Saturday 12 March 2022

A Rhymed Life of Saint Philip

Four hundred years and more ago,
There did in Florence live
A worthy lawyer and his wife,
Who destined were to give
To Holy Church that wondrous Saint,
So simple yet so great,
The story of whose life in verse
I'm going to relate…

To commemorate 400 years since the canonisation of St Philip, we have republished A Rhymed Life of Saint Philip. This unique biography of Our Holy Father was written by Fr Ralph Kerr of the London Oratory and first published in 1926, but has long been out of print. This edition also features beautiful engravings from an 18th century life of St Philip. Available from the Oratory Bookshop or online from lulu.com, priced £6.99. Fr Kerr writes in his introduction:

Rhymed Lives of St Philip have been published before; three at least appeared in Italian during the seventeenth century, while Father Faber himself planned something of the kind, though, unfortunately, he never found the time to carry it into execution. The present little volume is put forward with the hope that it may bring some knowledge of the Apostle of Rome to those who do not know him, while others who already know and love him may perhaps find an hour or two’s diversion in its pages.