Philip means a mouth of light or a mouth of hands. Or, it comes from philos, love, and yper, above; and means a lover of higher things. He is called a mouth of light because of his illuminating preaching, a mouth of hands because of his diligent labours, a lover of higher things because of his divine contemplation.

The apostle Philip had been preaching in Scythia for twenty years when the pagans seized him, and tried to compel him to offer sacrifice to a statue of the god Mars. But suddenly a huge dragon emerged from the foot of the statue, and slew the son of the priest who was preparing the fire for the sacrifice, together with the two tribunes who had arrested Philip; and at the same time he exhaled a breath so noxious that all who stood near were stifled by it. And Philip said: 'Believe me! Break this statue, and adore the Lord's Cross in its stead, so that those of you who are sickened may be well, and that these dead may return to life!' But the pagans, becoming ever more ill, cried out: 'Let us but be cured, and we promise thee that we shall destroy the statue at once!' Then Philip spoke to the dragon, and commanded him to betake himself to a desert place where he could do no harm to anyone. The dragon obediently went away, and was never seen again. Thereupon Philip cured all those whom the dragon's breath had sickened, and restored the dead men to life. Thus he converted the whole city, and spent another year preaching within its walls. Then, having ordained priests and deacons, he went to a city of Asia called Hierapolis, where he put down the heresy of the Ebionites, who held that Christ had taken a body different from our human body.

He had with him his two daughters, who were persons of great holiness, and by whose agency God brought many souls to the true faith. And a week before his death, Philip called together the bishops and the priests, and said to them: 'The Lord grants me seven days more to carry on your instruction.' And one week thereafter he was taken by the infidels, and fastened to a cross, in like manner as the divine Master whose doctrine he preached. Thus his soul took flight to the throne of the Lord. And beside him were buried his two virgin daughters, one to the right, the other to the left.

Isidore tells us, in his book, Life and Death of the Saints: 'Philip the Galilean preached Christ, brought the faith to the barbarian peoples who sat in darkness on the coasts of the ocean, and brought them light and led them into the harbour of faith, and in the end was crucified, stoned, and put to death, at Hierapolis, in the province of Phrygia, where he is buried between his two daughters.' Thus says Isidore.

Of another Philip, who was one of the first seven deacons, Saint Jerome tells us that he died at Caesarea on the eighth day of the month of July, after performing many miracles, and that he was buried with three of his daughters, while a fourth reposes at Ephesus. But he is not the same as the first Philip, who was an apostle and not a deacon, who was buried at Hierapolis and not at Caesarea, and who had two daughters and not four. The Ecclesiastical History indeed seems to indicate that the apostle Philip had four daughters, who were endowed with the gift of prophecy; but on this point Saint Jerome's opinion deserves more credence.

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¹The Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine, trans. and adapted by Ryan, Granger and Helmut Ripperger. (Arno Press: Longmans, Green & Co) 1941. pp. 260–1.