Secular Oratory 

Loving God and our neighbour is everything, and it is the vocation of the Community at the Holy Name to assist this greatest of works in the laity, following the inspiration and guidance of St Philip Neri.
Four times a day St Philip and his community of priests and brothers would offer sermons and spiritual conferences to the […]

The Chapel of the Blessed John Henry Newman
 

This is one of three chapels originally designed by the architect of the Holy Name, Joseph Aloysius Hansom. However, lack of funds at the time of the church’s opening in 1871 meant that they were left unfinished. In the 1890s Francis Bentley, the architect of Westminster Cathedral, was […]

Newman’s Relic at the Holy Name 
When Newman’s grave at Rednal was opened on 2nd October 2008, nothing was found of his body. Consequently, a call was made for relics to be made available from those in private collections, and we at the Holy Name were able to contribute some cuttings from his hair (along with similar relics from […]

This is one of the oldest images of St Philip, painted in the year of his canonisation, 1622. His reputation for sanctity had spread all over the Catholic world, and the Congregation of the Oratory had begun to grow. Here we have a lifesize fresco in the Church of San Carlo Borromeo at Forio, on the Island of Ischia, in the Bay […]

St Luigi Scrosoppi of the Oratory

John Paul II canonised St Luigi Scrosoppi on 10th June 2001, and named him patron saint of those suffering with AIDS. It was at the intercession of St Luigi that a Zambian man, now Fr Peter Changu Shitima, was miraculously cured of AIDS in 1996. He was at that time a member […]

St Philip Neri and St Ignatius Loyola 
At the west of the Holy Name, facing each other across the breadth of the church, are the statues of St Philip Neri and St Ignatius Loyola. These images that answer each other in the architectural space show not only great saints of the Counter Reformation, the founders of great Religious […]

Saint Philip Neri and the Priesthood
Fr Frederick Miller
 

Since his canonization in 1622, Saint Philip Neri has been considered a model of priestly life and holiness among the clergy of Italy. One might say that Saint Philip has there the popularity […]

Bl. Sebastian Valfrè (1629-1710)
Priest of the Turin Oratory
 
Saturday 30th January
Third Centenary of his Entrance into Heaven

 
In the year that we look forward to the beatification of John Henry Newman, we celebrate the third centenary of the first of St Philip’s sons to be raised to the altars, Bl. Sebastian Valfrè of the Turin Congregation. This […]

Some Help in Assenting to Mysteries of Faith
from John Henry Newman’s  
An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent (1870)
 

 
Sunday by Sunday Christians solemnly declare, “I believe in one God”, and a whole set of dogmatic statements which follow from that. The grounds for this statement of faith seems radically inconsistent with the grounds we have for […]

Come si vadia al cielo, e non come vadia il cielo
How to go to Heaven: not how the heavens go

It seems a fight that has been going on for centuries; science in the blue corner of the ring and religion in the red corner, and the crowd cheering for their man and booing the opponent. […]