MIRACULOUS MIRACLES^™

Prayer — Prayers of the Saints

Prayer to St. Philip Neri for a Happy Death

Indulgenced by Leo XIII, 22 April 1887

'Be to me an advocate and father at the awful moment of my passage to eternity' — asked of the man who spent fifty years sitting with the dying of Rome.

The Prayer

English · Original

O glorious St. Philip, who wast so favoured by God while consoling and helping thy spiritual children in the hour of their death; be to me an advocate and father at the awful moment of my passage to eternity. Obtain for me the grace that Satan may not overcome me, temptation oppress me, or fear unnerve me in that hour; but that, fortified by a lively faith, a firm hope, and a sincere charity, I may bear with patience and perseverance this last conflict; so that, full of trust in the mercy of God, the infinite merits of Jesus Christ, and the protection of most holy Mary, I may be worthy to die the death of the just, and to enter the blessed country of Paradise, there to love and enjoy God, together with thee and all the saints for ever. Amen.

When the Prayer is Said

At a deathbed; in one's own last illness; on 26 May.

History & Background

Philip's confessional in Rome was besieged for half a century, and a great part of his work was done at deathbeds; his penitents testified that he had a particular gift of consoling and helping those in their last agony. He died himself on 26 May 1595, after hearing confessions all day and saying, 'Last of all, we must die.'

The prayer asks him for the three things that go wrong at the end — that Satan may not overcome, temptation oppress, or fear unnerve — and then for the three theological virtues to hold to the last. Leo XIII indulgenced it in 1887. The text is the Raccolta's of 1910.

Indulgences Attached

One hundred days, once a day — Leo XIII, 22 April 1887 (Raccolta, 1910, no. 345).

Related Saints

St. Philip Neri

July 21, 1515, Florence – May 26, 1595, Rome

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