Saint Who?
Saints Who Could Read Souls
Saint Philip Neri
Priest and founder († 1595) Feast: May 26
“A heart filled with joy is more easily made perfect than one that is sad.” Philip Neri, the “Apostle of Rome,” traveled to the eternal city when he was about eighteen. At twenty-nine, he had a mystical experience in which he received the Holy Spirit as a ball of flame; subsequently his heart was enlarged so much that two of his ribs were displaced. It is said that his heart sometimes beat so powerfully that his bed and even his room would shake.
He considered becoming a hermit or a missionary, but realized that Rome was to be his desert and his missionary field. He lived there the rest of his life, spending many years as a kind of lay evangelist before becoming a priest in 1551. He was an enormously popular confessor, willing to receive penitents at any time. His home, where he often received forty penitents before dawn, became a place of joy, and was dubbed the “Shelter of Christian Mirth.”
Philip had the gift of reading hearts, and could restore peace to his spiritual children by resting their heads over his Spirit-filled heart. He was adamant about the importance of cultivating a cheerful spirit, and was gentle with penitents, saying that “he who wants to be well obeyed should give few commands.” He died in 1595.
O Holy Spirit, through the intercession of
Saint Philip Neri, fill our hearts with holy joy.
