Naples, Italy (Reuters) – Wednesday was not a good day for superstitious Neapolitans.
The blood of San Gennaro, the patron saint of Naples, could not be liquefied despite two rounds of prayer from the faithful, which some in the city of southern Italy consider a harbinger of the bad things to come.
A bottle containing the dried blood of the 4th century martyr is put on public display three times a year in the city’s cathedral and the faithful pray for its liquefaction, known as the “Miracle of San Gennaro.”
It didn’t happen Wednesday despite the hours of praying in the morning and a special Mass in the afternoon. Due to coronavirus restrictions, fewer people than normal were allowed to enter the cathedral.
Scientists say the substance inside the closed bottle appears to be dry blood, but they can’t explain why it sometimes becomes liquid and sometimes it doesn’t.
The Neapolitans get especially nervous if the blood is not liquefied on the day of the feast of the saint, September 19, but less the other two days the road is taken out to public veneration, the Saturday before the first Sunday in May and the December 16th.
When the blood did not leak on September 19, 1980, a massive earthquake affected southern Italy two months later and killed more than 3,000 people.
On Wednesday, the city’s cardinal, Crescenzio Sepe, told the faithful not to worry too much. “If something has to melt, it’s people’s hearts,” he said.
Report by Philip Pullella; Edited by Gareth Jones