Januarius

Januarius served as Bishop of Benevento in the late Roman Empire, during the final years of Diocletian's Great Persecution, which ended in 305. Later tradition holds he was martyred in that wave of state violence against Christians, though no records from his own time survived. What did survive was a vial, kept in Naples, where he became patron saint. Three times each year the cathedral fills with believers waiting to see whether the dark substance sealed inside will shift from solid to liquid — a phenomenon reported for centuries, never explained to everyone's satisfaction, and still drawing…