Editing Philomena (section)

==Biography==
On December 21, 1833, the [[Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith|Holy Office]] declared that there was nothing contrary to the Catholic faith in the revelations that Maria Luisa di Gesù, a [[Third Order of Saint Dominic|Dominican tertiary]] from [[Naples]], claimed to have received from Philomena herself.<ref name="EncSanti" />

According to Maria Luisa di Gesù, Philomena told her she was the daughter of a king in Greece who, with his wife, had converted to Christianity. At the age of about 13, she took a vow of virginity for [[Jesus Christ|Christ's]] sake. When the Emperor [[Diocletian]] threatened to make war on her father, her father went with his family to Rome to ask for peace. The Emperor "fell in love" with the young Philomena and, when she refused to be his wife, subjected her to a series of torments: [[Scourge|scourging]], from whose effects two angels cured her; drowning with an anchor attached to her (two angels cut the rope and raised her to the river bank); and being shot with arrows (on the first occasion her wounds were healed; on the second, the arrows turned aside; and on the third, they returned and killed six of the archers, after which several of the others became Christians). Finally, the Emperor had her decapitated. The story goes that the decapitation occurred on a Friday at three in the afternoon, as with the death of Jesus. The two anchors, three arrows, the palm, and the ivy leaf on the tiles found in the tomb were interpreted as symbols of her martyrdom.<ref name="EncSanti" />

In the Neapolitan tertiary's account, Philomena also revealed that her birthday was 10 January,<ref name="EncSanti" /> that her martyrdom occurred on 10 August (the date also of the arrival of her relics in Mugnano del Cardinale),<ref name="CathEnc" /> and that her name "Filumena" meant "daughter of light" (from Latin "filia" and "lumen;" however, it is usually taken to be derived from Greek φιλουμένη ''philouménē'' (hence Latin "u" for "ου") meaning "beloved.").<ref name="CathEnc" /> Publication of this account gave rise to critical study both of the account itself and of the many archaeological finds, leading to uncertainty that her supposed tomb was in fact that of a martyr.<ref name="EncSanti" />