The king and queen no baby had;
They longed to be a mum and dad;
To pagan gods they prayed each day;
But still no baby came their way.
Then good advice was given them;
It proved to be a priceless gem;
Christians are what you should be;
Then a baby blessing;
You shall see!
When this was done; 
The grace was granted;
And with little Philomena;
They were enchanted!
When little Philomena had reached twelve years;
Bad news filled up their eyes with tears;
On their country small and poor;
The emperor of Rome;
declared a war !
Let’s go to Rome;
The King told wife and daughter;
To plead with the emperor;
to prevent this slaughter.
At the mighty
Emperor’s court;
They pleaded with him;
the war to abort.
The emperor had a new idea;
He said there’s nothing more to fear.
Give me your daughter;
To be my wife;
And I promise her;
A wonderful life!
The offer took them
By surprise;
A refusal would mean;
Their country’s demise.
The king and queen were filled with gladness;
But Philomena was overcome by sadness.
To be a bride of Christ;
She’d already taken a vow;
No way would Philomena;
Let it be broken now.
The answer was a steadfast no;
The emperor now his force would show!
To the dungeon Philomena was deployed;
All manner of torture was employed;
It was all to no avail;
The emperor’s methods were doomed to fail.
Because God Himself defended her soul;
Philomena kept her eyes on her heavenly goal.
The maiden Philomena;
Was strengthened by faith and grace;
Until the day she could behold;
God face to face.
Finally the maiden Philomena was beheaded;
And the onlookers wept;
For many centuries in the catacombs;
She silently slept.
At last her relics were located;
And the excavators were elated;
When Philomena’s relics,
Were brought up to the ground;
Miracles started to abound !
Some folks thought that miracles;
Had stopped with the Bible;
With Philomena;
They had a revival.
The sneering cynics;
Who had announced God’s demise;
Were by Philomena’s miracles;
Dealt a surprise.
Saint Philomena’s fame;
Spread everywhere;
And people ran to her;
Pleading in prayer.
No one was forgotten;
No one was left out;
The cripples;
The dying;
The sad;
And the needy;
All of them found;
Her miracles speedy.
From heaven she surveys;
All of our needs;
And on our behalf;
With God she pleads.
Say a prayer to Saint Philomena;
And light her a candle;
Because there is no problem;
That she cannot handle.
There’s one thing more;
We should not ignore;
From her grave of silent obscurity;
She has come back to teach us;
About goodness and purity.
Electrocuted!
Joanna’s younger brother and sister both had the bad habit of putting their wet hands on the electric light switches. One night Joanna’s mother received a striking sign from Saint Philomena and straight after that, she heard Joanna scream. When Joanna turned on the light she got electrocuted. Joanna felt the 240 Volts travel right down her arm, despite this she was alright and no real harm was done. Joanna’s mother attributes this protection to Saint Philomena. A priest who heard about this incident quipped that “You could say that she is a girl with good connections!”
An unexpected visit from the doctor
The following event took place in Ireland over seventy years ago. A lady was seriously ill and needed urgent medical attention, however the family did not send for a doctor, because they could not afford the necessary fee. They knew that the doctor would not come to the house unless they could pay the fee. Later in the day the doctor arrived (unexpectedly) at the house. He said that a tall girl with long hair had come into his office that day and had paid the fee on their behalf. The family had not mentioned the matter to anyone except to Saint Philomena in prayer.
The poem and the stories are from my book: Help from Heaven (Answers to Prayer) which can be read free on line at the following link:
http://missionbell.homestead.com/HelpFromHeavenBook.html
A 54 day Rosary Novena for the healing of autism has been set up. It will run from September 25 – November 17, 2010
The following story was told to me by a friend. Irene was in financial trouble and had debts of about $1,000 to pay off. She had no way of doing this and was very worried. Irene made a novena to St Philomena for a solution. The bank sent her a statement on an old account which previously had a zero balance in it. She had not used this account in years. There was a balance of $1,000 in the account. Irene was confused and telephoned the bank for an explanation. They told here that someone had deposited the money into her account. Irene wanted to know who that was, but no one at the bank knew! She was able to use this money to pay off her debts and to this day many years later, Irene still does not know who deposited the money into her account.
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