PHILOMENA, ST., THE LEGEND OF

In 1802 archeologists unearthed a tomb in the Catacomb of St. Priscilla. The remains appeared to belong to a young woman of the second or third century. Nearby were tiles painted in red: LUMENA PAXTE cuм FI, with images of a whip, arrows, anchors, a lily, and palm. They reconstructed this as PAX TEcuм FIILUMENA, "Peace [be] with you, Filumena." The tiles were thought to have sealed the original tomb. The images were taken to be instruments of a martyr's suffering and emblems of her purity and heavenly victory.

Nothing was known of any historical Philomena. Eminent archeologists insisted that the tiles came from a nearby tomb. Despite these efforts to dampen the enthusiasm of those who declared these the bones of a martyr, within two decades there was a flourishing cult of Philomena, a detailed biography, and reports of many miracles. In 1961 the Congregation of Rites struck her feast from the Roman Calendar for lack of historical evidence of her existence, along with that of St. Christopher. The rise of Philomena's cult and her continuing veneration into the twenty-first century need to be read against the background of the duel between traditional religiosity and modern rationalism.

The cult of St. Philomena arose and spread in this environment. Religious orders including the newly reestablished Jesuits appreciated Philomena as model of Christian perseverance in a time not unlike the period of persecution by the ancient Roman empire. Bishops who visited Rome in the 19th century often brought home relics as this was a period when many catacombs were being excavated. In 1805, Father Francesco di Lucia of Mugnano del Cardenale petitioned for the relics. After being denied them, he was cured of a fever. He attributed his cure to Philomena. After much persistence he was granted the relics and enshrined them in his home town in 1832.

Reports of miracles during and after the relics were brought to the shrine advanced the cult. Sister Maria Louisa, Superior General of the Sisters of Sorrow of Mary (d.1875), recorded visions of Philomena whose biography stressed chastity and resistence to persecution. In 1832 di Lucia recorded the biography, the story of the discovery of the relics, and many miracles, along with an essay on chastity. Eminent Catholics supported her cause including John Vianney, Madeleine Sophie Barat, Pierre-Julien Eymard, and Pauline Jaricot. In 1855 the Congregation of Rites established a feast day (Sept. 9), Mass, and Office for her.

Even when her feast was officially suppressed, her devotees continued to ask for and attribute cures to her intercession. Her omission from the calendar was not a prohibition of private devotion, but it does mean that the [Conciliar Church] Congregation of Rites found insufficient evidence regarding her to mandate a place in the calendar or to allow the naming of official Catholic institutions for her.

Bibliography: F. DI LUCIA, Relazione istorica della translazione del sacro corpo e miracoli di santa Filomena vergine e martire da Roma a Mugnano del Cardenale (1834). A. BUTLER, The Lives of the Saints, rev. ed. H. THURSTON and D. ATTWATER, 4 v. (New York 1956) 3:299–301. Acta Apostolicae Sedis 53 (1961) 174. S. LA SALVIA, "L'inventione di un culto: S. Filomena de taumaturga a guerriera della fede," in Culto de santi e classi sociali in età preindustriale (1984).

[M. A. TILLEY]

(source)

On February 14, 1961, Roncalli, the visible head of the Robber Church, aided by his hit men, attempted to "unperson" St. Philomena by means of a single sentence that appeared on p. 174 of Vol. LIII of Acta Apostasticae[sic*] Sedis: "Festum autem S. Philumenae V. et M. (11 augusti) e quolibet calendario expungatur." "On the other hand, the feast of St. Philomena Virgin and Martyr (August 11th) is expunged from every calendar."

The forgoing is the final sentence in a section of Chapter V (of a decree of S.R.C.).  The heading of this section reads: "De festis quae communiter <<devotionis>> vocantur": "Regarding feasts commonly called 'devotional'."  Next follows a list of fourteen feasts which could accurately be described as being purely "devotional" (for example, "The Crown of Thorns" and "The Flight into Egypt").  A concession is then made: "Such are feasts that can be retained if they are connected with a special necessity in certain places."

Not so lenient is what comes next: "On the other hand, the feast of St. Philomena Virgin and Martyr (August 11th) is expunged from every calendar."  What's wrong with this picture?  In the first place, St. Philomena's feast on August 11th is not in any sense "devotional," as the very heading of the section purports to be discussing.  It is the feast of a Virgin Martyr in the Church's sanctoral cycle to be celebrated with the Mass Loquebar.

In the second place, in the section "Proprium Sanctorum pro Aliquibus Locis" of altar missals, in which the Masses for the aforesaid fourteen "devotional" feasts appear, we also find the propers of the Mass for the feasts of twenty-three saints including St. Philomena, all of which feasts are by no means "devotional," for they have their place in the sanctoral cycle of the Church's liturgy.  Twenty-two of the twenty-three feast days of saints escaped "expunging," the sole exception being that of St. Philomena.

There's plenty wrong with this picture!  The gangsters' hit on St. Philomena was clumsy.  Their intention was clearly to eliminate her.  But how and where?  In a separate section?  No, that would have been too obvious.  And so, as a last resort it was done by inappropriately slapping on her condemnation as the final sentence of a section devoted to a totally unrelated matter: Regarding feasts commonly called 'DEVOTIONAL'.

Although expunging St. Philomena's feast "from every calendar" was a serious matter, it was not the same as striking her name from the list of saints; that is, an attempt to "de-canonize" her.  Nevertheless it was widely interpreted as such (a result that was probably intended).  For example, it merited a mention in the "Britannica Book of the Year 1962".  On p. 588 there was also a photo by Ted Polumbaum that originally appeared in Life, depicting a worker smashing a 5-foot casting used for making statues of the Saint.

The striking from the Church's list of saints the name of a saint already canonized, by its denial of the infallibility of the Church in Her canonizations would be an heretical action, and it would also thereby deny Her indefectibility.  After the February 14th St. Valentine's Day Massacre, The Robber Church's "Ministry of Truth" waited two months before doing exactly this, namely, in effect declaring to the world that the Sovereign Pontiff Gregory XVI erred in canonizing St. Philomena: "On April 18, 1961, the Congregation of Rites struck Philomena's name from the list of saints for lack of historical evidence."(95)  (There is no recording of this in AAS.)

...
95 PHILOMENA, ST., LEGEND OF, the article by E. Day on p. 292 in Vol. 11 of the NEW Catholic Encyclopedia.

(source)

St. Philomena's cult was extended to the Universal Church:

Far more than one solitary papal act by Pope Gregory XVI, the papal Magisterium has repeatedly encouraged the nature and growth of ecclesial devotion to Saint Philomena, in official recognition of her status as a Saint, in public liturgical and devotional sanctions which extended to the universal faith and life of the Church, and thereby manifesting official and essential liturgical and devotional characteristics of her status as a Saint as defined by the Church.

(source)
Also, when Pope St. Pius X, on May 21, 1912, established the Universal Archconfraternity of St. Philomena, she cannot be considered just a "local saint" (source)

In 1912, Pope St. Pius X said (source):

To discredit the present decisions and declarations concerning St. Philomena as not being permanent, stable, valid and effective, necessary for obedience, and in full-effect for all eternity, proceeds from an element that is null and void and without merit or authority.

He wasn't alone among the saints and blesseds who knew St. Philomena to be a saint (St. John Vianney, Bl. Maria Anna Taigi, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, Bl. Pope Pius IX, St. Pio of Pietrelcina, et al.)

What is absurd is that archeological excavations, which should deepen one's devotion to St. Philomena, made John XXIII, like a good Modernist, indeed consider it a "duel between traditional religiosity and modern rationalism."

What's most absurd about the St. Philomena "fiasco" is that the [Conciliar Church] Congregation of Rites does not, as the New "Catholic" Encyclopedia article above says, "allow the naming of official Catholic institutions for her." What saints can't we name official Catholic institutions after&#8253;

I hope I live long enough to see his wretched old ass "'de-canonized.'"

I would just re-word that, and say that they should not be canonized, but as Geremia has said elsewhere CANNONIZED!