04 Works, Today, April 21st, is St. Hieromartyr Januarius’s day, With Footnotes — #107
1 min readApr 21, 2020
Saint Januarius shows his own relics, c. 1610–1612
Oil on canvas
Height: 126.5 cm (49.8 in); Width: 92.5 cm (36.4 in)
Palmer Art Museum at Pennsylvania State University
Hieromartyr Januarius Bishop of Benevento, and the deacons Proculus, Sossius and Faustus, Desiderius the Reader, Eutychius and Acution suffered martyrdom for Christ about the year 305 during the persecution ordered by the emperor Diocletian (284–305).
During the 1 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.
Because of his firm confession of Christianity, they threw the saint into a red-hot furnace. He came out unharmed…