No “Miracle of St. Januarius” This Year

On December 16, 2016, in the San Gennaro chapel in Naples, the “miracle of St. Januarius” did not happen. The blood contained in the vial remained solid, and this is seen as a “forboding omen”. And it is true that there are many examples from recent history where the blood did not become liquid: in September 1939, a few weeks after the beginning of World War II; in September 1940, when the war hit Italy; in September 1943, date of the Nazi Occupation; in September 1973, before the outbreak of a cholera epidemic in Naples; and in September 1980, one month before the terrible earthquake that hit Irpinia, near Naples, killing nearly 3,000 people.

According to the press agency cath.ch, the abbot of the Chapel of San Gennaro, Monsignor Vincenzo de Gregorio, sought to reassure the faithful, vial in hand: “We must not think of catastrophes and calamities. We are men of faith, and we must continue to pray.”

On December 20, 2016, on the website Reinformation Tv, Anne Dolhein observed:

 

there is no shortage of disasters and war in the modern world, and if there is any real meaning behind the miracle of St. Januarius not happening, it is surely to encourage men to turn to the Prince of Peace, the source of all good, who alone can save men from sin and who alone can offer a solution to the most desperate situations.”

Officially, the liquefaction of St. Januarius’ blood is not considered a miracle, but rather a “prodigious occurrence”. It happens three times a year: on the Saturday before the first Sunday of May, the anniversary of the transfer of the saint’s remains, on September 19, the anniversary of his martyrdom in 305, and on December 16, the anniversary of the eruption of Mont Vesuvius in 1631, that killed 4,000 people but spared the city of Naples.

(Sources: cath.ch/reinformation.tv – DICI#348 Jan. 20, 2017)