medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (19. September) is the feast day of:
Januarius, venerated especially at Naples (d. 305, supposedly).
Today's well known saint of the Regno appears in the (pseudo-)
Hieronymian Martyrology under this day as follows: _et Neapoli
sanctorum Ianuari et Angi._ ('and at Naples, of saints Januarius and
Angi.'). Who 'Angi.' may have been is unknown. Neapolitan veneration
of J. is is at least as old as the fifth century. A letter of ca. 432
narrating the death of St. Paulinus of Nola has two saints appear to
him on his deathbed: Martin and J., the latter described as a martyr
bishop who illumines the church of Naples. Here's J. in a fifth-
century wall painting in what are now that city's Catacombs of San
Gennaro:
http://www.aissca.it/aissca/immagini/SanGenn1ImageMosaic2.jpg
Detail:
http://www.aissca.it/aissca/immagini/SanGenn1particolare.jpg
Here he is again in a sixth-century wall painting from the same
catacombs:
http://www.aissca.it/aissca/immagini/SanGenn2ImageParticolare.jpg
A J. not further identified geographically is listed for today in the
early sixth-century Calendar of Carthage as well as in numerous
liturgical sources from the seventh century onward. By the late
seventh century today's J. was identified with the J. of Benevento
listed for 7. September in the (ps.-)HM along with Sts. Festus,
Acutius, and Desiderius, all of whom are his companions in martyrdom in
the legend that makes him a bishop of Benevento martyred at the
Solfatara in Campanian's Phlegraean Fields near Pozzuoli during the
Great Persecution and whose remains were afterwards translated to
Naples. By this time, too, a martyr's church had been erected on what
in the legend is said to have been their place of execution. An altar
from that church is preserved in its modern successor, San Gennaro alla
Solfatara.
During a Lombard raid on Naples in the early ninth century, J.'s
presumed remains were taken from their resting place in the Neapolitan
catacombs whither, according to the roughtly contemporary early portion
of Naples' episcopal chronicle, they had been brought by bishop John I
(d. 432). "Repatriated" to Benevento, they spent the early Middle Ages
there and most of the later Middle Ages at the abbey of Montevergine
near today's Mercogliano (AV), also in Campania. In 1497 they were
returned to Naples and deposited in the cathedral of Santa Maria
Assunta. By this point, though, Neapolitans had for centuries consoled
themselves with other relics of J. that supposedly had remained in the
city all along: a portion of skull housed in a head reliquary of silver
donated by king Charles II in 1305 and two tiny glass ampules
containing a brownish red substance that liquefies twice a year (today
and again in early May) and that many believe to be some of J.'s blood
preserved from the scene of his martyrdom.
A view of the head reliquary:
http://www.interviu.it/turismo/decumani/duomo17.jpg
In formal attire:
http://www.interviu.it/turismo/decumani/duomo16.jpg
With decorations:
http://utenti.lycos.it/salcon75/images/san_gennaro_1.jpg
Two views of the display container (central portion is of the
fourteenth century) for the ampules:
http://tinyurl.com/7ltl8
http://www.napoligold.com/coast/napoli/soggetto/de32024.htm
That latter view can also be reached from here:
http://www.napoligold.com/coast/napoli/soggetto/gindex_13.htm
And a view of the ampules themselves:
http://www.hotelilconvento.it/info/info_images/ampolla.jpg
In 1322 Lello da Orvieto executed this mosaic (with J. at left and St.
Restituta at right) for the Cappella di Santa Maria del Principio in
the Santa Restituta portion of Naples' cathedral:
http://tinyurl.com/k3hjs
http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/images/conway/b5eba864.html
http://tinyurl.com/kg2b6
The church of San Gennaro alla Solfatara outside of Pozzuoli possesses
a striking, early fourteenth-century marble bust of J. There's a
discussion of it, with a good color photograph (Opere, 2), in Elio de
Rosa, ed., _San Gennaro tra Fede, Arte e Mito. Napoli, Santa Maria di
Donnaregina Nuova Dicembre '97 - Aprile '98_ (Pozzuoli: EdR, 1997), at
pp. 98-99. Some not awfully good views are here:
http://tinyurl.com/8gznl
http://www.ulixes.it/images/S.Gennaro.jpg
Another, showing the colors of the base:
http://www.cyber-net.net/santuario/sgen5.htm
The latter's central panel depicts the two ampules of J.'s supposed
blood.
As this J. (there are of course others) is sometimes thought of as
essentially a regional saint, it may be useful to close with these
views of his eleventh-to-thirteenth-century church in Capannori,
outside of Lucca (the early medieval capital of Tuscany):
http://luccapro.cribecu.sns.it/ENG/pie/pie_s0019/index.asp
http://www.comune.capannori.lu.it/infoturismo/asmpievi7.html
The latter page has an English-language translation at:
http://www.comune.capannori.lu.it/turismo/pievi/SGennaro_en.html
Best,
John Dillon
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