Society of priests founded in Rome by St Filippo (Philip) Neri (1515-1595) - Michelangelo d. 1564; Sistine Chapel 1541 - establishing the Congregation of the Oratory for the purposes of prayer, preaching and administering the Sacrament. Oratorians stress beauty in worship, especially good music, and they became one of the most powerful influences in the Counter-Reformation, as well as in the artistic life in Rome.

'Oration' from C14 Latin 'orare' = to plead, pray: a formal public declaration or speech.

Filippo Neri:
Ordained priest at the age of 35 in 1550. He was convinced that the spiritual health of the laity would be helped by supplementing the Latin liturgy with meetings at which religious matters would be expounded in the vernacular, and in which the congregation would take part. He began about 1552 regular informal meetings for prayer, spiritual reading and discussion. These meetings became more formal with music and sermons, and were moved to an 'Oratory' in a loft over an aisle in the Church of St Girolamo. He went about Rome comforting the sick in hospital, and making regular pilgrimages to the seven major basilicas in Rome, often accompanied by large crowds of up to a thousand people, with a choir singing litanies and trumpets sounding fanfares. With the increase in his followers the Oratory in St Girolamo became too small, and in 1575

Pope Gregory X111
Pope Gregory X111 gave Neri the old Church of St Maria in Vallicella as a base, and it was here that the Congregation of the Oratory was formed. When this church was demolished, the Chiesa Nuova was built where St Filippo Neri is buried. Pope Gregory X111 is responsible for the Gregorian Calendar in 1582, and he gave large sums of money to churches in Rome. He celebrated the massacre of the Huguenots (Protestants) on St Bartholomew's Day 1572 in Paris with a Te Deum.

Oratorios
Oratorios began as religious plays given in the Oratory of St Philip Neri in Rome in the mid-C16, the musical form developing c1600. The first oratorio is Cavalieri's La Rappresentazione di Anima e di Corpo, premiered in 1600. Cavalieri had worked in Neri's Oratory at the Chiesa Nuova in the 1580s. The modern revival of the Oratory can be dated from John Henry Newman's decision to found the Congregation of the Oratory in England.