Reverend Religious Relics The Blood of St. Januarius

About the Blood of St. Januarius a sacred and reverend religious relic in Church history.

10 REVERED RELIGIOUS RELICS

BLOOD OF ST. JANUARIUS

Bishop of Beneventum during the early 4th century A.D., Januarius suffered martyrdom near Naples (where he is the patron saint), but two small glass vials supposedly preserve some of the saint's blood for the faithful to venerate. On Januarius's feast day, the vials of congealed blood are brought close to relics of the saint's skull, at which time the blood is said to liquefy. If the congealed blood fails to liquefy or does so very slowly, then everyone knows that hard times are close at hand. Thus, the blood of St. Januarius is thought to have predicted a plague in 1527, a famine in 1569, and the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 1944.