SAN GENNARO Depiction of the blessing Saint in ecclesiastical guise; against the background of the erupting Vesuvius. With his left hand he holds the pastoral staff and a book on which the ampoules that collect the blood are placed; protagonists of the annual miracle of liquefaction. During the persecution of Diocletian in 305 Gennaro; bishop of Benevento; was beheaded at the solfataras of Pozzuoli. A woman collected her blood in two ampoules of which trace was lost. A century later; in 431; on the occasion of the translation of the saint's relics from Pozzuoli to Naples; another woman presented the two ampoules claiming that they contained the martyr's coagulated blood. As if to prove the woman's sincerity; the blood suddenly liquefied under the eyes of the bishop and the crowd gathered to attend the translation ceremony. The miracle; since then; is repeated every year on one of the dates related to the saint: the eve of the first Sunday of May (date of translation); December 16 (anniversary of the Vesuvian eruption of 1631 during which the Neapolitans invoked the saint to protect) and September 19 (date of martyrdom). The phenomenon is also repeated in the porous stone; impregnated with its blood; in the church of Pozzuoli. San Gennaro is the protector of goldsmiths and blood donors and is also patron of Benevento; Sassari and Torre del Greco. Chromolithographic image; Italy 1900