Saint of the Day – 24 May – Blessed Philip of Piacenza OSA (Died 1306)

Saint of the Day – 24 May – Blessed Philip of Piacenza OSA (Died 1306) Priest of the Order of the Hermits of St Augustine. Ascetic, Penitent, Miracle-worker.

Blessed Philip, a contemporary of St Nicholas of Tolentino OSA (1245-1305), was one of those who bore witness to the tradition of holiness, which the Order has had since its very beginnings.

The Anonymous Florentine in A Brief Life of Some Hermit Friars, offers the following information concerning Philip:

Friar Philip, who spent his ministry in the City of Piacenza, Italy, practiced an admirable asceticism. For he used an iron breastplate to subdue his flesh, instead of the wool or haircloth employed by other servants of God. It was, therefore, fitting for God to work miracles on his behalf. I heard what I am narrating from Friar Albertino of Cumi, who actually experienced it. More than once when I was a student at Genoa, he told me how he had recovered from a severe fever by commending himself to both the renowned miracle worker, Friar Philip and our Patron, Saint Augustine.

Friar Philip also freed Master William of Cremona, the present Prior General of the Order, from an infirmity of the leg. And he conferred the blessing of health on many other sick people, especially those suffering from melancholy. All this is well known at the Augustinian Monastery in Piacenza.

Philip lived and worked in the Augustinian Monastery of Saint Lawrence in Piacenza, Italy. After his death on 24 May 1306, the people remembered him and celebrated his memory. Since the suppression of religious houses in 1808, his body has been preserved and venerated, in the Cathedral Church of Piacenza.