Parte I - Confederazione dell'Oratorio di San Filippo Neri

U.M. Lang, The miracle of St. Philip Neri in the Palazzo Massimo91dovisi). 13 A commission of cardinals of the Congregation of Rites was giventhe task of examining the material in June 1614. They concluded their workwith a positive verdict and Pope Paul V beatified Philip on 25 May 1615,granting permission to celebrate the Office and Mass of the saint (classifiedas a confessor who was not a bishop) in the Chiesa Nuova. 14 The Pope remindedthe Fathers of the Roman Oratory to take into account the differencebetween beatification and canonization, and urged them to conduct the festivitiesin honour of Philip ‘con modestia’. This injunction reflected the factthat beatification was still understood as nothing more than the approval ofthe Office and Mass of the candidate. It is generally recognised that the firstformal beatification, as distinct from the ‘autorizzazione all’ufficiatura’, wasthat of Francis de Sales on 8 January 1662. 15 In 1621, Philip’s cause was takenup again and on 12 March 1622 he was canonised by Pope Gregory XValong with Isidore the Labourer, Ignatius of Loyola, Francis Xavier and Teresaof Avila. 16 The Roman people, who were greatly devoted to Philip, saidthat the pope had raised to the altar ‘four Spaniards and a saint’. This commentwas not only a characteristic piece of wit and chauvinism, but alsoshowed keen awareness of how the political struggles among the Catholicpowers of Europe affected the causes of saints. Be that as it may, the day ofthese five canonizations is rightly regarded as one of the high points of theCounter-Reformation.The Raising from the Dead of Paolo MassimoThe Massimo were among the most illustrious and powerful families ofRome. Fabrizio Massimo (1536-1633), Paolo’s father, was a spiritual childand intimate friend of St Philip. The saint exerted a very salutary influenceon Fabrizio, who had an intemperate character and was in his earlier yearsgiven to strife and violence. In one of the many family dramas of sixteenth-13 Cf. Processo, IV, 7-19; Cistellini (1989), III, 1947-8; Papa (2001), 109-11.14 Cf. Cistellini (1989), III, 2051-3. The permission was strictly limited to the Roman house.Not even the Naples Oratory, a foundation made in Philip’s lifetime, was allowed to celebrate theanniversary of his death with a proper Office and Mass. This added to the tensions between thetwo houses.15 However, Pope Urban VIII raised Andrea Avellino to the honour of the altar with the formula‘interim beatus nuncupetur’ on 4 September 1624, as noted by De Maio (1973), 298. On thehistory of beatification and its distinction from canonization, see Papa (2001), 170-214, and M.Gotor, I beati del papa: santità, Inquisizione e obbedienza in età moderna, Firenze 2002.16 Cf. Cistellini (1989), III, 2139-48.