Saint Philip the Apostle (1st century)

Philip of Bethsaida: a Galilean open to the Greek world

Philip comes from Bethsaida in Galilee, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.^[5][6] John's Gospel states this expressly: “Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.”^[7] He therefore belonged to the same setting as the first disciples: the community of Galilean fishermen on the lakeshore, deeply Jewish yet already familiar with the surrounding Greco-Roman world.

This detail matters. Bethsaida, like the whole “Galilee of the nations,” lived in direct contact with the Hellenistic cities of the Decapolis. The apostle's own name — Philippos, a purely Greek name — is evidence of this: among the Twelve, Philip and Andrew alone bear Hellenistic names. This cultural openness helps explain the particular role the Gospel gives him when Greeks wish to approach Jesus: they naturally turn to Philip, whose name and language reassure them.^[8]

The meaning of his name: “lover of horses”

The name Philippos combines philos (“friend,” “one who loves”) and hippos (“horse”): it literally means “lover of horses,” an aristocratic and martial name widespread in the Greek world since Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great.^[9] That a son of Galilean fishermen bore this name illustrates how deeply Greek culture had penetrated even the lakeside villages.

Spiritual tradition has sometimes used this etymology to portray Philip as a model for one who masters his passions as a horseman masters his mount. Yet the more important point lies elsewhere: this Greek name borne by a Jewish disciple already foreshadows the universality of the Gospel, which would soon pass from Galilean Judaism to the nations.

Do not confuse the Apostle with Philip the Deacon

An ancient confusion, already noted by the Fathers, must be cleared away at once: the New Testament contains two distinct men named Philip.^[10]

• Philip the Apostle, one of the Twelve and the subject of this article.
• Philip the Deacon, also called “the Evangelist,” one of the seven men appointed to serve at table with Saint Stephen (Acts 6:5), who evangelized Samaria and baptized the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8).

This distinction is not an antiquarian detail. Acts attributes “four unmarried daughters who had the gift of prophecy” to Philip the Deacon (Acts 21:8-9), while Eastern tradition associates daughters venerated at Hierapolis with the Apostle. The closeness of the two figures caused their traditions to become intertwined from antiquity onward, and modern criticism has not always been able to untangle them because ancient authors themselves occasionally confused the two.^[11]

Philip is never named among the inner circle of Peter, James, and John. Yet in the lists of the Twelve, he always occupies fifth place, at the head of the second group of apostles.^[12] Above all, the fourth Gospel gives him four scenes in which his words move the narrative forward each time. Saint John is plainly the best informed about him — perhaps because the two had been close since their time in the circle of John the Baptist.

“Follow me”: Jesus calls Philip directly

Unlike most apostles, whose calling the Gospel does not narrate, Philip receives a direct and personal call. On the third day of John's opening sequence, Jesus takes the initiative:

“The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow me.’” — Gospel according to Saint John 1:43^[13]

The verb is striking: Jesus “finds” Philip as a shepherd finds a lost sheep. Andrew and John had come to Jesus through the Baptist, but Philip is personally sought by Christ. The command “Follow me” is precisely the one Jesus would later address to Matthew and repeat to Peter after the Resurrection: it is the foundational word of every apostolic calling.

Philip brings Nathanael: “Come and see”

Philip's first act after Jesus finds him is to find someone else and bring him to Jesus. Like Andrew running to Peter, Philip goes to his friend Nathanael, whom tradition most often identifies with the apostle Bartholomew:

“Philip found Nathanael and said to him, ‘We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.’” — Gospel according to Saint John 1:45^[14]

Nathanael objects skeptically: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip's answer remains one of the purest phrases in the entire Gospel because it does not argue: it invites an encounter.

“Come and see.” — Saint Philip to Nathanael, Gospel according to Saint John 1:46^[15]

Philip does not claim to prove anything; he proposes that Nathanael come and see. This is the pedagogy of Johannine faith itself: Nathanael is not convinced by a line of reasoning but brought into Christ's presence and allowed to judge for himself. “Come and see” also repeats the invitation Jesus had given Andrew and John (“Come and see,” Jn 1:39): Philip now passes on what he himself received.

The test of the five loaves

The second scene puts Philip to the test. Before the hungry crowd of five thousand, Jesus turns to him — not out of ignorance, the evangelist specifies, but to test him:

“‘Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?’ He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, ‘Six months' wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.’” — Gospel according to Saint John 6:5-7^[16]

Philip's answer is one of practical arithmetic: he calculates, measures, and concludes that the task is impossible. The Fathers saw in this exchange a lesson about the limits of human reason before divine generosity. Philip looks at the purse; Jesus looks beyond it. The apostle's calculation is not wrong — two hundred denarii, close to eight months of a worker's wages, would indeed not have been enough — but he reasons within an order that the miracle will surpass. The same thirst to see and understand will reappear at the Last Supper.

The Greeks who wanted to see Jesus

The third scene confirms Philip's role as an intermediary. As the Passion approaches, Greeks who have come to Jerusalem for Passover approach him:

“They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’” — Gospel according to Saint John 12:21^[17]

Why Philip? Probably because his Greek name and familiarity with the Hellenistic world made him approachable. Yet Philip prudently does not decide alone: he tells Andrew, and together they report the request to Jesus. This detail reveals a thoughtful man who does not seek the spotlight, but consults before acting. The Greeks' request then prompts one of John's great sayings about the hour of glorification — “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies...” (Jn 12:24). Through Philip, the nations knock at the door of salvation.

“Show us the Father”: Philip's great question

The fourth scene is the highest. At the Last Supper, after Jesus has spoken of the Father, Philip voices the request of all religious humanity:

“Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” — Saint Philip, Gospel according to Saint John 14:8^[18]

It is an immense and somewhat naive desire: like Moses on Sinai, Philip wants to see God. Christ's answer is among the most moving in the entire Gospel because it reveals the mystery of the Incarnation:

“Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” — Jesus to Philip, Gospel according to Saint John 14:9^[19]

Philip's question thus becomes fruitful: his thirst to see God draws from Christ the revelation that the Father can be seen in the Son. The whole theology of the Incarnation is contained in this reply elicited by an apostle's insistence. By admitting his desire to see, Philip asked the question secretly borne by every believer — and received the answer for them all.

As with most apostles, Acts does not narrate Philip's mission after Pentecost in detail. Yet an ancient, convergent, and geographically precise tradition associates him with Asia Minor and makes Hierapolis in Phrygia the place of his old age, martyrdom, and tomb.

Phrygia and Hierapolis: the apostle of Asia Minor

According to received tradition, Philip evangelized Phrygia, a region in the central west of modern Turkey, and settled in the spa city of Hierapolis, now Pamukkale, near Laodicea and Colossae.^[20] The Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine adds that he first preached for twenty years in Scythia before going to Phrygia, and that he died at the age of eighty-seven.^[21]

Tradition's choice of Hierapolis is not arbitrary: the city became a major Christian center in proconsular Asia. A generation later, Bishop Papias of Hierapolis lived there and collected memories of the apostles; from the fourth to the sixth century, pilgrims came to Hierapolis to venerate Philip's tomb within a vast monumental complex.

Philip's daughters and the testimony of Polycrates

The earliest testimony to Philip's residence at Hierapolis is also among the most valuable: the letter of Polycrates of Ephesus to Pope Victor, around 190, quoted by Eusebius of Caesarea in his Ecclesiastical History. Polycrates lists the “great luminaries” of Christian Asia:

“Philip, one of the twelve apostles, who sleeps in Hierapolis, and his two aged virgin daughters, and another daughter who lived in the Holy Spirit and now rests at Ephesus.” — Polycrates of Ephesus, letter to Pope Victor, quoted by Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, III, 31^[22]

This testimony is crucial: less than a century after the apostle's death, the bishop of Ephesus states as an established fact that Philip, one of the Twelve, rests at Hierapolis. Papias, bishop of Hierapolis around 120, is likewise said to have collected accounts transmitted by Philip's daughters.^[23] Scholars debate whether these sources sometimes confuse the Apostle with the Deacon, but the location at Hierapolis of an apostolic Philip venerated with his daughters remains one of the best-attested traditions of Christian Asia.

The Acts of Philip and the Golden Legend: the dragon of Hierapolis

Alongside the historical sources, a rich body of apocryphal literature grew around the apostle, especially the fourth-century Acts of Philip, a legendary account in which he evangelizes Greece, Phrygia, and Syria amid many wonders. Jacobus de Voragine's Golden Legend transmitted its most famous episode, the dragon of Hierapolis:

“When they wished to compel him to sacrifice before a statue of Mars, suddenly a huge dragon came forth from beneath the statue and killed the priest's son who was carrying the fire for the sacrifice; it also killed two tribunes whose soldiers held Philip in chains, and with its breath it made all the others ill.” — Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend, “Saint Philip”^[24]

The legend says that Philip drives out the dragon in Christ's name, heals the sick, and raises the dead. These accounts are not history in the strict sense — scholars regard them as late compositions — but they testify to the veneration surrounding the apostle and to the conviction that his preaching had triumphed over Phrygian paganism. The defeated dragon represents the demon expelled by the cross.

Crucified at Hierapolis

All traditions agree on the place of the martyrdom — Hierapolis — and on its essential fact: Philip dies as an elderly man, crucified for his faith in Christ.^[25] The Golden Legend says he was first stoned and then fastened to a cross, in imitation of his Master:

“The unbelievers, enraged, seized him and fastened him to a cross, following the example of Jesus Christ, his master, whom he had preached; and thus, while being stoned, he happily gave his soul to God.” — Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend, “Saint Philip”^[26]

Another tradition, notably preserved in the Acts of Philip, says that he was crucified upside down, like Peter, while a variant speaks of death by beheading.^[27] These differences over the exact form of his execution do not alter the common core: an apostle martyred for Christ at Hierapolis, whose tomb immediately became a place of pilgrimage.

The discovery of the tomb in 2011

For centuries, the precise location of Philip's tomb remained uncertain. An octagonal fifth-century martyrium, plainly built in the apostle's honor, stood at the summit of the hill at Hierapolis, but the burial itself was not there. In July 2011, the Italian archaeologist Francesco D'Andria, professor at the University of Salento and director of the Hierapolis excavations since 2000, announced that his team had identified the tomb attributed to Saint Philip.^[28]

The designated site is not in the octagonal martyrium but about forty meters away, at the center of a three-aisled church dating from the fourth or fifth century — the “Church of the Sepulchre” — built around a first-century tomb, empty of relics.^[29] According to the excavation team, the sanctuary's layout and the site's inscriptions identify this tomb as the one ancient pilgrims came to venerate as Philip's tomb.

D'Andria then presented this identification as a major discovery for the Christian world (announcement relayed by the Anadolu agency in July 2011): his team had been searching for this tomb for years.^[30]

If this attribution is correct, it would support the tradition transmitted by Polycrates and Eusebius: where the ancient texts placed the apostle's tomb, the excavations found a pilgrimage sanctuary organized around a first-century grave. As it stands, however, the identification remains an attribution by the excavation team, debated — especially since the ancient sources sometimes confused the Apostle with Philip the Deacon.^[31] The tomb is empty: according to tradition, the relics had been transferred in antiquity to Constantinople and then to Rome.

The apostle of “Come and see”

Philip's great lesson is contained in three words: “Come and see.” Like Andrew, his holiness is not one of dazzling speech but of connection: he brings Nathanael, serves as intermediary for the Greeks, and always stands between someone and Jesus. Yet his method is distinctively his own: he does not debate, but invites an encounter. To the skeptical objection — “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” — he responds not with an argument but with an invitation to come and verify for oneself.

“Come and see.” — Saint Philip, Gospel according to Saint John 1:46^[32]

It is a remarkably contemporary pedagogy. In an age when faith is debated through competing arguments, Philip reminds us that the first act of evangelization is an encounter, not a demonstration. Christ is not proved like a theorem; a person is led to him and allowed to reveal himself. Philip is the discreet patron of all those who may not know how to argue but know how to say to another person: “Come and see for yourself.”

“Show us the Father”: the desire to see God

The second hallmark of Philip's spirituality is his desire to see God. His question at the Last Supper — “show us the Father” — is not merely a blunder: it expresses the deepest religious desire of humanity, the desire of Moses when he asked to see God's glory. Christ's answer makes Philip the occasion of a decisive revelation: God is now visible in the face of Christ.

“Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” — Jesus, Gospel according to Saint John 14:9^[33]

Spiritual masters have cherished this scene because it teaches where to seek God: not in extraordinary visions, but in contemplation of Christ. Philip wanted a spectacular God; Jesus teaches him that the Father is seen in the Son's humanity. Far from being rebuked, Philip's thirst is satisfied beyond what he asked — a lesson for every prayer that searches for God in the dark.

Philip and the faith that seeks

The great Johannine scenes form a single portrait: a man who seeks, calculates, and asks questions. Before the five loaves, he counts; before the Greeks, he consults; before the mystery of the Father, he asks to see. Philip is not the apostle of instant certainties, but of faith on the way, advancing through questions.

This honest uneasiness makes him close to ordinary believers. He is neither a mystic struck by sudden illumination nor a subtle doctor, but a practical man who gradually allows Christ to surpass him. His holiness is one of patient fidelity: he followed without understanding everything, asked his questions, and at the end of a long life accepted crucifixion like his Master. His faith finally saw what it had been seeking.

The relics: from Hierapolis to Constantinople and Rome

As with many apostles, Philip's relics traveled. First venerated at Hierapolis, whose ancient pilgrimage sanctuary is organized around a first-century tomb — the one designated by the D'Andria team in 2011 — they are said to have been transferred to Constantinople and from there reached Rome.^[34] They now rest in the crypt of the Church of the Holy Apostles, or Santi Apostoli, in Rome, where they are venerated with those of Saint James the Less — which explains why the West celebrates both apostles on the same day.^[35]

Philip's association with James the Less in a single Roman basilica dates to the church's dedication under Pope Pelagius I and his sixth-century successor John III. This joint translation established the apostles' common liturgical commemoration in the Roman calendar.

Liturgical feast: May 3 in the West, November 14 in the East

Saint Philip's commemoration has had several dates. The Latin Church formerly celebrated it on May 1 with Saint James the Less; after the institution of the feast of Saint Joseph the Worker on May 1 in 1955, it moved to May 11, and the calendar reform subsequently fixed it on May 3, the current common feast of the two apostles.^[36] The Eastern Churches celebrate Saint Philip on November 14 — the opening day, in Byzantine tradition, of the “Philip's Fast” (Philippes nisteia), the period of fasting before Christmas named for the apostle.^[37]

Iconography and patronage

Christian art most often portrays Saint Philip as an elderly apostle carrying a cross — sometimes a tall staff-like cross recalling his martyrdom — as in Rubens's Saint Philip kept at the Prado, or holding a book and loaves of bread, in memory of the test of the five loaves when Jesus questioned him (Jn 6:7).^[38] The Petits Bollandistes note that he is also depicted crucified head down, and almost always associated with Saint James, with whom he shares his feast.^[39]

The only patronage attested by ancient hagiography is that of Algiers Cathedral.^[40] Many churches and towns bear his name throughout the Christian world. From the sanctuary at Hierapolis, whose tomb attributed to the Apostle was designated in 2011, to the Roman church of the Holy Apostles, his memory repeats the same invitation everywhere: “Come and see” — come to Christ and see in him the very face of the Father.

• Saint Andrew the Apostle — another apostle from Bethsaida, the “First-Called,” who also brings the Greeks' request to Jesus with Philip.
• Saint Peter — the prince of the apostles, from the same Galilean town as Philip.
• Saint Bartholomew the Apostle — traditionally identified with Nathanael, the friend Philip brought to Christ through “Come and see.”
• Saint Thomas the Apostle — who asked his own question at the same Last Supper, “How can we know the way?”, shortly before Philip's.
• Saint Papias of Hierapolis — bishop of the city where Philip rests, who collected apostolic memories transmitted by his daughters.
• Saint Stephen — the protomartyr appointed as a deacon with Philip the Deacon, who must not be confused with the Apostle.