by Sarah Lyon and Gordon Nary
There has been a reported parallel "miracle" of the liquefaction of "blood" using substances available in the fourteenth century when the vial was recovered and there has not been any reasonable explanation of the missing century between the saint's death and the discovery of the vial. There are also similar liquefactions of the alleged "blood" of other saints in the Naples areas including St. John the Baptist, St. Stephen and St. Pantaleone. These and other concerns have convinced the Vatican not to declare the liquefaction a miracle. After the II Vatican Council, it even considered removing St. Januarius from the liturgical calendar, but popular pressure made it retain the saint's veneration as a local cult.
In addition to the celebration of his feast in Naples, there are several Saint Gennaro feasts in the United States, the largest held in the Little Italy section of Lower Manhattan which attracts an estimated million Italians and Italianophiles annually and is the longest-running, biggest and most revered religious outdoor festival in the United States. Little Italy is transformed into a ten day carnival with a canopy of lighted arched over the streets. The festivities begin with a mass at the Most Precious Blood Church, followed immediately by a religious procession in which the Statue of San Gennaro is carried from its permanent home in the church through the streets of Little Italy. There are hundreds of Italian food vendors, most of whom serve the fairgoers favorite food - sausage and peppers, Some may even claim that sausage and peppers are the The Treasure of San Gennaro (1966), today's celebratory film.
Sausage and Peppers
Ingredients
2 lbs spicy Italian sausage links
1/2 cup white wine
2 green peppers
2 red peppers
2 large onions – sliced
4 cloves garlic minced
1 TB oregano
2 TB olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
hoagie/hero/sub rolls
Instructions
1. Slice sausage into 1-inch pieces. Brown.
2. Slice peppers nto strips and onions into thick slices) and sauté in olive oil until semi-soft then add minced garlic and oregano.
3. Add the wine and simmer on low for about a half hour.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste.
5. Using a slotted spoon, spoon the sausage/pepper/onions into a sliced hoagie roll.
© 2012 Gordon Nary