Now Italian researchers say the “miracle” can be recreated through lab techniques known in the Middle Ages. Writing in the current issue of Nature, chemist Luigi Garlaschelli of the University of Pavia and colleagues describe how they added calcium carbonate–chalk–to a solution of iron chloride, found in minerals on volcanoes. After more steps they produced a gel that liquefies when shaken, then resolidifies. Did someone add chalk and iron to Januarius’s blood centuries ago? The Roman Catholic Church will not open the vial for analysis. But there is some evidence that the miracle occurs awfully easily. The blood has liquefied seven unplanned times-when a jeweler repairing the reliquary jostled it. The miracle may result from the remarkable skill of long-ago monks.
