Fr Peter Lennon

www.stjosephhelensburgh.rcglasgow.org.uk

www.scotscollege.org/news/november/jubilarians-on-st-andrew's-day.aspx

He came to know Saint Philomena through his great love for his patron Saint, The Cure of Ars, St. John Vianney. By the 10th January 2000 at the first Archconfraternity Mass at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, Balornock, Glasgow his love for Saint Philomena has blossomed. Throughout this year he came to know and love this little Saint very well. His parish thrived and numbers grew. His Spiritual guidance to everyone is warm and welcoming always with good and practical advice. In 2005 he celebrated mass in honour of Saint Philomena at St Andrews Cathedral, Glasgow. Later on in 2005 this he was moved to St Josephs Parish Church in the sea side resort of Helensburgh. His door is always open and he is never too tired to help. Through these years even with experiencing major health issues he remains smiling and loving to all who know him. 2011 he celebrated 40 years as a priest and what a wonderful priest he is. We are very honoured and privileged to have Fr Peter Lennon as our Spiritual Director.

Marie Burns

I believe it was divine providence that I became acquainted with St. Philomena. In 1995, her prayer card literally dropped at my feet during a Mass that was held for a missionary priest at my friend’s home. I was so taken by St. Philomena’s beauty and by the card that I could not stop gazing at her image and immediately began praying her novena. Never before had I been so drawn to a saint, and at that time in my life, was not passionate about my Catholic faith. The prayer card had been produced by Patti Melvin of the Living Rosary Association in Texas. I was so taken with St. Philomena that I had a desire to learn as much as I could about her. I went to a local church named for her and they gave me an old statue that they no longer needed. Within one week of this statue being placed in my home, I received a statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and a statue of Our Lady of Fatima as gifts, my brother Edward had returned from Fatima, Portugal with this statue for me. My faith strengthened tremendously and deepened to a level I had never experienced previously.

1996 I was employed by the government and had three sons: Christopher (11), Michael (9) and Ryan (4). I was desperate to be at home with my children and longed to have another child that I could be with at home. Delightfully my prayers were answered and I did in fact get the chance to leave my job and become a stay-at-home mum to raise my children. Soon after that, I was expecting another child. I experienced a happy but difficult pregnancy and finally, my son Kieran was born. He was born with a kidney defect which required surgery. Prior to his surgery in May 1997, I felt compelled to take him to the Sanctuary where St. Philomena’s relics were enshrined. The only information I had about the Sanctuary was that it was located outside of Naples. My husband David, a computer analyst, helped me search for a web page on the Sanctuary but found there was no information available on the internet. I was able to locate a map in one of the books I purchased and flew to Naples to find the Sanctuary with little idea of where I was going.

1997 my mum (Mary) accompanied me along with my younger son Ryan (5yrs) and baby Kieran (7months) to Naples and we went to Sorrento where I spent the next three days searching for the Sanctuary. It seemed every town in Southern Italy had its own Shrine or favourite saint. After speaking with numerous people who assisted me along the way, I was able to find the address and phone number for the Sanctuary of St. Philomena. It was truly the most incredible spiritual experience for me to finally arrive at Our Lady of Grace Church, the earthly home of my beloved St. Philomena. Once I stood in front of my dear friend and saint, I was overcome with a sense of great peace. I felt as though I could sit in front of her altar for a week (which I later did)

The priest, Father Giovanni Braschi, greeted us. He summoned his English speaking secretary Anna who kindly translated for us. He then took out the Relic of St. Philomena and blessed Kieran on the left side of his body, at the location of his kidney. Father Braschi began to talk to us with his secretary’s help and mentioned his concerns about problems within the devotion. Witnessing my strong devotion to St. Philomena, he repeatedly asked me to begin an Archconfraternity Center for St. Philomena in Glasgow. I told him I would certainly try but that I was focused on my son’s operation as my top priority.

When I returned home, I visited the priest at the St Philomena Church and took him some items I had purchased from the Sanctuary gift shop. I told him about my son Kieran and blessing he received from Father Braschi and sought his advice on how to start a Center for St. Philomena. He advised me to focus on my son’s operation first which I did. My son was admitted to the hospital and miraculously, the medical staff discovered that there was nothing wrong with his left kidney even though all of the previous test results indicated otherwise. The doctor said it was actually the right kidney that required the operation. All documents from and in the hospital stated the left side kidney. The doctors had no explanation and said this had never occurred before and were thankful this was revealed in an X-ray before the operation took place.

I signed the documentation to proceed with the operation and smiled to myself knowing that St. Philomena was with us. Although I didn’t fully understand what this meant, I felt secure knowing she was close by and that this was her sign to us that we could turn to her. The operation went well with no complications and Kieran recovered quickly.

As we entered 1998, Kieran could not sit up or walk like other children his age and we discovered that he had cerebral palsy and would be confined to a wheel chair. My mum believes that God sent St. Philomena to help me cope with this. I believe that Kieran with his pure soul is a gift from God as is my close companion St Philomena. Maybe we both are right!

My love for St. Philomena grew stronger each day as did my understanding and love of my faith. As you can imagine, this was a very trying time for me and my husband. I returned to the church named for St. Philomena in Glasgow and spoke to the priest about what had happened and requested his help in starting a Center for St. Philomena. I wanted to have a Mass with the novena to St. Philomena but his advice was to start a prayer group. I followed his guidance and began a prayer group in my home which steadily grew. During this time, a group of devotees began trying to revive an old shrine of St. Philomena in Wales which was scheduled to be demolished. They had Days of Prayer: held talks about St. Philomena and distributed devotional items. I again felt compelled to go. My mother accompanied me on the eight-hour round trip. It was a wonderful experience.

For my birthday that July of 1998 as my gift, I asked my family to go with me to the next prayer event and participate in this special day for St. Philomena. Again, it was a very moving experience for me and my family. At these events, I noticed that the group was distributing religious items with no mention of the Sanctuary. By the following year after seeing this several times along with having this continued and ever burning desire to do more for St Philomena becoming stronger each day, I offered my full support to Father Braschi’s work and began helping the Sanctuary with its cause. I wrote an email to the Sanctuary explaining this and Father Braschi replied that I was doing the right thing by supporting the Sanctuary.

1999 I visited the Sanctuary again and spent the week sitting in front of the Sacred Altar of Saint Philomena which for me is a little bit of Heaven on earth. I was unable to speak one word of Italian and communicated only with nods and smiles living in the then very small pilgrimage centre within this very beautiful, peaceful Sanctuary. So began my 13 year commitment to the Sanctuary and devotion to Saint Philomena. Throughout this time my family grew larger and we were blessed with the birth of our fifth baby boy Connor Aaron Joseph and finally a baby girl who we named Filumena Mary (this spelling of our saint which was found in the catacombs on the terracotta tiles). I also learned that there was not one prayer or novena answered through the intercession of Saint Philomena without me first accepting that Gods Will was for it not to happen! Saint Philomena is a wonderful Saint. She has brought me closer to the love of our Blessed Mother and Jesus and through her intercession, my faith has deepened. I can't imagine living my life without her in it.

Rosemary Campbell

Rosemary and Beth’s St. Philomena Story

Beth was born on the 15 Dec 1993. She was a bit reluctant to come into the world and decided to arrive 10 days late. She was the most perfect baby I have ever seen and was so good that she even slept the whole night the day she was born. I said to my mum that I thought that she was too perfect and never a truer word was spoken.

The first 14 weeks of Beth’s life were absolutely perfect and she was just my little angel.

Beth has two big sisters Karen and Fiona who absolutely adore her.

At 15 weeks old Beth received her second round of injections on the Tuesday, she seemed to be fine but on the Wednesday night she was very sick and had a pin prick rash all over her. I put this down to a reaction to the jag but the next day her big sister Karen noticed that she had what looked like bruises all over her. I immediately phoned the doctor who arrived within minutes. Meningitis was diagnosed and we were rushed into hospital rushing through every red traffic light. When we reached the hospital a nurse grabbed Beth out of my arms and ran with her. I was in a daze and didn’t realise how sick my baby was. I was taken into the intensive care unit where a doctor and nurse came to tell me that Beth was dangerously ill and that it was possible that she might not survive.

They took me to see her and I didn’t recognise my little girl. She had monitors attached to every part of her body and the bruise like rash was now very dark and her fingers and toes looked like pieces of charcoal. The dark rash was now up the whole length of her right leg and there were large blisters all over her. I learned that this was septicaemia and if she did survive there would have to be a degree of amputations, but this was way down at the end of the line.

Beth’s life functions had completely closed down and she was on full life support. Once Beth’s dad arrived the doctors came to see us and told us that her blood pressure had fallen so low that there would be massive brain damage and that they recommended that we turn off the machines in half an hour. Initially we were praying for God to make her survive and then we started to question if we were being fair to Beth. We then prayed for her to survive if she was going to have some quality of life and arranged for the hospital chaplain to give her the sacrament of the sick and she was also confirmed. At this time I telephoned the family and my Parish Priest to ask them to pray for Beth.

Unbeknown to me, my dad and my aunt Grace started praying to St Philomena. (Both had a great devotion to Her since they were children) .

Thanks to one doctor who refused to give up on Beth she is with us today but he did tell us that the road ahead of us was not going to be easy. We didn’t ask for easy we only asked that she survive.

Beth was in intensive care for two weeks and slowly regained each life function. She was taken for a brain scan and we were told that the damage was excessive and only by living day to day would we find out what her capabilities would be.

She was then taken up to a ward as the wounds that she had from the septicaemia were so bad that they had to be treated as burns. She had all of the fingers on her right hand amputated, some of the tips of the fingers on her left hand and part of her foot and toes on her right foot. She also had to have skin grafts on her right leg. Altogether Beth was in hospital for 4 months. When we got her home the hard work really started. She cried constantly and hardly ever slept. I remember walking the floor with her at night and shouting at God because she wouldn’t stop crying. There were times when I cried along with her and this was like a release valve. I remember one of the nurses in the hospital asking me if this ever made me doubt my faith. I didn’t have to think about the answer at all because I would say, if anything it made my faith stronger. After all we were told that our little girl was going to die and only through all the prayers which were sent her way did she survive. We had to see lots of different doctors and therapists. She had to have loads of different tests as meningitis is known to affect the eyes and the ears. After seeing various doctors Beth was diagnosed as having very severe quadriplegic cerebral palsy and was also registered blind. Her circulation is also affected and she cannot tolerate the cold for very long.

Fast forward to December 1999 when I met Marie Burns through a group for families with children with special needs. Marie gave me a Christmas card with a relic medal of St Philomena for Beth.

I didn’t know anything about St Philomena at this time and I telephoned my dad who told me that he had a great devotion to St Philomena and had been praying to her for Beth all these years. My dad told me that he had a cure with a St Philomena cord when he was 3 years old. He had pneumonia and the doctors couldn’t get his temperature down, so my gran tied a St Philomena cord around him and his fever broke immediately.

I went to the first Mass Marie organised which was on 10 January 2000 and had a very specific thing to pray for. This prayer was answered on 11 January 2000 and I called to let Marie know.

That was the beginning of our venture together in trying to promote St Philomena and her works to as many people as possible and thus began “The Family of St Philomena”.

In April 2000 Beth had to go into hospital to have her right leg amputated due to complications arising from the meningitis. I was very afraid for her at this time and Marie suggested that I pay a visit to St Philomena’s Shrine in Italy. We went in March 2000 and it was one of the most emotional times of my life.

I literally sat in front of the Shrine for a week, only venturing out to get some heat. The Sanctuary was only at the beginning of the restoration works at this time and was freezing cold, it was warmer outside than inside.

At the end of the week I was at peace with the thought of Beth having the surgery and knew that she would be well looked after.

Before Marie and I left the Shrine Fr Braschi said the most beautiful Mass for Beth in front of St Philomena’s Shrine and we were joined by some of the parishioners of Mugnano del Cardinale. Fr Braschi told them about Beth and what she was about to go through and they were all very supportive telling me to be strong and hugging me, I don’t think I stopped crying until I got on the plane to go home.

Marie and I then started organising Masses in our local church and pilgrimages to the Shrine.

This involved a lot of hard work and Fr Braschi then asked me if I could design a calendar to be distributed worldwide.

I designed the calendar for the years 2003 to 2005 and also designed perpetual mass cards along with many other prayer cards and leaflets. I also redesigned the book about the cord which is used to this day.

Since St Philomena came into my life she has made me work constantly on her behalf and has been a constant part of my family’s lives. .

I turn to her on a daily basis and feel confident that she will always help me through the worst and best times.  Beth was 18 on Dec 15 2011 and I can’t believe that so many years ago we were told that she had only half an hour to live.

She has been through many painful periods in her life, the most recent being two years ago when she had to be fitted with a gastrostomy feeding tube as she stopped eating, but she always comes through smiling at the other end.

Here is a poem I wrote about Beth a long time ago.

My Little Angel

A perfect little baby
Was called by God one day
To change the lives of many
In a very special way
Your little limbs will be impaired
And your progress will be slow
But your halo of golden curls
Will turn heads where ever you go
The colour of the rainbows hue
Will be hidden from your eyes so blue
And pain will sometimes take it’s toll
And cause you to cry from your very soul
But when the breeze blows through your hair
Your laughter will fill the summer air
And much pleasure you will also gain
From the sound of music the wind and the rain
Your mum and dad will be put to the test
And they will not get very much rest
But love and faith will reap rewards
In many different ways
And you will be very special
Until the end of your days.
R Campbell

Beth Receiving a Special Personal Blessing from Arch Bishop Beniamino Depalma, Bishop of Nola, (for the diocese of the Sanctuary of St Philomena)

Margaret Thompson

I have been a devoted follower of Saint Philomena since my childhood days when my primary school teacher told us stories about the saints, particularly stories of those who became saints at a very young age.

Throughout my life, I have made novenas to Saint Philomena for various reasons and, I have to say, my requests were always granted. Sometimes I had to wait for longer than I would have liked, but my prayers were always answered.

I started to attend the Masses in honour of Saint Philomena in the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, Glasgow and also the Masses at Carfin Grotto around 12 years ago. It was wonderful to see that this little Saint was being recognised and honoured again after the suppression in 1961 over the Liturgical Calendar, many quiet years had passed for Saint Philomena. It was also great to be with so many people who had a similar devotion to Saint Philomena and who wished to make her known again to everyone and to receive all those blessings from her Relic and from her Holy Oil.

I was honoured and I should say, lucky enough, to go on Pilgrimage to the Sanctuary of Saint Philomena in Mugnano del Cardinale on 3 occasions - 2003, 2005 and 2007. It was a wonderful experience and I feel blessed to have been there and to have received so much grace and fulfillment through sitting in the church and speaking to and praying to Saint Philomena.

I have also been a member of the Universal Living Rosary Association for approximately 15 years and I say my assigned decade - the Crucifixion - every day in honour of Saint Philomena.