NAPLES, Italy (Reuters) – Fear of H1N1 flu will stop devout Neapolitans from performing the time-honored ritual of kissing the blood of their patron Saint Gennaro when the city’s annual festival begins later this month.
The decision to forbid kissing of the glass vial containing the saint’s blood was taken reluctantly by ecclesiastical and city authorities Monday, and has brought protests from local politicians.
The vial will be put on display in the city’s cathedral for a week from September 19 and the faithful will be allowed to touch it only with their foreheads.
Marco Di Lello, national co-ordinator of the Socialist Party, said the ban would “fuel the psychosis (over flu) which risks becoming unstoppable,” and appealed to the archbishop of Naples to try to have the ban revoked.
Last week, a 51-year-old man became Italy’s first fatal victim of the H1N1 flu virus, popularly known as swine flu, when he died in a Naples hospital.
In one of Italy’s best-known festivals, Saint Gennaro’s dried blood is said to liquefy twice a year, 17 centuries after his death. Some Neapolitans fear disaster may strike the city if the “miracle” does not occur.
Legend has it that when Gennaro was beheaded by pagan Romans in 305 A.D., a Neapolitan woman soaked up his blood with a sponge and preserved it in a glass vial.
The substance usually turns to liquid on September 19, the saint’s feast day, and on the first Saturday in May. The “miracle” was first recorded in 1389, more than 1,000 years after Gennaro’s martyrdom.
More scientifically minded skeptics say the phenomenon is due to chemicals present in the vial whose viscosity changes when it is stirred or moved.
Italy has not been among the nations hardest hit by the H1N1 flu virus, which has spread to at least 177 countries and caused at least 2,800 deaths, the World Health Organization says.
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Is it just me, but doesn’t kissing a vial full of blood seem weird? So, if I kiss this vial what exactly is supposed to happen to me, besides the possibility of getting H1N1. Wouldn’t kissing the vial give me immunity from the virus anyways. That would be my miracle. Kiss the vial, get H1N1 virus, but not get H1N1, because I kissed the vial.
Is it just me, part 2. Doesn’t it seem weird that a woman had the presence of mind to soak up the saint’s blood and put it into a vial? Who does that. I mean the guy has no head, there is probably blood everywhere, and she decides that it would be a good thing to go soak up some of this blood, just in case. Wonder if she kissed it back then?
What was she thinking? Hey that priest guy just got his head cut off. That’s so not cool. Hmm, look at this, I happen to have a sponge with me today at this beheading. Maybe I should go soak up some of the blood. I don’t think anyone would mind. Do I take it from the head or the body? Probably doesn’t matter anyways, blood is blood. I have to keep this somehow. I know, I’ll put it into a vial and give it to the catholic church. I’m sure they’ll know what to do with it. Wow! I’m a freakin hero. Too bad about the priest though, losing his head and all that. hmmph, what can you do, those Roman pagans are just a bunch of barbarians, they’re not civilized like us.
