In our Triduo devotions during the three days leading up to the feast of our holy father St Philip, we are reminded in one of Father Faber's most brilliant hymns that our Saint's death in 1595 coincided with the celebration of Corpus Christi:
"Day set on Rome: its golden morn
Had seen the world's Creator borne
Around St Peter's square,
Trembling and weeping all the way,
God's Vicar with his God that day
Made pageant brave and rare!"
At the time of St Philip’s birthday in Heaven, God's Vicar was our Saint’s penitent, the formidable Clement VIII, who spent a good deal of his pontificate tormented by gout. It is quite possible, however, that the inspiration for this verse of the hymn came from a later successor to the Prince of the Apostles, whom the young Frederick William Faber had observed at close quarters while still an Anglican clergyman, during his first visit to Rome in 1843. In a letter to his brother, he described visiting St Peter's on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, and watching Pope Gregory XVI receiving Holy Communion: "On Thursday morning I went to the Pontifical Mass: its effect on me was just as much as I could bear; one moment was intolerable; the thousands in that tremendous building of course made a considerable noise, but when the canon of the Mass began all sank on their knees, and not a pin could have dropped unperceived, and (I had not been told of it before) when the Pontiff, his eyes streaming with tears, slowly elevated the Lord’s Body, suddenly from the roof some ten or twelve trumpets, as from heaven, pealed out with a long, wailing, timorous jubilee, and I fell forward completely over-come. One other thing touched me extremely: the Pope receives the Communion standing at his throne, and as they were bringing it up to him, when it came near, in one moment, without arranging his robes, without dignity, he threw himself down on the ground till it reached him, when he rose to receive it. While he stood praying before it, his beating and striking of his breast were so vehement that you could hear them all over, and he looked a saint.” In addition to this striking devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, Pope Gregory XVI possessed robust views and impressive directness. He roundly condemned slavery and forbade all Catholic participation in the slave trade, banned the construction of railways in the Papal States, and told Faber in a private audience on that 1843 visit to Rome that he must think of the salvation of his own soul and, laying his hands on his shoulders, prayed "May the grace of God correspond to your good wishes and deliver you from the snares of Anglicanism and bring you to the true Holy Church."
Whichever Supreme Pontiff may have been the inspiration for Father Faber's hymn, the date of St Philip's death could hardly have been timelier from the liturgical point of view. That the saint who often experienced ecstasies in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament and was afforded visions of Our Lord in the Sacred Host, and who had been so instrumental in establishing the Forty Hours Devotion (Quarant'Ore) in Rome, should have departed for eternity after receiving Holy Communion on the great feast of Corpus Christi is surely a sign of God's special favour towards His faithful servant.
The timing of St Philip's feast day is also a wonderful grace of Providence for the Church and a blessing for us. This year, our Triduo devotions began on Whit Sunday itself, so that we celebrated St Philip's day within the Pentecost Octave. We could not hope for a more fitting companion to guide us through the beautiful season of Whitsuntide than St Philip. The defining moment of his apostolate in Rome was that event which occurred on the Vigil of the Feast of Pentecost in 1544, when he was still a 28-year-old layman and was praying fervently in the catacombs of St Sebastian. The Holy Ghost appeared in the form of a ball of fire which entered his mouth and settled with some force in his heart. This Pentecost miracle, and the abiding presence of the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity in such a unique manner within St Philip's breast, seem to have ruled his life from then on, and to have been at the root of his ecstasies in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. The heart palpitations that he experienced as a priest when offering the Holy Sacrifice were so violent and disruptive, and risked causing such admiration, that he eventually felt constrained to cease from celebrating Holy Mass in public altogether, and retired to his little private chapel.
Saint Philip always insisted that we should never desire such phenomena, which he found unwelcome and which were the occasion of considerable suffering and embarrassment to him. But we should certainly ask him to intercede for us so that we too are filled to capacity with the gifts of the Holy Ghost, and that we may manifest the fruits of the Holy Ghost in our lives. Through Baptism, we are already living Temples of the Holy Ghost, but we should pray for that divine Presence to be a steady consuming blaze in our hearts, rather than a flickering pilot light. And as the great feast of the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ approaches, we ask the Spirit Who leads us into all truth to fill us with the same faith in, and devotion to, the Blessed Sacrament that we find in the life of our patron saint.
Father Julian Large