Philip Neri, whose feast is May 26th, helped rejuvenate the Catholic church in the city of Rome following the Protestant reformation in the 16th century. He is an example of how saints reform the church.

The Catholic Church needed reformers at this time. The popes in the 50 years or so Phillip lived in the city ranged from worldly men to strict ascetics. St. John Newman describes the time:in a sermon he preached on Philip Neri.

“The Church was at this time so environed, so implicated, with sin and lawlessness, as to appear in the eyes of the world to be what she was not. Never, as then, were her rulers, some in higher, some in lower degree, so near compromising what can never be compromised; never so near denying in private what they taught in public, and undoing by their lives what they professed with their mouths; never were they so mixed up with vanity, so tempted by pride, so haunted by concupiscence; never breathed they so tainted an atmosphere, or were kissed by such traitorous friends, or were subjected to such sights of shame, or were clad in such blood-stained garments, as in the centuries upon and in which St. Philip came into the world.”

Philip came to Rome as a young man, became a priest and never left the city. He loved fell the city’s history, its churches and holy places. He roamed the catacombs of St. Sebastian where early Christian martyrs were buried and was a regular guide for pilgrims searching for meaning. He promoted pilgrimages to the great churches of St.Peter’s, St.Paul outside the Walls, St. Lawrence, St. Sebastian, Holy Cross, St. John Lateran and St. Mary Major. They are still the major pilgrim churches of the city.

Philip inspired saints like Charles Borromeo and Pius V. Along with St. Ignatius Loyola and his Jesuits, Philip brought new spiritual life to Rome.

Philip was a familiar figure on the Roman streets where he engaged ordinary people, especially the young, with cheerfulness and simple conversation. People listened to him and he listened to them. He made people aware of the beauty and joy of an ancient faith.

n his day Protestants were turning to history to back up their claims against the Catholic Church. Philip encouraged Catholic scholars and historians like Caesar Baronius to look into the history of their church with fairness and accuracy.  Baronius said of him: “I love the man especially because he wants the truth and doesn’t permit falsehood of any kind.” He supported Galileo: “The bible teaches the way to go to heaven, not the way the heavens go.”

In promoting an honest study of church history and archeology Philip was influential in helping the Catholic Church examine its traditions and roots. At a time fierce controversy between Protestants and Catholics was the norm. Philip brought gentleness, cheerfulness and friendship and a search for truth to Christian reform. He believed reform would best come about by showing the beauty of faith in art, music and tradition. 

He was an unassuming man. A biographer said “ his aim was to do much without appearing to do anything.”

St. John Paul II, writing about St. Philip Neri, offered these wise sayings of the saint:

“Leafing through the biography of St Philip, in fact, one is surprised and fascinated by the cheerful and relaxed method he used to educate, supporting each person with fraternal generosity and patience. As is well known, the saint used to put his teaching into short and wise maxims: ‘Be good, if you can’, ‘Scruples and melancholy, stay away from my house’; ‘Be simple and humble’; ‘He who does not pray is a speechless animal’ and, bringing his hand to his forehead, ‘Holiness is three fingers deep”‘ Behind the cleverness of these and many other “sayings”, we are aware of the acute and realistic knowledge he had acquired of human nature and the dynamics of grace. He translated the experience of his long life and the wisdom of a heart inhabited by the Holy Spirit into these immediate, terse teachings. These aphorisms have now become a patrimony of wisdom as it were for Christian spirituality.

Here’s one of his prayers I like: ” Let me get through today, and I won’t worry about tomorrow.”

He died in Rome on May 26, 1595, at eighty years of age.

God our Father, you are continually raising to the glory of holiness  those who serve you faithfully.In your love, hear our prayer:  let the Holy Spirit inflame us with that fire with which, in so admirable a way,  he took possession of Saint Philip’s heart.Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,  who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,  one God, for ever and ever.Amen.

For more on St.Philip: http://www.liturgialatina.org/oratorian/bacci2.htm#7