Blood of St Januarius Liquefies During Francis’s Visit to Naples

The Catholic Herald (UK) ^ | 3/21/15 | Staff Reporter

[marshmallow]

The blood last liquefied in a pope's presence in 1848

The blood of St Januarius liquefied in the presence of a pope for the first time since 1848 on Saturday.

The blood of the patron saint of Naples, which is normally solid, partially liquefied after Pope Francis kissed the relic during his day trip to the southern Italian city.

According to AFP, Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe of Naples showed the vial to the congregation in the city’s cathedral, saying: “The blood has half liquefied, which shows that St Januarius loves our Pope and Naples.”

[Mrs. Don-o]

Nonsense. What this shows, probably on my part as well as yours, is a certain intellectual laziness in not mastering the vocabulary. This is not "empty" philosophy, no more than learning the specialized vocabulary of the physical sciences is "empty philosophy."

It's a matter of knowing the concrete meaning of words.

In any case, it's pretty obvious, even to people quite innocent of the abstractions of Scholasticism, that Christ's Eucharistic Body, while it is His Body, is not merely a physiological body; just as Christ's Resurrected and Glorified Body, while it is His Body, is not merely a physiological body.

And they are the same.

That might be the most fruitful way to explain it. Christ's Resurrected Body transcends the physical laws of time, space, matter and energy. He walks through locked doors. He appears, and disappears. He levitates in the air. He could be two places at once. He could be a million places at once. And His Resurrected Body is brilliant, just as ours will be at our own Resurrection: Matthew 13:43 - “The just shall shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”

A Body which could be in a million places and still be one Body, is in fact present under the appearance of a million consecrated hosts, and is still one Body.

You may not believe it, but it's not unthinkable.

Say that Christ weighed 175 pounds. Yet He could rise up to the clouds as if He had no weight at all. He could appear to Saul on the road to Damascus, perceived as a flashing light from heaven and a Voice. Was the resurrected Christ, really and substantially Christ?

Real: but no merely physiological. Do you see?

[Iscool]

An example of a "tradition of men" would be Luther's doctrine of Sola Scriptura, which isn't found in the Bible.

Of course it's found in the scriptures...Seems a wise man would recognize that the people who put little faith in and do not actually study the bible take your position; while those who pour thru the bible day after day, week after week, KNOW that scripture alone is of the bible???

Classical Greek philosophy would not be a good example of a bad human tradition, since the great Greek philosophers served truth, i.e., they served Jesus, implicitly.

Now there's a great philosophy...

In other words, they have gotten a very few things right, luckily...They however did not know Jesus...They did not know truth...

The Greeks had reasoned to the existence of God, but were ignorant of Christ, through no fault of their own. Then Paul preached Christ to them.

St. Paul believed that the Greeks were worshipping the One, True God, albeit with imperfect knowledge.

No he didn't...He found one obscure god amongst the many gods they had that adorned the place which has been labled as the unknown god...They did not all worship this god and maybe none of them did...It could have been from times past...

Every man is a philosopher, either good or bad. One cannot remain philosophically neutral.

HaHaHa...What philosopher taught you that???

Yours is a bad attempt to discount plain scripture and justify what Jesus taught against...

[Iscool]

Iscool, her's your problem. You are interpreting "real" and "substantial" as meaning "physiological," as if a consecrated Host would be expected to flex its biceps, wink at you, scratch its ears, etc..

I never even implied the flesh was physiological (functioning as a living organism)...Are we playing on what words like physiological mean???

I know what real means to the world and to those who write dictionaries...Does the Catholic religion have its own private interpretation what real means??? I have a feeling that would come as a shock to most Catholics that the flesh is not real flesh as we understand real...

But don't try to send me on a Catholic goose chase...If real flesh doesn't mean real flesh in Catholic circles, then why don't you explain to me and other uneducated Catholics what it does mean, to the Catholic religon...I'm sure they'd like to know as well...

So the host turns into the real flesh of Jesus, but not the real, real flesh of Jesus...Now that's a new one for me...

[mlizzy]

A Pox on the lot of you. It is enough to swear one off Christianity altogether. Thank God my relationship is with Christ and not with a bunch of backstabbing Christians, because many of you disgust me.

And this is Lent, believe it or not. I'm with you. :)

[Iscool]

*The Flesh is real Flesh. The Blood is real Blood.
*The Flesh and the Blood belong to the human species.

What type of Flesh and Blood was it? In 1970 the Holy See ordered a through scientific investigation using spectroscopic analysis, high powered microscopes and advanced medical technology. The most illustrious scientist, Professor Odoardo Linoli, eminent professor in anatomy and pathological and clinical microscopy, headed the investigation and was assisted by Professor Ruggero Bertellie of the University of Sienna. The investigation showed the Host had turned into flesh, into a fine slice of a human heart, and was incorrupt, as though it had just been taken form a heart.

And in which case, it had to have had DNA...

You'd better take that up with Mrs. Dono...Yours appears to be a 'lower level' explanation of what the real flesh is...

[vladimir998]

“That would be over 50 per day for 50 years...He must have baptizing with both hands at the same time, and occasionally a foot thrown in...I think that can be filed under ‘mythology’...”

I don’t know how many people Peter of Ghent baptized, but I know there are parishes in Africa that have 5,000 baptisms - these are documented, registered, baptisms - a year.

If Peter of Ghent was responsible for several parishes, or densely populated area, he might very well have baptized tens of thousands of people every year for however many years.

“Peter of Ghent ranks as one of the greatest figures in the early missionary effort in Mexico. He arrived in 1523 only two years after the fall of the Aztec empire. Very quickly he set about Christianizing the Indians. Many consider him the father of Mexican education since he established one of the first schools in the New World at Texcoco. He later helped to found the famous Colegio de Tlatelolco in Mexico City for the education and training of the sons of the Indian chiefs.” http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/etexts/nahuatl/

I just looked him up and Peter arrived in 1523 and lived until 1572. Forty-nine years among the Mexicans would afford plenty of opportunities:

“Peter of Ghent, writing from Mexico in 1529, states that another priest and himself had baptized in the province of Mexico more than 200,000 persons; and often eight, and sometimes even ten or fourteen, thousand in a day. Ternaur. Voyages, etc.” (Despatches ... Addressed to the Emperor Charles V. Written During the ...By Hernán Cortés, page 2)

If he did baptize (with the priest) baptize 200,000 people in six years, I could see where he would have been able to baptize 1,000,000 in 49 years.

“It is told of the second bishop and first archbishop, Father Alonso de Montufar, of the Order of St. Dominic, that he said one day, ‘I am not the Archbishop of Mexico, but brother Peter of Ghent is.’ This servant of God was much tempted by the Evil One to leave his fruitful ministry and return to his native country, which was Flanders. By the help of God he freed himself from this importunate temptation.”—Alonso Fernandez, Historia Ecksidstua, lib. t, cap. 13.

[FatherofFive]

Under the right conditions and a few chemicals it can be done....

In a sealed container, year after year, on the same day???? If you can pull that off, you have a new career and a fortune.

[stonehouse01]

“half-pope”

Or the real Pope is still Benedict - there are two Popes alive and one is counterfeit = 1/2.

I don’t think I actually think the above, but felt the need to at least put it out there.

I am not a huge fan of this Pope but do consider him authentic.

Any thoughts on the up coming “declared blessed” of Oscar Romero? I am not thrilled but will do research.

[Popman]

——In a sealed container, year after year, on the same day???? ———

You hit upon the point of my skepticism....

Same day every year....really ?

Miracles are acts of God...done though prayer and supplication....

There is no time table to miracles....

[piusv]

The announcement/report seems contradictory.

[piusv]

It’s just not screaming “from God” for me.

[Salvation]

Did you miss the sentence in the article that said sometimes it liquefies 18 days a year?

[Mrs. Don-o]

Here's what you said:

"..Send me a hand full of them wafers and I’ll have them tested...If they all show DNA, the world can then be silenced from the criticism of your religion."

...and...

"Then they do not turn into the flesh and blood of anything...Flesh and blood have DNA..."

Here you're talking about flesh and blood whose physical properties are limited to those specified by DNA. It's not possible to say that Christ's Eucharistic/Resurrected Body's properties are totally unrelated to DNA, but these properties are not limited by DNA. There isn't any gene or group of genes that enables Christ to disappear, or reappear, or walk through locked doors, or bilocate.

More to the point: it isn't DNA that enables Christ to take on the appearance of a Lamb that was slain, or a flash of light from heaven, or a gardener, or a man whose face shines like the sun, or a stranger on the road to Emmaus, or a tremendous celestial being holding seven stars, or a small disc of bread or a draft of grape wine.

It's not DNA that enables Him to assume these appearances.

Do you suppose the Lamb that was slain, standing in the middle of the throne in heaven, has sheep DNA? Ya think?

It's all quite mysterious, and we have only the merest of hints, but we shouldn't assume that Christ's DNA limits and controls His appearance. There is one Christ. He has one Body; He has as many appearances as He wants.

Bartholomeus Sprenger's "Noli Me Tangere"
Christ appears as a gardener.

`

You redeemed us, Lord, in your blood.
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain.

[Popman]

Did you miss the sentence in the article that said sometimes it liquefies 18 days a year?

So now it's sometimes a random occurrence...?

My skepticism grows...

My point is: it's being labeled a miracle...which it might be...

I've seen real actual miracles where the sovereign most Holy God reached down and thought the power of his Holy Spirit healed the blind, cured the sick, made the lame walk...

It was a sovereign act based on the prayer and supplication of his believers and not on a timetable..

[Popman]

Did you miss the sentence in the article that said sometimes it liquefies 18 days a year?

So now it's sometimes a random occurrence...?

My skepticism grows...

My point is: it's being labeled a miracle...which it might be...

I've seen real actual miracles where the sovereign most Holy God reached down and thought the power of his Holy Spirit healed the blind, cured the sick, made the lame walk...

It was a sovereign act based on the prayer and supplication of his believers and not on a timetable..

[HomerBohn]

I did, yesterday, but most certainly didn’t feel that labeling this pope as a phony is a sin.

He’s just another post Vatican II pope who will cling to the new religion which that convention fathered.

[piusv]

This is interesting point. It seems odd that a miracle that normally has set dates now occurs out of the blue/off the schedule. I am familiar with Eucharistic miracles, but I’m not familiar with whether there are any other miracles such as these that happen on certain dates every year. I can do some research.

[piusv]

I can’t seem to find anything quite like this online.

[ebb tide]

And in which case, it had to have had DNA...

What in the world makes you think God has DNA?

[virgil]

I have read about the Eucharistic miracle of Lanciano and have actually been there and seen it. It’s quite extraordinary. I believe it was a supernatural event caused by God. I believe. Others don’t.