Description
An anonymous follower of Phillip suggested that his subject was a character worthy of review. Apparently after the arrival of the Saint to Hieropolis, the Romans ordered that he, his sister and Saint Bartholomew be whipped and dragged through town and be locked in the temple of the Viper that they were believed to worship.
Philip then had his two heels pierced with hooks and he was hung from a tree at the temple entrance. Phillip, annoyed, made an abyss that swallowed the Romans along with another 7000 people, the viper and the temple itself.
This resulted in Jesus condemning Phillip to a season in purgatory before shooting for heaven. This chimes with my beloved Alan Vega responding to objects thrown by the horrified, alienated crowd at early Suicide shows and how he came to blows with those that just didn’t understand what they were witnessing.
To make the association perfect, the artistic representation of Saint Phillip by different artists through the centuries has been following the version of the hagiographer Jocobo de la Vorágine in his fabulous Golden Legend, where his is described his eschatology being stoned on the cross.
If you Google “Alan Vega sculptor” you will see the great man with his cross-shaped sculptures, fashioned from found objects and fairy lights; two of a kind.
