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The saints

St. Philip Neri

The apostle of Rome, a priest of joy and practical jokes.

Feast: 26 May · 1515 to 1595 · Reformation and missions · Florence and Rome

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Painting of St. Philip Neri kneeling in prayer in red vestments.

Didier Descouens, 2016. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Home / The saints / St. Philip Neri

Rome, 1550s

Philip came to Rome as a young man from Florence and lived as a layman for years, praying in the catacombs.1

He walked the streets talking to young men, and they followed him into prayer and good works.1

He became a priest at thirty-six, and his confessional was always full.

Patronage No official patronage we can cite yet. The Church remembers him as the Apostle of Rome and founder of the Oratory.

01St. Philip Neri

The Oratory

He gathered people for prayer, Scripture, music and talks, and the gatherings became the Congregation of the Oratory.1

He used humor to keep himself humble, once shaving off half his beard.1

Live it this week

Laugh at yourself

Philip kept himself humble with jokes at his own expense. This week, when you make a mistake in front of others, laugh about it instead of defending yourself.

Notes

How we know · 1 source for this page
  1. Franciscan Media, Saint of the Day: “Saint Philip Neri”. franciscanmedia.org. franciscanmedia.org

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: World English Bible, Catholic edition (public domain); Verse numbers are modern, with Douay-Rheims numbers in brackets where they differ. Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an errorCorrections.