Saint Philip, Deacon (1st century)

Chapter 6 of Acts opens on a pastoral tension in the earliest Church: the number of disciples is increasing, and the Greeks complain to the Hebrews that their widows are being neglected “in the daily distribution”.^[13] The adjustment that follows is foundational for the whole theology of the diaconate.

The Twelve gather the disciples and lay down the principle: “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.” They ask that seven men be chosen, “of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom”, to be appointed to this task; they themselves, they say, “will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word”.^[14]

The assembly chooses Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas, “a proselyte of Antioch”. “These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.” The word of God became fruitful; the number of disciples multiplied in Jerusalem, and “a great many of the priests” embraced the faith.^[15]

Two traits already mark Philip in this page. First, he is named with Stephen at the head of the list: he shares with the future protomartyr the same ordination, the same service, the same closeness to the Apostles.^[16][17] Second, the institution of the Seven is not mere administration: it is set up so that prayer and the ministry of the word remain at the heart of the mission, and so that the poorest, here the Greek widows, are not left aside. The diaconate of Philip is born of a just complaint and an organized charity.

Eastern iconography readily shows him as a deacon, sometimes with the book of the Gospels or the scroll of Isaiah, recalling at once his liturgical service and his catechesis. The 16th-century Muscovite icon kept on Wikimedia Commons is an ancient witness of this.^[18]

After the martyrdom of Saint Stephen and the dispersion that follows, Acts follows Philip further than the Twelve themselves. “Those who were scattered went about preaching the word; Philip went down to a city of Samaria and proclaimed the Christ to them.”^[19]

The success is described with an almost lyrical precision: “The crowds with one accord paid attention to what was said by Philip”, when they saw the signs he performed; “unclean spirits crying out with a loud voice came out of many who had them”; and “there was great joy in that city”.^[20] The same account introduces Simon the Magician, who in turn believes and is baptized, before later revealing a self-interested understanding of the gifts of the Spirit (Acts 8, 18-24).

For the history of the Church, this page is decisive: Samaria, long kept at a distance from the Judaism of Jerusalem, receives the proclamation of Christ through a deacon, not through an apostle of the Twelve. The mission already exceeds the frame of the holy city; it follows the roads of the word and the freedom of the Spirit.^[21][22]

The story of the chariot is one of the most finished in Acts. An angel says to Philip: “Rise and go towards the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza; this is a desert road.” There he meets an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a high official of Candace, queen of Ethiopia, who was returning from Jerusalem and reading the prophet Isaiah.^[23]

The Spirit says to Philip: “Go over and join this chariot.” Philip hears the reader and puts to him the question of every transmission of faith: “Do you understand what you are reading?” The man replies: “How can I, unless someone guides me?” He invites Philip to get up and sit with him.^[24]

The passage the Ethiopian was reading is the song of the Suffering Servant (Isaiah 53). “Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture he told him the good news of Jesus.”

“Do you understand what you are reading?” he asked. The man replied: “How can I, unless someone guides me?” He invited Philip to get up and sit with him. (Acts 8, 30-31)^[25]

The dialogue closes with the simplest and most pressing question of the sacrament: “See, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?”^[26] “He commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.”

Immediately afterwards, “the Spirit of the Lord caught up Philip; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing”. Philip found himself at Ashdod and “proclaimed the gospel to all the towns he passed through until he came to Caesarea”.^[27]

This chapter has nourished the whole catechetical and missionary tradition. It shows a Scripture that opens with a question, a catechist who does not replace the text but brings it to light, a sacrament asked for by the one who believes, and a joy that stays with the newly baptized when the minister has already disappeared.^[28][29] The memory of the Church of Ethiopia gladly attaches itself to this scene, as to one of its beginnings.^[30]

Years later, the book of Acts finds Philip again in the role of family man and apostolic host. Paul, on his way to Jerusalem, stops at Caesarea Maritima: “we entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven” (Acts 21, 8).^[31]

Two details are precious for early ecclesiology. First, Philip receives here the title of “evangelist”: the New Testament uses it only a few times (Ephesians 4, 11; 2 Timothy 4, 5), and the book of Acts reserves it for this deacon turned itinerant proclaimer.^[32][33] Second, the text adds: “He had four unmarried daughters, who prophesied.”^[34]

The mention of Philip's prophet daughters has long nourished reflection on the gift of prophecy in the young Church, and on the place of women in the transmission of the words of the Spirit. It is also one of the threads that have at times muddled the memories: tradition has sometimes attributed prophet daughters to Philip the Apostle rather than to the deacon, or confused the two figures.^[35][36] The text of Acts, for its part, is unambiguous: it is indeed Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven, who receives Paul at Caesarea.

It is also in this house at Caesarea that Agabus, a prophet come down from Judea, takes Paul's girdle and announces his bonds at Jerusalem (Acts 21, 10-12).^[37] The house of the deacon Philip is thus a place of prophecy, hospitality and courage: travellers are welcomed there, the will of God is discerned there, those who go to the end of their mission are accompanied there.

From antiquity, the closeness of the two Philips has produced interweavings of traditions that must be untangled with patience.^[38][39]

• Philip the Apostle, one of the Twelve, from Bethsaida, called by Jesus (“Follow me”, Jn 1, 43), kept in the West on 3 May with Saint James the Less.
• Philip the Deacon, called the Evangelist, one of the Seven of Acts 6, preacher in Samaria, baptizer of the Ethiopian eunuch, host of Paul at Caesarea, kept on 11 October.

The ancients themselves sometimes confused the two: Polycrates of Ephesus speaks of a Philip resting at Hierapolis “with two of his daughters”, and of another daughter at Ephesus; Eusebius and the Dialogue of Gaius associate prophet daughters with Hierapolis, while Acts places the four daughters of the deacon at Caesarea.^[40][41] Historians still discuss which of the two Philips rests at Hierapolis, and whether the traditions have not mingled their memories.^[42]

For today's reader, the distinction is enough to understand the feast of 11 October: it honours the deacon, the servant of the tables become evangelist of the nations, not the apostle of the Twelve nor Philip Neri.

The memory of Saint Philip, Deacon is fixed on 11 October in the calendar that honours him alongside saints such as Saint John XXIII, himself kept on the same day.^[43][44] Nominis presents him thus: “Deacon, ‘Apostle of Palestine’ (+ 80)”, a formula that marks at once his function (deacon) and the extent of his preaching (Palestine and beyond, as far as Samaria and the road to Gaza).^[45]

The Roman Martyrology, for its part, calls him “one of the Seven chosen by the Apostles” and recalls the conversion of the eunuch: “He brought to the faith of Christ the eunuch, minister of Candace, queen of Ethiopia, and baptized him”, then his proclamation “as far as Caesarea, where he rests, according to tradition”.^[46]

The Catholic Encyclopedia places him among the figures who opened the Church to the nations: his preaching in Samaria and the baptism of the Ethiopian precede the great Pauline missions and show that the Spirit is already leading the Gospel beyond the borders of Israel.^[47] His posterity lies less in a written work than in a type of ministry: the deacon who serves, who catechizes, who baptizes, who welcomes travellers, who leaves joy to those he has led to Christ.

The iconography of Saint Philip, Deacon, is dominated by one scene: the baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch.^[48][49] One sees there a deacon in dalmatic, sometimes a book or the scroll of Isaiah, a chariot, a watercourse or a spring, and the official of Candace asking for baptism. The painting by Andrzej Stech (1673, Pelplin) is a clear example; the 16th-century Muscovite icon shows the same saint as a minister of the early Church.^[50]

Other images present him simply as a deacon, with the book of the Gospels, or in the scene of the institution of the Seven beside Saint Stephen. Unlike Philip the Apostle, often shown with a cross or with a child, the deacon Philip bears the signs of service and of catechesis: the book, the water of baptism, the traveller's chariot.^[51]

• Saint Stephen: the protomartyr, ordained deacon with Philip in the same list of the Seven (Acts 6), and first witness of the blood poured out for Christ.
• Saint Philip the Apostle: one of the Twelve, not to be confused with the deacon; direct call of Jesus, “Come and see”, feast on 3 May.
• Saint Philip Neri: another Philip famous for holiness, apostle of 16th-century Rome, kept on 26 May.
• Saint Paul the apostle: the apostle of the nations, received in the house of Philip at Caesarea before going up to Jerusalem (Acts 21).
• Saint John XXIII: pope kept on 11 October like Philip the deacon, witness of a Church that serves the Word and peace.
• Saint Peter: prince of the Apostles, in Jerusalem at the time of the institution of the Seven deacons.