San Gennaro e la Lazzara

In the stunned crowd following the terrible eruption of Vesuvius, at the end of the procession led by the viceroy and the archbishop who ask San Gennaro to spare Naples from destruction, there is a young girl who instead sees in that fire a desperate salvation. Raffaele Messina takes us into the heart of that small lazaret, describing the vibrant world of prostitution in 17th-century Naples, an all-too-common phenomenon, more terrible and devastating than the lava itself. How could San Gennaro ever answer all the prayers that set the streets ablaze during those tragic days?