A Wisdom Firm But Warm: St. Philip Neri and the Birth of the Oratory

“When many sought a guide

In times of stress and storm

The fortunate in Philip found

A wisdom firm but warm.”

Father Dominic Jacob, Cong. Orat., and Amanda Hill.

Rome, 1544. It is a few days before Pentecost, and a young Florentine is walking into the Catacombs of San Sebastiano to pray. Many of the buildings he passes lie half-ruined, victims of the Spanish sack of 1527. Across the Tiber, Pope Paul III is desperately seeking to rally a Church that has lost England, Scandinavia, and much of the Holy Roman Empire. As Philip Neri descends into the ancient tombs of Rome’s martyrs, he seeks the graces of the Holy Spirit, to whom he has long been devoted. When he emerges, his prayers have been answered beyond anything he could have imagined. He has been set on a path that will not only lead him to sainthood, but that will lead to the birth of one of Christendom’s greatest congregations.

St. Philip would not reveal that day’s miracle for almost another fifty years. As age drew on, however, he revealed the story to his disciple Cardinal Federigo Borromeo. As he had knelt in San Sebastiano, a great globe of fire had entered his heart, filling it with a burning sensation as joyful as it was violent. For the rest of his life, St. Philip bore in his chest a heart swollen with love- no mere metaphor, but a fact confirmed by an autopsy that showed two false ribs had been broken on the day of “St Philip’s Pentecost”. In the years immediately succeeding this event, however, his piety and virtue were quietly expressed in his work in Rome’s hospitals and the informal spiritual counsel he offered to the Florentine community in Rome. Nevertheless, by 1548 St Philip felt God’s call towards a more structured form of life, and began to sow the seeds which would grow into the first Oratory.

As St. Philip humbly ministered in Rome, it was becoming clear that new groups would be needed to counter the attacks of Protestantism, beginning with the foundation of the Jesuits by his contemporary, the Spaniard St. Ignatius of Loyola. At a time when the Papacy was denounced in eschatological and scatological terms by Martin Luther et al, the Jesuits emphasised humble obedience to the Holy See and its missions. This was combined with a spiritual emphasis on detachment from particular places, leading the Jesuits to become central to the itinerant missionary activity both in the New World and in Protestant Europe. However, while St. Philip was an ardent supporter of the Jesuits, he saw the need for a more stable model that might perfectly complement that of St. Ignatius’s sons. The prototype of this was the Confraternity of the Most Holy Trinity he co-founded in 1548 with Father Persiano Rosa, where a group of laymen met each Sunday to receive Communion and engage in spiritual discussion and charitable work. These three aspects of confraternal life all implicitly responded to three Protestant challenges. Firstly, at a time when the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist was under unprecedented attack, St. Philip affirmed the centrality of regular Communion to Christian life in contrast to the normal situation where most laymen only received it at Easter after an annual Confession. Moreover, the bringing-together of laity and clergy in spiritual conversation not only provided an excellent catechetical opportunity, but countered Protestant narratives that Catholicism relied on lay ignorance. The Confraternity’s humble charity also helped rebuff the criticism of Catholic confraternities as greedy idlers growing fat of their flocks by demonstrating their commitment to active piety. By 1551, the Confraternity was booming, and Philip’s talent as a lay preacher drawing notice. After much persuasion from Father Persiano, he was ordained in May, taking another step down the road to the Oratory’s birth.

Following his ordination and transfer to the church of San Girolamo, Philip’s ardent devotion to sacramental life would flourish even more. Not only could he now encourage regular reception of the Eucharist at his daily Masses, he could facilitate this through his work in the confessional. Since Catholic teaching requires one to be free of unconfessed mortal sin when receiving Communion, most contemporary Catholics would only receive after their annual confession in Holy Week. Philip, however, would spend hours each day hearing confessions and encourage penitents to return often, and one may again contrast this with Calvin’s contemporary removal of confession from the list of sacraments. Moreover, Philip’s care for his penitents extended far beyond the confessional. Those who came to see him in the mornings would return to hear discourses and converse on spiritual topics after lunch and return for prayer in the evening as part of Philip’s efforts to form them in holiness, and these practices would be integral to the Oratory once it was formalised. Indeed, many of the laymen who attended Philip’s exercises would later become the first Oratorian priests, from the great preacher Francesco Tarugi to the ecclesiastical historian Cesare Baronio. The saint, however, was not content that his disciples confine their spiritual life to these exercises, but sought that their whole life be turned towards God.

A major part of the rationale behind Philip’s postprandial sessions was the need to prevent laymen falling into sin during the time of day in which they were most vulnerable to temptation, and this preemptive strategy was not confined within the church’s walls. In addition to continuing the charitable work he had engaged in as a layman, Philip led his disciples in mini-pilgrimages to Rome’s great churches to offer an outing that could compete with more sensual entertainments, and these processions soon became so popular that up to 2,000 Romans would join them. However, the new style of religion and popularity of a simple priest raised eyebrows among a Curia fearful of nurturing a Lutheran viper in its bosom, and Philip’s Florentine origins only intensified this. Sixty years earlier, the monk Girolamo Savonarola had seized control of Florence and vehemently attacked the Papacy, calling for regeneration of the Church before his execution in 1498. Philip made no secret of his admiration for some of Savonarola’s writings which were under investigation for heresy, and this combined with his popularity led to his own period of trial from 1557-59. However, Philip was passionately defended by Cardinal Michele Ghislieri (the future Pope St. Pius V) and, having borne sanctions obediently as a loyal son of the Church, was vindicated when most of Savonarola’s works were deemed orthodox and he himself defended by Pope Paul IV. Philip and his priests would continue their way of life into the 1560s, drawing clerics and laymen alike to their fraternity not only through tales of the many miracles associated with him but through their sacramental piety and convivial practices. However, the community was investigated again in the 1570s, and while their orthodoxy was affirmed once more, it was this that convinced Philip that it was necessary to formalise his practices within a new religious Congregation.

On July 15th 1575, Pope Gregory XIII formally approved the establishment at Santa Maria della Vallicella of “a Congregation of secular priests and clerics known as the Oratory”. While this statement might seem no more than the impenetrable language of clerical bureaucratese, it is worth studying for what it reveals about St.Philip’s ideas. Firstly, the description of the Oratory as a “Congregation of secular priests” reveals its clear differences to other groups within the Church. In contrast to the traditional sharp division between secular and regular clergy, the new Congregation would live in community without being bound by any vows or rules as monks were. This draws attention to another hallmark of the Oratorian community, namely its closeness to the laity. While priestly communities and groups of pious laymen had long existed separately, the Oratorian fathers would work closely with the lay Brothers of the Little Oratory rather than imitating the secluded character of monastic life. Moreover, even the choice of “Oratory” as the new Congregation’s name offers an insight into Philip’s vision for it. The name derives from the Latin orare (to pray) reflecting Philip’s longstanding insistence on common prayer as a major practice of his followers, but also references the physical room where he would organise prayers. This testifies to the Oratorian focus on fidelity to Catholic teaching while remaining connected to the wider locality, and Philip’s refusal to institute a wide-encompassing rule would come to permit adjustment of the basic rule across Europe. Nevertheless, he would agree to the formalisation of Oratorian practice in its Constitutions, and it is to these that we may turn for an understanding of the fully-formed Oratory.

As Father V. J. Matthews once observed, Philip’s dream for how Oratorian priests should live is best expressed in his wish that “they should have all the virtues of religious without their vows”. At the heart of this was the devotion to the Sacraments that Philip had practiced throughout his priestly life in resounding opposition to contemporary Protestantism. Oratorians were directed to say Mass daily and make confession available at least once a day at the house, with the Sacrament of Penance in particular emphasised not simply as an adjunct to Holy Communion but wonderful in and of itself. Moreover, while communal listening to Scripture or other spiritual reading had been practiced by regular clergy for centuries, the Constitutions supplemented this with one of Philip’s own customs. Following this period of reading, short debates would be held upon spiritual questions , helping the members of the community improve their skill as preachers. This was essential in light of the directive that simple and clear sermons be preached daily, reflecting Philip’s wish that his disciples play a good part in the evangelisation and formation of the laity. The form of government laid out in the Constitutions, however, represented a clear divergence from that of the monastic orders. Instead of a clear hierarchy of provincial and international leadership, each Oratory is independent of the others, with the only international representative being one chosen to represent the Congregation at the Vatican. This more confederal arrangement gives each Oratory the chance to focus its mission on its particular area, just as Philip did for his dear Rome until his heavenly birthday in 1595.

How, then, may we judge St. Philip and his Oratory to have impacted the Church’s history? The mere decision to create a community of secular priests and reduce the boundaries between secular and regular clergy should not be underestimated in its impact, providing a template for future congregations such as the Redemptorists and Passionists. Moreover, its combination of communal prayer with local pastoral care and preaching helped produce intellectuals who yet remained shepherds of their local flock, beginning with this author’s personal hero Cesare Baronio and continuing to include this city’s own great St. John Henry Newman. Perhaps the greatest immediate legacy, however, was Philip’s love of the sacraments. At a time when confession and communion were only annual experiences for many and were under attack across Christendom, the laity were brought closer to them that they might be better formed in holiness. This foreshadowed the vigorous defence of the sacraments as the heart of Christian life made in the Counter-Reformation, and Philip, a counsellor to multiple Popes, may be seen as an inspiration for one of the most important movements of Early Modern Europe. Nevertheless, St Philip’s considerable importance as a historical figure should not, in this writer’s view, lead us to neglect him as a joyful and humorous preacher, a pious confessor, and a humble and saintly imitator of his Saviour. Readers could therefore do far worse than to follow the advice given in the last verse of the hymn whose opening begun this article.

“As Philip, let us pray

that God may bless us all,

the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,

and raise us when we fall.”