The Virtual Oratory

The best introduction to Philip Neri is anything by Meriol Trevor, an English amateur historian with a flair for writing. Her obit is here.

Her children's books are in print in the UK but  most of her church writing is out of print but avaialble in Alibris and ABE.

The best sermon on Philip is by, of course, Cardinal Newman. Part I. Part II. 

www.oxfordoratory.org.uk is a good contact for Oratorian saints and a hearty and traditional Oratory community in Newman's beloved Oxford. The Church of St Aloysius which the Oratorians now staff is a former Jesuit mission where the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins was stationed for a little while. 

Philip Neri, said one preacher, "absent mindedly" founded the Oratory. The Oratory began as a lay movement gathering in an oratory, a place of prayer, and some members got ordained to keep it going after lay leadership in the Church got a bad reputation from the Protestant Reformation. Philip did not intend to found it. 

He is a non-cloistered mystic, a secular priest, not a monk, allowing a community to gather around him that consisted of laity (secular Oratorians), priests and brothers (congregational Oratorians).

He is the patron saint of joy but it is hard to find a picture of him looking joyful! If you find one, let us know!

He lived from 1515 until 1595. He was born in Florence and came to Rome as a young man. This section will highlight what others have said of Philip who had great faith in the work of the Spirit in secular life.  

 This is being posted in honor of Sept 8th, a Marian feast day. The subject is the meeting of a pregnant virgin, Mary, and a pregnant senior, Elizabeth, her cousin. These two women have more faith than the apostles chosen by Jesus. The apostles will only catch up with them after the Resurrection. In the meantime, the mother of Jesus and the mother of John the Baptist, embrace and help make it all possible. 

The picture is by F. Barocci and it is part of a side altar in the Oratorian church, the Chiesa Nuova, in Rome. Thanks to PW for introducing Fr. Hal to this colorful and humane artist. 

 +++

 In an old etching Philip who wanted to the missions with Francis Xavier was told by a monk to stay in Rome..."Rome will be your Indies."

"The whole of Philip's work grew out of the gathering in an upper room, an oratory, the informal learning together of the way of the Gospel, the way of the Spirit. Even the priests who eventually formed the Congregation which called him founder--though he often said he never meant to found anything--became 'Fathers of the Oratory.' It was their  vocation to keep the Oratory going, and the Oratory itself was a centre for priests and people to learn how to pray and how to live in the Spirit while still living in the world."

MERIOL TREVOR, The Apostle of Rome, St Philip Neri