Apostle Philip of the Twelve

In the Gospel

Philip is named in all four Gospel lists of the Twelve, but it is the Gospel of John that gives him a distinct presence. He is the disciple whom Christ "found" and called with the words "Follow me" (John 1:43), and immediately afterward he sought out Nathanael, telling him that they had found the one of whom Moses and the prophets had written.

Three further scenes in John bring Philip forward by name: before the feeding of the five thousand Christ tests him by asking where bread might be bought; certain Greeks who had come up to the feast approach Philip with the request to see Jesus; and at the Last Supper Philip says, "Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices us," drawing from Christ the answer that whoever has seen Him has seen the Father.

Preaching and Martyrdom

After Pentecost the tradition relates that Philip preached widely, and that his sister Mariamne shared in his apostolic labors. At Hierapolis in Phrygia the synaxarion describes a pagan cult centered on the worship of a great serpent; Philip is said to have overcome it and to have healed many who had been harmed, including the wife of the city's prefect.

The same account relates that, on the orders of the prefect, Philip was crucified, and that he reposed praying for those who had put him to death. The Apostle Bartholomew, who suffered with him, was taken down alive, while Mariamne continued the work of preaching after Philip's death.

Relics & Shrines

Philip's relics are venerated in the crypt of the Basilica of Santi Apostoli in Rome. In 2011 the Italian archaeologist Francesco D'Andria reported the discovery of the apostle's tomb during excavations at ancient Hierapolis: a first-century tomb, found empty of relics, at the center of a fifth-century basilica complex.