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Little is known of her life, and the information was have was received by private revelation
from her. Martyred at about age 14 in the early days of the Church.
In 1802 the remains of a young woman were found in the catacomb of Saint Priscilla on the
Via Salaria. It was covered by stones, the symbols on which indicated that the body was a martyr named Saint Philomena. The
bones were exhumed, cataloged, and effectively forgotten since there was so little known about the person.
In 1805 Canon Francis de Lucia of Mugnano, Italy was in the Treasury of the Rare Collection
of Christian Antiquity in the Vatican. When he reached the relics of Saint Philomena he was suddenly struck with a spiritual
joy, and requested that he be allowed to enshrine them in a chapel in Mugnano. After some disagreements, settled by the cure
of Canon Francis following prayers to Philomena, he was allowed to translate the relics to Mugnano. Miracles began to be reported
at the shrine including cures of cancer, healing of wounds, and the Miracle of Mugnano in which Venerable Pauline Jaricot
was cured a severe heart ailment overnight. Philomena became the only person recognized as a Saint solely on the basis of
miraculous intercession as nothing historical was known of her except her name and the evidence of her martyrdom.
Pope Leo XII granted permission for the erection of altars and churches in her honor. Pope
Gregory XVI authorized her public veneration, and named her patroness of the Living Rosary. The cure of Pope Pius IX, while
archbishop of Imola, was attributed to Philomena; in 1849, he named her patroness of the Children of Mary. Pope Leo XIII approved
the Confraternity of Saint Philomena, and raised it to an Archconfraternity. Pope Pius X raised the Archconfraternity to a
Universal Archconfraternity, and named Saint John Vianney its patron. Saint John Vianney himself called Philomena the New
Light of the Church Militant, and had a strong and well-known devotion to her. Others with known devotion to her include Saint
Anthony Mary Claret, Saint Euphrasia Pelletier, Saint Francis Xavier Cabrini, Saint John Nepomucene Neumann, Saint Madeline
Sophie Barat, Saint Peter Chanel, Saint Peter Julian Eymard, Blessed Anna Maria Taigi, and Venerable Pauline Jaricot. Canonized
by Pope Gregory XVI.
PRAYER
TO
SAINT PHILOMENA
O Saint Philomena, virgin and martyr, whom God glorifies by so many miracles, whom the Vicar of Jesus Christ
has named the Protectress of the Living Rosary and the Children of Mary manifest, more and more plainly from the heights of
Heaven, that a voice holy as thine cannot be denied and that we have the right to rely upon thine aid. Obtain for us the grace
to be faithful to Jesus Christ, even unto death. Amen.
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