Philip Neri was a sign of contradiction, combining popularity with piety against the background of a corrupt Rome and a disinterested clergy, the whole post-Renaissance malaise.

At an early age, he abandoned the chance to become a businessman, moved to Rome from Florence and devoted his life and individuality to God. After three years of philosophy and theology studies, he gave up any thought of ordination. The next 13 years were spent in a vocation unusual at the time—that of a layperson actively engaged in prayer and the apostolate.

As the Council of Trent was reforming the Church on a doctrinal level, Philip’s appealing personality was winning him friends from all levels of society, from beggars to cardinals. He rapidly gathered around himself a group of laypersons won over by his audacious spirituality. Initially they met as an informal prayer and discussion group, and also served poor people in Rome.

At the urging of his confessor, he was ordained a priest and soon became an outstanding confessor, gifted with the knack of piercing the pretenses and illusions of others, though always in a charitable manner and often with a joke. He arranged talks, discussions and prayers for his penitents in a room above the church. He sometimes led “excursions” to other churches, often with music and a picnic on the way.

Some of his followers became priests and lived together in community. This was the beginning of the Oratory, the religious institute he founded. A feature of their life was a daily afternoon service of four informal talks, with vernacular hymns and prayers. Giovanni Palestrina was one of Philip’s followers, and composed music for the services.

The Oratory was finally approved after suffering through a period of accusations of being an assembly of heretics, where laypersons preached and sang vernacular hymns! (Cardinal Newman founded the first English-speaking house of the Oratory three centuries later.)

Philip’s advice was sought by many of the prominent figures of his day. He is one of the influential figures of the Counter-Reformation, mainly for converting to personal holiness many of the influential people within the Church itself. His characteristic virtues were humility and gaiety.

Local connection

In 1990 Bishop Mugavero, seeking a permanent home for the new Brooklyn Oratory of St. Philip Neri, entrusted to them the pastoral care of St. Boniface parish. After years of extensive renewal, the Brooklyn Oratory today provides a home for a new generation of pilgrims. You may visit the Oratory in Downtown Brooklyn off of Fulton Street at 190 Duffield Street.

Publication: Brooklyn Eagle;

Date: Sep 6, 1897;

Section: None;

Page: 5

Brought to Sacred Hearts-St. Stephen Church by the people of Ischia, the image of Santa Restituta can be found on the Sacred Heart side of the church in the center of the second Altar from the entrance of the church.

She was said to be born at Carthage or at Hippo Diarrhytus (today known as Bizerte, Tunisia) and became a martyr under Diocletian. The exact place and time of her martyrdom lacks precise historical data. She is sometimes considered one of the Martyrs of Abitina, a group of North African martyrs that incluyes Dativus, Saturninus, and others.

A later medieval legend, recounted by Pietro Suddiacono in the 10th century and similar to legends associated with Saints Devota, Reparata, and Torpes of Pisa, states that after being horribly tortured, Restituta was placed in a blazing boat loaded with oakum and resin. Restituta was unharmed by the fire, and asked for aid from God. God sent an angel to guide her boat to the island of Aenaria (present-day Ischia), and she landed at the present-day site of San Montano. The legend further states that a local Christian woman named Lucina had dreamt of the angel and the boat. When she walked to the beach, she found the resplendent and incorrupt body of Restituta, who was now dead. Lucina gathered the population together and the saint was solemnly buried at the foot of Monte Vico in Lacco Ameno, where a paleochristian basilica was dedicated to her, and is now the site of a sanctuary dedicated to her.

However, the spread of her cult from North Africa to Italy is historically associated with the expulsion of Catholics from North Africa by Genseric, king of the Vandals, who followed the Arian sect. Her relics may have been brought to Naples in the fifth century by Gaudiosus of Naples when he was exiled from North Africa. A church, Santa Restituta, was built in her honour in Naples in the sixth century. The church was then incorporated into the Cathedral of Naples built on the same site in the 13th century. She is the patron saint of Lacco Ameno. She is especially venerated on the island of Ischia and at Lacco Ameno, where she is celebrated in a three-day celebration running from May 16 to May 18.

A crypt associated with Restituta can be found at Cagliari, in the neighborhood of Stampace.