Felix from Nola

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Felix von Nola under torture and on the run - book illumination, France, 15th century.

Saint Felix of Nola (* in Nola ; † around 260 or before 311 ibid) was a priest and possibly a bishop and martyr .

His vita has been passed down primarily through Paulinus von Nola ( Carmina 15 and 16). According to this, he was the son of a Syrian named Hermias who lived in Nola and who had served in the Roman army. Felix converted to Christianity and distributed his fortune and inherited property among the poor. Maximus, the bishop of Nola, ordained him a priest. During the persecution of Christians under Emperor Decius , Maximus was able to flee while Felix was arrested and tortured. An angel appeared to him in prison, his chains fell off him and he was able to hurry past his sleeping guards to his bishop, who was hungry and cold and had lost his speech. Felix brought the half-dead old man back to life with the juice of a grape . In another wave of persecution, Felix hid in a cave, into the access of which a spider immediately wove a huge, dense web and thus tempted the hunters to look elsewhere. After the persecution lasted a full year and Felix was forced to stay in a dried up well, he was able to return to his ward. When Maximus died they wanted to make him Bishop of Nola, but he refused. According to Paulinus, Felix died in old age on January 14th. In other traditions (such as in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum ) there is also talk of a Felix von Nola, who is said to have died as a bishop as a martyr. Gregory of Tours calls him Martyr , Paulinus and Augustine of Hippo Confessor (confessor).

Felix in Pincis, stabbed to death by his students - Illumination, France, 14th century.

At the end of the fourth century, Nola had become an important place of pilgrimage , Felix was considered the return of lost things and the avenger of perjury , and at his grave people hoped for miraculous healings for eye diseases and exorcisms . Three basilicas were dedicated to him, to which Paulinus added a fourth, famous for its images in antiquity. Between 395 and 407 Paulinus wrote a Natalicum (birthday poem ) about Felix every year .

The legend of St. Felix of Nola is linked to that of other saints of the same name. Sometimes he is equated with Saint Felix in Pincis , who was a teacher and brought up his students hard but justly. He embittered the heathen among them so much that one day they tortured and stabbed him with their styluses on the Pincio , a hill near Rome, or at the Porta Pinciana . An area near Nola is also said to have been called in Pincis (as “in the spruce forests” or “on the pumpkin field”).

The holiday of Felix von Nola (and Felix in Pincis) is January 14th, in art he is depicted in a cave or cellar, in front of which a spider web hangs, attributes are broken glass, foot block and grape. He is the patron saint of domestic animals, against eye diseases and against perjury.

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Commons : Felix of Nola (priest)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Felix from Nola
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Saint, priest in Nola
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd century
PLACE OF BIRTH Nola
DATE OF DEATH before 311
Place of death Nola