Filippo de, the founder of the congregation of the "Priests of the Oratory," was born of a noble family in Florence in 1515. From his childhood he was noted for a kind and pious disposition. This trait in his character began to appear in greater distinctness when he had completed his elementary education, and removed to Rome at the age of nineteen. But it was not until his twenty-fourth year that his religious charity assumed the form of active Christian philanthropy. At that time he abandoned his classical and theological studies, sold his books that he might give the money to the poor, and resolved to devote the rest of his life to doing good to the bodies and souls of his fellow-men. A deep sense of sin would not permit him to enter into holy orders. He was therefore content, in the unconsecrated garb of a layman, to relieve the needy, to console the sick and the dying, to visit the prisoners in their cells, to plead the cause of the oppressed in the courts of justice, and to instruct the ignorant in the street and by the wayside. The most notable of his many benevolent deeds at this time was the erection of an asylum for sick and destitute strangers. In 1551 Neri, being persuaded at length to enter the church, saw the circle of his influence beginning to widen. Several young ecclesiastics, including Baronius and others, who were afterwards celebrated, began to gather around him, and to aid him in his philanthropic labours. These he formed, in 1564, into an order, which, from the Italian name for a chapel, was called the "Congregation of the Priests of the Oratory." He laid upon them no monastic vows, but trusted that the common spirit of charity by which they were animated would be a living bond of union between them. The new order soon became distinguished for its Christian zeal and enterprise. In 1575 Pope Gregory XIII. recognised its usefulness by formally bestowing upon it his sanction. Its founder had the satisfaction in his old age of seeing it established in the principal Italian towns. In 1593 he resigned the generalship of the Oratory in favour of Baronius. He died in May 1595. Filippo de Neri was canonized by Gregory XV. in 1622. His Life has been written in Latin by Gallonio, 8vo, Rome, 1602; and by Bacci, 4to, Rome, 1645. His letters were published in 8vo, Padua, 1751; and his treatise called Ricordi, and several of his poems, appeared in the Rime Oneste.