Philipp Neri

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Philipp Neri

Saint Filippo Romolo Neri , German Philipp Neri , (* July 21, 1515 in Florence , † May 26, 1595 in Rome ) was an outstanding figure of the Counter-Reformation in Rome in the 16th century and sometimes bears the honorary title "Apostle of Rome". He founded the Congregation of the Oratory and is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church .

Life

Childhood and youth

Philipp was born in Florence as the youngest child of the notary Francesco Neri and his wife Lucrezia Soldi. He was influenced early by the Florentine Dominicans of San Marco , whose prior Girolamo Savonarola had been and to whom he remained grateful for life.

At the age of sixteen he came to live with a childless cousin of his father Romolo Neri, who was a merchant in San Germano and whose heir he was to become. But Philip left him and turned to Rome, where he became tutor to his Florentine compatriot Galeotto Caccia. He also studied with the Augustinians and began his apostolate among the poor and sick, prisoners and pilgrims in need . He spent a lot of time in the churches and spent nights in prayer in the catacombs of San Sebastiano.

The founding of the oratorio

Philipp Neri actually came to Rome to study, but in view of the plight of the vulnerable and homeless pilgrims to Rome, decided to devote himself to sheltering and caring for the poor and sick. To this end, he founded the Arch-Brotherhood of the Pilgrims and the Sick of the Most Holy Trinity (Ss. Trinità dei Pellegrini e Convalescenti) in 1548 and a little later the Hospice Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini , in which the pilgrims received free board and lodging as "guests of God".

Relatively late in 1551, on the advice of his confessor, he became a priest of the brotherhood of San Girolamo della Carità . Despite the urge to go to India as a missionary , he stayed on the advice of his confessor, who had told him, "Your India is Rome". In the evening he met with companions in his chamber, later in a somewhat larger room next to it, called the oratory (“prayer room” or “chapel”), for prayer, hymns , readings from the Scriptures and from texts of the fathers and saints , followed by a free exchange.

At the request of the Florentines and Pope Pius IV , he and his brothers took over pastoral care at the newly built national church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini directly on the Tiber opposite the Vatican City from 1564 , but continued his oratorio meetings. The later Cardinal Cesare Baronio was one of the members, who moved Philip to give lectures on the history of Christianity at the evening meetings and later to write the first church history under the title Annales . The group also included the future cardinal and archbishop of Avignon Francesco Maria Tarugi , the future cardinal Paravicini and his later biographer and saints author Gallonius, as well as Ancina and Bordoni. The one-day pilgrimage to the traditional seven Roman pilgrimage churches , first revived privately by Philipp , was also cultivated among his students and eventually grew into real mass events with hundreds of participants.

In 1574 the Florentines built a new oratory next to San Giovanni for the steadily growing community , where the meetings were relocated. It soon became clear, however, that the oratory , as both the meeting place, the community and the prayer meetings themselves were called, needed its own church and additional rooms. The small parish church of Santa Maria in Vallicella in the center of Rome seemed ideal, the construction of a large new church with an adjoining building for the oratory began. On July 15, 1575, the oratory was established as a congregation by a papal bull . In 1577 the new church of the oratory was consecrated, which from then on was also called Chiesa nuova ("new church") for short . Philip, as superior of the oratory , was only able to decide to move from San Girolamo to the new place of work in 1583 at the express request of the Pope.

Philip valued simple folk tunes, but with the help of his confessor Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and others he liked to sound them at a high level and in contemporary polyphony . This is how the musical form of the oratorio came about .

Act

Philipp Neri, portrait by Giuseppe Nogari

In 1593 Pope Clement VIII lifted the excommunication of Henry IV of France. Philip had urged the Pope's confessor, his pupil Baronius , to refuse absolution to the Pope until he relented .

The numerous humorous and often extremely bizarre anecdotes surrounding Philip's life, the unconventionality and blunt directness, sometimes obscure the view of Neri's mystical orientation.

After his death, the autopsy found the heart enlarged and two ribs broken, which his students traced back to an experience of God that Philip had at Pentecost in 1544 in the catacombs of San Sebastiano. Referring to the biographies of Philipp Neri, Hildebrand Troll writes : “When he '(Philipp Neri)' surrendered to prayer in Rome in the Sebastian catacombs, he felt more than ever overwhelmed by God's love. He thinks he sees a fiery ball coming towards him from on high and taking hold of his innermost being. After the rapture, he noticed how the chest wall had risen above his heart and the ribs had expanded. Since then, every religious thought, every elevation of one's soul to God, has been linked to a heartbeat, the abnormal strength of which is perceived by those standing around. This phenomenon was noticed by countless contemporaries. The result of an autopsy after the saint's death also confirms her credibility. "

Numerous miracles were said of Philipp even during his lifetime. In connection with sacred things, he tried to protect himself towards the end of his life against ever more frequent ecstasies . When word got around in Rome that he had been seen floating at the altar at mass , he only celebrated the Eucharist with the assistance of an altar boy in a chapel outside the church. Philip knocked out the cardinal's hat several times.

In 1583 Philip was the initiator of the establishment of a college for Polish candidates for the priesthood , which resulted in today's Pontifical Polish College in Rome .

The foresight of the Popes

Hildebrand Troll writes that Philipp Neri foresaw the result of almost all conclaves of his time, and quotes his oldest biographer Antonio Gallonio from the Acta Sanctorum of May in Volume VI on page 507: “Illud de beato Patre hic mirabile adjiciam, ... quod Romana Sede Pastore orbata, semper ferme, nunc dormiens, nunc vigilans, nomen illius, qui in Summum Pontificem eligendus erat, maxima voce pronuntiari audiebat: quam rem paucis admodum viris aperire consueverat " (" I would like to add the following amazing things about the blessed father: almost whenever the papal chair of his shepherd was orphaned, he heard, now asleep, now while awake, the name of the one who would be elected Pope in a very loud voice; he was in the habit of confiding this fact to very few people ”) .

Troll also quotes the biographer Girolamo Branabei on page 599 of the Acta Sanctorum : "Philippus futurorum pontificum electiones ferme omnes divinitus praevidebat" ("Philip foresaw almost all elections of the future popes through divine inspiration"). According to Troll, this biographer also shows how Philip revealed the name of the cardinal to his confidants, who will be leaving the conclave as Pope. Occasionally he also predicts the day and hour when this will happen and the name the newly elected will take. And Troll also mentions that these events were also discussed during the canonization process of Philipp Neris. This is the main reason why many assume that he wrote part of what is known as the Malachian prophecy .

Adoration

Shortly after his death, Philipp Neri was beatified by Pope Paul V in 1600 . On March 12, 1622, the canonization took place together with Ignatius of Loyola , Francis Xavier , Theresa of Ávila and Isidore of Madrid , whereupon the mocking speech went in Rome, Pope Gregory XV. would have raised four Spaniards and a saint to the altars. The feast day of St. Philipp Neri is May 26th . The Society of Apostolic Life Institute St. Philipp Neri in Berlin is subordinate to his patronage .

The life of Philipp Neri is the subject of the oratorio San Filippo Neri (1705) by Alessandro Scarlatti based on a libretto by Pietro Ottoboni . Johann Wolfgang von Goethe declared Philipp to be his favorite saint on his Italian trip .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Alfonso Capecelatro: La Vita di S. Filippo Neri, 2 volumes, Milan, 1884; Lois Ponnelle et Louis Bordet: Saint Philippe Néri et la société romaine de son temps, 3rd edition, Paris, 1929. Hildebrand Troll adds to the latter quote: “The work of Ponnelle and Bordet is based on years of research in archives and libraries in Rome , Florence, Milan and Naples. Later biographies are more or less dependent on their results. ”In addition, Troll names four such biographies as examples, but also points out that the testimonies in the canonization process of Philipp Neris have been largely evaluated by Ponnelle and Bordet.
  2. ↑ a b Hildebrand Troll: The Pope's prophecy of St. Malachia. A contribution to solving their secret. EOS-Verlag, St. Ottilien 2002, ISBN 3-8306-7099-0 .
  3. ^ A b Acta Sanctorum Maii, Tomus VI, 1688. Retrieved March 7, 2013.

literature

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Neri, Philipp
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Neri, Filippo Romolo (Italian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Catholic reformer and saint
DATE OF BIRTH July 21, 1515
PLACE OF BIRTH Florence
DATE OF DEATH May 26, 1595
Place of death Rome