[January 14.]
S. Pontian, M., at Spoleto, 2nd cent.
S. Felix, P. C., at Nola, 3rd cent.
S. Macrina, at Neocæsarea, 4th cent.
SS. Theodulus, Paul, Proclus, Hypatius, Isaac, and Others,
Monks, MM., at Sinai, 5th cent.
S. Datius, Abp. of Milan, a.d. 552.
S. Fulgentius, B. of Carthagina, a.d. 619.
B. Engelmar, H. M. in Bavaria, beginning of 12th cent.
B. Sabbas, Abp. of Servia, 13th cent.
B. Ordorico, Friar at Udine, in Italy, a.d. 1331.
For S. Hilary, see Jan. 13.
S. FELIX, P. C., AT NOLA.
(3rd cent.)
[On this day are commemorated two priests, Confessors, of Nola, of the same name, Felix. This has led to almost inextricable confusion among Martyrologists. There is another, a martyr, of this name. The life of S. Felix is given by S. Gregory of Tours, De Glor. Martyr, lib. i. c. 104, and by the Venerable Bede. The miracles wrought by him have also been recorded by S. Paulinus of Nola.]
aint Felix was a native of Nola, in Campania, where his father, Hermias, who was by birth a Syrian, and had served in the army, had purchased an estate and settled. He had two sons, Felix and Hermias, to whom, at his death, he left his property. The younger, loving the things of Cæsar rather than the things of God, says Bede, served in the army, but Felix, more happy—as his name implies—enrolled himself as a soldier of Jesus Christ. Having passed the grades of lector and exorcist, he was finally ordained priest by Maximus, Bishop of Nola.
Persecution having broken out, the aged Bishop, mindful of the injunction, "When they persecute you in one city flee to another" (Matt. x. 23), escaped to the hills, and left his flock to the charge of Felix, whom he designated as his successor. The persecutors, not finding the Bishop, seized on Felix, and cast him, heavily ironed, into a dungeon strewn with broken crockery, into which no ray of light entered. In the meantime, Maximus was perishing with cold and hunger in the mountains, hardships which his great age made him unable to endure.
One night an angel appeared to Felix, and bade him go forth out of prison and succour the aged Bishop. Then his chains fell off his neck, and hands, and feet, and the doors opened to him of their own accord, and guided by the angel, he was brought to the hiding place of Maximus, whom he found prostrate and speechless, and apparently dying. He moistened the old man's lips with wine, and forced some food into his mouth, and chafed his frozen limbs. By slow degrees the Bishop was restored, and then laying him upon his shoulders, Felix carried him home before daybreak, where a pious old woman took care of him.