Saints celebrated on the 3rd of May
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SAINT PHILIP OF ZELL, HERMIT
From 8th century England, where he was born at an unknown place, St Philip came to Rome as a pilgrim, and, according to legend, he became a priest in Rome. Afterwards, abandoning himself to the guidance of God, he came to what is now the Bavarian Rhine-Palatinate, and settled in a place which was henceforth called Zell.
Philip's biography relates that he lead a contemplative hermit life. The animals of the forest came to him trustingly, for he shared his food with them. Birds especially flew spontaneously onto his hand when he called them - as if they had been trained.
The reputation of the Servant of God gradually spread throughout that country, and reached the ears of Pepin the Short, who came to pay the holy man a visit, which he gratefully returned with pious intercession and salutary counsel. A monastery came into existence at the spot which included a church dedicated to Archangel St Michael.
After serving the Lord in this solitude to a ripe old age and instructing many disciples in the holy life, our saint became stricken with a fever and, after a short illness, passed away.
While the saint was still in the coffin, his first companion Horoskolf, who had left on a trip without having received the blessing from his teacher, returned to ask for the blessing once he remembered that he had not been blessed. He was horrified to learn of the death of his beloved father. Weeping and wailing, he threw himself over the bier and cried out, "Oh, father! I have never set out on a journey without your blessing, for your blessing has always been my shield and my helmet."
At this lamentation of the weeping companion, the deceased sat up in the coffin and said to him: "Travel in peace and execute everything with God's help. All will go well. Just keep an eye on this place as long as you live. You shall leave safe and return safe." After saying this, he blessed the departing disciple and laid his head back on the bier, and the brothers lowered the corpse into the prepared grave. (Horoskolf lived in this solitude for many more years and died at the age of one hundred.) The pious legend has numerous minor and major miracles about his grave, most of which relate to divine punishments carried out on thieves and church blasphemers, then miracles to wine and fruit, combined into a lovely wreath, several of which are listed by Jocham (Bavaria S. I. 260 ff.).
Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints
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