Philip was one of the Twelve Apostles of Christ and is commemorated by the Church on November 14. According to the synaxarion he was a native of Bethsaida in Galilee, the same town from which the Apostles Peter and Andrew came. He is described as having a deep knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, and, rightly discerning the meaning of the Old Testament prophecies, he awaited the coming of the Messiah.
Philip was called by Christ directly, as recorded in the Gospel of John (1:43), and he in turn brought Nathanael to Christ (John 1:46), the disciple identified in the tradition with the Apostle Bartholomew. Philip appears by name at several points in the Gospel of John: he is questioned by Christ before the feeding of the five thousand, he is approached by Greek pilgrims who wished to see Jesus, and at the Last Supper he asks the Lord to show them the Father.
After the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, Philip preached the Gospel with zeal in a number of regions. The tradition associates his labors with Galilee, Greece, and Parthia, and relates that he worked miracles, including the raising of a dead child and the healing of an eye affliction. By tradition he was accompanied in his missionary travels by his sister Mariamne and, for a time, by the Apostle Bartholomew.
His ministry ended at Hierapolis in Phrygia, where, according to the tradition, he was crucified for Christ. Later sources connect his burial with Hierapolis, where a tomb attributed to him has long been venerated. The Church distinguishes this Philip, one of the Twelve, from Philip the Deacon (also called Philip of the Seventy), one of the seven deacons appointed in the Book of Acts.
