Hymn to St. Gennaro, Bishop and Martyr 1
1.
By the bright title of famous triumph,
Violent ravisher of the eternal kingdom,
May the door the way to heaven for your people be
Through you.
2.
Pour forth dutiful prayers for our sins,
So that the just anger of God is checked,
Let him return the lost crown justly
For the sake of Christ.
3.
No punishments will conquer you.
Your limbs exposed mangled sinews,
The foul darkness of your prison contains
The star of Olympus.
4.
Flames of a furnace kindled for three days
Withdraw from the huge heat of faith;
While the vapor of flesh maddens, then the fire
Of the mind rages.
5.
He had felt the rage of the restrained wild beasts,
Outstripping (each other) in order to mangle his sacred limbs;
The wild beasts are imitating white lambs
With heads bowing.
6.
An end is given by the sword to the long fight
Blowing a propitious stream of blood from his neck.
Shining in a reddening red robe
You stretch to the stars.
7.
Praise (and) honor to the father and similarly to the son…
Januarius, Gennaro, of Benevento.
According to various hagiographies, Januarius was born in Benevento to a rich patrician family. At a young age of 15, he became local priest of his parish in Benevento, which at the time was relatively pagan. When Januarius was 20, he became Bishop of Naples and befriended Juliana of Nicomedia and Saint Sossius whom he met during his priestly studies. During the 1 and 1/2-year-long persecution of Christians by Emperor Diocletian, he hid his fellow Christians and prevented them from being caught. Unfortunately, while visiting Sossius in jail, he too was arrested. He and his colleagues were condemned to be thrown to wild bears in the Flavian Amphitheater at Pozzuoli, but the sentence was changed due to fear of public disturbances, and they were instead beheaded at the Solfatara crater near Pozzuoli.[n 1] Other legends state either that the wild beasts refused to eat them, or that he was thrown into a furnace but came out unscathed. to whom a Benedictine abbey in the Arezzo Valdarno was dedicated.