The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1874-06-05
NUMBER ID.
THE BLOOD OF ST. JANUARIUs.

!
The Miracle of NapIes-Vvaitfng for Gem
| narO's Blood to Liquefy.s
San GeDnaro (St. Januarius) is held
! to be the guardian saint of Naples.
| The alleged miracle by which the blood
of this holy person CONTAINED in
closed phial or glass tube) changes from
q solid to liquid state, is well known.
Admitted by special favor, with five or
six others, into the sanctuary of the ca
thedral, and seated within few feet of
the officiating priest, I had an excel
lent opportunity to observe the ceremo-
ny and its effect upon the assembled
thousands who came to await the result.
In the front rank of the audience,
some ten feet from us, were seated
twenty or thirty women, some very old,
the reputed descendants of the saint.
At their head, and evidently chiet of
this favored corps, was a tall, mascu-
line woman, of middle age-a very Meg
Merrilies in appearance with flashing
eye and the bold port of popular
ringleader. Like most mRtrOns in the
rank of small but well-to-do Neapolitan
shopkeepers, her fingers were well Gov
cred with massive silver rings, and her
neck was adorned with a heavy chain
and other ornaments Of the same metal.
This Amazon seemed, for the nonce, to
have assumed the lead in the devotional
exercises of her neighbors.
These, when the priest first held up
the sacred phial with its clotted con
tents, were quiet and reverential ut
tered Ia low tones, but audible where
we sat, Holy GennarOl Save, protect
us Bless the city of Naples and keep
it from plaques and earthquakes and all
other ills. Do this miracle, so we may
see that thy power and thy favor are
still with us. Blessed San GennarO,
pray for us, and so on.
After each installment of prayer there
was an interval OF some ten minutes
then the supplications recommended,
patiently enough for an hour or more,
during which the still refractory blood
was, from time to time, displayed.
Then, gradually, the tone become quer-
ulous, and supplicatiOn changed to re-
monstrance. How long, o holy man
of God how long Art thou resolved
to weary out our patience? Come
quickly Hasten to show thy power -
then usually dropping back into the re-
frain, " Blessed San GennarO, pray for
us !"
When nearly two hours had elapsed,
the patience of this Amazonian leader
L u
toward the end of May, the crowd was
densely packed, and l saw drops of per-
spiratiOn standing on her swarthy fore
head.
"San Gennaro," she exclaimed, "are
you going to keep us here, sweating in
this accursed crowd, all day long
Who's to attend to that little shop of
mine, I wonder, while I'm gone? Do
Won want it to be entered and robbed
You know can't afford to be away from
it all this time" Then, as if the thought
crossed her that she had gone little too
far, q Blessed saint Holy Gennaro
Pray for us"
Half an hour more elapsed, and still,
as the venerated relic was held oD high
before the congregation, the obdurate
blood remained unliqUefed. At the
sight, our dame of the silver chain and
rings, unable longer to stand such
treatment from her canonized ancestor,
broke forth. Pointing her long, lank
finger at the silver gilt burt of the
saint (Which had been brought from his
chapel and set on a pedestal near us),
" FdcciG gialld p she cried. Yellow
face! You It's past all bearing. Have
you no mercy? Hurry up Be about
it Come, set that blood ALLOWING in
Gods name, at once and let rs depart
in peace I"
Her face all afame and the nervous
agitation of her whole person, as she
rose to her feet and tossed her arms ex-
citedly, attested tho vehement reality of
her emotion. Had I been inclined to
laugh, which I was not, l think any
such exhibition of Ievity might have en-
dangered my life, at the hands of that
exasperat ed multitude.
It was some ten minutes after this OBJ
iurgation that the priest, stepping to the
front-this time witha complacent smile
lighting up his face-showed miracle
wrought, and the blood flowing freely
in the tube.
Then there went up from the assem-
bIed thousands such a wild shout of ex-
ultation as one hears only in southern
climes and there only when fear and
expectation, wound up to highest pitch
and endured for hours, burst forth IN
triumphant congratulations at last.
While all this was passing, the priest
who officiated had very politely brought
to us, for Examination, the vessel con-
tanning the blood affording rs salts
factory evidence that it was at first CO.
agulated and that it had 1iqueied at
the cIose.-2OJert Dale OUen's Rem
iniSce2ce8 Of Naples.