PhD Program in Historical studies
The Feast of San Gennaro in Naples
The story of San Gennaro and his cult in the city of Naples has been known for centuries all over the world. It is enough to recall that the Neapolitans dedicate three dates to San Gennaro and the miracle of the liquefaction of his blood: on the first Saturday in May (the date on which the first translation of his relics is celebrated), 19 September (the day which commemorates the martyrdom of Gennaro which took place at Pozzuoli in 305 A.D. under the Roman authorities) and 16 December (the date which commemorates the miraculous intervention of the saint, who, in 1631, saved the city which had been threatened by the eruption of Vesuvius). The most important ceremony, the one that takes place every year 19 September in the Cathedral of Naples, was begun by Pope Sixtus V in 1586.
Here, rather than reconstruct the history of one of the most esteemed patron saints Feasts in Italy in detail, we will concentrate on the differences between the celebrations of the past and of our times. In particular, we will draw attention to the differences between today’s ritual and the cult of San Gennaro in the modern age. The translation of the relics of Gennaro in Naples at the threshold of the Early Modern period (1497) marks the beginning of a period of strengthening of worship, which culminates during the Baroque era. This is, in fact, the era in which the artistic and literary figure of the martyr bishop intensifies (hagiographies and theatrical depictions), and celebrations in his honour acquire a spectacular and scenographic character. It was the second half of the seventeenth century, moreover, that thanks to the intervention of Archbishop Ascanio Filomarino that Gennaro was recognized as the patron of the Kingdom of Naples (1663), a role that had been disputed by Saint Dominic, whose patronage was proclaimed by Urban VIII in 1640 (at the request of the Viceroy, the Duke of Medina de las Torres). A few decades later (1676), the Church of Rome placed the commemoration of the Neapolitan martyr in the universal liturgical calendar. These were the years of the revolt of Masaniello (1648) and the plague (1656-1657), the years in which the Counter-Reformation Church relied on religious rituals to reassert its control over society.