As happens for everything that does not directly concern the Depositum Fidei (On par, for example, of the events of Lourdès, Fatima or the question of the Shroud), the Church has never officially pronounced on “miraculous”, the “supernaturality” of what happens in Naples. And it usually occurs in three anniversaries: first of all on September 19th but also on the first Sunday of May and 16 December (on this last date, the phenomenon is often missing, while it occurred on occasions of particular events or visits to illustrious characters).
There is therefore the possibility that even a Catholic who intends to remain such as the “supernaturality” of what happens around that mysterious blood. But this denial should first of all take into account the imposing moral consensus consisting of favorable declarations of a long series of popes, cardinals, bishops as well as by sensus fidei of those “little ones” and “poor” privileged by the Gospel. Furthermore, on the Neglator he would affect the obligation – as with any other complex case and open to mystery – to document himself with respect and seriousness. He should then realize the person of the “prodigal”: it is a possibility given to anyone. Indeed, even recently Cardinal Ursi urged scholars to every possible investigation, provided that the integrity of the delicate relic is guaranteed.
The scientific exams have so far been blocked by the fact that the two ampoules are sealed with a very hard mastic that prevents them from opening without breaking it. Some scholar hypothesizes the opening of a very small hole with a diamond pointed drill (or with a laser) to extract a drop of the substance when it is dissolved and thus subject it to analysis. However, the risk of causing the breakdown of containers that, according to recent investigations, have about fifteen centuries of life remains. However, that the content is undoubtedly blood, was demonstrated by the spectrographic analysis performed by professors of the University of Naples.
But also without further investigations, It is certain that the “miracle” of San Gennaro constitutes a unicum (there is news of other Sangui from the anomalous behavior – in Naples itself, for example, that of Santa Patrizia -ma have different characteristics) who challenges the fundamental laws of physics.
“We are faced with,” writes a biologist. “To a solid, sealed, centuries -old substance, which irrefutablely liquefies, canal of color, volume, weight, viscosity in front of our eyes, in winter or in summer, with the cold or heat, with the crowd or with few people, with fixed dates or variables, for eight days in a row, now remaining liquid, now semi -liquid, now pasty, now semi -sesolid. Or you don’t liquefy at all ».
All the “natural” explanations proposed over the centuries have not been able to give any convincing interpretation. And all attempts to reproduce the phenomenon artificially failed. The variation of volume is impressive (sometimes the blood seems to “swell” by filling the whole container, other times it occupies a much less space) and inexplicable: no substance passing from the solid state to the liquid state can take on always different conditions. The color also changes from time to time, from the bright red to the dark to the yellowish one: here too we are faced with an enigma. Even the weight seems to vary, but an exact measure is difficult since you are forced to weigh the ampoule with the display case to which it adheres so far not separable.
Another aspect that completely escapes the laws of physics is the remarkable variation of the time taken in the transition from solid to the fluid state: now instantaneous, now after a few minutes or now or day. Sometimes solidification is so sudden that the blood remains diagonally.
The many who would like to hurry up of the “San Gennaro” phenomenon by simply saying that it obeys some natural cause that we do not know now but that we will discover in the future, must deal with a precise reality: the musical phenomenon against all the fundamental laws of physics that are already well known to us. More than to postpone, therefore, to a hypothetical future, we must deal with a present that contradicts all our knowledge.
“No natural cause can apply here”
Among the various explanations, the temperature has been resorted to, based also on the fact that until recent times a candle to the ampoules was approaching to see if the dissolution had already happened. But for years the candles have been abolished and a stack has been used. Furthermore (and it is decisive observation), as can also see every cook in the kitchen, with heat the blood does not melt but on the contrary it hardens! The phenomenon, however, occurs both in summer and in winter, while in the chapel the temperature varies from 5-6 degrees to 30-52.
Another attempt at explanation (often degenerated in parapsychological, median or spiritual hypotheses) is that which refers to the psychic tension of the crowd that would convey energy on the blood. Here too, however, they must deal with reality: the blood has often dissolved even in the presence of a few people or has already been found fluid to the opening of the safe. On the contrary, the blood remained stubbornly solid even after days and days of invocations, of maximum psychic tension by the crowd that crowded the cathedral: It happened, for example, in May 1976 for all eight days of exposure to the faithful, despite the multiplication of the fervor.
Others hypothesized that a substance has been put in ampoules, of which the formula would have been lost, perhaps of alchemical origin, which would ensure the repetition of the phenomenon. But, as they said, the spectrographic analysis has shown that it is blood and not anything else. And the hypothesis of any “addition” (which would have occurred in medieval times) of some substance to blood must deal with the fact that archaeological research has shown antiquity both for ampoules and their impenetrable closure system.
In any case, the very blood existence of this blood is inexplicable: if the law of nature was respected, the blood for great time would have had to put it and then become dust. As a recent scholar summarized, Professar Gastone Lambertini, after years of research: «A fact is certain: nothing holds, everything falls Faced with this phenomenon of which only the believer can explain in the momentum of his faith. The law of energy conservation, the principles that govern the geling and solution of colloids, the theories of aging of the same organic colloids, the biological experiments on blood coagulation: all this shows us how the substance venerated for many centuries challenges every law of nature and any explanation that does not refer to the supernatural “. This, adds the scholar, «is a clot who lives and breathing “: not therefore, some “alienating devotion” but a sign of eternal life and resurrection.
While the phenomena that concern blood ampoules not only seem to hold to any modern criticism (indeed, the enigma increases with the growth of our knowledge), instead he poses problems of authenticity what would have happened to Pozzuoli, in the church dedicated to San Gennaro and now officiated by the Capuchins. Here, in a compartment in the wall, there is a block of marble that the tradition indicates that the “stone” on which San Gennaro would have been beheaded. On the block there are some rust red spots, together with many wax incrustations, produced by the drummaker of the candles of the devotees. However, it was said (starting only from the ‘700) of blood stains that would revive simultaneously with the liquefaction of the blood that occurs in the Cathedral of Naples.
Accurate historical and archaeological studies carried out by Ennio Moscarella, however, would have shown that the “stone” is a rear early Christian altar of perhaps two centuries at the martyrdom of the saint and that the alleged traces of blood would be only the remains of a painted figure. The “reviving” of the patches would therefore be an optical illusion also helped by the wax layer. However, fraud would be excluded: Those who had wanted to fray would have painted bloodstains, fingerprints, drops.
In addition, Moscarella’s studies, while doubting the authenticity of the late tradition of “reviving”, have made it possible to reconfirm the antiquity of the cult to Gennaro. A reconfirmation that came, in a suggestive and sensational way, also from the passionate and competent work of Don Nicola Ciavolino who, under the direction of his father Umberto Fasola, has been working to reopen and study (with exceptional results) for over ten years the catacomb that took the name from Gennaro.
