"Encyclopedia Americana (International Edition) 2005, article "Canonization" "Canonization is a ceremony of the highest solemnity, in which the Pope himself, invoking his supreme authority in the Catholic Church, declares that someone is a saint and inserts that person's name in the catalogue of saints. "Peace be unto you, Philomena"), that was taken to indicate that her name (in the Latin of the inscription) was Filumena, the English form of which is Philomena. "Philomena described herself as "absolutely heartbroken" after Anthony was adopted, admitting that she cried every night.Two weeks after Anthony had been adopted, Philomena was thrown out of the home.Investigative journalist Martin Sixsmith estimated that the family who adopted Anthony and Mary would have After having been forced to sell her baby, she was now nothing more than a burden on the convent.She tells how her grief “nearly made me crazy”, but she knew she had to get on with creating a life for herself, having nowhere to go.Philomena travelled to England and worked in a boys' school for two years where she cut all ties with her Catholic faith.Her heartbreak over losing Anthony had forced her to rethink her devotion to the religion and she stopped going to confession and communion.At 23 she decided that she wanted to make a career for herself and moved to St. Albans in Hertfordshire, where she worked at a psychiatric hospital for 30 years.She said: “On seeing the awful conditions at the hospital and seeing people’s sorrows, I put my own to the back of my head and started helping other people”.While working in the hospital she met her husband and had daughter, Jane.Philomena kept the truth about her past a secret from her family for 50 years as she was too “ashamed” and worried about their reaction to tell them.She revealed the truth about Anthony at Christmas in 2003 - telling Jane and her family that she was forced into selling her baby and that she desperately wanted to find him.Jane took it upon herself to find out what happened to her half-brother and asked journalist Martin Sixsmith to help investigate what happened to Anthony after being separated from his mother.Within two weeks of being approached, Martin had managed to find information about Michael that would both delight and shatter Philomena and her family’s world.He told them that he American woman who adopted Anthony was Marge Hess, and that she had taken Anthony back to St. Louis in Missouri and renamed him Michael Hess.Michael turned out to be chief attorney for The White House in the Reagan and Bush administrations.But Philomena was about to receive the news that would shatter her heart.Philomena phoned her old convent up, convinced that after all the years of searching she had finally found her son -and she hoped they could give her more information about his adopted parents.It was then that she was told over the phone by a young nun that Michael had sadly died eight years earlier from AIDS, aged just 43.So this pic popped up on my FB news feed tonight and not sure why - maybe I posted it back in the day- but I just love this photo of two of the strongest and most beautiful ladies I could ever want to meet and know in my life She was the told that when Anthony had grown up, he went to search for his birth mother in Ireland on three separate occasions.The nuns of Sean Ross Abbey, the convent where Anthony was born and sold for adoption, lied to and deceived him on his travels to the country on his search for her, telling him Philomena had abandoned him when he was two weeks old.The young nun said that he had sent his ashes back to the convent so that if Philomena tried to track him down, she would, at last, be able to find him.Since Philomena discovered the truth about what happened to the son that she was forced to give up, she has dedicated her life to raising awareness about adoptions law.“In Ireland they’re not bound to tell people [information] looking for their real family," she said.
Philomena is alive and kicking.
Three tiles enclosing the tomb bore an inscription, Pax Tecum Filumena (i.e. When the Emperor In the Neapolitan nun's account, Philomena also revealed that her birthday was January 10,Publication of this account gave rise to critical study both of the account itself and of the many archaeological finds, leading to uncertainty that the tomb was in fact that of a martyr.On January 13, 1837, in the aftermath of the cure of Pauline Jaricot, On February 14, 1961, the Holy See ordered that the name of Saint Philomena be removed from all liturgical calendars that mentioned her.Although correlation does not prove causation, the Holy See's instruction to remove the name of Saint Philomena even from local calendars followed the raising of questions by certain scholars, whose interest had been drawn to the phenomenon more especially in connection with the revelations of Sister Maria Luisa di Gesù.The inscription on the three tiles that had provided the Latin name "Filumena" ("Philomena" in English) belonged to the middle or second half of the second century,The rector of the shrine in Mugnano del Cardinale disputes these findings.