St. Philip Neri, Apostle of Rome

St. Philip Neri founded a society of diocesan priests who lived together, prayed together and took at least some meals together, but  whose work consisted of apostolic works in and around Rome. They took no vows of poverty, in fact, had to chip in for their room and board; the leadership model for the oratory sounds much like the servant/leader model written about today. Unlike the monasteries, which were enclosed, an oratory served as a nucleus or a kind of home base from which to go out and change the world.

There are many stories about Philip, including an early biography which describe his affable personality, love of humor, apostolic zeal and diplomacy. One day, a visitor brought along his dog and the dog refused to leave Philip's side, becoming his life-long companion. Philip used to take his dog for walks back in the day when leading a dog on a leash was considered a humiliating experience - recall the unflattering images of dogs in Scripture. Philip apparently asked the high and mighty to help him walk his dog as both a physical and spiritual exercise. I'll never look at my pooper-scooper in quite the same way again!