PHILIP LONGO
The seventh companion of Francis

He came from:
From Atri

Character and characteristics:
He spoke of God with admirable sweetness, and though he had never studied he could interpret the innermost meanings of the Holy Scriptures.

His life:
We do not know when he met Francis, but by tradition he is seen as his seventh companion, after the first five, which include Sabatino, Morrico and John della Cappella. Once he had eight companions Francis divided them into couples and, with one of the friars whose name we do not know, he went off in a direction that was not Compostella, where instead he sent Bernard and Giles, the only destination of which we can be certain.
Philip Longo visited the Poor Clares.
He was also at his side when Francis held his secret conversations with Clare (before the latter left her father’s house to go with him), and he and Bernard went with him from the monastery of San Paolo, near Bastia, to Sant’Angelo in Panzo, at the foot of mount Subiaso, where Clare went before settling permanently in San Damiano.
Philip Longo was one of the first to go to the Marches of Ancona, as we are told in The Little Flowers of St Francis.