Saint Philip of Heraclea

Butler calls Philip "a venerable old man, bishop of Heraclea the metropolis of Thrace," who had served that church as deacon and priest before he became its bishop. ¹ Santi e Beati adds that little is known of him before the persecution: the Passio presents him as already old and long in the ministry, but gives no reliable date for his birth or his election. ² Heraclea was the ancient Perinthus, on the northern shore of the Sea of Marmara; the town is Marmara Ereğlisi today. ²³

Butler says that Philip trained many disciples, and that two of them shared his martyrdom: Severus, a priest, and Hermes, a deacon. ¹ Hermes had once been the chief magistrate of the city and was well liked for his kindness, but after he entered the ministry, Butler says, he "gained his livelihood with his own hands, and brought up his son to do the same." ¹ Santi e Beati notes that his rank as a decurion is plausible for a Christian of the period, though it comes from the same hagiographic tradition as the rest. ²

Nearly everything told of the two comes from one document, the Passio sancti Philippi, which survives in Latin and was translated from a Greek original now lost. ² Pio Franchi de' Cavalieri, who edited it for the Vatican Library, judged it substantially trustworthy on the main facts of the persecution while identifying additions and reworkings in the text that survives. ²

When Diocletian's first edicts against the Christians were published, many urged the bishop to leave the city. ¹ Butler says he "would not even stir out of the church," and went on preparing his people for the feast of the Epiphany. ¹ While he was preaching, an officer of the town came on the governor's orders to seal the church door. ¹ Philip asked him, "Do you imagine that God dwells within walls, and not rather in the hearts of men?" and went on holding the assembly outside. ¹

The next day officers sealed up the sacred vessels and books. ¹ The governor Bassus then found Philip and many of his people at the church door and had them brought before him. ¹ "Which of you is the teacher of the Christians?" he asked, and Philip answered, "I am the person you seek." ¹ Bassus demanded the vessels of gold and silver and "the book which you read." ¹ In Butler's telling, Philip replied: "The vessels and treasure we will give you; for it is not by precious metal but by charity that God is honoured. But the sacred books it neither becomes you to demand nor me to surrender." ¹

The Martyrology tells this moment more briefly and with a different governor: ordered to close the church and produce the sacred vessels and books, Philip answered the governor Justin that it was not lawful for him to hand over what was asked, nor for Justin to take it. ³ Santi e Beati gives the same reply, and says that the first governor named in the Passio is Bassus, who was later succeeded by Justin. ²

Bassus had Philip tortured, and Hermes, telling the governor that he could not destroy the word of God even by taking away all its writings, was scourged. ¹ The church was unroofed, and the sacred books were burned in the marketplace, the flames rising high enough to frighten the bystanders. ¹

Butler says that Philip, told of the fire, spoke to the crowd of God's judgment and reminded them how often their own temples had burned. ¹ Bassus pressed him to sacrifice to the gods, to the emperors and to the fortune of the city, and pointed to a large statue of Hercules; Philip answered that metal was no object of worship. ¹ Hermes refused too: "I will not," he said. "I am a Christian." ¹ On the way to prison, Butler says, the crowd pushed Philip down again and again, and each time he got up "with a joyful countenance." ¹

For a time they were allowed to stay in a house near the prison, where Christians and new converts came to be taught, and later in a cell beside the theater, where crowds visited them by night. ¹ Butler says that the Christians were grieved when Bassus left office, because Bassus "often yielded to reason," his wife having become a believer, and his successor Justin "was a violent man." ¹

Brought before Justin, Philip said, "I am a Christian, and cannot do what you require. Your commission is to punish our refusal, not to force our compliance." ¹ When Justin threatened him, he answered, "You may torment, but will not conquer me." ¹ He was dragged through the streets by his feet until his body was torn, and the Christians carried him back to his cell in their arms. ¹ Hermes was examined and treated the same way, and the priest Severus, who had been in hiding, gave himself up. ¹

Butler says they were held for seven months in bad air and then taken to Adrianople. ¹ Santi e Beati reports the same seven months, and says that Franchi de' Cavalieri linked the arrest to March 303 and so placed the transfer in the autumn of that year, while cautioning that the chronology is a reconstruction from the hagiographical text. ² At Adrianople Philip was beaten with rods until, Butler says, his flesh was laid open. ¹ Hermes found the court officials friendly, because he had done many of them favors as a magistrate, but he said that he had been a Christian from his cradle and would not sacrifice. ¹²

Three days later Justin condemned them to be burned, "that others may learn to obey." ¹ Philip's feet were too injured to walk, and he was carried; Hermes followed with difficulty, and Butler gives his words to his bishop: "Master, let us hasten to go to our Lord. Why should we be concerned about our feet, since we shall have no more occasion for them?" ¹ Hermes told the crowd that he had dreamed of a dove, white as snow, that came to rest on him and gave him food, and that he knew from it that the Lord was calling him. ¹

At the place of execution Philip's legs were buried in earth to the knees and his hands nailed to the stake. ¹ Before the fire was lit, Hermes asked a Christian named Velogus to give a message to his son Philip: to return whatever had been entrusted to his father, "that I may incur no fault," and to remember that he was young and "must get his bread by labour, as he has seen me do." ¹ The martyrs gave thanks to God as long as they could speak. ¹

Butler says the bodies were found whole, Philip with his hands stretched out as in prayer, and that when Justin had them thrown into the river Hebrus, Christians of Adrianople recovered them with nets and hid them at a place called Ogestiron. ¹ Santi e Beati tells the recovery and the hiding place, but adds that the story of the bodies' miraculous preservation belongs to the hagiographic tradition and has no independent confirmation. ²

Butler ends with Severus, left alone in prison, who prayed to share their glory and was martyred the day after them. ¹ Santi e Beati reports that Franchi de' Cavalieri found strong signs that the Severus episode was inserted later into the Latin text, since it interrupts a narrative in which Hermes follows Philip directly. ² Severus does appear with them in the ancient Hieronymian Martyrology, and a certain Eusebius appears in some old martyrologies, but the current Roman Martyrology names only Philip and Hermes. ²³

Santi e Beati also notes that the older Roman Martyrology wrongly placed their death under Julian the Apostate; the revised Martyrology returns it to the persecution of Diocletian, as the Passio has it. ²³ At Fermo, in central Italy, a bishop and martyr named Philip is also kept on October 22, and some have taken the relics there to be those of the bishop of Heraclea, but Santi e Beati says the identification cannot be considered proved. ²

None of the sources used for this page names Saint Philip of Heraclea the patron of anything, and none is supplied here. ¹²³ Santi e Beati adds that no early, well-documented set of emblems distinguishes him and Hermes in art. ²

Saint Philip of Heraclea's feast is October 22, which he shares with his deacon Saint Hermes. ²³ Butler says that "the 22nd of October is consecrated in the Martyrologies to their memory," and the current Roman Martyrology commemorates them on that day. ¹³

When they came to seal his church, Philip held the assembly at its door and asked whether God lived in walls or in people. ¹ He would give up the gold, by Butler's account, and not the books. ¹

Hermes had been the first man of his city and earned his living with his hands. ¹ His last request was about a debt and his son: that what had been left in his care be returned, and that the boy work for his bread as he had seen his father do. ¹

Neither could walk to the fire. ¹ Philip was carried, and Hermes told his bishop not to worry about their feet. ¹ The account of them passed through later hands, and the Church keeps the two names it is sure of on one day. ²³