Felix from Nola
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).
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.
literature
- Ekkart Sauser : Felix von Nola. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 16, Bautz, Herzberg 1999, ISBN 3-88309-079-4 , Sp. 493-494.
- Albert Christian Sellner: Perpetual calendar of saints. Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 1993, ISBN 3-8218-4103-6 , pp. 27-29.
- Dennis E. Trout: Paulinus of Nola . Berkeley, Los Angeles, London 1999, ISBN 0-520-21709-8 , pp. 160-197.
Web links
- Literature by and about Felix von Nola in the catalog of the German National Library
- Entry (with further links) in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints
personal data | |
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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 |