Philippi

PHILIPPI. - The first city of Macedonia evangelized during the second apostolic journey by Paul and Silas, to whom Timothy and Luke had joined themselves. The passage into Europe came about as a result of two interventions of the Holy Spirit (Acts 16:6 ff.), who directed the journey toward Troas, where a Macedonian appeared to Paul in his sleep, imploring his help (Acts 16:9). It was the year 50 or 51: a very important date for the Christianization of the European continent; although there was already in the capital of the Empire, even if Peter had not yet come there, an active nucleus of Christians.

In two days the missionaries reached the port of Neapolis (Kavala), from which Philippi was about 15 km away. The data that St. Luke provides correspond very well to the knowledge that abundant written and monumental sources give of Philippi. The city (Colonia Iulia Augusta Philippensis or Philippensium) was governed by the ius Italicum; its citizens prided themselves on the title of "Romans" (Acts 16:21); justice was administered by the duumviri iure dicundo, called by Luke (Acts 16:20, 22 etc.) στρατηγοί; who had themselves preceded by lictors (ῥαβδοῦχοι, Acts 16:35, 38). The difficulty arising from Acts 16:12, which would seem to make Philippi the capital of one of the four districts (μερίδες) into which Macedonia had been divided after the Roman conquest, while this title belonged to Amphipolis, is variously resolved (cf. A. Wikenhauser, Die Apostelgeschichte und ihr Geschichtswerk, Münster 1921, p. 334 ff.; H. J. Cadbury, in F. J. F. Jackson-K. Lake, The beginnings of christianity, IV, London 1933, p. 180; P. Collart, p. 457).

The evangelization of Philippi began one Saturday morning on the bank of the Ganges or Gangites within the enclosure of the Jewish προσευχή, where some women promptly welcomed Paul's message. Among them one stood out for her generosity, a purple merchant, a native of Thyatira in Lydia, who hosted the missionaries in her house. She thus became the spiritual center of the nascent community. The liberation of a young pythoness provoked, through the scheming of her economically damaged masters, a kind of popular uprising, in which the magistrates had Paul and Silas flogged, then throwing them into prison.

The nocturnal prayer of the two prisoners and a miraculous earthquake led to the conversion of the jailer and his family. The order for their almost clandestine release, given the next morning, provided Paul with the occasion to assert the rights of Roman citizenship, obliging the magistrates, worried about the consequences of their rash act, to go personally to free the prisoners. Everything served to strengthen the young community; in which, when Paul and Silas, yielding to the request of the duumviri, left Philippi, it remained entrusted to the care, it seems, of Luke for some years. Indeed the "we" does not return until Acts 20:5, toward the end of the third missionary journey. No small part in the development of the community of Philippi was played by the female element. With the conversion of the jailer and his family a first nucleus of pagans had entered, who had had no contacts with Judaism; and the Gentile Christians formed the bulk of this Church. Other prominent figures are a Clement, the "genuine Syzygus" (Phil 4:3: is this a proper name?) and those two women Euodia and Syntyche, who are politely asked to come to an agreement (Phil 4:2).

Paul returned to Philippi for the Passover of 56 or 57 (Acts 20:6); almost certainly on the journey through Macedonia mentioned in Acts 20:2; in all likelihood, after the end of the first Roman imprisonment (1 Tim 1:3). Besides these visits, there were epistolary relations between Paul and Philippi (v. FILIPPESI, EPISTOLA 31) and by means of envoys from both sides (Acts 19:22, 29; Phil 2:19-20).

This Church, beloved of Paul, must have remained in flourishing condition for a long time. Two letters rich in eulogies and Pauline reminiscences are addressed to it: one by St. Ignatius of Antioch, the other by St. Polycarp. The bishops of Philippi appear as signatories in four to five councils: Porphyrius in that of Sardica (344); Flavian in the ecumenical council of Ephesus (431), where he also represented Bishop Rufus of Thessalonica; Sozon both at the latrocinium Ephesinum (449) and at the opposing ecumenical Council of Chalcedon (451). Today it is a titular archdiocese.

The excavations carried out on several occasions at F. by the «École française d'Athènes» have made known not only the civil monuments and those of pagan worship, but also the Christian ones, thanks above all to the recent fundamental work of P. Lemerle, both for Christian antiquity and for the Justinianic period.

The Christian monuments of F. that have survived to the present day are not earlier than the Constantinian age. Two imposing Christian basilicas were co-built in F., one to the north, the other to the south of the Forum. The first, explored by Lemerle in 1937, dates back to the 5th century; it is 135 m long by 45 wide; it has three naves, with a transept, a cathedra in the apse and, in front of it, the altar, a circular pulpit, walls of the baptistery covered with marble slabs; its plan recalls that of the basilica of Nicopolis. The basilica to the south of the Forum, called "Direkler" (of the columns), was explored first by Strzygowski (Die Ruine von Philippi, in Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 11 [1902], pp. 473-90), then by the "École française d'Athènes" between 1932 and 1934. It is dated by Lemerle to the Justinianic age; it has three naves, 115 m long and 65 wide; it was domed with an apse reinforced externally by buttresses; inside, at the center, was the cathedra, with the altar in front of the apse, a transept, a circular pulpit, upper galleries; its architectural type depends directly on Constantinople, indeed on St. Irene, while its decoration is linked to St. Sophia, especially in its cornices and its foliate capitals; its pillars were made with reused material.

An entire chapter of Lemerle's work is devoted to the Christian epigraphy of F. On a relief of the acropolis some crosses were scratched; also on the side of a cippus dedicated to Isis Regina a cross and a dove were engraved, with an invocation to the Redeemer to protect the city; against the city gate, where the "Egnatian" Way heads toward the sea, marble slabs were placed with fragments of the apocryphal correspondence between Abgar of Osroene and Jesus Christ (C. Picard, Un texte nouveau de la correspondance entre Abgar d'Osroene et Jésus-Christ, gravé sur une porte de la ville à Philippes, in Bull. de correspondance hellénique, 44 [1920], pp. 41-69).

The Christian funerary inscriptions are all in Greek; mention is made of a Posidonia deaconess and a Pancaria canoness (charged with performing the last offices for the deceased), an Aurelius Chrysisus instructor, an Aurelius Capito priest of the catholic church, who died in 381; of six inscriptions reused to build late tombs in the basilica called "Direkler," four employ the expression κομμητήριον to indicate a single tomb. Other inscriptions, however, go down to the 9th century.

Enrico Iosi