Saint Philip Neri was an Italian priest noted for founding a society of secular clergy called the Congregation of the Oratory. He was also known as the “Second Apostle of Rome” after Saint Peter.
Saint Philip Neri was carefully brought up, and received his early teaching from the friars at San Marco, the famous Dominican monastery in Florence. At the age of 18, in 1533, Philip was sent to his uncle, Romolo, a wealthy merchant at San Germano, to assist him in his business, and with the hope that he might inherit his uncle’s fortune. But soon after coming to San Germano, Philip had a religious conversion. From then onward, he no longer cared for things of the world and decided in 1533 to live in Rome.
He began those labors amongst the sick and poor which, in later life, gained him the title of “Apostle of Rome”. He also ministered to the prostitutes of the city. In 1538 he entered into the home mission work for which he became famous, traveling throughout the city, seeking opportunities of entering into conversation with people, and of leading them to consider the topics he set before them. For seventeen years Philip lived as a layman in Rome, probably without thinking of becoming a priest. But in 1551, Saint Philip Neri received all the minor orders, and was ordained deacon and finally priest.
Saint Philip Neri embodied several contradictions, combining popular veneration with intensely individual piety. He became deeply involved with the Church while seeking to reform a corrupt Rome and an indifferent clergy. He is one of the influential figures of the Counter-Reformation and is noted for converting to personal holiness many of the influential people within the Church itself.
