ON SAINT FIDELIS,
AT SPELLO IN UMBRIA.
CommentaryFidelis, at Spello in Italy (St.)
G. H.
Spello, a city of Umbria, as is generally handed down, was once Episcopal, now it is an extensive town on a hill, which we in 1660, going from Foligno to Assisi, left on our right side. That the memory of Saint Fidelis is celebrated there on this day Ferrari indicates in his Topography at the Roman Martyrology, Sacred memory: likewise in the general Catalogue, and in the Catalogue of the Italian Saints: in the last of which, from the Annals of the city of Spello, he offers this eulogy.
"Fidelis Confessor at Spello, which is a town of Umbria, Summary of life and cult: next to Foligno, has no small veneration. For his feast day is celebrated by a solemn procession of the people of Spello. He has outside Spello his own church or chapel. His tomb persists at Saint Marius in the village in the said church: in which sick infants placed for the sake of devotion, are accustomed to report healings. The body was taken away from there: which when it was being carried off, they say (so the ancient tradition of the town has it) a voice was sent from heaven: 'Though you carry away the body of Fidelis from here, yet not the virtue.' His feast day is recalled on the 7th day before the Kalends of May." Then in the Annotation he adds this: "Although the Acts of this Saint have perished; yet from the ancient tradition of the people of Spello it is believed that he lived and ended his day at Spello, where his church and tomb are still seen." Nicholas Brautius, Bishop of Sarsina, in his Poetic Martyrology celebrates him in these verses:
"Though the body was taken away, all the virtue remained in the tomb, As a voice sent from heaven in speaking relates."
[2] Thaddeus of Spello I.C. warned Ferrari, as he here writes, that Fidelis was the same as Felix the Bishop; notwithstanding which, he himself constituted him distinct. whether the same as Saint Felix: Many controversial things about Felix the Bishop will need to be discussed on his feast day, 18 May. Iacobilli in his history of the Saints of Umbria omitted both.