St. Philip Neri

So how many of you know about St. Philip Neri? I have found out several things about him. He is surely one of the greats. He had a burning love for our Lord God and his neighbor. He is known as the Apostle of Rome and can be called an Apostle to the Laity as well. He would indeed then be a saint in our times to invoke often. I must say that he is now very much a favortie saint of mine. This website has some good information, prayers, and devotions concerning St. Philip Neri, including maxims, or sayings, of his for each day throughout the year: http://members.aol.com/liturgialatina/. Enjoy!

St. Philip Neri
Miniature Lives of the Saints
Philip was one of the noble line of Saints raised up by God in the sixteenth century to console and bless His Church. After a childhood of angelic beauty, the Holy Spirit drew him away from Florence, the place of his birth, showed him the world that he might freely renounce it, led him to Rome, modeled him in mind and heart and will, and then, as by a second Pentecost, came down in visible form and filled his soul with light and peace and joy. He would have gone to India, but God reserved him for Rome. There he went on simply from day to day, drawing souls to Jesus, exercising them in mortification and charity, and binding them together by cheerful devotions ; thus, unconsciously to himself, under the hands of Mary as he said, the Oratory grew up, and all Rome was pervaded and transformed by its spirit. His life was a continuous miracle, his habitual state an ecstasy. He read the hearts of men, foretold their future, knew their eternal destiny. His touch gave health of body; his very look calmed souls in trouble and drove away temptations. He was gay, genial, and irresistibly winning; neither insult nor wrong could dim the brightness of his joy. A gentle jest would convey his rebukes and veil his miracles. The highest honors sought him out, but he put them from him. He died in his eightieth year, A.D. 1595, and bears the grand title of Apostle of Rome. Ω