Philip Neri

Born in Florence in 1515, Philip Neri moved to Rome in 1533 and spent years in pastoral care among the city's marginalised - prostitutes, the poor, the sick - before his pull as a spiritual guide drew enough followers to form something structural. That became the Congregation of the Oratory, a society of secular clergy, and the Church of the Most Holy Trinity of the Pilgrims, both centred on prayer, music, and gatherings that mixed instruction with reflection. His friendship with Ignatius of Loyola tied him to the Jesuits; his intervention helped reconcile Henry IV of France with the Church. He initiated the Seven Churches Walk pilgrimage and championed the "laude" and early oratorios, forms that reshaped sacred music. Canonised in 1622, twenty-seven years after his death, Neri left a model of reform that worked through attraction rather than edict.