Your description of her statue reminded me that I dressed as St. Philomena for Halloween when I was 10 or 11. I dressed in a pink gown and white veil, held a lily and arrows, and my dad made me a large wooden anchor he painted silver, which I hung from my neck by a chain. You should have seen the puzzled looks of the ladies handing out candy. I wore a St. Philomena cord around my waist for a few of my teen years... I'd forgotten about that too! Wearing it invokes her intercession for protection, especially from impurity. I can say she must have helped me with that, because I was a very innocent teenager, didn't date until I was 20, and married at 25 still a virgin. I never realized until now what she must have done for me!
Similar to my being puzzled, handing out candy in 1989, by a little boy whom I guessed was Robin (to his brother's Batman). No, I was quickly informed, "I'm a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle!" Your lovely costume would've puzzled me, too, but I was Protestant then.
She had a bad death. But that is what makes her a great saint. Her suffering. One of the nuns who nursed St Teresa of the Andes said an interesting thing. She said, 'All the Holy ones get hard deaths'. Something to think about... Malcolm Muggeridge, the great English Convert and phillospher commented one time how terrible the world would be without suffering. Why? Because without suffering there is no growth..and without growth we become vegetables.
I noticed yesterday was the Feast of St Leonard of Port Maurice, which had me thinking. He gave a very famous sermon one time on how few will be saved. He is not alone in this of course, a huge crew of the old saints said this. Of course if a priest came out with this today in any Pulpit he would be packed of on a Mission to a Moon Colony as a missionary. Why? Well we don't do not nice today. The first thing people ask about anything anyone says or does is, 'Is this nice?' If its not nice then it must be wrong. What's more the person must not be a good person. Because they are not nice. So they get dumped, or worse,,cancelled. It matters not all if what they are saying is true, if it is not nice it must be false, Why? Well because it's not nice.
RoryRory, I just realized something... You've been praying to St. Philomena for my brother Joseph, and for my son Will, for a couple years now... The night Joseph told me he's probably going to be a priest was August 11... I went to bed with a little thought in my head that that date was significant, but didn't know why...and the next morning Will grabbed a book out of the shelf that has sat untouched for over a year, and casually said, "I'm going to read this," on his way out of the room. It was St. Philomena the Wonder Worker. Then an hour later I was looking at saint books for my daughter who has a birthday coming up next month, and I ran across the statement "St. Philomena's feast is August 11." So Joseph told me he's going to be a priest on the feast of St. Philomena! And what are the odds that Will, who also recently announced he's going to be a priest, grabbed our only book about St. Philomena to read the very next morning? I think your prayers to St. Philomena are very powerful and you have obtained great graces for my family! I have prayed to her for Joseph and Will too, but not nearly as consistently as you have. I am confident that St. Philomena will do wonders in your family too!
PF, I believe this, yes. I love St. Philomena. And also, St. John Vianney (patron for priests) is devoted to St. Philomena during his priesthood.
Yes! May she bring a miracle to your family Rory. She does indeed seem a powerful intercession. St John Vianney thought so.
