Who is Philomise from Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn and what is their importance?

Philo, the daughter of Marie Noelsine, is probably the least fortunate of her siblings. She is given away when she is a child, thrown into a life of slavery, from which she escapes when she is in her teens. She has the blood of a true merchant woman running in her veins, and creates a comfortable life for herself. She makes her way back to her family after a number of years, to find her mother dying. She strikes a bargain with the spirits, that she will serve them if they protect her and becomes a powerful and well respected manbo in her time. Mama Lola has said on many occasions that much of the work that she is able to accomplish occurs with the help of her mother's advice from beyond the grave; Philo frequently appears to Alourdes in her dreams.