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unless otherwise stated.
Statue of Saint Philomena in Molve, Croatia.
Hrvatski: Kip sv. Filomene u Molvama, neočekivano pronađen 2007.
Photo: January 2008.
Saint Philomena is, as believed by her devotees within the Catholic Church, a young virgin martyr whose remains were discovered in 1802 in the Catacombs of Priscilla. Three tiles enclosing the tomb bore an inscription that was taken to indicate that her name was (in the Latin of the inscription) Filumena, the English form of which is Philomena.
The remains were removed to Mugnano del Cardinale, in Campania, Italy,
in 1805 and became the focus of widespread devotion, with several miracles credited to the Saint's intercession, including the healing of Venerable Pauline Jaricot in 1835, which received wide publicity. Saint John Vianney attributed to her intercession the extraordinary cures that others attributed to himself.
In 1833, a Neapolitan nun reported that, in a vision, Saint Philomena had revealed that she was a Greek princess, martyred at 13 years of age by Diocletian, who was Roman Emperor from 284 A.D. to 305 A.D.
From 1837 to 1961, celebration of her Liturgical Feast was approved for some places, but was never included in the General Roman Calendar for universal use. The 1920 typical edition of the Roman Missal included a mention of her, under 11 August, in the section headed Missae pro aliquibus locis (Masses for some places), with an indication that the Mass to be used in those places was one from the Common of a Virgin Martyr, without any Collect, Proper to the Saint.
Saint Philomena with attributes: palm, whip, anchor and arrows.
Plaster cast, by Johann Dominik Mahlknecht,
On 14 February 1961, the Holy See ordered that the name of Saint Philomena be removed from all Liturgical Calendars that mentioned her. Accordingly, the 1962 Roman Missal, the edition whose continued use as an Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite is authorised by the motu proprio, Summorum Pontificum, also has no mention of her.
The shrine of her relics, in Mugnano del Cardinale,
continues to be visited by pilgrimages from many countries, an Arch-Confraternity in her honour exists, as does popular devotion in various places around the world.
On 24 May 1802, in the
Catacombs of Priscilla, on the
Via Salaria Nova, an inscribed
loculus (space hollowed out of the rock) was found, and on the following day it was carefully examined and opened. The
loculus was closed with three terra cotta tiles, on which was the following inscription:
lumena paxte cumfi. It was, and is, generally accepted that the tiles were in the wrong order and that the inscription originally read, with the left-most tile placed on the right:
pax tecum Filumena ("Peace with you, Philomena"). Within the
loculus was found the skeleton of a female between thirteen and fifteen years old. Embedded in the cement was a small glass phial with vestiges of what was taken to be blood. In accordance with the assumptions of the time, the remains were taken to be those of a virgin martyr named Philomena.
France.
Saint Philomena. Cathedral of Notre Dame, Bayeux, 1839,
by Théodelinde Dubouché.
Ste Philomène,cath. N-D Bayeux, 1839, par Théodelinde Dubouché.
(Wikimedia Commons)
The belief that such vials were signs of the grave of a martyr was still held in 1863, when a 10 December decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites confirmed a decree of 10 April 1668. But this view has been rejected in practice since the investigations of
Giovanni Battista De Rossi (1822–1894).
In 1805, Canon Francesco De Lucia requested relics for a new altar, and on 8 June obtained the remains, discovered in May 1802 (reduced to dust and fragments), for his Church in
Mugnano del Cardinale, where they arrived on 11 August, after being taken from Rome to Naples on 1 July.
In 1827,
Pope Leo XII gave to the Church in Mugnano del Cardinale the three inscribed terra cotta slabs that had been taken from the tomb.
In his
Relazione istorica della traslazione del sagro corpo di s. Filomena da Roma a Mugnano del Cardinale, written in 1833, Canon De Lucia recounted that wonders accompanied the arrival of the relics in his Church, among them a statue that sweated some liquid continuously for three days.
The spread of devotion to her in France, as well as in Italy, was helped when Saint John Vianney built a shrine in her honour and referred to her often, attributing to her the miracles that others attributed to himself. Another help was the cure of the near-dying Venerable
Pauline Jaricot, founder of the
Society for the Propagation of the Faith, at Philomena's shrine on 10 August 1835.
Bamberg, Germany,
Obere Pfarrkirche Unsere Liebe Frau (Obere Pfarre)
Saint Philomena
Photo: Andreas Praefcke
September 2008
(Wikimedia Commons)
Another miracle, accepted as proved in the same year, was the multiplication of the bone dust of the Saint, which provided for hundreds of reliquaries without the original amount experiencing any decrease in quantity.Devotion includes the wearing of the "Cord of Philomena", a red and white cord, which had a number of
indulgences attached to it, including a
plenary indulgence on the day on which the cord was worn for the first time, indulgences that were not renewed in the 1967 general revision of the discipline concerning them.
There was, or is, also, the C
haplet of Saint Philomena, with three white beads in honour of the
Blessed Trinity and thirteen red beads in honour of the thirteen years of the Saint's life.
Devotees of Saint Philomena use a truncated version of the rosary in their special devotions to her. The Chaplet has three outer white beads, with thirteen inner red beads that are symbolic for each year of her short lifetime. The prayer suggestion for each is:
“ Hail, O holy Saint Philomena, whom I acknowledge, after Mary, as my advocate within the Divine Spouse, intercede for me now and at the hour of my death. ”
Devotionals are often given to young girls receiving their first Holy Communion or, on the 13th birthday, used primarily as a stepping-stone to practicing devotionals such as
the Holy Rosary.
English: Saint Philomena by Amaury-Duval (1808-1885)
Français : Sainte Philomène par Amaury-Duval (1808-1885).
Date: circa 1844
Wikimedia Commons.
On 21 December 1833, the
Holy Office declared that there was nothing contrary to the Catholic faith in the revelations that Sister Maria Luisa di Gesù (1799–1875), a Dominican tertiary from
Naples, claimed to have received from the Saint.
According to Sister Maria Luisa di Gesù, Saint Philomena told her she was the daughter of a king in Greece who, with his wife, had converted to Christianity. At the age of about 13, she took a vow of consecrated virginity. When the Emperor
Diocletian threatened to make war on her father, her father went with his family to Rome to ask for peace.
The Emperor fell in love with the young Philomena and, when she refused to be his wife, subjected her to a series of torments: scourging, from whose effects two angels cured her; drowning with an anchor attached to her (two angels cut the rope and raised her to the river bank); being shot with arrows, (on the first occasion her wounds were healed; on the second, the arrows turned aside; and on the third, they returned and killed six of the archers, after which, several of the others became Christians).
Finally, the Emperor had her decapitated. The story goes that the decapitation occurred on a Friday at three in the afternoon, as with the death of Jesus. The two anchors, three arrows, the palm and the ivy leaf on the tiles found in the tomb were interpreted as symbols of her martyrdom.
In these visions, Saint Philomena also revealed that her birthday was 10 January, that her martyrdom occurred on 10 August (the date also of the arrival of her relics in Mugnano del Cardinale), and that her name "Filumena" meant "daughter of light". (It is usually taken to be derived from a Greek word meaning "beloved".)
English: Magazine cover commemorating the
centenary of St. Philomena Parish.
Español: Portada de la revista conmemorativa del
2008.
(Wikimedia Commons)
On 13 January 1837, in the aftermath of the cure of Venerable Pauline Jaricot,
Pope Gregory XVI authorized liturgical celebration of Philomena on 11 August or, according to another source, originally on 9 September, first in the Diocese of
Nola (to which Mugnano del Cardinale belongs), and soon in several other dioceses in Italy.
On 31 January 1855,
Pope Pius IX approved a proper Mass and Office, dedicated to Saint Philomena, with confirmation of the decree
Etsi Decimo (Rescript of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, Papal Confirmation of Promotor of the Faith Brief
Etsi decimo, as submitted by Rev. Andrea Fratini, 31 January 1855).
On 6 October 1876, Father Louis Petit founded the
Confraternity of Saint Philomena in Paris, France. In August 1876, the first issue of "Messenger of Saint Philomena" was published there. In November 1886, the Confraternity was raised to the rank of Arch-Confraternity by
Pope Leo XIII. On 21 May 1912,
Pope Pius X raised it to the rank of Universal Arch-Confraternity with the Apostolic Brief
Pias Fidelium Societates.
The name of Philomena was not included in the
Roman Martyrology, the official List of Saints recognised by the
Catholic Church and in which the Saints are included, immediately upon canonisation. In the 1920 Typical Edition of the
Roman Missal, Philomena is mentioned, under 11 August (with an indication that the Mass for her Feast Day was to be taken entirely from the Common, so that there was no part, not even the C
ollect, that was Proper to her) in the section headed "Masses for some places", i.e. only those places for which it had been specially authorised.
Danmarks kyrka (The Danish Church), Diocese of Uppsala, Sweden.
Statue of Saint Philomena at entrance.
Author: Håkan Svensson (Xauxa).
August 2006.
Wikimedia Commons.
On 14 February 1961, the Holy See ordered that the name of Saint Philomena be removed from all Liturgical Calendars that mentioned her. This order was given as part of an instruction on the application to Local Calendars of the principles enunciated in the 1960
Code of Rubrics, which had already been applied to the General Roman Calendar.
Section 33 of this document ordered the removal from Local Calendars of fourteen named Feasts, but allowed them to be retained in places that had a special link with the Feast. It then added: "However, the Feast of Saint Philomena, Virgin and Martyr, (11 August) is to be expunged from any Calendar, whatever." This action did not call into question her existence or Sainthood, nor prohibit popular devotion to Saint Philomena. No suspension or prohibition of the Archconfraternity was issued.
The Holy See's instruction to remove the name of Philomena, even from local calendars, followed the raising of questions by certain scholars, whose interest had been drawn to the phenomenon more especially in connection with the revelations of Sister Maria Luisa di Gesù.
The questions were raised in particular by
Orazio Marucchi, whose conclusions won the support of
Johann Peter Kirsch, an archaeologist and ecclesiastical historian, who is the author of the article on Philomena in the
Catholic Encyclopedia, an article that has won the support of the historian, William Carroll; but, according to Mark Miravalle, the conclusions have been rejected by others.
St. Philomena in St. Sulpitius Church in Heudicourt, Eure.
Stone,
19th century, unknown sculptor.
Français : Sainte Philomène, dans l'église saint Sulpice d'Heudicourt (Eure).
Pierre, XIXe siècle, auteur inconnu.
June 2010.
(Wikimedia Commons)
The rector of the shrine in Mugnano del Cardinale disputes these findings. After reporting the decision of the Sacred Congregation of Rites in 1961, as resulting from the studies of scholars, the Italian-language Enciclopedia dei Santi says that there still remain the miracles that occurred and the official recognition that the Church gave in the 19th-Century, the personal devotion to Saint Philomena of Popes and people who were later Canonized, and the widespread general devotion that still persists, particularly at Mugnano del Cardinale in the Diocese of Nola, where pilgrims from all over the world arrive, continually, giving a display of intense popular devotion.
For many, the 1961 withdrawal of Pope Gregory XVI's 1837 authorisation of Liturgical Veneration of Saint Philomena in a limited number of places (which was not an official declaration that she never existed nor that she is not a Saint) merely means that the situation has returned to that existing before 1837, when in many places there was fervent devotion to her, accompanied only by vague speculation about the circumstances of her life and death or by belief in the revelations of the Neapolitan nun. The removal of an individual from the Calendar does not necessarily indicate that he or she is not a Saint.
The website of "The National Shrine of Saint Philomena, Miami, Florida" sees "the action taken in 1960 as the work of the devil in order to deprive the people of God of a most powerful Intercessor, particularly in the areas of purity and faith at a time when these virtues were so much being challenged as they continue to be up until now!"
Saint Philomena's Church, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Because of the Church's location near the riverfront, Saint Philomena's steeple was a well-known landmark on the Cincinnati skyline.
On July 7, 1915 a tornado damaged the steeple.
The steeple fell on a building across Pearl Street.
The Parish was closed in 1954. Records for this Parish are located at the Chancery Office of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, 100 E. 8th St., Cincinnati, Ohio 45202.
In his book, "It Is Time to Meet Saint Philomena", Mark Miravalle says that Pope Gregory XVI "Liturgically Canonised Philomena, in an act of the ordinary Papal
Magisterium". This contrasts with the usual view that canonisation is an exercise of infallible
Magisterium, declaring a truth that must be "definitively held".
The
Roman Martyrology contains the names of all the Saints who have been formally canonised, since "with the canonisation of a new Saint, that person is officially listed in the catalogue of Saints, or Martyrology", and "as soon as the beatification or canonisation event takes place, the person's name is technically part of the Roman Martyrology". It does not now contain and in fact never included the name of Philomena, which can be seen to be absent in the
1856 edition, published some twenty years after the 1837 decree.
That Saint Philomena was "never canonised", is stated in the Jesuit publication, "America", and by Michael Williams in "Commonweal".
Of course, lack of canonisation does not mean lack of Sainthood.
Canonisation was introduced only after many centuries of the Church's existence, and for that reason none of the Saints mentioned in the
Roman Rite Canon of the Mass was ever canonized.
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