Novena to St. Philomena

In 1802, excavators in the Catacomb of Priscilla in Rome uncovered a sealed loculus containing bones and three tiles bearing fragments of an inscription read, at the time, as "Pax Tecum Filumena" ("Peace be with you, Philomena"), along with symbols conventionally taken as markers of martyrdom. No historical record naming a martyr Philomena survives from antiquity, and nothing certain is known of who this person was, when she lived, or how she died; the widely circulated narrative of a young virgin martyr persecuted under Emperor Diocletian was composed later, from claimed private revelations, and has no independent documentary support. Devotion to her nonetheless spread rapidly through the nineteenth century, championed above all by St. John Vianney, the Curé of Ars, and she became closely associated with the Living Rosary movement and with the hopes of the young. Because the historical evidence could not sustain the claims made for her, the Congregation of Rites suppressed her public liturgical cultus in 1961, and she does not hold a feast day on the Church's calendar; devotion to her continues in some places as a private, permitted practice. This app could not independently confirm any specific feast date for her and lists none, rather than guess.

Historical assessment of the 1802 catacomb discovery, the absence of ancient documentary evidence, St. John Vianney's promotion of the devotion, and the 1961 suppression of her public cultus, drawn from standard, widely corroborated reference material. No feast date is asserted; see the note above.