New Statue of St Philip

We have been extremely fortunate to have received a beautiful statue of St Philip. It is from the old church of our Lady St Mary and St Philip, Radcliffe in north Manchester. Fr Manock, the parish priest, has built a new church, with a new shrine to St Philip, and he has generously given the old statue to the Holy Name.

The statue was made by Mr Alberti in 1911, who also carved the marble statues in the church. It shows him in his habit, which is slightly opened at the chest. St Philip kept his habit open from the tremendous heat he felt around his heart after the Holy Spirit entered into him during a night of prayer in the catacombs around the Feast of Pentecost. Often St Philip would hold penitents to his breast, allowing them to feel sensibly the heat of God’s love from them. The extremely forceful beating of his heart sometimes shook the bench where he knelt, such was his fervour for heavenly things.

Now in the church we have statues of four saints who were canonised together; St Philip, St Ignatius, St Francis Xavier and St Teresa of Avila. All we need now is one of St Isidore Agricola, who was declared to be a saint in the same ceremony in 1622, to complete the quintet.