JOY is one of the 12 fruits of the Holy Spirit. It is a pleasure to be with people who are cheerful. They radiate an inner glow seen and felt by those around them. Their faces light up when they smile, they speak cheerfully and behave gently.
While all saints share deep happiness and peace which are graces from the Lord, “ranked in their capacity to express their inner joy, no doubt, Saint Philip Neri would outrank all his fellow saints,” according to Fr. Nil Guillemette, SJ.
Gifted with a “special sense of humor,” The Vatican II Weekday Missal calls Neri “the Saint of Joy.”
Holy clown
In The Cedars of Lebanon, Father Guillemette says: “Through his wild antics and clowning, he would try to hide his ecstasies, divine visitations and other mystical phenomena which marked his interior life.”
Not only to “conceal his holiness but also instill humility in others,” adds the famous French historian of the church, Henri Daniel Rops in The Catholic Reformation.
In the streets of Rome, Neri stands out as a tall odd-looking fellow, bald with bushy beard acting wildly, talks and laughs with anyone he happened to meet.
He would drop witty remarks, share popular jokes and make fun of himself that others would not take him seriously. It is his “ease and playfulness” that endeared him to others.
Rops narrates that when rebuked for his shabby clothes, he would appear the next day in costly furs and walk more earnestly with sacred solemnity than a cardinal in a procession.
If applauded after a spiritual talk, he would walk unsteadily like a drunkard then break into a fantastic dance.
The apostle Paul aptly describes his actuations as that of “a fool for Christ’s sake” (1 Corinthians 4:10) and the audience was truly entertained by his antics.
Lived under God’s guidance
Neri was born in Florence, Italy, in 1575. He is called Pippo Buono (Good little Philip) because he is very obedient. He finished his classical studies at 18, then was sent to Romolo, an uncle, a merchant of San Germano, to be trained as his heir in business.
But after a mystical experience, he lost interest in business, and with no definite plan on what to do, left for Rome, trusting in God’s guidance.
My First Book of Saints by Fr. Paolo Pirlo, SHMI, includes the saint’s mystical experience during a Pentecost vigil in 1544.
As he was praying in the Catacombs of Saint Sebastian, a globe of fire entered through his mouth and enlarged his breast. Filled with Holy Spirit he exclaimed: “Enough Lord, I can bear no more.” In Rome, he lived in an attic praying and fasting.
He tutored two children of a Florentine nobleman and for three years studied theology and philosophy.
After three years, he sold his books and started evangelization work in Rome.
Father Guillemette writes that Rome was in a deplorable condition economically and spiritually. So from 1538 to 1551, “while re-evangelizing paganized Rome,” Neri was also helping the poor and the sick, and converted many people to the faith.
He was a familiar figure in the marketplace with the missionary greeting: “Well, brother, when shall we begin to do good?”
After 13 years, in obedience to his spiritual confessor, he was ordained priest. It was June 1551 and he was already 36 years old.
He had many followers who gathered every afternoon with him in a room above San Girolano Church. When several of his followers became priests, he encouraged them to live as a community. So in 1551 the Congregation of the Oratory was founded and was approved by Pope Gregory XIII in 1575.
Often, while celebrating Mass, Neri falls in ecstasy that lasts for several hours.
A “very great mystic of visible graces and charisma, many great men became his friends, some of them Saint Charles Borromeo, Popes Pius IV, Pius V, Gregory XIII, Gregory XIV and Clement VII.
He died while in the confessional box in 1595. He was 80 years old. His final blessing, “Last of all we must die.”
Neri was canonized in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV.
His feast day is on May 26.
Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education-National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris College in Laguna.
Image credits: Wikimedia Commons