_Ital._ San Filippo Apostolo. _Fr._ Saint Philippe. Patron of Brabant
and Luxembourg. May 1.
Of St. Philip there are few notices in the Gospel. He was born at
Bethsaida, and he was one of the first of those whom our Lord summoned
to follow him. After the ascension, he travelled into Scythia, and
remained there preaching the Gospel for twenty years; he then preached
at Hieropolis in Phrygia, where he found the people addicted to the
worship of a monstrous serpent or dragon, or of the god Mars under that
form. Taking compassion on their blindness, the apostle commanded the
serpent, in the name of the cross he held in his hand, to disappear,
and immediately the reptile glided out from beneath the altar, at the
same time emitting such a hideous stench, that many people died, and
among them the king’s son fell dead in the arms of his attendants: but
the apostle, by Divine power, restored him to life. Then the priests of
the dragon were incensed against him, and they took him, and crucified
him, and being bound on the cross they stoned him; thus he yielded up
his spirit to God, praying, like his Divine Master, for his enemies and
tormentors.
According to the Scripture, St. Philip had four daughters, who were
prophetesses, and made many converts to the faith of Christ (Acts, xxi.
9). In the Greek calendar, St. Mariamne, his sister, and St. Hermione,
his daughter, are commemorated as martyrs.
[Illustration: 79 St. Philip (A. Dürer)]
When St. Philip is represented alone, or as one of the series of
apostles, he is generally a man in the prime of life, with little
beard, and with a benign countenance, being described as of a
remarkably cheerful and affectionate nature. He bears, as his
attribute, a cross, which varies in form; sometimes it is a small
cross, which he carries in his hand; sometimes a high cross in the form
of a T, or a tall staff with a small Latin cross at the top of it (79).
The cross of St. Philip may have a treble signification: it may allude
to his martyrdom; or to his conquest over the idols through the power
of the cross; or, when placed on the top of the pilgrim’s staff, it may
allude to his mission among the barbarians as preacher of the cross of
salvation. Single figures of St. Philip as patron are not common: there
is a fine statue of him on the façade of San Michele at Florence; and a
noble figure by Beccafumi, reading;[214] another, seated and reading,
by Ulrich Mair.[215]
* * * * *
Subjects from the life of St. Philip, whether as single pictures or
in a series, are also rarely met with. As he was the first called by
our Saviour to leave all and follow him, and his vocation therefore a
festival in the Church, it must, I think, have been treated apart; but
I have not met with it. I know but of three historical subjects taken
from his life:—
1. Bonifazio. St. Philip stands before the Saviour: the attitude of the
latter is extremely dignified, that of Philip supplicatory; the other
apostles are seen in the background: the colouring and expression
of the whole like Titian. The subject of this splendid picture is
expressed by the inscription underneath (John, xiv. 14): ‘Domine,
ostende nobis Patrem, et sufficit nobis.’ ‘Philippe, qui videt me,
videt et Patrem meum: ego et Pater unum sumus.‘[216]
2. St. Philip exorcises the serpent. The scene is the interior of a
temple, an altar with the statue of the god Mars: a serpent, creeping
from beneath the altar, slays the attendants with his poisonous and
fiery breath. The ancient fresco in his chapel at Padua, described
by Lord Lindsay, is extremely animated, but far inferior to the same
subject in the Santa Croce at Florence by Fra Filippo Lippi, where
the dignified attitude of the apostle, and the group of the king’s
son dying in the arms of the attendants, are admirably effective and
dramatic. St. Philip, it must be observed, was the patron saint of the
painter.
3. The Crucifixion of St. Philip. According to the old Greek
traditions, he was crucified with his head downwards, and he is so
represented on the gates of San Paolo; also in an old picture over the
tomb of Cardinal Philippe d’Alençon, where his patron, St. Philip,
is attached to the cross with cords, and head downwards, like St.
Peter;[217] but in the old fresco by Giusto da Padova, in the Capella
di San Filippo, he is crucified in the usual manner, arrayed in a long
red garment which descends to his feet.
* * * * *
It is necessary to avoid confounding St. Philip the apostle with
St. Philip the deacon. It was Philip the deacon who baptized the
chamberlain of Queen Candace, though the action has sometimes been
attributed to Philip the apostle. The incident of the baptism of the
Ethiopian, taking place in the road, by running water, ‘on the way that
goeth down from Jerusalem to Gaza,’ has been introduced into several
beautiful landscapes with much picturesque effect. Claude has thus
treated it; Salvator Rosa; Jan Both, in a most beautiful picture in the
Queen’s Gallery; Rembrandt, Cuyp, and others.