Street Prankster to Spiritual Legend: The Story of Saint Philip Neri (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798195509859)

Rome was dying. God sent a fool to save it.

He wasn't supposed to be a saint.

No money. No plan. No dignity.

He lived in an attic, preached to pigeons, walked into the plague when others fled, and called his cat his theologian. He raised a dead boy-then begged no one to speak of it. He cast out demons with a bucket of dirty water and a joke. He even told the Pope "no" to his face.

His name was Philip Neri.

And he became the Second Apostle of Rome-not by power, but by joy.

He turned a granary into a refuge for drunks, prostitutes, and broken boys. He invented the oratorio to steal music back from despair. He made laughter a weapon strong enough to wound hell itself.

Doctors later discovered his heart had physically enlarged from love-cor dilatatione mirabili, a miracle of nature broken open by grace.

For 27 years, the Church didn't know what to do with him. He refused status, refused solemnity, refused anything that dimmed his joy.

Philip Neri redefined what holiness could look like: not marble, not distance, not fear-but a man fully alive in God.

This is the story of a revolution.

The war for joy.

A revolution of laughter over fear.

Of love over control.

Of a heart too large for its chest.

Open this book if you're tired of beige saints.

Open it if you believe God has a sense of humor.

Open it if you've ever felt too strange, too broken, or too undignified for God to use.

Because holiness is not the death of personality.

It is its resurrection.

And saints like Philip Neri don't really leave.

They just sit down beside you and say: Welcome home.