Faith Conquers Fear of Swine Flu for Fans of Naples's Patron Saint
www.nytimes.com/2009/09/21/world/europe ... ss&emc=rss
By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO
NAPLES — The scene was familiar on the feast day of the patron saint of Naples, St. Januarius: the packed cathedral; the procession with the saint’s relics, including two glass vials said to contain his clotted blood; the mounting anticipation during the solemn ceremony, culminating in an explosion of applause at the archbishop’s joyful announcement: “I give you the good news, the blood has liquefied.”
But on Saturday a singular announcement colored the annual ritual that has enthralled Neapolitans since the 14th century. “You can kiss the reliquary,” Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, the city’s archbishop, told the excited crowd. “Know that every proper hygienic sanitary precaution has been taken.”
Anxiety over swine flu, which the World Health Organization declared a pandemic in June, has been particularly acute in this southern Italian city. When a 51-year-old man infected with the H1N1 virus died in Naples this month, only a handful of relatives attended the funeral and the pallbearers wore sanitary masks for fear of contagion, Italian newspapers reported.
And two weeks ago, Neapolitan transit workers went on strike, saying they were afraid of catching swine flu from dirty city buses.
Initially, in response to flu worries, local church officials mulled over measures forbidding worshippers from kissing the reliquary containing what they believe is the blood of San Gennaro, as he is known here, a local bishop martyred in 305. But that risked upsetting the followers of this popular saint who Neapolitans believe protects their city.
After some debate, Cardinal Sepe convened a committee of experts to determine the risk of contagiousness from kissing the sealed glass bauble that encases the vials with the substance. One of the few times kissing was forbidden altogether was during a cholera outbreak in 1973.
Last week, the experts approved the devotional practice.
“As long as all the necessary hygienic precautions are taken, there is practically no risk to public health,” said Marcello Piazza, a professor at the University of Naples Federico II, and a member of the committee.
Many hundreds of people in Italy are thought to have been infected by the H1N1 virus, but it has not directly claimed any lives, Professor Piazza said. “More people die of common influenza,” he said. Another death was reported this weekend, of a woman in Messina, in Sicily.
So until next Sunday, when the relics are returned to the fortified safe where they are kept during the year, worshippers in Naples can share a close encounter with their patron saint. After each kiss, a disinfected handkerchief will be passed over the glass of the reliquary, a measure that had already been in practice for years.
“I have faith, if God wants me to get a terrible disease, I’ll get one, blood or no blood,” said Clelia D’Ammanbrosca, a Neapolitan worshipper who had arrived at the cathedral at the crack of dawn to get a spot near the high altar.
Little is known about St. Januarius, believed to have been a Neapolitan bishop and early Christian martyr, whose relics are preserved in an ornate chapel in the Naples Cathedral. The liquefaction of the substance that the faithful believe to be his blood takes place three times a year, in December, May and on Sept. 19, coinciding with his feast day. It was first recorded in 1389.
Theologically, the Vatican has never accepted the liquefaction as an official miracle, preferring to refer to it as an inexplicable phenomenon, said Gennaro Luongo, a professor of hagiography and ancient Christian literature at the University of Naples Federico II. But the Vatican acknowledges the widespread veneration of the saint.
“Since the 15th century, a popular belief holds that if the blood does not liquefy or only partially liquefies it bodes badly for the city,” Professor Luongo said. “People poke fun at this, but predictions are common to many religions. It is part of popular religiosity.”
Over the centuries, many have tried to find scientific explanations for the phenomenon, and Cardinal Sepe has said, according to Italian news reports, that he intends to have the liquid studied.
“I put myself at his disposal,” said Luigi Garlaschelli, a chemist who closely examined the liquid in a previous study concluding that thixotropy, the property of certain gels to liquefy when they are shaken, might be one reasonable explanation. But because the vials are sealed, he was doubtful that any future experiments would be carried out on the substance itself.
But faith, in the case of Saint Januarius, seems to be trumping science.
“Some people have been kissing San Gennaro for years, and if they hadn’t been able to do so this year they might have panicked, immediately thinking of an epidemic, which isn’t the case,” Professor Piazza said. “In the long run, the disadvantages outweighed the advantages of a ban.”