Religion: Miracolo

By 9 o'clock one morning last week a jostling crowd—tourists, sailors and townspeople, elbow to elbow with priests and nuns—had swarmed into the 13th century Cathedral of San Gennaro in Naples. Promptly on the hour, a mustached monsignor walked slowly to a side altar, carrying a glass-windowed silver reliquary containing two glass vials partly filled with a dark, solid, opaque substance. As the priest turned the reliquary around and around before the golden-faced bust of St. Januarius, Naples' patron saint, onlookers prayed: "Come and grant us your favor, 0 beautiful saint, great champion...

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