Secular Oratory of Saint Philip Neri

SECULAR ORATORY OF SAINT PHILIP NERI. - Having become a priest, Philip Neri saw a nucleus of friends and admirers gather around him from as early as 1552; he guided them along the path of perfection and gradually gave them a stable form of activity that took the name of "exercises of the O.," from the place where they gathered and from the principal activity carried out, namely vocal and mental prayer.

The exercises of the O., which thus gave rise to the social nucleus that still endures alongside every Filippine religious family, consisted at the beginning (in time they led to adaptations or reductions) in the reading of a devotional book (Bible, Lauds of Jacopone, Life of Colombini, works of the Carthusian, etc.) on which an edifying discourse was spontaneously embroidered. This was the "discourse on the book," repeated four times a day, alternating with songs of lauds in the vernacular (v. ORATORIO MUSICALE). Pilgrimages to churches were also made, and especially to the 7 principal basilicas (the "visit of the seven churches"), as well as visits to hospitals, where every day the "brothers" of the O. went to serve the sick or bring them gifts. The subject matter of the sermons specialized in the disciplines that remain typical of the Filippine O.: Church history stical history, sacred archaeology, exegesis, patristics, hagiography and non-liturgical music.

Carlo Gasbarri