“Man must descend and become nothing, and when he is nothing, he will be everything, and will obtain all knowledge.” Philippe de Lyon

Nizier Anthelme Philippe was born on Apr 25, 1849 to a peasant family at Le Rubathier, Loisieux, Savoy, France. His mother was Marie Vachod and his father was Joseph Philippe.

“I do not know when I first became conscious of my power,” Philippe said. “I have never understood, and never tried to explain, the mystery. When I was scarcely six years old, the curé of my parish was uneasy at certain manifestations, and said I had not been properly baptized, for the Evil One appeared to be my master.”

Nevertheless, Philippe gained a reputation as a miracle-worker. “I effected cures at the age of thirteen, though hardly old enough to understand the strange things accomplished through me. I went about curing people, and revealing the clairvoyant illuminations which came to me from some unknown source. I obeyed the inspirations without knowing whence they came.”

At 14, he went to live with his Uncle Vachod, to be an apprentice in his butcher shop in Lyon. According to one source, while Philippe was there, his uncle cut off part of his thumb. Philippe prayed silently as he bandaged the wound. In a few moments, the wound healed. At the hospital, the doctor said he didn’t even need stitches.

Sometimes, Philippe asked a patient to behave better. “You come in front of me and tell me what you have. When you do that, something supernatural happens in you and, If my soul hears your words, you are healed…You need to ask God to forgive your faults. At the same time, the soul is strengthened and the body is healed.” In 1870, during the war between France and Prussia, Philippe performed more healings, including 7-year-old boy, Jean Chapas, who was dying of meningitis.

During an apprenticeship at a Lyon hospital, Philippe healed many patients. In one instance, a large crowd watched as a mother begged for help for her son who was dying of tuberculous meningitis. Three doctors were present and told her it was hopeless. But Philippe said the child could be cured and asked that the boy to be taken to another room. He then asked the crowd not to speak badly about anyone who wasn’t present for three months. The people refused. After some negotiation, they proposed an alternative: they would not speak badly of anyone who wasn’t present for two hours. Philippe agreed and they waited. Two hours later, the child was brought in. An examination revealed he was cured. The doctors, however, resented Philippe’s miraculous healings and he was dismissed.

Philippe later said, “If you could only remain half a day without bad thoughts, words, speaking ill of those not present, not judging people, the prayer you do then will be heard by Heaven. It is better not to pray than to pray badly, for if you pray after you have done bad to someone and then say I love those around me, you lie–and lies are strictly forbidden by the laws of Heaven.”

In 1877, he married Jeanne Landar on Oct 6, 1877. Their daughter, Jeanne Marie Victoire, was born on Nov 11, 1878. Jean Chapas, the boy Philippe cured of meningitis, became his disciple in 1883. As he gained notoriety, he was called Monsieur Philippe, Philippe de Lyon, and Le Maître Philippe.

In Oct 1884, the University of Cincinnati in Ohio published Philippe’s paper about pregnancy, childbirth, and infancy hygiene. The university conferred Philippe’s first honorary Doctorate of Medicine.

 

Philippe’s miracle-working earned him a strong reputation in Paris, but it got him in a lot of trouble too. He was tried and acquitted at least twice for illegally practicing medicine between 1887 – 1890. Philippe received additional honorary degrees in France, Russia, and Italy but he often said, “I am nothing, absolutely nothing.”

Philippe visited St Petersburg where he was awarded his Doctor’s Diploma after several extraordinary feats of healing. “If our souls were not ill, our bodies wouldn’t be either,” he said.

Philippe became an adviser to Tsar Nicholas and the Empress Alexandra in 1901. On Sept 21, Philippe predicted the birth of Romanovs’ son in 1904, as well as a revolution in their future. Before returning home, Philippe warned Nicholas to beware China, a neutral state, in a coming military conflict. In a 1904 letter to the tsar, Philippe predicted his own death on August 2, 1905.

In a 2020 paper by Boris Olegovich Kutsenko, Military-Political Cooperation of China and Japan in 1904, the author analyzed previously unpublished sources that revealed China’s influence on the course of the 1904 Russo-Japanese War over Korea and Manchuria. He concluded China’s assistance to Japan significantly influenced the war’s outcome. Nicholas may have been wise to listen to Philippe!

On Aug 29, 1904, Phillippe’s daughter Jeanne died at age 25. Philippe had predicted her illness and death but did not heal her, saying her death was Heaven’s will. He described the experience as comme une crucifixion vivante (like a living crucifixion).

A 1905 article entitled “Philippe the Mysterious” in Light, A Journal of Psychical, Occult, and Mystical Research, announced Philippe’s death on August 2.

“My part was limited to that of an unconscious intermediary between men and a higher power which was not in myself. I foresaw, without knowing how, things which were to happen, and found that my presence, or my thought at a distance, had an effect on the maladies of my neighbors. I have not cultivated any psychic force by concentration of will ; I know nothing of magnetism, or of science…Yet I followed my mission of healing and comforting both the humble and the great ones of the earth.”

Phillippe is buried in Lyon at Cimetière de Loyasse. When he died, his family discovered he was paying the rent for 52 needy families.

Jean Chapas, pictured here,  continued these payments until his death 27 years later. He is buried near Philippe.