Hieromartyr
Hieromartyr Januarius of Benevento
† 305
Also known as: Дженнаро
Hieromartyr Januarius, Bishop of Benevento — who survived fire and wild beasts, beheaded with six companions under Emperor Diocletian in 305; his blood relic is traditionally reported to periodically liquefy ("the Miracle of San Gennaro").
Hieromartyr Januarius served as Bishop of Benevento in Italy. During the persecution of Emperor Diocletian, he was arrested and brought before Timotheus, the Roman governor of Campania.
The saint endured extraordinary tortures: he was thrown into a heated furnace and emerged unharmed; he was stretched on a rack and beaten with iron rods until his bones were exposed. When he and six companions — deacons Proculus and Sossius, Faustus, the reader Desiderius, and laymen Eutychius and Acutius — were thrown to wild beasts in the arena, the animals refused to touch them. Timotheus, struck blind by witnessing these miracles, was healed through Januarius's prayer, yet remained unrepentant.
In 305 AD he ordered all seven saints beheaded outside the city. The faithful of Naples collected the martyr's blood in a vial; since then it has periodically and inexplicably liquefied near his skull relic — the famous "Miracle of San Gennaro," observed to this day.
His feast is kept on April 21/May 4.