Philippa: Name Day and Patron Saint

St Philip, one of the Twelve, came from Bethsaida in Galilee. He knew the Scriptures well and was waiting for the Messiah, so when the Saviour called him he followed at once, and then went to find Nathanael with the words “Come and see.” The Gospel of John remembers him often: Christ asked him where bread could be bought for the five thousand, the Greeks who wished to see Jesus came to him first, and at the Last Supper he asked the Lord to show them the Father. He is not the same as St Philip the Deacon, one of the Seventy. After the Ascension Philip preached in Galilee, in Greece and in Syria and Asia Minor, often with St Bartholomew and his own sister Mariamne, enduring stoning, prison and expulsion. In Hierapolis of Phrygia, tradition says, he destroyed by prayer a serpent the pagans worshipped and healed many, among them the wife of the city’s prefect. At the urging of the pagan priests Philip and Bartholomew were crucified. An earthquake shook the place, and Philip prayed from the cross for those who were killing him; the people believed and asked that the apostles be taken down. Bartholomew came down alive, but Philip died on the cross. As early as the second century the Church knew his tomb at Hierapolis. The Church keeps his memory on 14 November (27 November on the Old Calendar). The faithful ask his prayers to come and see Christ for themselves and to bring their friends and family to Him.

What the faithful pray for

• friends and family who do not yet know Christ
• the courage to say “Come and see”
• a love for the Holy Scriptures
• forgiveness for those who wrong us