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Holy Apostle Philip 11/27/2013
Saint Philip came from Bethsaida in Galilee as the Holy Apostles Peter and Andrew. Having meditated on the Holy Scriptures from his early age, Philip immediately responded to the call of the Lord Christ and followed Him (John 1, 43). After the descent of the Holy Spirit, Philip zealously preached the Gospel in many parts of Asia and Greece. In Greece the Jews wanted to put him to death, but he was saved by miracle of God. The Jewish Hierarch that set to beat him at once lost his sight and turned black. And there was a severe earthquake, the earth opened and swallowed the impious persecutors of Philip. Many miracles occurred, great numbers of sick were healed and many pagans were converted. Saint Philip, accompanied by his own sister Mariamne, Saint John the Theologian and the Apostle Bartholomew, went on to the city of Hierapolis in Phrygia. There was a venomous serpent that the pagans devotedly fostered and worshipped as a god. The Apostles of God put the serpent to death by their prayers and thus aroused the anger of the darkened pagans. Infuriated, they seized Philip and crucified him on a tree his head downwards, and then crucified Saint Bartholomew. At that moment the ground suddenly opened and a great many pagans together with their Proconsul were swallowed. Terrified, the surviving unbelievers rushed to take down the Apostles. Bartholomew was still alive, while Philip had already given up his soul to God. Many were converted and Bartholomew ordained Stachys as their bishop. Stachys had been blind for forty years until Bartholomew and Philip restored his sight and baptised him. Later the holy relics of Saint Philip were translated to Rome. This great Apostle suffered martyrdom in the year 86, during the reign of the Emperor Dometian.
