Comment to: Which saint to pray for fighting against COVID? A short survey

We read with interest the brilliant paper by Perciaccante et al. (1) on the habit of praying to different Saints in the fight against COVID. The paper was based on a survey conducted on social networks, mainly in Italy and France and obtained 1158 responses. Although the reading of the paper was enjoyable, a methodological comment seems proper. The main problem of the paper is the representativeness of the study sample. Looking at the list of the most evoked saints it appears that, at least in Italy, some regions did not participate in the survey, where the worship of the local patron saint is well established in its culture. This is the case of the worship of St. Januarius (Gennaro in Italian) in the area of Naples, where a mix of catholic, pagan and social rituals are still embedded in religious and cultural environment. Januarius was the bishop of Benevento around the year 300. He was persecuted by the Roman emperor Diocletian and finally executed by decapitation in the year 305 at the age of 35, in Pozzuoli (neighbourhood of Naples). Some of the martyr’s blood was collected in two ampoules; the body was placed initially in the catacombs “outside the walls” (now Capodimonte) and over time transferred to different sites. In the year 1497 the relics were exhumed and transferred in to a crypt built by the order of cardinal Oliviero Carafa beneath the Cathedral of Naples. In the year 1389 there was the first report of liquefaction of the blood; since then, the so called “miracle of St. Januarius” occurs three times a year, with huge popular and institutional participation; if the blood fails to liquefy despite hours of praying, the event has the meaning of a sinister omen. The ampoules are hermetically sealed and no scientific investigation is allowed.