The Saint Who Wasn't
Monday January 28, 2008 8:37 AM
St. Philomena once enjoyed a cult of great popularity, drawing pilgrims from all over the world to pray over her relics to be healed. She was praised and canonized, a rare honor. At the peak of her popularity, she became known as "Powerful with God." There was just one slight hitch that finally caught up with her — she probably didn't exist.
Philomena came to public attention in May 1802 when a coffin containing the remains of a girl aged 12 to 13, along with a broken ampule containing dried blood, were found in a sealed shelf tomb in the Catacomb of St. Priscilla in Rome. The tomb bore the symbols of virginity and martyrdom, and the nonsensical words LUMENA PAXTE CUMFI. Researchers scrambled the letters until they made sense: PAX TECUM FILUMENA, or "Peace be with you, Philomena."
It was assumed that the remains were that of a young virgin, and they were sent to the Vatican. There they probably would have remained in obscure storage, had it not been for Don Francesco di Lucia of Mugnano (near Naples), a priest who came to Rome in 1805 in need of saint relics to inspire the faithful. The bones of Philomena did the trick. Don Francesco had them enshrined in his church, encased in a papier-mache corpse.
Philomena was a hit, and soon people reported all kinds of miracles concerning her. A statue of her exuded miraculous oil. Her bones shifted by themselves in the makeshift corpse. People were healed by her intercession. Don Francesco collected stories and in 1826 published them in a book, The Story of the Miracles of St, Philomena, which spread her fame even more. Famous clerics and others championed her canonization, swaying Pope Gregory XVI to do so in 1837. The pope called her "the Wonder Worker of the Nineteenth Century." Shrines to her went up around the world.
Despite the fervor, doubts grew about her historical authenticity. No records were ever located about a girl of that name buried in the catacombs, much even a legend about martyrdom. The girl buried in the catacombs was probably an ordinary, unknown child, turned into a wonder-worker by projection.
In 1961, the church suppressed the cult of Philomena, along with other saints whose historical veracity had been called into question. Her feast day was dropped and most of the shrines to her were closed.
Faith dies hard, however, and Philomena continues to be a popular saint and receive personal devotions. Her relics are still enshrined at Mugnano.a.it/
