The rise and later 'unpersoning' of St Philomena
From a forgotten tomb to worldwide veneration, St Philomena inspired miracles, papal praise, and the devotion of saints – until a 1961 decree, which resulted in her ‘unpersoning’ by John XXIII.
From a forgotten tomb to worldwide veneration, St Philomena inspired miracles, papal praise, and the devotion of saints – until a 1961 decree, which resulted in her ‘unpersoning’ by John XXIII.
The following article is based on Patrick Henry Omlor’s pamphlet The ‘Unpersoning’ of Saint Philomena – in which he recounts the rise of devotion to St Philomena, as well as her fate at the hands of John XXIII. Unfortunately, this pamphlet is not available in the anthology The Robber Church – but is available from the Catholic Research Institute.
The discovery of St Philomena
On 24 May 1802, workers in the Catacomb of St. Priscilla in Rome uncovered a sealed shelf-tomb that had lain undisturbed for centuries. Three terracotta tiles, painted in enduring red lead, bore the fragmented Latin inscription:
LVMENA | PAX TE | CVM FI
… accompanied by unmistakable Christian symbols: a palm for martyrdom, a lily for virginity, an anchor, and arrows.
Beneath the tiles lay the remains of a young girl, no more than fourteen years old, her skull separated from the rest of the skeleton. A broken glass vessel containing dried blood rested nearby. When the blood fragments were placed in a crystal container, witnesses marvelled as they glittered like diamonds or precious metals — a phenomenon still reported in a 1959 booklet cited by Omlor.
Scholars suggested the tiles had been placed in the wrong order, possibly in haste or by hands unfamiliar with Latin. The correct order was likely:
PAX TE | CVM FI | LVMENA
(“Peace be with thee, Philomena”)
Archaeologists dated the tomb from anywhere before AD 160 to the reign of Diocletian in the early fourth century.
As Omlor notes, the Congregation of Indulgences and Relics had long held that a martyr’s tomb was identified, at least in part, by the presence of an ampulla of blood.
As such, the relics were sealed in a silk-lined case and placed in the Custodia Generale, where they remained for three years. They were categorised as being the relics of St Philomena, virgin (because of the lily) and martyr (because of the palm, and the ampulla).
Spread of devotion and of miracles
In 1805, Canon Francesco di Lucia of Mugnano del Cardinale, near Naples, obtained the relics and brought them to his parish church. Reports of cures began almost immediately — from bodily healings to conversions of hardened sinners.
The cult of Philomena spread swiftly through Italy, Europe, and missionary territories in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Among the marvels recorded was the repeated liquefaction of her blood and the appearance of jewel-like formations within it, attested by the eyewitness testimony of Cardinals Ruffo Scilla and Victor Auguste Dechamps.
The most celebrated intercession came in 1835, when Pauline Marie Jaricot — foundress of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith and the Living Rosary — lay close to death from advanced heart disease.
A long-time devotee of Philomena, she was determined to visit Pope Gregory XVI before travelling to Mugnano. She set out despite her doctors’ certainty she would not survive. As she was too weak to attend the papal audience, and in light of the work she had done as a servant of the Church, the Pope visited her in the convent where she was staying.
Aware of her condition, he asked Jaricot to pray for him in heaven; she replied that, if she returned on foot from Mugnano healed, he should examine Philomena’s cause. “Yes, my child,” he said, “for that would be a miracle of the first class.”
Jaricot reached Mugnano on 8 August. Two days later, she was completely cured – through the intercession of St Philomena.
She returned to Rome without sending news of her cure. With the help of her friend Cardinal Lambruschini, she was admitted to the Papal Audience “incognito,” and knelt for the blessing with her head bowed. Omlor writes:
“When she arose at Gregory's bidding, one can only imagine what must have been his reaction when he saw the beautiful thirty-six-year-old woman, now in the full bloom of perfect health.
“As he marvelled at what he was witnessing, he made her walk back and forth in front of him, and then he exclaimed, ‘Is this indeed our daughter, or is it a vision from the other world?’ In order to guarantee that the miracle would be thoroughly investigated, he commanded her to remain in Rome for a year. (p 10)
Gregory XVI’s Decree
Gregory XVI spent two more years in prayer and consideration before, on 30 January 1837, authorising public ecclesiastical veneration of St Philomena. He hailed her as the “Great Thaumaturga of the nineteenth century” and “Patroness of the Living Rosary,” granting liturgical honours to her feast at Mugnano, later fixed for 11 August.
Omlor argues that this constituted a canonisation. He cites Fr Giuseppe Bonavenia SJ, whom he says was a distinguished archaeologist, historian and theologian, who said that that this decree had “the full weight of a solemn decree.”
Omlor also refers the Catholic Encyclopaedia – which teaches the following, citing an array of its own sources:
“Canonization, generally speaking, is a decree regarding the public ecclesiastical veneration of an individual.”
This, Omlor says, is precisely what Gregory XVI did on 30 January 1837.
Continuing approval by the Popes and others
The momentum continued under successive popes.
Prior to Gregory XVI, Leo XII had called her “The Great Saint,” and had permitted the dedication of churches and altars in her honour.
Pius IX, who credited her with saving his life when he was extremely ill and Archbishop of Imola, instituted a proper Mass and Office for her feast, named her Patroness of the Children of Mary, and declared her secondary Patroness of the Kingdom of Naples.
He kept a statue of her by his bedside, and made his own pilgrimage to Mugnano in 1849, whilst exiled from Rome. On his deathbed, he bequeathed his pectoral cross to the Mugnano shrine.
Leo XIII elevated her confraternity to an archconfraternity with indulgences and approved the cord of St. Philomena as a devotional sacramental. He made two pilgrimages to Mugnano before his election – and authorised the dissemination of private revelations about her life (addressed below).
Pius X commanded that all previous papal decrees on Philomena remain in force, sanctioned international promotion of her cult, and encouraged the faithful to venerate her as a powerful intercessor. He sent to Mugnano a large golden ring, set with a topaz, which was placed on the finger of a wax statue of the saint above her bones.
In addition to these Popes, St Philomena’s devotees included St Jean-Marie Vianney, St Madeline Sophie Barat, St Peter Chanel, St Peter Julian Eymard, Ven. Leo Dupont, Ven. Mother Mary Louisa of Jesus, Fr Damien of Molokai, and others.
By the twentieth century, Philomena’s name was known worldwide. Churches dedicated to her stood in missionary lands from China and Japan to Kurdistan, India, and Africa.
In the United States she ranked second only to St. Anne in the number of churches dedicated to a female saint; in Canada she shared second place with St. Bridget.
Private revelations of her life
In 1883, the Holy Office permitted the dissemination of private revelations given to Mother Mary Louisa of Jesus, about the life of St Philomena. Mother Mary said that St Philomena described herself as the daughter of a Greek king and queen who, after converting to Christianity through the influence of a Roman physician, named her “Philomena” — “Daughter of Light.”
At eleven, she made a vow of perpetual virginity to Christ.
At thirteen, she travelled with her parents to Rome to negotiate peace with the Emperor, identified as Diocletian. He demanded her hand in marriage, offering military protection in return. Her refusal, based on her vow, enraged him. Attempts by her parents and the emperor’s own promises and threats failed to change her mind, and she was imprisoned.
After 37 days, the Virgin Mary appeared, foretelling her imminent release from the dungeon but warning of severe trials. Supported by Our Lady, her guardian angel, and St. Gabriel, Philomena endured scourging, miraculous healing by angels, an attempted drowning in the Tiber (thwarted by angelic rescue), and multiple piercing with arrows — each foiled by divine intervention.
These miracles converted some onlookers, but further infuriated the emperor. Ultimately, she was beheaded on 10 August, a Friday, and entered heaven victorious in her vow of virginity. She explained that the date matched the translation of her relics to Mugnano, when many miracles were worked.
Omlor, citing Fr Paul O’Sullivan, claims that the permission was given to three identical but independent revelations of the saint’s life – however, neither provides the names of the two other mystics.
The Holy Office’s permission means that these revelations are free from anything contrary to the faith, but does not attest to their accuracy.
In any case, while these revelations are interesting and edifying, they are not relevant to her standing in the Church. Her cult is instead based on the decree of Gregory XVI and the subsequent papal approbations – which were themselves based on the proliferation of miracles, which cannot be denied.
From an obscure tomb in the catacombs to the altars of the world, Philomena’s rise was marked by miracles, papal commendations, and the devotion of saints. Her story became one of the most remarkable devotional movements of the nineteenth century.
Despite all this, John XXIII would all but erase her from public devotion. But while this occurred in 1961, it began much earlier.
The beginnings of the suppression
Omlor recounts the emergence of St Philomena’s sceptics – some of whom claimed that St Philomena never even existed. He attributes this to the malice of the Devil, whom he depicts as enraged at miracles and conversions spread through the intercession of St Philomena.
Sceptics variously claimed that there never was a saint called St Philomena, or that the bones found were not those of a martyr, or that they belonged to a different person, and that the name ‘Philomena’ referred to a prior burial in the same niche – and that the tiles were rearranged to indicate that the new body was not that of the Philomena previously buried there.
In 1908, Fr William L. Sullivan published an anonymous set of open letters to Pope St Pius X, defending modernist principles and attacking the Pope’s anti-modernist stance. He attacked saints such as Pope St Pius V and St Margaret Mary Alacoque, and the cult of many saints, including St Simon Stock, St Anthony of Padua and – of course – St Philomena.
As a result, sceptics boldly began referring to the “myth”, “legend” or “fictious account” of St Philomena.
However, there were always archaeologists and historians who declined to go along with these ideas. The historian Georg Markhof called one sceptic’s work “superficial and marked by malice.” He noted it was clearly biased against St Philomena to the point of unsound methodology.
Omlor points out that many of the criticisms are irrelevant: for instance, it does not matter whether the saint’s real name was Philomena or not – as there is evidently a saint responding when invoked under this name. Omlor writes the following of St Adauctus:
“August 30th is the feast day of Sts. Felix and Adauctus. As Felix was being led to his execution, an onlooker publicly professed his faith and was beheaded with him. As no one even knew him or his name, the Church provided him with the name Adauctus, which simply means ‘the additional one.’” (p 12)
St Philomena’s case was unusual, in that an investigation into her life was impossible. St Adauctus provides a precedent for this, as do the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste and the Good Thief. Further, while is true that we know nothing with certainty of her life, we do know with certainty of the numerous miracles performed through her intercession and that the Church honours her as a saint.
Conclusion: The ‘“Unpersoning” of St Philomena’
Omlor then takes a lengthy detour into the history of Robber Councils and the Robber Church of Vatican II, Cum Ex Apostolatus and the illegitimacy of the Vatican II popes – before reaching what he calls “The 1961 St Valentine’s Day Massacre.”
He referred to the concept of “unpersoning” in George Orwell’s novel 1984 – in which the victims of the “Ministry of Truth” declared someone an “unperson” and eradicated all traces of his existence from the world – and applied it to the fate intended for the saint:
“[I]n short, all evidence that he had ever lived was systematically and meticulously destroyed. Posterity would know nothing of him. He was now an unperson. And that is exactly what Satan hoped to do to St Philomena.”
Some sources date this “unpersoning” to St Philomena’ removal from the breviary in 1963. Omlor, however, identifies 14th February 1961 as the decisive date. On that date, John XXIII issued the following decree, included in the Act Apostolicae Sedis
“‘Festum autem S. Philumena 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.”
Before this, the decree had eliminated a number of what it called “devotional feasts” (e.g., that of The Crown of Thorns or The Flight into Egypt). But, writes Omlor, St Philomena’s feast is not any kind of “devotional” feast: it is one of a Virgin and Martyr, in the sanctoral cycle, celebrated with the Mass Loquebar. Her feast was found in the Missal section Proprium Sanctorum pro Aliquibus Locis – which did indeed include several devotional feasts. Yet it also included 22 other saints’ feasts – all of which were spared the “expunging” suffered by St Philomena.
Omlor gives the following analysis:
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.
He then explains what he sees to be the implications of this, combined with the infallibility of canonisations, for John XXIII’s claim to the papacy:
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 Robbert 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.’ (There is no recording of this in AAS.)
We at The WM Review do not have a clear position on the legitimacy (or otherwise) of John XXIII’s claim to the papacy, seeing arguments on either side. This writer follows the argument (distinct from “The Thesis”) of Bishop Guérard des Lauriers, dating a certain knowledge of the vacancy of the Holy See to 1965.
Nonetheless, Omlor's survey provides an interesting piece of circumstantial evidence as to John XXIII's attitudes, beliefs and intentions.
St Philomena: Pray for us!
Purchase The ‘Unpersoning’ of St Philomena here.
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I love Saint Philomena!
Even though I've known for several years now that canonizations have always been considered infallible exercises of the papal magisterium, I had never until now thought that the removal of canonized saints by "Saint" John XXIII & "Saint" Paul VI (he removed over 90 in 1969!) was evidence of them being invalid popes, even though I've considered these two, as well as their successors, false popes for both theological reasons: novusordowatch.org ("False Popes" tab) & for historical reasons: novusordowatch.org/2016/10/smoke-signals-white-smoke-1958; whitesmoke1958.com, along with prophecies being fulfilled in them and in the Vatican II church as a whole.
Then there's Francis "canonizing" the three V2 "popes," just more added evidence that he could not have been a valid pope.