Image of Saint Philomena next to the monastery’s oratory
Saint Philomena’s Relics Removed from the Catacombs
Saint Philomena, the patron of the patron of parish priests (Saint John Mary Vianney) and the “great wonder-worker of the century,” as Pope Gregory XVI called her, was interred in an unknown year in the middle of the crypt just outside the Greek Chapel in the cemetery of Saint Priscilla, not far from the tombs of Saint Priscilla and of Saint Pudens, of Saint Aquila and of Saint Prisca, of Saint Praxedes and of Saint Pudentiana. For most of two millennia she lay there, unknown, her bones undisturbed. Then, on 24 May 1802, her grave was discovered, and on the next day, 25 May 1802, her grave was excavated and her relics raised. By providence, this happened on the very last day the archaeologists had intended to work in the catacombs of Saint Priscilla. Here is the account of Trochu — the biographer of Saint John Vianney:
Workers labouring in this darkness had reached the centre of the Priscillian catacomb, not far from the Greek Chapel, near the largest dormer window. On May 24, 1802, an unknown gravedigger was clearing earth from one of the galleries on the upper floor, when his pickaxe struck the tiles that were to enclose a loculus. A palm, one of the signs of martyrdom, was painted on the middle brick.
As the workmen had received clear and strict instructions from Monsignor Ponzetti, guardian of the Holy Relics, the man immediately suspended his work and went to report his discovery.
Don Filippo Ludovici, an austere and pious priest, was involved in supervising the excavations and distributing the relics. The following day — it had been decided that May 25, 1802 would be the last day of explorations at the cemetery of Priscilla — Don Ludovici, accompanied by several witnesses, including another priest, descended to the catacomb. Before his very eyes, the fossor cleared away the wall cut into the pozzolan and uncovered the entire tomb. In the torchlight, an inscription and a few signs, not engraved but painted in minium, stood out clearly on three terracotta tablets.
Don Ludovici approaches. The loculus is intact. It is relatively short: barely that of an adolescent. Appearances indicate someone of humble condition.
With infinite care, the last of the rubble is removed. Among the cement that held the bricks together, shards of glass glisten; a blackish dust still adheres to the fragments: no doubt dried blood.
Emotion grips every heart. Here, then, lies a victim of the distant catacomb, some child whose precocious testimony was added to that of the famous martyrs exhumed from this same crypt ten centuries ago.
The inscription from the statue at the monastery
The priests try to read the epitaph. It is short, written in irregular letters. Don Ludovici finds it hard to understand at first. The martyr’s name is cut in a strange way. The inscription on the three funerary bricks reads: LUMENA PAX TECUM FI. But the exact rendering could be seen at a glance. Without a shadow of a doubt, the first tablet should have occupied the last place, so it should read: PAX TECUM FILUMENA,
Peace be with you, Philomena.
So, a Christian from times of persecution, from days of anguish and pain when one had to hide to pray to the true God, a victim was there, buried “in peace”! Pax tecum! was the wish first expressed by Jesus upon His resurrection. Received and passed on by the apostle Peter to his immediate disciples, it remains a distinctive sign of the oldest burials. Slowly, the fragile partition is removed, and the remains of the martyr appear, stretched out in the oblong niche.
The bones have crumbled or fragmented. Their anatomical examination will later show that they belonged to a child aged between thirteen and fifteen.
Philomena, the Martyr
Trochu paints the scene of Saint Philomena’s burial just after the apostolic age.
Now, one evening — in what year of the apostolic age who on earth will ever know? — by the flickering light of clay lamps, Christians lowered the bloody body of a young dead woman into the sacred underground. Reaching the middle of the crypt just outside the Greek Chapel, not far from the tombs of Priscilla and Pudens, Aquila and Prisca, Praxedes and Pudentiana, the slow procession came to a halt.
Usually, the remains of the martyrs lay there, to receive the homage of the faithful, while one fossor drilled the pozzolan and another prepared the brick tablets or the marble plaque. And so, deeply moved, Christian men and women silently venerated their sister’s relics.
There the martyred child would rest – but for how many centuries? With infinite respect, two of the faithful lifted the frail body and laid it on its sandy bed. The nascent Church, which buried its dead under gardens, as Joseph of Arimathea did for Jesus, still covered their venerable remains with flowers, but instead of gathering these flowers into wreaths, according to the pagan custom of the time, it scattered them around the tombs, letting them touch the martyred bodies, before adorning the altar of the Sacrifice with them. That night, Christians undoubtedly paid similar honours to the young virgin.
Then, so that future believers might recognize her as a “witness to the truth”, one of the assistants placed a glass vial next to the martyr’s head, containing a small amount of blood, still ruddy, piously collected from the lips of the fresh wounds. Finally, the loculus was closed with three clay tablets, when one of the gravediggers, dipping his brush in minium, had traced a few words and signs on the tiles…
Soon the humble tomb was veiled in darkness. By the trembling lights of the lamps that cast great shadows on the brown walls, the procession moved away, exchanging words of regret and praise for the humble heroine who had passed away.
The martyred child was to sleep for a long time to come, sheltered by funerary tiles in Priscilla’s catacomb. Yet it was only much later that her tomb would be completely forgotten, lost like her name.
Silverstream’s Image
On 25 May 2023, three years ago, Silverstream Priory placed an image of Saint Philomena near our public Oratory for public veneration. Along with this image, we included a small statue of Saint Philomena as if on her couch, awaiting the resurrection. An oil lamp with blessed oil burns continually by her image. Periodically, oil is removed from this lamp and placed in small bottles for the faithful to take home with them. We have experienced quite a number of graces through the intercession of Saint Philomena.
Martyred at the age of 13, St. Philomena is known as the Thaumaturge, the Wonder-Worker, because of the attention and favours she lavishes upon those that befriend her, as she did upon St. John Vianney. The name Philomena is Greek for Beloved, but in Latin it can mean Daughter of Light.
Gaude Filumena, in vultu abscondita Jesu,
Cara Amica, Luminis Filia, Virgo, Martyr et Christi Sponsa
Ora pro nobis fragilibus ut sanemur.
Amen.
Hail O Philomena, hidden in the face of Jesus,
Beloved Friend, Child of Light, Virgin, Martyr, and Spouse of Christ,
Pray for us who are frail that we may be healed.
Amen.
Now, one evening — in what year of the apostolic age who on earth will ever know? — by the flickering light of clay lamps, Christians lowered the bloody body of a young dead woman into the sacred underground. Reaching the middle of the crypt just outside the Greek Chapel, not far from the tombs of Priscilla and Pudens, Aquila and Prisca, Praxedes and Pudentiana, the slow procession came to a halt.
On 25 May 2023, three years ago, Silverstream Priory placed an image of Saint Philomena near our public Oratory for public veneration. Along with this image, we included a small statue of Saint Philomena as if on her couch, awaiting the resurrection. An oil lamp with blessed oil burns continually by her image. Periodically, oil is removed from this lamp and placed in small bottles for the faithful to take home with them. We have experienced quite a number of graces through the intercession of Saint Philomena.