11/08/2026
๐ฏ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐บ๐. ๐ท๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐!๐๐
Today, with hearts full of joy and gratitude, we celebrate the Feast of our beloved patron saint, St. Philomena.
The story of Saint Philomenaโs life was recounted through a revelation of the saint by the Saint herself. According to Sr Maria Luisa, Philomena was a daughter of a Greek king who, along with his wife and family, converted to Christianity. At 13, Philomena consecrated herself to God and took a vow of perpetual virginity.
Around that time, the Roman Emperor Diocletian threatened war against her father. Her family was constrained to go to Rome to treat for peace. Seeing the beautiful young girl, the Emperor lusted after her. When she refused his advances, he subjected her to a series of tortures from which she was delivered by heavenly aid, until at last she was beheaded, and earned the palm of martyrdom. The symbols on her tomb in the catacombs -- two anchors, three arrows, a palm branch, and a flower -- were taken as the symbols of her martyrdom.
Later historians would cast doubt on the version of events related by Sr Maria Luisa. They claimed that the absence of the word โmartyrโ on the tiles spoke against her martyrdom; and it was discovered that the ampule thought to be filled with her blood instead contained perfumes typically used in the burials of the first Christians. Some suggested that the tiles covering her tomb had been re-used, and that the relics were not of Philomena at all. On account of these doubts, Philomena was removed from the calendar during the changes to the order of liturgical worship introduced in the wake of the Second Vatican Council during the 1960โs. But devotion to St Philomena remains.
http://vaticannews.va/en/saints/08/13/saint-philomena.html
