The Virtual Oratory

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

She has died and most of her 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. 

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.  

"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 teh 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

Philip's favorite reading besides the Bible included the desert tradition in Cassian's Conferences.