Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman Martyrology. Carthaginian Kalendar, probably on the same day, but the day is effaced. A martyrology of the 10th cent, of Treves, published by Martene. Also a Kalendar on marble of the same date found at Naples in 1742; all Mediaeval Martyrologists. S. Sosius sometimes alone, sometimes with others on Sept. 23. S. Januarius at Benevento on Sept. 7, with SS. Festus and Desiderius. On Oct. 18, some of the company at Pozzuoli. Among the Greeks S. Januarius and Companions on Sept. 19, and April 21. On the latter day the Russian Kalendar. The Translation of S. Januarius to Naples on May 2. At Naples also the first Sunday in May; also Dec. 16. Authorities: — The Acts written hy John the Deacon in the 10th cent, from pre-existing material. There are various copies of the Acts of S. Januarius and S. Sosius which do not fit together at all. The Greek Acts are wholly apocryphal.] jj]AINT JANUARIUS is said to have been Bishop of Benevento, but a native of Naples. He often wen visited Miseno, where was a deacon of rare merit, named Sosius, of the age of thirty years, with whom he contracted a warm friendship. Sosius was arrested by Dracontius, Governor of Campania, and was thrown into prison, where he found Proculus, deacon of the church of Pozzuoli, Eutyches, and Acutius, citizens of the same town and earnest Christians, Dracontius was recalled before he had tried and executed the saints, and a certain Timotheus was appointed in his room. The new governor at once arrested S. Januarius, who was then at Nola. Various fables have attached themselves to the Acts. A furnace is said to have been heated red-hot for three days, and S. Januarius then thrown into it, but to have been unhurt. This is ornament added to the original story by a late biographer, loving romance rather than fact. Festus, deacon, and Desiderius, lector of the church of Benevento, having heard of the capture of their chief pastor, hastened to visit him at Nola, but were at once seized and thrown into chains. A few days after the governor went to Pozzuoli to order the execution of Sosius and his companions, and the bishop and his deacon and lector were driven in chains before him.

The day after the arrival of S. Januarius and his two associates, all the champions of Christ were exposed to be devoured by beasts in the amphitheatre, but none of the savage animals could be provoked to touch them. The people were amazed, but imputed their preservation to magic, and the martyrs were condemned to be beheaded. This sentence was executed outside the walls of Pozzuoli. After the persecution had ceased their bodies were removed. Those of SS. Proculus, Eutyches, and Acutius were placed in a church built in their honour; those of SS. Festus and Desiderius were translated to Benevento; that of Sosius to Miseno, and that of S. Januarius to Naples. The Acts are so overlaid with fable that it is difficult to extricate from the midst of mere legendary matter the threads of historical truth.

“ The standing miracle, as it is called by Baronius [Cardinal Baronius (d. 1607), church historian who edited the Roman Martyrology], of the blood of S. Januarius liquefying and boiling up at the S. Theodore.

approach of the martyr’s head is very famous. In a rich chapel, called the Treasury, in the great church at Naples, are preserved the blood, in two very old glass vials, and the head of S. Januarins. The blood is congealed, and of a dark colour; but when brought in sight of the head, though at a considerable distance, it melts, bubbles up, and upon the least motion flows on any side. The fact is attested by Baronius, Ribadeneira, and innumerable other eye-witnesses of all nations and religions.”1