Januarius, Bishop of Beneventum

Januarius was bishop of Beneventum in southern Italy in the early fourth century, during the persecution of Diocletian. He was arrested at Beneventum with several of his clergy — including the deacons Festus, Proculus, Sosius, and Desiderius, and the laymen Eutychius and Acutius — and brought to Pozzuoli (Puteoli) near Naples for trial. The proconsul Timothy condemned all seven to be cast to wild beasts in the amphitheater.

The beasts, by the synaxarion's account, refused to touch them. Timothy was struck with sudden blindness as he watched; Januarius, with characteristic grace, prayed over the proconsul and restored his sight, but the conversion that the synaxarion expected of him did not follow. The seven were then condemned to be beheaded outside the city, at the place that still bears Januarius's name (San Gennaro Vesuviano) on the slopes of Vesuvius.

The cooled blood of Januarius — preserved at Naples in a sealed vial since the medieval period — has been observed to liquefy at its annual exposition on his feast day (and at two other times of the year) for many centuries. His feast in the Orthodox Church falls on April 21.