BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CHURCH
The church of San Fermo Minore di Bra' (or in Braida), also known as "Chiesa dei Filippini", is a church in Verona, that was dedicated to the martyr saints Fermo and Rustico, as was the nearby monumental Gothic church, which houses the remains of the two martyrs. Two other churches in the area also dedicated to Fermo and Rustico were destroyed in 19th century.
The idea of building a new church came up to the Filippini fathers' mind in 1746. The old medieval church they ruled for just over thirty years - was now too small and narrow. The task of designing and building the new one was assigned to Andrea Camerata, a Venetian architect who proposed an architectural style close to Palladian models. The factory was blessed in 1759 as works started. They went on until 1791 when it was solemnly consecrated by the Bishop of Verona, Mons. Avogadro. The church was funded with the alms from the faithful and through contributions of the Filippini fathers, as stated on the large plaque above the compass of the church.
The neoclassical style church was enriched by numerous works of art (some moved from the previous church) and by the miraculous cross of the church of San Fermo Minore or San Fermo Piccolo (after the latter was demolished in 1898 to allow the enlargement of the municipal slaughterhouse).
During World War II, the church was badly damaged by air raids, but the cross was once again saved. After 1949, the church was almost completely restructured according to the original architecture and then reopened to the public.
The bell tower, with an original onion-shaped cusp (to mark the pro-Austrian affinity of the Filippini fathers who had remained in French territory), houses a concert of six bells (plus one off-scale) in a musical scale of G3, cast by the Cavadini company in 1933. Even today they are played manually according to the technique of the concert Bells in the Veronese system.
BRIEF HISTORY OF SAN FILIPPO NERI AND OF THE CONGREGATION OF THE ORATORY
Filippo Neri was born in Florence on July 21, 1515, and was baptized in the "bel San Giovanni", the Baptistery of Florence, the following day, the feast of St. Mary Magdalene. He lives with his family and at the age of 18 he is sent to today's Cassino with an uncle to learn the art of the cloth merchant. But that's not his way. We find it in fact in Rome, starting from 1534.
He probably went there without a clear plan. Rome, the holy city of Christian memories, the land blessed by the blood of martyrs, but also, for many men, the source and desire for career and success. Here the young Philip sought and found nourishment for his desire for an intense spiritual life. He got there as a pilgrim, and with the soul of a penitent pilgrim, as a "monk of the city", to use an expression in fashion today, he lived the years of his youth, austerely and happyly at the same time, entirely dedicated to cultivating his spirit.
Studying with the Augustinians and at the "Sapienza" and acting as a tutor for two young offspring of the wealthy Caccia family, under the spiritual direction of Fr. Persiano Rosa, he slowly matured in his call to priestly life. Philip felt unworthy of it, but he knew the value of trusting obedience to a spiritual father who gave him so many examples of holiness. At the age of thirty-six, on May 23, 1551, he was ordained a priest. Among the saint's disciples, some matured their priestly vocation, enamored of the method and pastoral action of Fr. Filippo (we remember among all Cesare Baronio and Francesco Maria Tarugi, both future cardinals). Thus was born, without a preordained project, the "Congregation of the Oratory": the community of priests who in the Oratory (place of prayer, prayer, catechesis, formation, art and sacred music) had not only the center of their spiritual life, but also the most fruitful field of apostolate.
In 1575 Pope Gregory XIII entrusted the small and dilapidated church of S. Maria in Vallicella to Philip and his priests, a stone's throw from San Girolamo della Carità and San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, at the same time erecting the "Congregatio presbyterorm saecularium de Oratorio nuncupanda" with the Bull "Copiosus in Misericordia Deus". Filippo, who continued to live in San Girolamo's beloved bedroom until 1583, and who moved, only out of obedience to the Pope, to the new residence of his priests, gave himself with all his commitment to rebuilding the small church of Vallicella in grandiose dimensions and in beauty, now known by all as the "New Church".
Here he spent the last twelve years of his life, in the exercise of his ever favorite apostolate: the paternal and very sweet, but at the same time strong and demanding, encounter with every category of people, with the intention of leading every soul to God not through difficult paths, but in evangelical simplicity, in the trusting certainty of the infallible divine love, in the gladness of the spirit that flows from union with God. He died in the early hours of May 26, 1595, at almost eighty years old, loved by his family and by all of Rome with a love full of esteem and affection.
The Pontiffs and the Roman people immediately defined him as "Apostle of Rome", attributing to him the title reserved for Peter and Paul, a title that Rome did not give to any other of the great saints who, at the same time as Philip, had lived and worked within the walls of the Eternal City. He was canonized in Rome on March 12, 1622.
THE CONGREGATION OF THE ORATORY IN VERONA
The Congregation of the Oratory of San Filippo Neri in Verona officially began in Verona on 20 April 1713, the day on which Mons. Gianfrancesco Barbarigo, Bishop of the Diocese, erected it by decree. The devotion to San Filippo in Verona, however, is very ancient and it can be said that it dates back to the time when the saint was still alive. It is known with certainty that Cardinal Agostino Valier, a close friend of the Saint, celebrated him in his "dialogue on Saint Philip or Christian Letizia"; he had also introduced the exercises of the Rome Oratory into Verona.
The first priests who started the Congregation were: Don Lodovico Armani, Don Mattia Stecherle, Don Benedetto Poli.
On Sundays and other holidays, they used to meet together with the hermits of Tagliaferro near Avesa and spend a few hours in prayer and recollection with those religious. Desiring a more appropriate Church for the kind of functions they intended to start, they made arrangements to obtain the Church of SS. Apostles, that of S. Lucia, but in vain, and therefore they accepted the one offered by Mons. Barbarigo. Having also obtained the consent of the Serenissima through Mons. Bianchini, the aforementioned Church of San Fermo Minore in Braida was granted to them in perpetuity and Mons. Barbarigo drafted the decree of erection on 20 April 1713.
1787 marks a memorable date for Verona because in that year San Filippo was proclaimed protector of the clergy of Verona and co-patron of the city of Verona.
But the days of mourning for the Oratory of San Filippo came and it was when the Napoleonic storm overwhelmed the Congregation together with the other religious orders. They never left completely, five of them needed to take care of the souls of the Parish, but almost twenty were removed and they were deprived of a large part of the house. In 1820 the Filippini were reinstated by Austria in large part of their rights and on 2 February 1821 the surviving Fathers who wanted to were able to return to their House and resume the exercises of the Oratory. Another storm was unleashed on the Congregation in 1867 due to the suppressions established by the Italian government, leaving the Fathers again deprived of a large part of their home and their possessions, in the sole hands of Divine Providence.
Even after this ordeal, they were able to resume their common life and their fruitful apostolate. To remember among others: the encyclopedic Girolamo Da Prato, Gianfrancesco Manzoni, Ippolito Bevilacqua, the distinguished philologist Antonio Cesari, Giovanni Battista Bertolini, the liturgist Bartolomeo Tolasi, Bartolomeo Morelli, Luigi Medici, Carlo Zamboni, the man of letters Bartolomeo Sorio and finally the servant of God Luigi Perez.
HOLINESS
Saint Philip Neri (1515-1595)
St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
St. Louis Scrosoppi (1804-1884)
San Jose Vaz (1651-1711)
St. John Henry Newman (1801-1890)
Blessed John Juvenal Ancina (1545-1604)
Blessed Antonio Grassi (1592-1671)
Blessed Sebastiano Valfrè (1629-1710)
Blessed Salvio Huix Miralpeix (1877-1936)
WHO ARE THE FILIPINO FATHERS AND “HOW DO THEY WORK”?
The Confederation of the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri brings together the Congregations which, starting from the first - founded in Rome by the Saint and canonically erected in 1575 by Pope Gregory XIII with the Bull "Copiosus in Misericordia Deus" - have been erected over the centuries by the Apostolic See "ad instar Congregationis Oratorii de Urbe" (on the model of the Congregation of Rome).
These Congregations - which have reached a number of about three hundred in various countries over the centuries - lived in total autonomy (linked to each other only by spiritual ties and by the text of the common "Constitutiones", approved by Pope Paul V in 1612) until, in recent times, the Apostolic See established a juridical bond which, despite the original autonomy of the Houses "sui juris", united the Communities in a more organic way in the newly constituted Confederation.
At present, 90 communities, each known as the "Congregation of the Oratory", make up the Confederation. They are present in 20 countries: 60 Congregations in Europe, 28 in North, Central and South America and 2 in Africa for a total of 490 aggregate members, to which are added about fifty "novices" and about sixty aspirants.
Divided by linguistic area, there are 20 Italian-speaking Congregations, 27 Spanish-speaking, 16 English-speaking, 11 German-speaking, 7 Polish-speaking, 4 French-speaking, 2 Afrikaans-speaking, 1 Dutch-speaking, 1 Portuguese-speaking and 1 Lithuanian-speaking.