Saint Philip

Three days after this event, Philip was at the wedding at Cana, where Jesus had been invited with his disciples. The following year, he was numbered among the Apostles by the Savior when He formed the sacred college.

We also read in the Gospel that, when Our Lord wished to perform the great miracle of the multiplication of five loaves and two fish, He addressed Saint Philip and asked him where they could buy food for all this multitude. This was to make him better understand the excellence of the prodigy He was about to perform, and to give new vigor to his faith.

Some Gentiles, having come from Jerusalem to worship God at the feast of the Passover, hearing of the wonders that Jesus Christ was performing and desiring to see Him, also addressed Saint Philip, as the one they judged most suitable to procure this grace for them. Finally, when the Savior, on the evening of His passion, had spoken to His Apostles of His eternal generation, His coming into the world, and His return to His Father, Saint Philip made this request of Him: "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us."

To which this divine Master replied: "Have I been with you so long, and you do not yet know Me? Philip, he who sees Me, sees also My Father." An admirable doctrine, which reveals to us great secrets concerning the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity.

After the ascension of the Son of God and the descent of the Holy Spirit, the Apostles divided the various provinces of the world among themselves, and Upper Asia fell to the lot of Saint Philip. He went to bring the doctrine of the Gospel, which he confirmed by the power of several miracles: healing the sick and casting out demons from the bodies of the possessed by the laying on of his hands. He then went to Scythia, where he spent several years converting the idolaters. Saint Isidore said that he also preached to the Gauls; but it is claimed falsely, in our opinion, that he meant the Galatians, a colony of Gauls who had settled in that part of Phrygia called Galatia.

When he had spent some years in Scythia, he came to Hierap olis, a co Hiérapolis Episcopal see of Claudius Apollinaris in Phrygia. nsiderable city of Phrygia, in order to proclaim there the truths of Christianity. Having entered a temple in this city, as Metaphrastes writes, he found there a monstrous viper that the people worshipped, and to which they offered incense and sacrifices; having compassion for this people, the holy Apostle threw himself on the ground and prayed to God to open their eyes and deliver them from this tyranny of Satan. His prayer was answered, the serpent died immediately, and the people found themselves quite disposed to receive the light of the Gospel; but the priests and magistrates, unable to endure it, seized Philip, and, after having held him for some days in prison, whipped him cruelly, crucified him, and finally struck him down with stones, while, for his part, he thanked Jesus Christ for allowing him to share in His cross.

Nevertheless, before he expired, God, the avenger of the injuries done to His Saints, stirred up such a dreadful earthquake that several large buildings fell and the abysses, opening their bosom, swallowed up the authors of this impiety. The idolaters, astonished by this prodigy, recognized the truth and left the faithful the freedom to take down the holy Apostle. But he, who felt himself mortally wounded, and who did not wish to lose the honor of dying on the cross, like his master, prevented them from doing so; and, after having prayed for all those present, he asked God to receive his soul into His hands: Saint Philip had labored for twenty years among the Gentiles.

The body of Saint Philip was taken by the Christians, who gave him burial as time and place allowed for their devotion; and, since then, a part having been reserved for Constantinople, the rest was brought to Rome and deposited in the Church of the Twelve Apostles, built by Popes Pelagius I and John I II, his successo papes Pélage Ier Pope who established Dol as a bishopric. r, w hich is Jean III Pope contemporary to the beginning of the saint's life. commonly called the Holy Apostles, which is now a convent of the friars of Saint Francis.

A part of his bones was transferred, in the time of Charlemagne, to the city of Toulouse; and even in the city of Paris one could see, every year, on May 4, in the great church of Notre-Dame, the head of Saint Philip, which was given to it, encased in gold, by John III, Duke of Berry, son of King John. The city of Florence, in Italy, was also enriched with one of his arms; and the city of Troyes, in France, with a part of his skull, which was brought there from Constantinople by Bishop Garnier, when the French had made themselves masters of that great city.

In our day, the cathedral of Autun prides itself on possessing the head of Saint Philip which had belonged to the monks of Cluny. This claim would be in contradiction with what we have just said regarding Notre-Dame de Paris; one can reconcile the two assertions by saying that, in both cases, it is a question of only a part of the head of the Apostle.

East of Jerusalem, on the slope of the Mount of Olives, not far from the place where Jesus, ascending to heaven, left the last imprint of his footsteps on the earthly soil, one can still see today (1871) a cave carved into the rock, where twelve fishermen gathered to formulate, in an immortal symbol, the faith that was to conquer the world.

Saint Philip pronounced the article: *Descended into hell*. — He is represented crucified head down, tied by the heels to a tree branch, and both arms nailed to a wall. It goes without saying that he has often been associated with Saint James, their feast being celebrated on the same day. — Saint Philip is the patron saint of the Cathedral of Algiers.

Our holy Apostle had entered into the state of marriage: he was the father of several daughters. Some of them, says Clement of Alexandria, embraced the state of marriage. Two lived in celibacy, died at a very old age, and were buried in Hierapolis, as we learn from Polycrates cited by Eusebius. We read in Sozomen that one of these holy virgins raised a dead man to life. Papias, whom Eusebius cites in his history, also speaks of this resurrection; but he does not say that it was performed by any of the holy virgins; he only says that he had learned of the miracle from their own mouths. Polycrates mentions another daughter of Saint Philip, whom the eminent holiness of her life made very famous in Ephesus, where she was buried. He calls these three sisters the lights of Asia.

It is believed that the last one is Saint Hermi one or Hermine, sainte Hermione Daughter of Saint Philip, martyr under Trajan or Hadrian. whom the Greeks honor on September 4. They say that she was the daughter of Saint Philip, the Apostle; that, after having suffered much under Trajan when he came to Ephesus, she consummated her martyrdom under Hadrian. Her tomb is marked among the holiest monuments of the city of Ephesus, where it was seen on a mountain.

The Greeks say in the history of Saint Hermione that Eutychia, one of her sisters, came with her to Ephesus, and that they won a great number of people to Jesus Christ.

They also attribute to Saint Philip, the Apostle, a virgin sister named Marianne or Ma ry, who, after ha Marianne ou Marie Sister of Saint Philip who participated in his work. ving participated in his apostolic labors until his death, retired to Lycaonia, where she died in peace. They place her feast on February 17.

Acta Sanctorum, Abbé Maletre, etc. — See, in the Supplement to this volume, a Notice on the Execution of the bodies of the Apostles Saint Philip and Saint James, in 1873.