Dear Friends of the Kolbe Center,
Pax Christi!
One of the most difficult challenges Catholics face in trying to understand the roots of the present crisis of faith and morals is to accept the reality that it has been hundreds of years in the making. As we have demonstrated in our DVD series “Foundations Restored” and in various publications and presentations, the replacement of the Creation-Providence Framework that was upheld by all of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church by the Cartesian-Darwinian naturalistic framework took several hundred years. By the middle of the twentieth century its triumph was almost complete, as by then the majority of Catholic intellectuals accepted the false claim that it was appropriate for natural scientists to extrapolate from their observations in the order of nature to explain how everything in nature came to be. That is why St. Maximilian Kolbe showed profound wisdom when he wrote that “naturalism is the wound of this [twentieth] century.” What I would like to highlight in this newsletter is the way that God has periodically pierced through this cloud of naturalism in modern times by demonstrating the reality of the supernatural world and its superiority to the natural world, but also, in one particular instance, by recalling an historical reality that had been forgotten for more than 1500 years.
A Mysterious Martyr
By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the ideas of the so-called Enlightenment had triumphed in France and spread to other countries in Europe, including Italy, so that many of the Italian clergy were already being influenced by the uniformitarian naturalism of the Enlightenment philosophers. In God’s Providence it was precisely at this time, in 1802, that a group of excavators, working underneath the road from Rome to Ancona, stumbled upon the tomb of a young girl who had been buried in the underground cemetery of the old Roman Christian family of Priscilla. It was generally believed that the last of the relics from the cemetery had been removed in the sixteenth century, but after receiving the approval of the Church authorities the excavators opened the sarcophagus and found the skeleton of a girl 12 or 13 years of age, with a fractured skull, who had been pierced with a lance. Three terra cotta slabs that identified the occupant of the tomb bore the words “Lumena Paxte Cum Fi,” but the Church authorities eventually concluded that they had been misplaced and that the original intended wording was “Pax Tecum Filomena,” “Peace be with you, Filumena!”
After a thorough investigation of relevant archives, no trace of a Filumena was found. However, her burial in the cemetery of the ancient Christian family of Priscilla identified her as a person held in high esteem. Her burial stone was decorated with images of a lily, arrows and an anchor, symbols of purity, martyrdom, and supernatural Hope. Near the dead girl’s head inside her tomb lay a small broken vase. It contained a reddish-brown substance which was analyzed and identified as human blood. When the contents of the vase were placed in a clear glass container, witnesses saw the blood change into what looked like shining gems of various colors. The container, or ampulla, of blood confirmed the victim’s status as a martyr, but, while experts identified the tomb as an artifact of the early centuries of the Church, no later than the reign of Diocletian, no trace could be found of any record of her martyrdom.
The relics of the mysterious martyr Filumena, or Philomena, were then taken to the Treasure House of Relics in Rome where they remained until May of 1805. In that month, a parish priest by the name of Don Francesco di Lucia, accompanied his friend, the Bishop-elect of Potenza, to Rome, intent upon securing the relics of a virgin martyr for his parish church. In the words of one author, Don Francesco wanted “to encourage young girls to pattern their lives on noble womanhood.” When he and the bishop arrived in Rome, they were permitted to visit the Treasure House of Relics, where Don Francesco experienced a mystical attraction for the relics of St. Philomena. He recalled:
Upon seeing the relic of Saint Philomena an invisible force agitated me internally and externally. Then I felt an unusual and intense joy in my heart, and I was filled with a pure desire to possess her most sacred body. This was so evident in my countenance that even the custodian of the Treasury became aware of it . . .
St. Philomena Finds a Place in the Liturgical Calendar
In a remarkable turn of events, the Bishop-elect of Potenza was entrusted with the relics of Saint Philomena, and through an even more remarkable series of circumstances, her relics were brought to rest in the church of Don Francesco di Lucia in Mugnano in southern Italy. All along the way from Rome to Mugnano, many miracles took place, and when the saint’s relics finally arrived in Mugnano an explosion of miracles began which has continued down to the present day.
One of the most significant miracles that helped to secure St. Philomena a place in the liturgical calendar involved the French laywoman, Pauline Jaricot, founder of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, who made a pilgrimage to St. Philomena’s shrine in Mugnano when she appeared to be dying of a fatal illness. On the way to the shrine, Pauline’s entourage stopped near Rome and she was visited by Pope Gregory XVI who saw that Pauline was at the point of death and was convinced that he would never see her on earth again. Nevertheless, when Pauline asked the Pope if he would proceed without delay to the final inquiry into St. Philomena’s cause of canonization, if she returned to him on foot, having obtained a healing at St. Philomena’s shrine, he immediately agreed.
When Pauline was healed at St. Philomena’s shrine and presented herself to the Pope in the Vatican, he kept his promise to approve the final investigation of St. Philomena’s cause. In 1839 the same Pope, by a decree of the Congregation of Sacred Rites raised her feast to a double of the second class. According to Fr. Goodman, M.S.C., in his biography of St. Philomena: “This is the only instance of a Proper Office being granted to a Saint from the Catacombs of whom nothing was known but her name and the fact of her martyrdom.”
During the years after St. Philomena’s relics were transported to Don Francesco’s church in Mugnano, three different witnesses—a third order Dominican sister, a priest, and a craftsman—all of whom lived far apart from each other in Italy and had no contact with each other, received private revelations in which they were shown the details of St. Philomena’s martyrdom in exactly the same way. (Those details can be read at this link from St. Philomena’s shrine in Briggsville, Wisconsin.) In God’s Providence, these historical details were only provided after the miracles obtained through St. Philomena’s intercession had secured her a place in the Church’s liturgical calendar. It would seem that Our Lord wanted to reaffirm the superiority of the supernatural over the natural, by establishing the authenticity of St. Philomena’s cult by supernatural means, before supplying the details of her life and martyrdom. In a similar way, and at the same time, Our Lord confirmed the historical accuracy of the historical books of the Bible in His private revelations to Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich. The history of St. Philomena should give us hope that the memory of the sacred history of Genesis which has been all but forgotten by so many Catholics can and will be restored, even in the twinkling of an eye, at the perfect time.
A Novena to St. Philomena for the Work of the Kolbe Center
One of the greatest promoters of the cult of St. Philomena was the patron saint of parish priests, St. John Vianney. It is noteworthy that the Cure’ of Ars always maintained a firm faith in the literal historical truth of the sacred history of Genesis and six-day creation, although he died in 1859, when Charles Darwin published Origin of Species and many Catholic intellectuals began to question the Mosaic account of Creation and the Flood. In all of his temporal and spiritual needs, the Cure’ of Ars turned to St. Philomena and exhorted his spiritual children to do the same.
During the last few years the Kolbe Center has expanded its work, supporting co-workers in Africa as well as members of our leadership team in the United States, like Pamela Acker, Bradford Fellmeth, and Ademar Rakowsky, whose research, teaching and writing have greatly advanced our mission. Readers of this newsletter know that we almost never ask for money, but as we approach the end of the liturgical year we urgently need to expand our financial base of support so that we can continue to support our co-workers here and abroad. I would like to invite all of you to join us in praying a novena to St. Philomena that Our Lord and the Blessed Mother will obtain for us the spiritual and financial support that we need to continue and expand our work here and abroad in the New Year. We will begin the Novena to St. Philomena provided below, tomorrow, Sunday, October 22. If you would like to receive a reminder to pray the Novena each day for nine days, please email me at howen@shentel.net. In the meantime, you can make a one-time or recurring donation on the Kolbe Center website by using the following link: https://kolbecenter.org/donate/.
Novena to St. Philomena
Illustrious Virgin and Martyr, Saint Philomena, behold us prostrate before the throne
Whereon it has pleased the Most Holy Trinity to place thee.
Full of confidence in thy protection, we entreat thee to intercede for us with God.
Ah! From the heights of Heaven deign to cast a glance upon thy humble clients.
Spouse of Christ, sustain us in suffering, fortify us in temptation,
Protect us in the dangers surrounding us, obtain for us the graces necessary for us,
And in particular the spiritual and financial support necessary to fulfill the mission of the Kolbe Center.
Amen.
Through the prayers of the Mother of God, of St. Philomena, and of all the Holy Angels and Saints, may the Holy Ghost guide us all into all the Truth.
Yours in Christ through the Immaculata in union with St. Joseph,
Hugh Owen
P.S. We have been granted a permit to evangelize on the gravel walkway at 12th street near the Natural History Museum in Washington, D.C., from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m., tomorrow, Sunday, October 22. We will have handouts and banners that testify to the truth of special creation and to the glorious Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ as witnessed by the Holy Shroud of Turin. By your prayerful participation you can make reparation for the contempt shown to our Creator and help to lead many lost souls to the path of salvation. Please spread the word and let me know as soon as possible if you would be able to join us by emailing me at howen@shentel.net.
