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According to tradition, when the persecutions against the Christian faith ended thanks to the Edict of Constantine in 313, the corpse of St. Gennaro, buried in proximity to the Solfatara (April 305) and probably in the place where it raised the sanctuary of the martyr, was successively moved to Naples (19th September 315), to the church of St. Gennaro Extramoenia, then called St. Gennaro ad Corpus, along the walls of the town. In the Appendix of the Vatican Records we read: "Noctu, vero, cum unaquaequae plebs sollicite suos sibi patrones rapere festinarent, Neapolitani beatum Januarium sibi patronum tollentes a domino meruerunt. Quem quidem primo in loco qui appellatur MARCIANUS absconderunt". "During the night, actually, hurrying up the plebs to steal in the shortest time for themselves and for their patrons, the Neapolitans were favoured by our Lord while they took as their patron the blessed Gennaro. They hid him, at first, in the place called Marciano”. If this is true, it is likely that the Neapolitans, removed the corpse of St. Gennaro, soon buried it again, at first in the close vicinities, but already in Neapolitan territory (Colli Leucogei). And we can identify this place just with AGNANO. As a matter of fact, along Via Antiniana which went down as far as Agnano, near Pisciarelli, it is signed on the topographic map of 1886 the Royal Borbounic House, a locality, maybe a farm-house, called MARZANO. On the other side, the drawing of the corpse, happened at night and secretly, was certainly an illegal action; and this explains the extreme caution of the Neapolitans in hiding it immediately, in such a way to be undiscovered with material evidence. So, according to this thesis, we can confirm the tradition and place the MARCIANO by the Solfatara, individuating the right place: at the MARZANO, near the Pisciarelli in Agnano, between the spring Pisciarelli and the ancient homonymous tavern. |
