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PHILIP NERI (FILIppo DE) (1515-1595)

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Originally appearing in Volume V19, Page 390 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PHILIP See also:NERI (FILIppo DE) (1515-1595)  , See also:Italian churchman, was See also:born at See also:Florence on the 21st of See also:July 1515 . He was the youngest See also:child of See also:Francesco See also:Neri, a lawyer of that See also:city, and his wife Lucrezia Soldi, a woman of See also:noble See also:birth, whose See also:family had See also:long served the See also:state . He was carefully brought up, and received his See also:early teaching from the friars at See also:San Marco, the famous Dominican monastery in Florence . He was accustomed in after See also:life to ascribe most of his progress to the teaching of two amongst them, Zenobio de' See also:Medici and Servanzio Mini . When he was about sixteen years old, a See also:fire destroyed nearly all his See also:father's See also:property . See also:Philip was sent to his father's childless See also:brother Romolo, a See also:merchant at San Germano, a Neapolitan See also:town near the See also:base of See also:Monte Cassino, to assist him in his business, and with the See also:hope that he might inherit his possessions . So far as gaining Romolo's confidence and See also:affection, the See also:plan was entirely successful, but it was thwarted by Philip's own resolve to take See also:holy orders . In 1533 he See also:left San Germano, and went to See also:Rome, where he became See also:tutor in the See also:house of a Florentine See also:gentleman named Galeotto Caccia . Here he was able to pursue his own studies under the guidance of the See also:Augustinians, and to begin those labours amongst the sick and poor which gained him in later life the See also:title of "Apostle of Rome," besides paying nightly visits for See also:prayer and meditations to the churches of the city and to the catacombs . In 1538 he entered on that course of See also:home See also:mission See also:work which was the distinguishing characteristic of his life; somewhat in the manner of See also:Socrates he traversed the city, seizing opportunities of entering into conversation with persons of all ranks, and of leading them on, with playful See also:irony, with searching questions, with words of See also:wise and kindly counsel, to consider the topics he desired to set before them . In 1548 he founded the celebrated confraternity of the Santissima Trinity de' Pellegrini e de' Convalescente, whose See also:primary See also:object is to See also:minister to the needs of the thousands of poor pilgrims who See also:flock to Rome, especially in years of See also:jubilee, and also to relieve the patients discharged from hospitals, but still too weak for labour . In 1551 he passed through all the See also:minor orders, and was ordained See also:deacon, and finally See also:priest on the 23rd timely and politic intervention .

Neri continued in the See also:

government of the See also:Oratory until his See also:death, which took See also:place on the 26th of May 1595 at Rome . He was succeeded by See also:Baronius . There are many anecdotes told of him which attest his See also:possession of a playful See also:humour, See also:united with shrewd See also:mother-wit . He considered a cheerful See also:temper to be more See also:Christian than a See also:melancholy one, and carried this spirit into his whole life . This is the true See also:secret of his popularity and of his place in the folk-See also:lore of the See also:Roman poor . Many miracles were attributed to him alive and dead, and it is said that when his See also:body was dissected it was found that two of his ribs had been broken, an event attributed to the expansion of his See also:heart while fervently praying in the catacombs about the See also:year 1545 . This phenomenon is in the same See also:category as the stigmata of St See also:Francis of See also:Assisi . Ned was beatified by See also:Paul V. in 1600, and canonized by See also:Gregory XV. in 1622 . " See also:Practical commonplaceness," says See also:Frederick See also:William See also:Faber in his See also:panegyric of Neri, was the See also:special See also:mark which distinguishes his See also:form of ascetic piety from the types accredited before his See also:day . " He looked like other men . . . he was emphatically a See also:modern gentleman, of scrupulous See also:courtesy, sportive gaiety, acquainted with what was going on in the See also:world, taking a real See also:interest in it, giving and getting See also:information, very neatly dressed, with a shrewd See also:common sense always alive about him, in a modern See also:room with modern See also:furniture, See also:plain, it is true, but with no marks of poverty about it—tn a word, with all the ease, the gracefulness, the See also:polish of a modern gentleman of See also:good birth, considerable accomplishments, and a very various information." Accordingly, he was ready to meet the needs of his day to an extent and in a manner which even the versatile See also:Jesuits, who much desired to enlist him in their See also:company, did not See also:rival; and, though an Italian priest and See also:head of a new religious See also:order, his See also:genius was entirely unmonastic and unmedieval; he was the active See also:promoter of See also:vernacular services, frequent and popular See also:preaching, unconventional prayer, and unsystematized, albeit fervent, private devotion . Neri was not a reformer, See also:save in the sense that in the active See also:discharge of See also:pastoral work he laboured to reform individuals .

He had no difficulties in respect of the teaching and practice of his See also:

church, being in truth an ardent Ultramontane in See also:doctrine, as was all but inevitable in his See also:time and circumstances, and his See also:great merit was the instinctive tact which showed him that the See also:system of See also:monasticism could never be the See also:leaven of See also:secular life, but that something more homely, See also:simple, and everyday in See also:character was 'needed for the new time . Accordingly, the See also:congregation he founded is of the least conventional nature, rather resembling a residential clerical See also:club than a monastery of the older type, and its rules (never written by Neri, but approved by Paul V. in 1612) would have appeared incredibly lax, See also:nay, its religious character almost doubtful, to See also:Bruno, See also:Stephen See also:Harding, Francis or See also:Dominic . It admits only priests aged at least See also:thirty-six, or ecclesiastics who have completed their studies and are ready for ordination . The members live in community, and each pays his own expenses, having the usufruct of his private means—a startling innovation on the monastic See also:vow of poverty . They have indeed a common table, but it is kept up precisely as a regimental See also:mess, by monthly payments from each member . Nothing is provided by the society except the See also:bare lodging, and the fees of a visiting physician . Everything else—clothing, books, furniture, medicines—must be defrayed at the private charges of each member . There are no vows, and every member of the society is at See also:liberty to withdraw when he pleases, and to take his property with him . The government, strikingly unlike the Jesuit See also:autocracy, is of a republican form; and the See also:superior, though first in See also:honour, has to take his turn in discharging all the duties which come to each priest of the society in the order of his seniority, including that of waiting at table, which is not entrusted in the Oratory to See also:lay See also:brothers, according to the practice in most other communities . Four deputies assist the superior in the government, and all public acts are decided by a See also:majority of votes of the whole congregation, in which the superior has no casting See also:voice . To be chosen superior, fifteen years of membership are requisite as a qualification, and the See also:office is tenable, as all the others, for but three years at a time . No one can See also:vote till he has been three years in the society; the deliberative voice is not obtained before the See also:eleventh year .

There are thus three classes of members—novices, triennials and decennials . Each house can See also:

call its superior to See also:account, can depose, and can restore him, without See also:appeal to any See also:external authority, although the See also:bishop of the See also:diocese in which any house of the Oratory is established is its See also:ordinary and immediate superior, though without See also:power to interfere with the See also:rule . Their churches are non-parochial, and they can perform such See also:rites as baptisms, marriages, &c., only by permission of the See also:parish priest, who is entitled to receive all fees due in respect of these ministrations . The Oratory chiefly spread in See also:Italy and in See also:France, where in 176o there were 58 houses all under the government of a superior-See also:general . See also:Malebranche, Thomassin, See also:Mascaron and See also:Massillon were members of the famous See also:branch established in See also:Paris in 1611 by Berulle (after See also:cardinal), which had a great success and a distinguished See also:history . It See also:fell in the See also:crash of the Revolution, but was revived by Pere Petetot, cure of St See also:Roch, in 1852, as the " Oratory of Jesus and the Immaculate See also:Mary "; the Church of the Oratory near the Louvre belongs to the Reformed Church . An See also:English house, founded in 1847 at See also:Birmingham, is celebrated as the place at which Cardinal See also:Newman fixed his See also:abode after his sub-mission to the Roman See also:Catholic Church . In 1849 a second congregation was founded in See also:King William See also:Street, Strand, See also:London, with F . W . Faber as superior; in 1854 it was transferred to See also:Brompton . The society has never thriven in See also:Germany, though a few houses have been founded there, in See also:Munich and See also:Vienna .

End of Article: PHILIP NERI (FILIppo DE) (1515-1595)
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