Apostle Philip (of the Twelve)
Born in Bethsaida beside the Sea of Galilee, the holy, glorious, all-laudible Apostle Philip was so well versed in the Holy Scriptures that he immediately recognized Jesus as the Messiah upon seeing him the first time. After Pentacost, St. Philip preached in Asia and Greece. In Greece, the Jews hated him and the high priest even ran at him to club him to death, but miraculously the Jewish priest was blinded and turned completely black. Then the earth opened up and swallowed him. Many of the sick were healed and many pagans believed.
St. Philip found himself in the company his sister Mariamma, the Apostle John and the Apostle Bartholomew while preaching in Hieropolis. Through prayer he killed a giant snake that the pagans worshipped which angered the unbaptized so much that they crucified he and St. Bartholomew upside-down. Again, the earth opened and swallowed his judge with many pagans, and being terribly afraid the people rushed to bring the Apostles down from their torment. But St. Philip had already reposed.
St. Bartholomew then ordained Stachys --whom St. Philip had healed of a forty-year blindness and baptized-- as Bishop for those who were baptized in that area. Later, St. Philip's relics were translated to Rome. He is numbered among the Twelve Great Apostles.
The Church remembers St. Philip on November 14