St. Januarius’ blood liquefies for third time in 2021

CNA Staff   By CNA Staff

December 16, 2021 Catholic News Agency News Briefs 0 Print

 

The reliquary of St. Januarius at Mass in Naples Cathedral, Italy, Dec. 16, 2021. | Screenshot from canale21.it.

Naples, Italy, Dec 16, 2021 / 11:55 am

The blood of St. Januarius liquefied on Thursday after a day of intense prayer in the Italian city of Naples.

The newspaper Il Messaggero reported that the miracle took place on the evening of Dec. 16.

It quoted the Museum of the Treasure of San Gennaro as saying: “After an entire day of prayers and the constant intonation of the ancient song of the ‘relatives’ of St. Januarius, who since this morning have invoked the dissolution of the solid blood clot, the miracle of St. Januarius took place at 5:59 p.m. today.”

The museum confirmed the news in a post on its Facebook page.

During the miracle, the dried, red-colored mass confined to one side of a reliquary becomes blood that covers the entire glass. In local lore, the failure of the blood to liquefy signals war, famine, disease, or other disaster.

The reputed miracle is locally known and accepted, though it is yet to receive official Church recognition.

The liquefaction traditionally happens at least three times a year: Sept. 19, the saint’s feast day, the first Saturday of May, and Dec. 16, the anniversary of the 1631 eruption of nearby Mount Vesuvius.

The third-century bishop’s blood, contained in a circular sealed vial, liquefied in both May and September this year, but did not change its state in December 2020.

The reliquary of St. Januarius is held by the celebrant at Mass in Naples Cathedral, Italy, Dec. 16, 2021. Screenshot from canale21.it.
The reliquary of St. Januarius is held by the celebrant at Mass in Naples Cathedral, Italy, Dec. 16, 2021. Screenshot from canale21.it.

The blood of St. Januarius, patron of Naples, had remained solid on Thursday morning.

Msgr. Vincenzo de Gregorio, abbot of the Royal Chapel of the San Gennaro Treasure, opened a safe containing the reliquary at 9 a.m. local time on Dec. 16, according to local media.

The reliquary was displayed in the sanctuary of the Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary during morning Mass.

At the end of the Mass, the blood was checked for a second time but remained solid.

The bones and blood of St. Januarius — San Gennaro in Italian — are preserved as relics in Naples Cathedral.

The bishop of the southern Italian city is believed to have been martyred during Diocletian persecution.

Dec. 16 marks the anniversary of Naples’ preservation from the 1631 eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Locals credited the saint with saving them.

According to an Italian journalist, it is unusual for the miracle to take place on Dec. 16. The blood has liquefied most often on St. Januarius’ feast day of Sept. 19, and on the Saturday before the first Sunday of May.

Vatican journalist Francesco Antonio Grana told CNA last year that the liquefaction “almost never” happens on Dec. 16 and that in the last 34 years the number of times it has happened “can be counted on one hand.”

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Irish diocese to rely on laity to preside over funerals amid shortage of priests

December 19, 2023 Catholic News Agency 1
St. Macartan’s Cathedral in the Diocese of Clogher, in Northern Ireland. Laypeople will soon preside over funerals in 12 parishes in the diocese due to a shortage of priests. / Credit: JohnArmagh|Wikipedia|CC BY-SA 3.0

CNA Staff, Dec 19, 2023 / 13:30 pm (CNA).

More than 40 laymen and laywomen in the Diocese of Clogher in the north of Ireland will soon begin presiding over funeral liturgies amid a shortage of priests.

A major vocation crisis could result in fewer than 10 active priests in the diocese in less than 20 years, according to the local ordinary, Bishop Larry Duffy.

“Over the past few months, over 40 people from 12 parishes across the diocese have taken part in a formation course to enable them to accompany people and families at the time of bereavement,” Duffy, bishop of Clogher, announced in a Christmas pastoral letter Dec. 16.

Other parishes have indicated a “willingness” to nominate people for a similar course in the spring, he wrote. 

In the letter, he said that the lay ministers would lead the “liturgy of reception of the body at the church and the Rite of Committal at the graveside.”

Duffy said the lay ministers will continue to be trained over the “coming months” and be commissioned to preside over funerals in their parishes. “We are very grateful to all those who have come forward for the formation and training and to the priests of those parishes for their involvement,” he said. Duffy asked for prayer for the new ministers. 

He said that the ministers will be “commissioned publicly to act in the name of the Church” and added that “this is not a lessening of service to families and loved ones at the time of a death but, rather, a strengthening of the local parish commitment to accompany people at such a difficult and sensitive time.”

Duffy announced in a July pastoral letter that the northern Irish diocese has a severe shortage of priests and will be ordaining just one priest in the next seven years. By CNA’s count, the diocese has 72 priests and deacons covering about 40 parishes and 85 churches.

“The figures given to us indicate that if we continue as we are, in less than 20 years there will be fewer than 10 priests covering the 85 churches across the whole diocese — from Bundoran on the Atlantic to Inniskeen and Killanny near Dundalk,” he said.

A shortage of priests

“The truth is that we cannot continue to operate and provide pastoral ministry across our diocese in the same way as we do now or as we did in the past,” Duffy said in July. He said that there would be fewer Masses as a result of the lack of priests.

Duffy said that the diocese is “far too dependent” on priests for pastoral care, administration, property maintenance, planning, and parish governance.

The “well-being” of clergy needs to be a “priority area for immediate attention,” he said.

“We need to move from a model that is clergy-dependent and based almost solely on sacramental provision to one that is broader in terms of recognizing, utilizing, and honoring the vocation and varied gifts of all the baptized and which will, over time, allow for really effective and meaningful co-responsibility in the Church’s mission,” he said.

In 2021, a survey by the Association of Catholic Priests found that only about 30% of Catholics in Ireland attend Mass weekly — a significant drop from 91% in 1975.

In 2022, a survey from the Irish organization Association of Catholic Priests found that 2,116 priests serve the nation’s 26 dioceses, which consists of more than 2,650 churches or “Mass Centers,” according to the Irish Times.

That survey also found that almost 15% of priests are over the age of 75 and “still working,” while more than a quarter are between the ages of 60 and 75, the outlet reported. That survey found that only 52 priests in the country were under 40 years old, and 464 priests were between the ages of 40 and 60.

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