We promote devotion to St. Philomena. This virgin martyr gave her life for Jesus Christ as an early Martyr of the Church. She is known as Powerful with God. You can pray to her for all causes, spiritual and temporal, and she will hear your prayer.
Credited with countless miracles and intercessions since discovery of her tomb in the most ancient catacombs of St. Priscilla in Rome in 1802, St. Philomena is prayed to by people of diverse ages, culture and social standing around the world. The young virgin who was martyred at age 13, willingly traded her earthly life for heavenly salvation and continues her work today promoting the virtues of purity and sanctity among the world’s youth and bringing the faithful closer to our Blessed Mother and Jesus Christ. It would seem she was held in quiet reserve by God for nearly seventeen centuries and summoned at a time when so much uncertainty and absence of faith abound.
On August 10, 1835, Pauline Jaricot received a miraculous cure of a severe heart ailment at Saint Philomena’s shrine in Mugnano del Cardinale, Italy, during the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Immediately following, she appealed to Pope Gregory XVI to begin an examination for the beatification of “Filumena,” daughter of light. And on Jan. 13, 1837, Pope Gregory XVI named St. Philomena Patroness of the Living Rosary, and declared her to be the “Thaumaturga,” the “Great Wonder-Worker of the nineteenth century.” In a solemn decree, he raised her to the altar of the Church, granting her a special feast day (August 11) and a Mass in her honor.
The name Philomena (fee-lo-MAY-nah) is of Latin origin. The inscription on the original loculus tiles on her tomb, is Filumena. The word filia is Latin for daughter. The word, lumena, is Latin for, light, lamp, lantern; light of day; the eye; clearness; understanding.
Pauline Jaricot promoted Saint Philomena as the Supporter of Missionary Priests. Upon her return to France from Mugnano, she was eager to recount the story of her miraculous cure with her dear friend, the Venerable Curé of Ars, St. John Vianney, and offered him part of the precious relics she brought from the Sanctuary. Immediately, an incredible bond and well-known devotion formed between this holy priest and his “Dear Little Saint.”
The very name of Philomena contains the words: filia luminis, daughter of light. She is the enlightener of a dark and corrupt age confounding the sneers of materialism.