upon the arrival of the reliquary with the ampoule at the Basilica of Saint Clare.
The announcement arrived at 6.38pm on Saturday, May 4th. The miracle of Saint Januarius (San Gennaro) was repeated. Archbishop Don Mimmo Battaglia kissed the ampoule with the dissolved blood of the patron saint of Naples and showed it to the faithful present at the Basilica of Saint Clare, as the crowd applauded.
Fr. Mimmo Battaglia, around 5.00 pm, after going to the Treasury Chapel, was welcomed by the abbot prelate, Monsignor Vincenzo De Gregorio and by the delegation presided over by the mayor of Naples Gaetano Manfredi. They opened the safe which houses the relics of the saint, with the dried blood that had not yet dissolved.
Then the traditional and solemn procession of the bust of San Gennaro and the vials containing the martyr's blood began , from the Cathedral to the Basilica of Santa Chiara.
The arrival at the Basilica of Saint Clare (Chiara) took place around 6.30 pm, for the start of the Holy Mass presided over by the archbishop, during which prayers were raised for the liquefaction of the saint's blood.
Saint Januarius' Feast Day is Sept. 19th (SEE https://www.catholicnewsworld.com/2023/09/saint-september-19-st-januarius-whose.html)
The miracle usually occurs 3 times a year: on the Saint's Feast Day September 19th, the 1st Saturday in May and on December 16th which was the anniversary of the Volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1631. It is considered a bad omen if the blood does not liquify - which happened just before the pandemic. At the end of the celebration, the ampoule with the relics of the Patron Saint of Naples and Campania was placed in the reliquary in the chapel dedicated to him.
It is the act that we have just carried out this afternoon, walking through the streets of the ancient center as a Church, as a People, in the certainty of not being alone but of living within a larger company, that of brothers and sisters who with the testimony of life and their blood have preceded us on the fascinating and tortuous path of following, of discipleship, of walking together, in the footsteps of the Risen Crucifix. Procession comes from “procedere” which means “to move forward, continue the journey” but semantically implies another term, which is “provenire”: coming from and going towards. Without these two awarenesses the journey becomes a wandering and the pilgrimage turns into wandering. But we are not and do not want to become unaware wanderers but pilgrims with solid certainties and big dreams, because we are aware of the history that precedes them and of the bright sun that generated the progress of their personal and community existence, the sun of the Resurrection! Walking in procession is in fact the liturgical sign of this great truth: we know where we come from, we know where we are going and consequently we know how to inhabit the earth and the time in which the Lord has placed us because we have a compass that allows us to do so, the Gospel! And when discouragement grips us, we also know that keeping our gaze fixed on Christ lifts us up, and looking at the testimony of those who followed him to the end strengthens us, renewing our enthusiasm in that dream of which the blood of the Bishop and Martyr Gennaro is sign! Let us never forget: this blood is the sign of a dream of salvation, of hope, of trust; it is not an oracle to be consulted but a compass to follow because it is always well oriented towards Christ, the origin and goal of our journey, of our history, of the history of the world!
Brothers and sisters, today the Lord speaks to our heart and to the heart of our church, telling us how his love and our joy represent an indissoluble union, to the point that in the believer if there is one there is also the other, almost as if joy confirmed - as a spontaneous and visible fruit - the acceptance of love, the germination of the Word in existence, becoming in some way a seal of guarantee, an authentic assurance of discipleship. Many times we run the risk of forgetting it and dressing our faith in sad clothes and dark clothes, depriving it of those bright colors and those joyful scents that directly refer to the Easter garden, to the time and place in which Christian joy arose like a sun without setting. The reason for our joy lies in fact in the gift of free and total love that God gives us, in a mysterious and fascinating circularity, through our relationship with the Risen Christ, by whom we are loved infinitely. “As the Father has loved me, I too have loved you…remain in my love”: it is as if Jesus wanted to say that the love received from the Father he did not keep for himself, he did not make it a jealous treasure but he shared totally, up to the gift of his life, also showing plastically what it means to love: giving of oneself, serving, washing each other's feet, competing in mutual service and giving! Jesus showed this clearly in chapter 13 of this same Gospel, bending over the disciples, wearing the sacred vestment of the apron, grabbing the jug and the basin, washing their feet and asking them to do the same. Dearest Sisters and Brothers, our acceptance of God's love is real, credible and authentic only when it generates dynamics of service towards others, words and actions of giving and sharing towards those that life places on our path. The only command he left us as a synthesis of every other indication, advice, commandment is in fact this, "love one another as I have loved you". This is and will always be his only and primary commandment!
If it is history that the story of his martyrdom fits into the context of Diocletian's persecutions, it is equally true that his singular plot, together with that of his companions, is a story of fraternal solidarity and generous love. The hagiographic sources and the acts of Bishop Gennaro's martyrdom tell us how he, without any fear, put the good of his brothers before his own safety, visiting a brother imprisoned because of his faith in Christ! His desire to comfort him, his bold solidarity, his not looking the other way, sharing friendship and common faith to the end, are the true, authentic, lasting fruit of our Martyr, a fruit that even more than in the prodigy of his blood it is visible in the many miracles of solidarity that in our city, often in discretion and concealment, multiply every day, keeping the community standing, through the most solid welfare there is, that of shared love and free!
For this reason, Blessed Gennaro, as Bishop of this Neapolitan church I turn to you with a trusting heart, knowing that you are brother and father in faith, disciple and witness who continues to walk from heaven alongside the travails and struggles of our church and our people!
Pray for us martyr Gennaro and invoke upon us the gift of the Holy Spirit so that, enlightened by your example, we learn with concrete and courageous choices to leave our habits, our comfortable beliefs, our safe enclosures to announce the Word and share the fate of those who groan in today's many prisons, infecting the imprisoned lives with the freedom of the Gospel! Perhaps the first prison to visit with you is precisely ours, the one in which as a church we often build ourselves with our self-referential attitudes, with our talking to each other, with our transformation of normal and precious differences into insurmountable obstacles on the path of communion and of unity.
Bishop Gennaro, help us to walk along the paths of time and history, with our gaze fixed on the Lord you loved and served, and with our feet always ready to reach our brothers and sisters who find themselves in physical, internal and social prisons. Just like you, who regardless of danger and persecution for the love of God and your brothers were not afraid to set out and risk your life to break the bread of the restorative Word to your brothers who were prisoners due to the Gospel and the violence of men.
And finally, Witness with fruitful blood, pray with us, and help us to pray without ever tiring so that innocent blood will never flow again in this city of yours, so that our Europe, the Holy Land, and throughout the world, fratricidal conflicts may cease, the actions of war, the terrorist operations, and the Sun of Peace, the one that pushed you to give your life and which you now contemplate eternally, spread every cloud of violence, dry every tear of pain, disarm with forgiveness every desire for vendetta! Yes, may the testimony of your blood reach us in the prisons of our resigned minds and our hardened hearts and reawaken everyone's soul to the certainty that love always wins and that they will be the words of good, of beauty, of goodness to write the ending of the story!
Amen!
Excerpts from the Homily of the Archbishop: (See below the Video)
It is the act that we have just carried out this afternoon, walking through the streets of the ancient center as a Church, as a People, in the certainty of not being alone but of living within a larger company, that of brothers and sisters who with the testimony of life and their blood have preceded us on the fascinating and tortuous path of following, of discipleship, of walking together, in the footsteps of the Risen Crucifix. Procession comes from “procedere” which means “to move forward, continue the journey” but semantically implies another term, which is “provenire”: coming from and going towards. Without these two awarenesses the journey becomes a wandering and the pilgrimage turns into wandering. But we are not and do not want to become unaware wanderers but pilgrims with solid certainties and big dreams, because we are aware of the history that precedes them and of the bright sun that generated the progress of their personal and community existence, the sun of the Resurrection! Walking in procession is in fact the liturgical sign of this great truth: we know where we come from, we know where we are going and consequently we know how to inhabit the earth and the time in which the Lord has placed us because we have a compass that allows us to do so, the Gospel! And when discouragement grips us, we also know that keeping our gaze fixed on Christ lifts us up, and looking at the testimony of those who followed him to the end strengthens us, renewing our enthusiasm in that dream of which the blood of the Bishop and Martyr Gennaro is sign! Let us never forget: this blood is the sign of a dream of salvation, of hope, of trust; it is not an oracle to be consulted but a compass to follow because it is always well oriented towards Christ, the origin and goal of our journey, of our history, of the history of the world!
Brothers and sisters, today the Lord speaks to our heart and to the heart of our church, telling us how his love and our joy represent an indissoluble union, to the point that in the believer if there is one there is also the other, almost as if joy confirmed - as a spontaneous and visible fruit - the acceptance of love, the germination of the Word in existence, becoming in some way a seal of guarantee, an authentic assurance of discipleship. Many times we run the risk of forgetting it and dressing our faith in sad clothes and dark clothes, depriving it of those bright colors and those joyful scents that directly refer to the Easter garden, to the time and place in which Christian joy arose like a sun without setting. The reason for our joy lies in fact in the gift of free and total love that God gives us, in a mysterious and fascinating circularity, through our relationship with the Risen Christ, by whom we are loved infinitely. “As the Father has loved me, I too have loved you…remain in my love”: it is as if Jesus wanted to say that the love received from the Father he did not keep for himself, he did not make it a jealous treasure but he shared totally, up to the gift of his life, also showing plastically what it means to love: giving of oneself, serving, washing each other's feet, competing in mutual service and giving! Jesus showed this clearly in chapter 13 of this same Gospel, bending over the disciples, wearing the sacred vestment of the apron, grabbing the jug and the basin, washing their feet and asking them to do the same. Dearest Sisters and Brothers, our acceptance of God's love is real, credible and authentic only when it generates dynamics of service towards others, words and actions of giving and sharing towards those that life places on our path. The only command he left us as a synthesis of every other indication, advice, commandment is in fact this, "love one another as I have loved you". This is and will always be his only and primary commandment!
If it is history that the story of his martyrdom fits into the context of Diocletian's persecutions, it is equally true that his singular plot, together with that of his companions, is a story of fraternal solidarity and generous love. The hagiographic sources and the acts of Bishop Gennaro's martyrdom tell us how he, without any fear, put the good of his brothers before his own safety, visiting a brother imprisoned because of his faith in Christ! His desire to comfort him, his bold solidarity, his not looking the other way, sharing friendship and common faith to the end, are the true, authentic, lasting fruit of our Martyr, a fruit that even more than in the prodigy of his blood it is visible in the many miracles of solidarity that in our city, often in discretion and concealment, multiply every day, keeping the community standing, through the most solid welfare there is, that of shared love and free!
Yes brothers and sisters, love is the greatest miracle of our Patron , evangelical solidarity is the true treasure that he has left us as a gift, his ability to abandon even his own safety to help his brother prisoner of evil and pain is his most precious prodigy!
Pray for us martyr Gennaro and invoke upon us the gift of the Holy Spirit so that, enlightened by your example, we learn with concrete and courageous choices to leave our habits, our comfortable beliefs, our safe enclosures to announce the Word and share the fate of those who groan in today's many prisons, infecting the imprisoned lives with the freedom of the Gospel! Perhaps the first prison to visit with you is precisely ours, the one in which as a church we often build ourselves with our self-referential attitudes, with our talking to each other, with our transformation of normal and precious differences into insurmountable obstacles on the path of communion and of unity.
Bishop Gennaro, help us to walk along the paths of time and history, with our gaze fixed on the Lord you loved and served, and with our feet always ready to reach our brothers and sisters who find themselves in physical, internal and social prisons. Just like you, who regardless of danger and persecution for the love of God and your brothers were not afraid to set out and risk your life to break the bread of the restorative Word to your brothers who were prisoners due to the Gospel and the violence of men.
And finally, Witness with fruitful blood, pray with us, and help us to pray without ever tiring so that innocent blood will never flow again in this city of yours, so that our Europe, the Holy Land, and throughout the world, fratricidal conflicts may cease, the actions of war, the terrorist operations, and the Sun of Peace, the one that pushed you to give your life and which you now contemplate eternally, spread every cloud of violence, dry every tear of pain, disarm with forgiveness every desire for vendetta! Yes, may the testimony of your blood reach us in the prisons of our resigned minds and our hardened hearts and reawaken everyone's soul to the certainty that love always wins and that they will be the words of good, of beauty, of goodness to write the ending of the story!
Amen!
Source: https://www.chiesadinapoli.it/processione-del-santo-patrono-e-martire-gennaro-9/ and NapoliToday.it
Comments