ST PHILO, BISHOP OF CALPE - 24 JANUARY

 

 ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JANUARY

Saints celebrated on the 24th of January

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

ST PHILO, BISHOP OF CALPE

Saint Philo was Bishop of Calpe (probably the Bithynian port city of Kalpeia, if not the city of Karpasia in Cyprus). 

HE IS MENTIONED IN THE GREEK RECORDS, TOO

He is mentioned in the Greek records today along with the martyrs St Hermogenes and St Menas, with the priest Philippicus and the martyr Barsimas. 

HAD HE BEEN EXILED?

It is documented that St Athanasius wrote in a letter to the hermits that a bishop and confessor Philo was exiled by George the Cappodocian and from thence retired to Babylon. If this particular St Philo is meant by these lines (which does not seem very likely, since his seat was in Egypt) his year of death may have well been A.D. 341.

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858)