San Gennaro’s blood has not melted. The abbot: “Stand solid”

Today is the day. December 16th. The date on which the liquefaction of the blood of San Gennaro is expected. But the ‘miracle’ was not renewed. According to tradition, this is the last of the three dates (the others are the first Sunday in May and September 19) when the blood melts but the abbot of the Chapel of San Gennaro of the Cathedral of Naples, Monsignor Vincenzo De Gregorio, was very clear and at the end of the morning mass, at 9 o’clock, he said: “When we took out the case from the safe – explained the abbot – the blood was absolutely solid and remains absolutely solid“. The liquefaction occurs from 1389, the year in which the ‘miracle’ was first witnessed. But what happened in the past when the blood stayed solid? In September 1939 World War II broke out, in 1943 it was the turn of the Nazi occupation. Again, in 1973 the cholera epidemic occurred, while in 1980 the dramatic Irpinia earthquake. In short, the lack of liquefaction is considered bringer of dire events. There is time until tonight. The locket will be returned to the Chapel at 12 o’clock to resume again at 4.30 p.m..

Mass will be celebrated at 6.30 pm., and that is when the faithful will know if the so-called “secular miracle“It is so called because it takes place in the Chapel of San Gennaro, managed by the Diputación de San Gennaro, a secular institution founded on January 13, 1527 by vote of the city and presided over by the mayor of Naples. This year, however, the celebrations take place at the main altar of the Cathedral to ensure the necessary distancing provided by anti-Covid regulations, difficult to guarantee inside the chapel, which has smaller dimensions.