St. Januarius is the patron of Naples, which is why he is important to us Neapolitans. But he is especially important to New York City Neapolitan-Americans. Update: Jeff Miller has a picture of Pope Benedict viewing San Gennaro’s blood which…
At Holy Rosary in Portland on the feast of St. Januarius, the celebrant, who identified himself as a Neapolitan gave us an entire homily on the blood of St. Januarius and the typical events surrounding its liquifaction. He emphatically distanced himself from belief in this phenomenon by referring to it as the “supposed miracle” and by calling the veneration and public piety surrounding it “tribal religion,” a phrase he also ascribed to Mexican devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe, and similar devotion of Cubans to Our Lady of Coimbra, etc. Of course, he said rightly that it is not on the same level as Church dogma, does not demand belief.
Seated in the congregation was the entire school body of Ecce Veritas, who being in their formative, questioning years may well have asked father, were it possible, “So then, the archbishop of Napoli, the Bishop of Rome, and priests, bishops and popes down the centuries have been complicit in a fraud, right?” What is the likely end result of this natural line of questionng initiated by this irrelevant homily except very possibly the eventual total loss of faith in his young hearers?
This priest, who evidently has an advanced degree in liturgy from Berkley, did not feel obligated to preach a homily on the readings of the day nor to refrain from subjecting us to his very personal ironical view of a very well attested ongoing miracle in the church. Evidently his Neapolitan backround gives him sufficient license.
It is safe to say that St. Januarius’ blood was not the only blood boiling that day!
Even if the blood of Saint Januarius were a fake (and I believe it is), the ceremony could still hold symbolic significance. A healthy fascination with myth and nonrational tradition has its value, even its spiritual value.
I think it’s clearly a fake. Saint Januarius died in the fourth century, and this supposed phial of his blood doesn’t appear ’till about 1000 years after the fact, and EVEN THEN there’s been a whole lot of inconsistencies in how this miracle “works”. Not only that, but keep in mind that Naples has several of these phials of saints’ blod which supposedly boil over, among them that of Saint John the Baptist.
I put this “relic” in the same class with others that I’ve seen, like a piece of clothing which supposedly belonged to Our Lady, samples of her brestmilk, Oh and don’t get me started on the medieval devotion to Our Lord’s preserved foreskin!
Not to mention the fact that SEVERAL European churches claim to have the heads of John the Baptist!
There simply is no serious historical pedigree for so many of the supposed relics of the early martyrs, and many which are still preserved are leftover fakes from the Middle Ages. Anyone who knows a little of their history knows how these abounded in that time period.
Hey, wouldn’t be the firt time our clergy were complicit in fraud. Call to mind, just recently, the sex abuse scandal, which was enabled and perpetrated by untold hundreds of priests and bishops, not to mention at least two Popes.
This isn’t exactly on the same level, I’m just saying. At best the Popes have no idea where these “relics” have come from, and they’re not going to scandalized the wallets of the faithful by “myth busting” ancient preservations such as these.
5 comments
Das Pope…Rome Silent, Rome Deep…etc.
The Barque of St.Peter is being steered by Papa’s good hands.
Happy Festa di San Gennaro!
St. Januarius is the patron of Naples, which is why he is important to us Neapolitans. But he is especially important to New York City Neapolitan-Americans. Update: Jeff Miller has a picture of Pope Benedict viewing San Gennaro’s blood which…
At Holy Rosary in Portland on the feast of St. Januarius, the celebrant, who identified himself as a Neapolitan gave us an entire homily on the blood of St. Januarius and the typical events surrounding its liquifaction. He emphatically distanced himself from belief in this phenomenon by referring to it as the “supposed miracle” and by calling the veneration and public piety surrounding it “tribal religion,” a phrase he also ascribed to Mexican devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe, and similar devotion of Cubans to Our Lady of Coimbra, etc. Of course, he said rightly that it is not on the same level as Church dogma, does not demand belief.
Seated in the congregation was the entire school body of Ecce Veritas, who being in their formative, questioning years may well have asked father, were it possible, “So then, the archbishop of Napoli, the Bishop of Rome, and priests, bishops and popes down the centuries have been complicit in a fraud, right?” What is the likely end result of this natural line of questionng initiated by this irrelevant homily except very possibly the eventual total loss of faith in his young hearers?
This priest, who evidently has an advanced degree in liturgy from Berkley, did not feel obligated to preach a homily on the readings of the day nor to refrain from subjecting us to his very personal ironical view of a very well attested ongoing miracle in the church. Evidently his Neapolitan backround gives him sufficient license.
It is safe to say that St. Januarius’ blood was not the only blood boiling that day!
Even if the blood of Saint Januarius were a fake (and I believe it is), the ceremony could still hold symbolic significance. A healthy fascination with myth and nonrational tradition has its value, even its spiritual value.
I think it’s clearly a fake. Saint Januarius died in the fourth century, and this supposed phial of his blood doesn’t appear ’till about 1000 years after the fact, and EVEN THEN there’s been a whole lot of inconsistencies in how this miracle “works”. Not only that, but keep in mind that Naples has several of these phials of saints’ blod which supposedly boil over, among them that of Saint John the Baptist.
I put this “relic” in the same class with others that I’ve seen, like a piece of clothing which supposedly belonged to Our Lady, samples of her brestmilk, Oh and don’t get me started on the medieval devotion to Our Lord’s preserved foreskin!
Not to mention the fact that SEVERAL European churches claim to have the heads of John the Baptist!
There simply is no serious historical pedigree for so many of the supposed relics of the early martyrs, and many which are still preserved are leftover fakes from the Middle Ages. Anyone who knows a little of their history knows how these abounded in that time period.
Hey, wouldn’t be the firt time our clergy were complicit in fraud. Call to mind, just recently, the sex abuse scandal, which was enabled and perpetrated by untold hundreds of priests and bishops, not to mention at least two Popes.
This isn’t exactly on the same level, I’m just saying. At best the Popes have no idea where these “relics” have come from, and they’re not going to scandalized the wallets of the faithful by “myth busting” ancient preservations such as these.