So today is....

Saint Philip's Day - well in the Roman calendar at least - and Saint Philip was one of the apostles and is mentioned mostly in the Gospel of St John as coming from the city of Bethsaida near the Golan Heights in Israel.

According to St John, Jesus recruited Philip directly to serve with him in his ministry and was at the Sermon on the Mount and helped with the feeding of the 5,000. Philp is also mentioned being at the last supper. After the death of Jesus, Philip went with his sister Mariamne to preach the gospel in Greece and Syria which is recalled in Acts and even converted the wife of a Roman proconsul to Christianity. This angered the the Roman magistrate who had Philip and Bartholomew thrown in prison and tortured for their beliefs.

It is Philip who, according to most accounts, was crucified upside-down but continued to preach the gospel until his head was also cut off. This apparently took place in the city of Hierapolis. It is easy to forget in our modern age of information overload the sacrifices people were prepared to make in the past for their religion and, I suppose, it continues to this day although we still do not take it in.