Saint Phillip Neri 16thC

Saint Phillip Neri was born on July 22, 1515, and he died on  May 26, 1595. Saint Philip Neri was an Italian Catholic priest who founded the Congregation of the Oratory, a society of secular clergy dedicated to pastoral care and charitable work. He is sometimes referred to as the “Second Apostle of Rome” after Saint Peter, and sometimes as the “Third Apostle of Rome”, after Saint Peter and Saint Paul. Saint Philip Neri’s spiritual mission emphasised personal holiness and direct service to others, particularly through the education of young people and care for the poor and sick. His work played a significant role in the Counter-Reformation, especially within the city of Rome. Have you heard of him?

Saint Phillip Neri Biography

Saint Phillip Neri was a nobleman, and his father was a lawyer. He received his early education from the friars at San Marco, the famous Dominican monastery in Florence. At the age of 18, in 1533, Saint Philip Neri was sent to his uncle, Romolo, a wealthy merchant at San Germano, a then Neapolitan town near the base of Monte Cassino, to assist him in his business, and with the hope that Philip might inherit Romolo’s fortune. Philip did well with his uncle, but he had a religious conversion while living with his uncle. In 1533, he left San Germano to live in Rome.

After arriving in Rome, Saint Phillip Neri became a tutor in the house of a Florentine aristocrat. After two years, he began to pursue his studies with the Augustinians. Following this, he began to work among the sick and poor, which, in later life, gained him the title of “Apostle of Rome.”He also ministered to the prostitutes in Rome.

In 1538, Saint Phillip Neri entered into the home mission work for which he became famous, travelling throughout the city, seeking opportunities to enter into conversation with people, and leading them to consider the topics he set before them. For seventeen years, he lived as a layman in Rome,  without thinking of becoming a priest. Around 1544, he met Ignatius of Loyola. Many of Philip’s disciples found their vocations in the infant Society of Jesus.

In 1548, together with his confessor, Persiano Rossa, Saint Phillip Neri founded the Confraternity of the Most Holy Trinity of Pilgrims and Convalescents, whose primary object was to minister to the needs of the pilgrims who flocked to Rome, and also to relieve the patients discharged from hospitals but who were still too weak for labor. Members met for prayer at the Church of San Salvatore in Campo, where the devotion of the Forty Hours of Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament was first introduced into Rome.

In 1551, Philip received all the orders and was ordained a priest. He thought of going to India as a missionary, but was dissuaded by his friends, who saw that there was a lot of work to do in Rome. So, he settled down, with some companions, at the Hospital of San Girolamo della Carità. In 1556, he founded the Congregation of the Oratory, for which he was noted.

Saint Phillip Neri built a church in Rome. The church was consecrated in 1577. Although he typically refrained from involving himself in political matters, he broke this rule in 1593–1595 when he persuaded Pope Clement VIII to revoke the excommunication and anathema pronounced against Henry IV of France and the refusal to receive his ambassador, even though the king had formally renounced Calvinism.

Conclusion

Saint Phillip Neri died at the end of the day on May 25, 1595, after having spent the day hearing confessions and receiving visitors. About midnight, he began haemorrhaging, and prayers were read over him. He was asked to bless spiritual sons before dying, and, though he could no longer speak, he did bless them with the sign of the cross and died. Philip Neri was beatified by Pope Paul V in 1615 and canonised by Pope Gregory XV in 1622.