Januarius

Januarius (/ˌdʒæn.juˈɛəriəs/ JAN-yoo-AIR-ee-əs; Latin: Ianuarius; Neapolitan and Italian: Gennaro), also known as Januarius I of Benevento, was Bishop of Benevento and is a martyr and saint of the Catholic Church. While no contemporary sources on his life are preserved, later sources and legends say he died during the Great Persecution, which ended with Diocletian's retirement in 305.

Januarius is the patron saint of Naples, where the faithful gather three times a year in Naples Cathedral to witness the liquefaction of what is claimed to be a sample of his blood kept in a sealed ampoule.

Little is known of Januarius's life. What follows mostly derives from later Christian sources, such as the Acta Bononensia (BHL 4132, not earlier than 6th century) and the Acta Vaticana (BHL 4115, 9th century), and later folk traditions.

According to various hagiographies, Januarius was born in Benevento to a rich patrician family that traced its descent to the Caudini tribe of the Samnites. At age 15, he became local priest of his parish in Benevento, which at the time had only a small Christian community. When Januarius was 20, he became Bishop of Naples and befriended Juliana of Nicomedia and Sossius, whom he met during his studies for the priesthood. During Emperor Diocletian's 1+1⁄2-year-long persecution of Christians, Januarius hid some of his fellow Christians and prevented them from being caught. But while visiting Sossius in jail, he too was arrested. He and his colleagues were condemned to be thrown to wild bears in the Flavian Amphitheater at Pozzuoli, but the sentence was changed due to fear of public disturbance, and they were instead beheaded at the Solfatara crater near Pozzuoli. Other legends say either that the wild beasts refused to eat him or that he was thrown into a furnace but came out unscathed.

The earliest historical reference to Januarius is in a letter by Uranius, bishop of Nola, dated 432, on the death of his mentor Paulinus of Nola. The letter says the ghosts of Januarius and Martin of Tours appeared to Paulinus three days before his death in 431. Of Januarius, the letter says only that he was "bishop as well as martyr, an illustrious member of the Neapolitan church". The Acta Bononensia says, "At Pozzuoli in Campania [is honored the memory] of the holy martyrs Januarius, Bishop of Beneventum, Festus his deacon, and Desiderius lector, together with Sossius deacon of the church of Misenum, Proculus, deacon of Pozzuoli, Eutyches, and Acutius, who after chains and imprisonment were beheaded under the emperor Diocletian".

The Feast of San Gennaro is celebrated on 19 September in the General Roman Calendar of the Catholic Church. In the Eastern Church, it is celebrated on 21 April. The city of Naples has more than 50 official patron saints, but its principal patron is Saint Januarius.

In the United States, the Feast of San Gennaro is also a highlight of the year for New York's Little Italy, with the saint's polychrome statue carried through the middle of a street fair stretching for blocks.

According to an early hagiography, Januarius's relics were transferred by order of Severus, Bishop of Naples, to the Neapolitan catacombs "outside the walls" (extra moenia). In the early ninth century the body was moved to Beneventum by Sico, prince of Benevento, with the head remaining in Naples. Subsequently, during the turmoil at the time of Frederick Barbarossa, his body was moved again, to the Territorial Abbey of Montevergine, where it was rediscovered in 1480.