Saint Philip Benizi of Florence

made it known to him that he should enter the Congregation of the Servi Congrégation des Servites Religious order joined by Bonaventure under the influence of Philip Benizi. tes. He obeyed, but he said nothing of his studies, not wishing to be in the choir, but only a lay brother, so as to remain more constantly in religious humility and simplicity. After his reception, he was sent to the house of Monte S enario or As Mont-Senario Site of eremitic retreat and location of a Servite hermitage. enai, three or four leagues from Florence, where the first seven Servites, all wealthy merchants of that city, had begun their institute in honor of the Blessed Virgin. He applied himself there, according to his state, to external offices and manual labor, and he always performed them with admirable diligence and exactitude; but he did not fail to find time to meditate on the mysteries of our faith, especially the passion of Our Lord and the sorrows of his holy Mother on Calvary. For this, he withdrew into a cave near the church, where the fire of divine love sometimes carried him so far out of himself that he entirely forgot his body. At other times he chastised himself with pitiless severity, and shed torrents of tears to expiate the offenses he believed he had committed in his youth and in his secular life. This was so pleasing to God that He caused a fountain to spring up in his favor, in the middle of his cave, which still flows with water in abundance today, and which is called the Fountain of Saint Philip.

Two religious of Saint Dominic, traveling one day with him, recognized the great talents, wisdom, and knowledge that he kept hidden under his humble condition as a lay brother. They were pained to see such a brilliant light buried in darkness and betrayed his humility by informing his superiors; he was compelled to receive the priesthood. When he said his first Mass, at the elevation of the Host, celestial voices were heard singing alternately: Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus; which removed the doubts he had regarding his vocation to the priesthood.

He then passed through all the degrees of his Order; for he was a definitor, then assistant general, and finally his great merits caused him to be elected and confirmed as General. He resisted this last election greatly, deeming himself incapable of leading his brothers; but he received an order from heaven to defer to it, because it came from the Holy Spirit, and because God wished to use him in this office for great things.

His modesty shone forth when, after the death of Clemen t IV, the Clément IV Pope who promulgated the decree of canonization of Hedwig. cardinals assembled at Viterbo turned their eyes toward him to raise him to the See of Saint Peter. He was so terrified by this plan that he fled secretly to the mountains of Siena with only one or two of his religious brothers, and remained hidden there in holes in the earth until the conclave had given another shepherd to the Church.

During all the time of this solitude, Philip occupied himself continually with prayer and tears. Fasting was his food; vigils were his relief and his rest; communion with God was his recreation and his amusement. He ate no bread, but only wild and tasteless herbs. He drank only water, and as it failed him in the midst of the sands and rocks, he struck the stone three times with his staff, and it gushed forth immediately in such abundance that it formed a pool which has been called the Baths of Saint Philip. Some authors, however, say that these waters were already there, and that he only gave them a medicinal virtue through his blessing. They are on the mountain called Montaniata. God made it known to him in this place that he was to carry His name and devotion to the Blessed Virgin into other provinces and foreign kingdoms. Therefore, having assembled a general chapter, he established a vicar in his place for Italy and departed with two companions to proclaim on all sides the greatness and merits of this glorious Queen of Angels. He first came to France, where he preached in Avignon, Toulouse, and Paris with great success. From there, he went to the Low Countries and the Duchy of Saxony in Germany. He established houses of his Order in many places.

He spent two years on this mission; upon returning to Italy, he crossed forests and deserts, where provisions failed him. As his companions could no longer sustain themselves, he implored the help of the Blessed Virgin, and, at that very hour, he saw bread and water before him, which served to appease their hunger and renew their strength. Upon his return, he made further efforts at his General Chapter in Borgo to be relieved of the insurmountable weight of his office; but, far from listening to him, they confirmed him in it for the rest of his life: this is what obliged him to attend t he Second General Council of L second concile général de Lyon Council of 1274 where Philip had his order approved. yon, which Pop e Gregory Grégoire X Pope who convened the Council of Lyon. X assembled in 1274, for the reunion of the Greeks and the recovery of the Holy Land. He prayed the council to approve and confirm his Order, which was granted to him very willingly, the assembly being unable to doubt the utility of a Company that had a leader of such great merit. It is for this reason that the Roman Martyrology called him the Institutor or Founder of this Order, although in fact he only entered it fifteen years after its establishment, and he was only its fifth General; but today it gives him only the name of Propagator.

In addition to the graces we have already noted in him, he had a particular talent for reconciling enemies, for calming rebellions, and for procuring peace for cities and provinces that were in turmoil. In Pistoia, he settled the cruel dissensions of the Guelphs and Ghibellines, who were embittered against one another. He did the same in Florence, in the company of Cardinal Orsini, legate of the Holy See. He also went to Forlì to bring the inhabitants back to the obedience of Pope Martin IV, against whom they had revol ted; but Martin II Pope mentioned in the text (historically Martin IV) against whom Forlì had revolted. if he did not have the consolation of converting them, he had at least the joy and the happiness of suffering ignominy for the cause of the Vicar of Jesus Christ; for these perverse men, unable to endure the vehemence of his fiery preaching, threw themselves upon him, stripped him shamefully, and whipped him through the crossroads of the city; after which they drove him from the enclosure of their walls, so as not to hear the just reprimand of their crimes any longer. His patience, however, was not sterile, for it converted one of those who had struck him, who, touched by repentance, wished to do penance for his sacrilege in his Order, and lived there thereafter in very great holiness.

Finally, Philip, foreseeing that the end of his life was near, assembled his general chapter for the last time in Florence; there, having declared to his religious that the time of his departure would soon come, he exhorted them to unity among themselves and to the constant and inviolable observance of regular discipline. His own tears and the groans of his children prevented him from finishing his speech. He therefore ended it by saying: "Love, love, love." Then, he went to Siena, and from there to Perugia, to kiss the feet of Pope Honorius IV and ask for his blessing; he obtained from him beautiful privileges for his Order. Upon leaving Perugia, he took the road to Todi, in the March of Ancona. The inha Todi Birthplace and region of activity of Blessed John. bitants of this city, who knew his merit, came out in crowds to meet him, with olive branches to receive him. But the humble servant of Mary, to whom honors and praises were unbearable, cleverly turned away from the avenue to avoid this ovation. In the detour he took, he met two women of ill repute, who mocked him and spoke insults to him. He gently rebuked them for their impudence, and, after having confounded them, he offered them money, on the condition that they would refrain for three days without falling back into their sin; they committed themselves to it by oath, and they fulfilled it with so much fruit that they renounced their infamous trade forever, and entered among the penitent women, where they lived with much edification and holiness. When he entered the church of his Order, he prostrated himself before the altar of the Blessed Virgin, and pronounced these words of the King-Prophet: "This is my rest for all ages." And, without wishing to take any rest, he spent the whole night in prayer and penance. The next day, he climbed into the pulpit early in the morning, and gave an admirable sermon on the glory of the Saints, by which his audience was completely transported.

The feast of the Assumption of Our Lady approaching, he was seized with a fever, which he regarded as the happy instrument that would detach his soul from the bonds that held it attached to his body. To prepare himself for death, he made a very devout prayer, in the form of a paraphrase on the psalm Miserere, applying all the words of this psalm to himself as a very great sinner. Then, he confessed very devoutly and spent the rest of the octave in feelings of compunction and penance. At the end, he had the Viaticum brought to him, which he received with great transports of love, saying to Jesus Christ: "It is you, my Lord, in whom I have believed, it is you whom I have preached, whom I have sought and whom I have loved." While saying the Litanies, he fell into a faint at these words: Peccatores, te rogamus, audi nos, and he was thought dead for three hours. But, having come to himself, he said to his religious: "I have just sustained, my Brothers, a great battle; for the demon, full of rage and malice, representing to me all the sins of my life, and maintaining that I should for that be condemned to hell, strove to make me fall into despair; but Jesus Christ, my Savior, and Mary, his most holy Mother, repelled the arrows of this cruel and pernicious enemy, and favored me so much by their kindness that, after having chased him from my presence, they made me see the eternal kingdom that is prepared for me. Take care, therefore, my Brothers, not to let yourselves be deceived by this impostor, who does nothing but work for the loss of men, and use the weapons that Our Lord puts into your hands, which are abstinence, humility, patience, and above all charity, which is the queen of virtues." He ended this speech by asking for his book; one did not know what book he wanted: but this book was his Crucifix, which he had studied all his life, and in the embraces of which he wished to die. He kissed it several times, and told his children of the inestimable goods he had received through it. He recited after that the canticle Benedictus and the psalm In te, Domine, speravi; at these words: In manus tuas, Domine, etc., he effectively rendered his spirit into the hands of his sovereign Lord. At his death, one heard in the air these words: "Courage, good and faithful servant; because you have well led the family of the Virgin, whose conduct you were given, enter into the joy of your Lord." This precious moment arrived in the year 1285, on August 22, which is that of the Octave of Our Lady, although his memory is only celebrated on the 23rd.

The place where he died was immediately filled with a very pleasant odor that emanated supernaturally from his body, and his face emitted rays that illuminated the entire room during the night. His religious brothers were seized with an extraordinary joy that calmed all their sadness. He could not be buried for three days, because of the crowd of people who flocked to see him and the miracles that were performed by the touching of his limbs. Two dead people were resurrected, one of whom was a child that a wolf had strangled. A woman, paralyzed in her arms and legs, was healed, and a blind man recovered his sight. Another woman, mocking these wonders, suddenly lost her speech, and she could only recover it through the merits of the one she had despised. His clothes, which were kept very honorably in Todi, also served thereafter for the healing of a great number of the sick. His hair shirt, which is kept in Florence, in the house of the Annunziata, has especially a particular virtue for extinguishing fires. In 1317, a translation of his relics took place, where his first miracles were renewed. In 1516, Pope Leo X permitted the Servite religious to celebrate his feast: which Pope Paul V extended to all the churches of Florence, in 1615. Finally, Pope Clement X solemnly canoni zed him i Clément X Pope who extended the cult of Saint Gonsalo to the entire Dominican Order. n 1671; but the bull of his canonization was only published in 1724, by Benedict XIII.

Saint Philip Benizi is sometimes painted with three crowns that two angels support above his head. He is also represented striking the earth with his staff and causing a spring to emerge.

His life was written by Archange Janius, a Florentine. It is also found in the Chronicles of his Order, and in part in the continuations of the Annals of Cardinal Baronius, by Spende, Esavius, and Raynalduc. It is these authors who served us in composing this summary.