NAPLES.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 208, 30 March 1877, Page 1

NAPLES.

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But, through all the beauty, the mountain, Vesuvius, long supposed incapable of harm, heaved up floods of fire from underneath the fruitful vineyards that clad its sides, and destroyed these towns — the one in a tide of flowing red-hot lava, the other beneath a poriß^ as cloud of ashes — preserving for the student and the antiq^tfan records of inestimable value, and affording to all, we should think, a true example of the worth of life, and the world's pursuits ; a theme much insisted upon, but little taken to heart. Some years before this time, along these shores (ravelled the Great Apostle of the Gentiles, on his way to the Judgment Seat of Caesar, for it was at Puteoli he landed when his voyagft from Asia Minor terminated, and that port is identified with the modern Puzzuoli, which lies six miles to the west of Naples. How great a shadow on that day did the fair suu of Italy cast upon her soil ; one sufficient to sanctify it in our eyes were this alone its claim to such regard, and what wonder that the faith prevailed in that land which such royal blood empurpled. But it is not only because of the landing of St\ Paul there that Puzzuoli is interesting from a Christian point of view; in its amphitheatre, whose ruins still remain, early martyrs testified in death to the faith, and amongst them, in the year 305, was exposed to wild beasts the holy Bishop of Beneventum, St. Januarius. But, as it frequently happened, the beasts., more humane than the men who would have made them ministers of cruelty, refused the atrocious task required of them, and the martyr was beheaded with the sword.

It was the habit of the faithful of the times to gather up the blood of those who died for the faith. They soaked it in cloths or spunges, and it was frequently preserved in vials, which, with the instruments of his torture, were placed by the grave of the martyr, when his mangled body had been obtained by his brethren and buried. Numbers of such vials, or ampullae, remain to the present day, and from amongst them, that containing a portion of St. Januarius' blood, is preserved in the Cathedral of Naples. At ordinary times this blood, as may be supposed after the lapse of so many ages, is in a dry state, and as a dark substance adheres to the sides of the flasks, which in their turn are contained in a glass case; but on September 18, the feast of the Saint, and now and then on other occasions, a miracle is performed, for the bloodliquifi.es, becomes of its proper colour in the fluid form, and even bubbles and boils so as to fill completely the vials. This is a wonder which has been much controverted, but which yet is incontrovertible. The miracle is performed in the open church before an immense multitude of people, and in such a manner as to render any attempt at deceit an impossibility. The glass case, containing the ampullae, alone is touched by the priest officiating. Deceit would be impossible, for there is no chemical substance known that could be affected as this blood is affected, and so made to pass for it ; and for this is pledged the word of Sir Humphrey Davy. But they who deny God or His Church must needs also cavil at the works of God. Such things as this are judged too trifling. Yet blood of old cried from the earth to God and acquainted Him with murder. Why should it be now thought unworthy that it should testify to man of the like deed ? There are those who forget that they are but dust of the earth, and that when God deals with them, their littleness is taken into account. Their pride is such that, in event of a miracle being needed for their conviction, they would not think it too much to ask that the very gates of Heaven should be thrown open, and its ineffable light flashod upon their impure vision, or the sounds of the angels' choirs wafted within reach of their polluted ears,