Paideía & Praxís - Nov. 14: Holy Apostle Philip

November 14 – Holy Apostle Philip (†~80)

While the feast of St. Martin is particularly celebrated in the West, in the East, you will often hear the Nativity Fast referred to as “Philip’s Fast,” and St. Philip, one of Christ’s twelve apostles, is commemorated the day before the fast begins. The life of St. Philip is described as follows in The Prologue of Ohrid (not to be confused with St. Philip the Deacon of the Seventy, Oct. 11):

Philip was born in Bethsaida beside the Sea of Galilee, as were Peter and Andrew. Instructed in Holy Scripture from his youth, Philip immediately responded to the call of the Lord Jesus and followed Him (John 1:43). After the descent of the Holy Spirit, Philip zealously preached the Gospel throughout many regions in Asia and Greece. In Greece, the Jews wanted to kill him, but the Lord saved him by His mighty miracles. Thus, a Jewish high priest that rushed at Philip to beat him was suddenly blinded and turned completely black. Then there was a great earthquake, and the earth opened up and swallowed Philip's wicked persecutor. Many other miracles were manifested, especially the healing of the sick, by which many pagans believed in Christ.

In the Phrygian town of Hierapolis, St. Philip found himself in common evangelical work with his sister Mariamna, St. John the Theologian, and the Apostle Bartholomew. In this town there was a dangerous snake that the pagans diligently fed and worshiped as a god. God's apostle killed the snake through prayer as though with a spear, but he also incurred the wrath of the unenlightened people. The wicked pagans seized Philip and crucified him upside-down on a tree, and then crucified Bartholomew as well. At that, the earth opened up and swallowed the judge and many other pagans with him. In great fear, the people rushed to rescue the crucified apostles, but only Bartholomew was still alive; Philip had already breathed his last.

Bartholomew ordained Stachys as bishop for those whom he and Philip had baptized. Stachys had been blind for forty years, and Bartholomew and Philip had healed and baptized him. The relics of St. Philip were later translated to Rome. This wonderful apostle suffered in the year 86 A.D. in the time of Emperor Domitian.

The ancient city of Hierapolis where Philip ministered and suffered martyrdom, was in the Phrygian region, now southwestern Turkey (where the tomb of St. Philip has been discovered). Archaeologists in recent history, excavating the city built upon hot springs, uncovered an opening in a ridge on the hillside that had been known as the Plutonium or “Pluto’s Gate,” dedicated to Pluto (or the Roman equivalent, Hades). It was considered an entrance to the underworld, like the “Gate of Hades” in Caesarea Philippi where Jesus spoke to his disciples at the base of Mount Hermon in St. Matthew’s Gospel.

The ancient Greek geographer Strabo, who lived from 64-24 BC (during the time the Roman Republic was transitioning to the Roman Empire) wrote in his famous work, Geographica, how animals brought near the gate in Hierapolis would perish almost instantly, recounting how he threw sparrows into the space and watched them collapse, lifeless, in seconds. The Roman historian Cassius Dio similarly acknowledged its deadly properties, reinforcing the belief that this cave concealed a force beyond human comprehension. It was said that the site emitted vapors, via a deep fissure, and was likely a site for oracles, individuals who acted as intermediaries between gods and mortals, offering guidance or delivering prophecies. Like the well-known ancient Greek oracle of Delphi, at the sanctuary of Apollo near Mount Parnassus. The Oracle of Delphi is associated with a giant serpent named Python, a creature created to guard the oracle's site, and it was said that the vapors the priestess inhaled to receive visions rose from the chasm where Python's body was buried. Snakes were often associated with such sites, and it is not surprising that Hierapolis is linked to snake figures as well, in some places even being referred to as “the city of the snakes.”

But just as the pagan pines were no match for the faith of St. Martin, nor could the snakes at the Gates of Hades prevail against the prayers of St. Philip. For as St. John Chrysostom (who we commemorated yesterday) reminds us, these gates were shattered when Christ descended there:

This sign, both in the days of our forefathers and now, has opened doors that were shut up; this has quenched poisonous drugs; this has taken away the power of hemlock; this has healed bites of venomous beasts. For if it opened the gates of hell, and threw wide the archways of Heaven, and made a new entrance into Paradise, and cut away the nerves of the devil; what marvel, if it prevailed over poisonous drugs, and venomous beasts, and all other such things.

~St. John Chrysostom, Homily 54 on Matthew

So on the day before the Nativity Fast, it is fitting that we celebrate St. Philip, who we read about in today’s Gospel reading: “Follow me,” says Jesus to Philip (John 1:43). As Metropolitan Tikhon reminds us:

This same Gospel is read on the first Sunday of Lent. In other words, Christ’s words to St. Philip—“Follow me”—stand at the beginning of both of the Church’s great fasting seasons. The Lord is telling us: “Follow me in self-denial. Follow me in my humility, in my becoming a little child for the salvation of world.” And, in the case of Lent: “Follow me through the desert. Follow me to the pillar, the scourge, the mockery, the crown of the thorns. Follow me to the Cross.” And, if we follow him through the fasts, then we arrive with him at the feast: a child is born from the Virgin’s womb; the tomb is empty though it remained sealed; new life and resurrection are come into the world. May this pattern of fasts and feasts become the very pattern of our life, now and eternally. Let us deny ourselves here in this passing world so that we may delight in eternal good things there, in the future age.

6th-century bread stamp showing two churches from Hierapolis in Christian Turkey: the domed martyrium on the right, and the newly-discovered church containing Philip’s tomb on the left.

Tomb of the Apostle Philip at Hierapolis (structure on the right)

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