The Blood of Saint Januarius: Is the Truth Written in a Daily Newspaper? Perhaps!

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate a relic that has attracted the attention of many believers in the world of Christianity: the blood of Saint Januarius. We do this taking into account that any relic triggers a conflict of interest, which makes it difficult to understand the object under investigation. In this case, there are experiments that support the presence of blood in the ampoules. Others furnish results that confirm the hypothesis of forgery. In fact, the results obtained through spectroscopy claim that the Cathedral of Naples holds the blood of the Saint. Conversely, the thixotropy supports the hypothesis of forgery. However, these statements could also arise from the aforementioned conflict, or they could be true. In addition to these, we include both our comments and the experiments of the Geraci team on the ampoules preserved in the Cathedral. It was in 2010 when the above-mentioned team demonstrated that the ampoules of the Saint contain blood. They investigated, through continuous observations, the ampoules of Saint Januarius and also studied, through experiments, the blood of a 300-year-old relic held by the Camaldolese monks. Professor Geraci and his team observed that changes in state depended on chemical reactions that can take place in the blood. Unfortunately, the results and considerations of this work were published in a daily newspaper and not in a peer-reviewed, double-blind scientific journal.