PHILIPPI. — The first city of Macedonia evangelized during the apostle Paul’s second missionary journey, together with Silas, to whom Timothy and Luke had recently joined themselves. The crossing into Europe took place following two interventions of the Holy Spirit (Acts 16:6 ff.), which directed the journey toward Troas, where in a dream Paul saw a Macedonian pleading for help (Acts 16:9). It was the year 50 or 51: a moment of great importance for the Christianization of the continent, even though there was already an active nucleus of Christians in the capital of the Empire, even if Peter had not yet come there.
In two days the missionaries reached the port of Neapolis (Cavalla), from which Philippi was about fifteen kilometers distant. The data provided by St. Luke correspond very well to the abundant written and monumental sources concerning Philippi. The city (Colonia Julia Augusta Philippensis or Philippensium) was governed by the *ius Italicum*; its citizens proudly bore the title of “Romans” (Acts 16:21); justice was administered by duumvirs *iuris dicundo*, called by Luke (Acts 16:20, 22, etc.) *stratēgoi*, who were preceded by the *lictores* (βακβούχοι, Acts 16:35-38). The difficulty created by Acts 16:12, which seems to make Philippi the capital of one of the four districts (*merides*) into which Macedonia had been divided after the Roman conquest, while this title belonged to Amphipolis, has been variously resolved (cf. A. Wickenhauser, *Die Apostelgeschichte und ihr Geschichtswert*, Münster 1921, pp. 334 sq.; H. J. Cadbury, in F. J. F. Jackson-K. Lake, *The Beginnings of Christianity*, IV, London 1933, p. 189; P. Collart, p. 457).
The evangelization of Philippi began one Sabbath morning on the banks of the Gangas or Gangites, within the precincts of a place of prayer where some women received Paul’s message with promise. Among them stood out, for her generosity, a merchant of purple goods, originally from Thyatira in Lydia, who hosted the missionaries in her home. This house thus became the spiritual center of the nascent community. The deliverance of a slave-girl, whose fortune-telling had brought economic harm to her owners, provoked a popular uproar in which the magistrates had Paul and Silas beaten and thrown into prison.
The nocturnal prayer of the two prisoners and a miraculous earthquake led to the conversion of the jailer and his household. The almost clandestine order for their release the next morning gave Paul an occasion to assert his Roman citizenship, obliging the magistrates—alarmed by the unusual consequences of their act—to come in person and free the prisoners. All of this served to strengthen the young community, which, when Paul and Silas left Philippi in response to the entreaties of the duumvirs, appears to have been entrusted for some years to the care of Luke. Indeed, the first-person plural does not reappear until Acts 20:5, toward the end of the third missionary journey. A not insignificant role in the development of the Philippian community was played by women. With the conversion of the jailer and his household, a first nucleus of pagans who had had no contact with Judaism entered the Church, and the Gentile-Christians formed the majority of this community. Other notable figures include a Clement, the “genuine yokemate” (Phil. 4:3)—a proper name—and the two women, Euodia and Syntyche, who are gently urged to come to an agreement (Phil. 4:2).
Paul returned to Philippi for Easter in either 56 or 57 (Acts 20:6); almost certainly during the journey through Macedonia mentioned in Acts 20:2, most probably after the end of his first Roman imprisonment (1 Tim. 1:3). Besides these visits, there were epistolary and personal contacts between Paul and Philippi (v. PHILIPPIANS, Epistle to) and through envoys from both sides (Acts 19:22, 29; Phil. 2:19-30).
This Church, so dear to Paul, must have remained in flourishing condition for a long time. Two letters rich in praise and Pauline reminiscences were addressed to it: one by St. Ignatius of Antioch, the other by St. Polycarp. The bishops of Philippi appear as signatories in four or five councils: Porphyrius at the Council of Sardica (343); Flavian at the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus (431), where he also represented Rufus, bishop of Thessalonica; Sozon at both the Latrocinium of Ephesus (449) and the opposing Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon (451). Today it is a titular see.
ARCHAEOLOGY. — During the Roman period, Philippi belonged to the praetorian prefecture of Italy and thus to the civil diocese of Macedonia; its location made it a meeting point between East and West, but gradually Constantinople prevailed, and the Roman colony began to detach itself from the Latin world, first becoming the *pars orientis* of the Empire and then gradually reverting to being a Greek city of the East.
Excavations carried out at Philippi on several occasions by the *École française d’Archéologie* have brought to light not only civil and pagan cult monuments but also Christian ones, thanks above all to the recent fundamental work of P. Lemerle, both for the early Christian period and for the Justinianic era.
The Christian monuments of Philippi known today are not earlier than the Constantinian age. Two important Christian basilicas were built south of the Lycus: one explored by Lemerle in 1937, measuring 135 m by 45 m in width, with three naves, a transept, a cathedra in the apse, and in front of it a circular pulpit, marble-lined baptistery walls; its plan recalls that of the basilica of Nicopolis. The basilica south of the Forum, called the “Directorium” (of the columns), was first explored by Strzygowski (*Die Ruine von Philippi*, in *Byzantinische Zeitschrift*, 11 [1902], pp. 473-90), then by the *École française d’Archéologie* between 1932 and 1934. Lemerle dates it to the Justinianic period; it has three naves, is 115 m long and 65 m wide, and features a dome with an apse reinforced externally by buttresses; inside, there is a central cathedra, an altar in front of the apse, a transept, a circular pulpit, and upper galleries. Its architectural type derives directly from Constantinople, indeed from Hagia Irene, while its decoration is linked to Hagia Sophia, particularly in its cornices and acanthus-leaf capitals; its piers were constructed from spolia.
An entire chapter of Lemerle’s work is devoted to Christian epigraphy at Philippi. On a relief of the acropolis, some crosses were scratched; on the side of a stele dedicated to Isis Regina, a cross and a dove were incised, with an invocation to the Redeemer to protect the city; against the city gate, where the Via Egnatia turns toward the sea, marble slabs were placed with fragments of the apocryphal correspondence between Abgar of Edessa and Jesus Christ (C. Picard, *Un texte nouveau de la correspondance entre Abgar d’Osrhoène et Jésus-Christ, gravé sur une porte de la ville à Philippes*, in *Bulletin de correspondance hellénique*, 44 [1920], pp. 41-69).
The Christian funerary inscriptions are all in Greek; among them are those of a deaconess Posidonia and a female canoness Pancaria (one who attended to the last offices for the dead), an Aurelius Cyriacus, instructor, and an Aurelius Capiton, priest of the Catholic Church, who died in 381; of six inscrip-
Having entered the Dominican Order in Rome (at the convent of Santa Maria sopra Minerva), he taught for many years with acclaim in the Perugian and Roman convents, earning the Order’s highest recognition through the mastership in sacred theology.
He left behind valuable works, among which the following are noteworthy: *Relazioni quattro libri logiche* [Four Books of Logical Relations]:
I. *De causis specirem intelligibilium angelici intellectus*;
II. *De acu angustatione coriantis*;
III. *De supernaturalitate Gratiae et visionis beatificae et cantatis*;
IV. *De distinctione specifica angelorum* (Rome, 1614).