Could San Gennaro be warning us?
As Catholic World News reported, “Blood of St. Januarius does not liquefy; Naples residents see bad omen.” There has been a lot of concerned chatter among Catholics about this ever since it was reported some days before the CWN report. Therefore, upon seeing this headline this morning — Naples astride a rumbling mega-volcano — I could not help but wonder if the two are connected. San Gennaro’s relics are in Naples.
First, from CWN’s report about the failure of San Gennaro’s blood to liquify:
Many residents of Naples believe that if the saint’s blood does not turn to liquid form, it is a sign that some tragedy will befall the city. The miracle did not occur in 1980, shortly before an earthquake south of Naples caused over 2,500 deaths. The blood also remained in solid form in 1939, when a cholera epidemic struck the city; in 1939, just prior to the outbreak of World War II; and in 1943, when Nazi forces occupied Italy. In the most distant past, the absence of the regular miracle was associated with military losses, volcanic eruptions, and outbreaks of the plague.
Now, from yesterday’s report concerning the volcano:
A slumbering Campi Flegrei volcano under the Italian city of Naples shows signs of “reawakening” and may be nearing a critical pressure point, according to a study published Tuesday.
Italian and French scientists have for the first time identified a threshold beyond which rising magma under the Earth’s surface could trigger the release of fluids and gases at a 10-fold increased rate.
This would cause the injection of high-temperature steam into surrounding rocks, said lead author Giovanni Chiodini, a researcher at Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Bologna.
“Hydrothermal rocks, if heated, can ultimately lose their mechanical resistance, causing an acceleration towards critical conditions,” he told AFP by email.
…
Two other active volcanoes—Rabaul in Papua New Guinea, and Sierra Negra in the Galapagos—”both showed acceleration in ground deformation before eruption with a pattern similar to that observed at Campi Flegrei,” Chiodini said.
I’m not a prophet. I’m making no predictions. And I’m not trying to cause hysteria. But our Catholic forebears used to take warning from bad news, seeing in such events signs that we must return to God. We, instead, turn to our technology to shield us from disaster, and to insulate us from the call to conversion.
Fires worse than what volcanos produce are in hell, and the moral and spiritual catastrophes that we face now are more serious than disasters of this kind. But, just as natural wonders can be types and shadows of hidden supernatural realities (think of the star that guided the Wise Men), so too natural upheavals can point to spiritual desolation.
Jesus told people who asked him about two disasters of His own day, “unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). I suppose that word should come to us when we learn of bad news, such as the terrible tragedies of the last few days in Germany and Turkey.
Each such thing is (among other things) a call to conversion. Are we listening?
Martyrdom of Saint Januarius by Girolamo Pesce (source)
