August 11 -- Feast of Saint Philomena

Saint Philomena

Philomena alone among all the saints has been canonized solely for her posthumous miracles -- nothing at all is known about her life.  In 1961, Pope John XXIII removed her feast from the general calendar with a boatload of other saints' feast days, but permitted continued devotions.  August 11, formerly her feast in the general Roman calendar, remains her feast here.

Roman catacomb

Philomena's bones were found in the catacomb of Saint Priscilla on the Via Salaria in Rome.  Stones placed on the body indicated that she was a martyr named Philomena, but nothing else was known about her.  Three years later, the Canon of Mugnano, Italy was in the Vatican's Treasury of Relics where he was suddenly overwhelmed by beatific bliss.  The Canon, Francis de Lucia, requested permission to bring Philomena back to his church and enshrine and venerate her.  Folks weren't so sure they wanted to go along with his plan.  

It would be a pretty tough thing to gauge the sincerity of a priest from the hinterlands who says he's moved by a saint that no one knows anything about.  On the other hand, all he's asking for is the bones of a saint that no one knows anything about.  Then again, what's he going to do with the bones?  Is he just trying to put his one-horse village (well, fewer than 3,000 people, anyway) on the map?

There's no telling what she really looked like. 

If there's one thing that is more abundant than money at the Vatican, it is relics.  And in truth, these were not the most prized relics in the treasury.  So in the end, they let him take them back to Mugnano, where he promptly placed them in a chapel and urged visitors to pray.

In 1835, a young French girl named Pauline Marie Jaricot, dying of a heart ailment, heard a message to "Go to Philomena."  En route to Mugnano, she paid a visit to Pope Gregory XVI, who whispered a prayer to her, asking her to repeat it when she got to heaven.  In reply, she asked if he would begin formal canonization of  Philomena if she (Pauline) stopped by the Vatican as she was walking home from Mugnano.  Recognizing that the young girl was a death's door, he readily agreed.

Pope Gregory XVI

She prayed before the relics of Philomena, got healed, and walked back to His Holiness.  Recognizing the miracle, Pope Gregory initiated formal canonization.  Reports of Philomena's healings were almost as common as the relics, statues, and medals of her.  Blind folks regained their sight, sickly infants recovered -- she even appeared to assist at an especially perilous and difficult birth. And most fabulous of all, a young man who tried to paint her portrait (even though he had never displayed any artistic ability or inclination) found that his brush seemed to move itself across the canvass, resulting in a splendid depiction.  His explanation was of course that she had painted her own portrait. 

I can understand His Holiness making that promise to a dying girl, especially in the rational nineteenth century.  If he was weighing his options, he either offered comfort to a sick girl (his job) or he got a new saint in the Canon (also his job).