St. Philomena: Powerful With God

THE DATE IS 1802. Napoleon, the Corsican adventurer, is fighting his way straight up from the mob, pointing a sword at every monarchical head. Philomena, the celestial adventuress, is rising from the catacombs, waving the palm branch of peace for troubled hearts.


The military strategist, drunk with success, has unbecomingly straddled his power by overlording the Pope, Pius VII. That gentle though courageous “Pontiff of Concordats” sees the need of a spiritual revival. Nineteenth-century Europe, twisted with false complacency, bewildered by political realism, is riding for a fall. It would throw its own fate into the saddle, unless its rocky-horse tactics come to a halt.


Heaven sounds the keynote. Out from God’s army of saints marches a teen-aged girl. For more than a thousand years she has been in the reserve corps, awaiting the bugle call. With the serenity of a virgin, and the dignity of a crowned head, Philomena, “Princess of Paradise,” brings reinforcements for body and soul. Just where to encamp for concerted action? And when to serve? God knows.


In the month of May, on the twenty-fourth day, Our Lady, Help of Christians, intervenes. Philomena with her lovely winsome ways, her sparkle, her youth, has come to attract!


In a tufa pit in an underground cemetery dedicated to the family of Priscilla, underneath the soil on the road that goes out of the Porta Salaria from Rome to Ancona, excavators are clearing away fallen sand. In the tunnel of soft stone the sharp ring of a pick is heard as it hits a cemented surface. Conscious of his obligation, the excavator stops to investigate with his lamp. A shelf tomb!


His fellow workers gather excitedly to search for some clue to the loculus, since no evidence of violation is visible. Most remarkable! These men had heard that all relics had been removed from this cemetery way back in the sixteenth century. And here is a chamber in good order, solidly walled up with three terra-cotta tiles! Only the very high nobility and celebrated martyrs were placed in marble coffins and then sealed in wall niches. This “find” certainly would make the headlines! This news! Moreover, the singularity of the three marble slabs joined to form the inscription!