ON ST. FELIX, MARTYR AT GERONA IN CATALONIA. LIKEWISE ON ST. ROMANUS, ALSO A MARTYR THERE.
Under Diocletian, perhaps 304.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Felix, Martyr, at Gerona in Spain (S.)
Romanus, Martyr, at Gerona in Spain (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
§ I. The distinction of the Saint from a synonymous martyr, likewise of Gerona; his fatherland, profession, passage into Spain—whether with companions—and his deeds there.
Let it be enough here to have named Gerona; already of old in this work it has been treated of not once, as you have on the 18th of March, volume II, page 621, where the deeds of St. Narcissus, bishop and martyr of the same city, were illustrated, To be distinguished from the synonymous deacon of St. Narcissus, perhaps again to be weighed when St. Afra must be treated, on the 5th day of this month. Further, we here speak of that St. Felix whom, by the title of Doctor of Gerona, nay even of apostle and prophet, it is easy to distinguish from any synonym, even from that one whom they say was the deacon of the already-praised St. Narcissus, bishop of Gerona and apostle of Augsburg in Germany, as Marcus Velser most rightly distinguished him in the Commentary on the conversion of the said Saint, page 15. The same Tamayus not carelessly observed in his Spanish Martyrology on this day, adducing other reasons of the diversity, which it is not worth while either to approve or to refute. The words of Baronius in the annotation on St. Narcissus on the 18th of March seem to sound so that he confounds both those Felixes, when he says: Of Felix the Deacon, of whom here is mention, St. Eulogius makes mention in the Memorial of the Saints. But whom Eulogius designates, you will soon understand.
[2] This dispute Berengarius settles in his celebrated epistle, he is held as doctor and prophet; related by Velser and in our Acts, when he thus speaks: We direct a munificent gift, namely from the bones and flesh and gore mixed with earth, and the garments of our most holy doctor Felix, martyr of Christ, namely of that one whom we hold as apostle and prophet: not of that one who is called the deacon of the most blessed bishop Narcissus; since he, translated by the most pious king of the Franks Charles, rests honorably at the city of Paris. Whose deacon that one was, of whom on the same day is treated with St. Narcissus, is unascertained; that the holy Felix of today was an African by race, born in the Scillitan city, ennobled with so many illustrious martyrs, is the constant opinion of the Acts and of all writers, so that he could be excited and animated by the examples of his fellow-countrymen to seek martyrdom of his own accord, in which the opinion of Ado and others is sufficiently concordant, which is most expressly asserted by St. Eulogius book 1, number 15, page 249: so that it comes to be wondered why the neo-legendist Gaul labored so greatly to twist those words of St. Eulogius into another sense, after he had said openly enough that St. Felix migrated into Spain not from desire of martyrdom, but, all but trembling from fear of persecution, fled thither.
[3] having crossed from Africa into Spain, Lo the very words of St. Eulogius: For thus also the most happy Felix, when by faithful report he learned of the persecution of the Catholics which was being carried on at Gerona, a city of Spain bordering on Gaul, and knew that the Church of God was there being infested by the pagans, immediately abandoning the study of liberal letters, which, placed at Caesarea of Mauretania, he was cultivating, the sea being crossed by swift navigation, went to the aforesaid town, and there, the devoted soldier of Christ, triumphantly consummated the martyrdom which was lacking to his own fatherland. And this is the most happy Felix, whose singular festivity is on this day commemorated especially in Spain, who among the more illustrious Martyrs of that region, while the monstrous butchery of Dacian raged, is most deservedly counted, perhaps to be called the first and most glorious, if about the manner of martyrdom, as well as about
the very martyrdom, sufficiently certain monuments had come down to posterity. But of these a little more fully below: Col. 023A we shall now follow the prefixed order, so that, some notice of his fatherland and profession being now given, likewise of the cause of his passage into Spain, as the praised St. Eulogius narrated it, we may also hear others who set forth the same matter a little otherwise (not rightly, I think). Nor shall we neglect the more ancient praises which are found in Prudentius and Gregory of Tours.
[4] Thus the passage into Spain, following other Acts, Vincent describes in the Speculum book 12, chapter 90, not with St. Cucufas, where St. Felix is joined to St. Cucufas, from whose Acts he chiefly drew his own, in these words: In that tempest also suffered St. Cucuphas, who, sprung in the Scillitan city from most noble and most wealthy birth, together with St. Felix, equally most illustrious of the same city, migrated to Caesarea, which is on the coast of Mauretania, for the study of liberal letters. When, being at leisure in the schools, they had learned by widespread report that the persecution of the Christians had boiled up in the parts of the East, soon, with a variety of precious merchandise, and no small number of ships too, they betook themselves to the western region, under the appearance and name of merchants. And so, putting in at Barcelona, Col. 023B they found that even in the western parts the impiety of the princes was raging everywhere; whence, understanding that the time was at hand in which for a short time they should sow in tears, that they might reap in perpetual joy, they began more largely to persist in works of piety … and so at last, publicly confessing and preaching Christ, to spend themselves … Wherefore by unanimous condition B. Felix passed over to the city of Gerona, where, exercising himself in divine offices, he consummated a glorious martyrdom.
[5] So there: while meanwhile about St. Cucufas in the Acts of our St. Felix there is the deepest silence; whose companion nor brother he was. no, not the least mention being made of him or of another companion; so that whence that conjunction first arose is not easy to attain by any probable conjecture. What? that this opinion so gradually grew, that from a companion they feigned to themselves a brother in the later centuries, led, unless we much err, by Peter de Natalibus, thus writing book 7, chapter 9: Felix was the brother of blessed Cucufas the martyr, of whom above was treated on the 8th of the Kalends of August. That fraternity pleased the Spaniards, whence both Morales and others everywhere embraced it: Domenech seemed to half-doubt; but Tamayus in the Legend composed by him writes most roundly: Col. 023C Therefore in the ship B. Felix, from love of martyrdom, God helping, by a prosperous voyage, was brought to the city of Barcelona, where, leaving his brother Cucufas, the companion of the same journey, etc. For the rest, that fraternity has long ago been rejected by us, nor do we think that any companionship can be admitted sufficiently safely, at least on the faith of our Acts.
[6] By adhering, I say, to these, it seems must altogether be said Whom he had as companions of martyrdom, that St. Felix landed in Spain from Africa wholly unaccompanied; so that if perhaps in his apostolic preaching at Barcelona, then at Ampurias, a city once ample enough, of which now almost only ruins are said to survive, and then at Gerona, or in his most bloody martyrdom, he had companions (of whom, however, in his Acts there is not the slightest trace), they must have been Spaniards, or have come into Catalonia from elsewhere. Such, in Tamayus and other local writers, are said to have been the holy Romanus and Maximus, to whom perhaps will be added a certain Thomas, from the inscription related by the most distinguished man Nicolás Antonio in the Madrid manuscripts communicated in the year 1721 with our colleagues Pinius and Cuperus, as has also been said elsewhere, in which Col. 023D he alleges the testimony of the eminent man D. Ferdinand duke of Alcalá, both famous for erudition and having discharged many distinguished offices in his time; as the praised Antonio relates the same in the Bibliotheca of Spanish writers from the year 1500, mentioning in Spanish about the aforesaid inscription what I here make Latin.
[7] the inscription teaches, such as it is D. Ferdinand narrates therefore in some writing of the year 1622 that there is in his power a certain ivory tablet, of five fingers' height, but three of breadth, on whose face a broader cross is exhibited, where also the image of Christ with four nails; but on the other side are expressed the words which are here transcribed: ✠ THESE ARE THE RELICS OF ST. ROMANUS AND ST. THOMAS, MARTYRS, WHO AT GERONA, TRANSFIXED WITH NAILS, SUFFERED MARTYRDOM. Some Catholics, compelled to flee thence in the common calamity of Spain, lest the relics of the Saints should slip into the hands of the infidels, hid them, titles being affixed, that if at any time it should seem good to the Lord to reveal them, they might more easily be recognized. The already-mentioned inscription Col. 023E was affixed on the reverse side; and a husbandman found it near the city of Gerona, which is now Old Gerona, of which tablet he makes mention; and he gave it to the Fathers of the Society, and to me myself while I was visiting their college there. I hold it in the highest veneration, and as an ancient treasure among the more precious that can be found in that kind.
[8] to be aptly explained, The value of antiquity and rarity I indeed do not deny; but what Antonio insinuated I do not yet see as consequent, namely that the relics of St. Romanus or of St. Thomas were found there together, or that they, and indeed other companions, suffered with our St. Felix, much less Maximus—not yet sufficiently asserted by Tamayus from Flavius Dexter. A plainly different kind of martyrdom is assigned there, inasmuch as they seem transfixed with nails and crucified; What? that Romanus, whether the same or different, is said to have endured plainly other torments with Paulinus, Justus and Scicius. There is one authority for Romanus in the epistle cited above, of Berengarius, thus expressly speaking: We send you also of the bones of the head and hand of St. Romanus, most precious martyr of Christ, namely the companion of the aforesaid Felix, venerable martyr of Gerona and Doctor of Spain: whence our Elders in the notes on the 18th of March Col. 023F did not hesitate to assert: With Felix is honored also St. Romanus on 1 August. Them I have here followed in the title, although not undeservedly one could suspect that that Romanus is the very same who on the 7th of June, volume II, page 58, is related with the aforesaid companions, namely Paulinus, Justus and Scicius or Sicius.
[9] as also the things narrated about St. Eulalia. And let these things about the companions of St. Felix, true or pretended, be enough said, which seem able to be reduced only to that sound sense, that on this title they are called by Domenech companions of St. Felix, because under the same Dacian, and in the same place, they completed the glorious contest. As for what remains, about the deeds of the most illustrious martyr in Spain before his martyrdom, few things are handed down in the Acts, so that from them it could almost be said that he ran through part of Catalonia, until he reached Gerona, rather than that he seems to have instructed the people in the rudiments of the faith as an apostle. Not unlike a singular portent is what is commemorated in the deeds of St. Eulalia on the 12th of February, number 8: namely that, the contest being now accomplished, after the sacred body was wrapped in linens and aromatics, St. Felix, who had been of one mind with her in confession, with great exultation of soul said to her: Lady, thou hast first deserved the palm: at which St. Eulalia smiled. Whence Bollandus noted there Col. 024A that on this account in certain Martyrologies St. Felix is related with St. Eulalia on the 12th of February. Which if they are true, the Saint laid the first rudiments of martyrdom at Barcelona, which brought him to Gerona to obtain the crown. Lo now the undoubted documents of a most constant cult.
§ II. The most ancient cult of the Saint; the Passion contracted in Ado; the Office, hymns, etc.
The most ancient memory of St. Felix in the sacred Fasti the Hieronymian codices sufficiently prove, in which he is constantly and under the same formula announced: Marked in all the Fasti, In Spain (Epternach: in Spanis), in the city of Gerona, the birthday of St. Felix the martyr. Add to these all the classic ones after Ado, whose encomium represents a neater synopsis of the whole Legend—disturbed and confused in many things—which bishop Equilinus ought to have followed, not another farrago falsely ascribed to Ado. I forbear scraping together more elogia here: a few words of Prudentius, Peristephanon hymn 4, sufficiently evince that the cult of St. Felix in the Church was ancient as well as celebrated:
Little Gerona, rich in sacred limbs, shall exhibit the glory of Felix.
What Gregory of Tours handed down to memory about our glorious Martyr pertains more closely to the miracles, of which we shall treat in the following paragraph. Usuard's announcement is elegantly contracted from Ado: In the Spains, in the city of Gerona, the birthday of St. Felix, whom the judge Dacian ordered, after kinds of torments inflicted, to be torn with claws, and then to be mangled down to the bones, and the wounds to be renewed with wounds so long, until he rendered up his unconquered spirit to Christ.
[11] Let us now hear Ado himself, whose text was little short of supplying the place of the Acts: from Ado In the Spains, in the city of Gerona, the birthday of St. Felix the martyr, who, sprung from the Scillitan city, when the persecutions in the Spains against the Christians had begun to be carried on, a merchant ship being boarded, from love of martyrdom ran swiftly thither. And when for some time at Barcelona, Ampurias and Gerona, preaching the word of God, he had strengthened very many in the faith, and his fame grew far and wide, Col. 024C at Dacian's command, he was suddenly seized by Rufinus the official. And when he most confidently confessed the name of Christ, first beaten with cudgels, and thrust into the depth of the prison, then with hands and feet bound, food and drink denied, cast into a squalid place, after this also bound with heavier chains, dragged through all the streets by untamed mules, and almost torn into pieces. Then sent into prison, and by night visited by an angel and healed, when day came he was recalled to the contests. Then flayed with claws, hung head-downward from the third hour until evening, he felt no pain at all.
[12] Then Rufinus ordered him to be thrust into prison, he is adorned with a longer elogium. where through the whole night a copious splendor shone forth. But also the voices of angels singing psalms were heard. Which when it had been announced to Rufinus by the guards, he ordered him, his hands bound behind his back, to be sunk into the deep of the sea. There immediately his chains were broken, and, angels holding his hand for him, walking upon the waves he reached the shore. Then Rufinus ordered his skin again to be drawn off with claws, and then to be mangled down to the bones, Col. 024D and the wounds to be renewed with wounds so long, until he rendered up his unconquered spirit to Christ. His body was laid at Gerona in the monument which he himself had prepared for himself, on the Nones of August. There is no reason for Florentinius here to arraign Ado, when it is so understood that on the Nones he means St. Felix not to have suffered, but to have been buried. This was more worthy of observation, in what manner at last the holy Martyr could be sunk into the deep of the sea, a full seven leagues and more
removed from it. Let this be granted to the ignorance of the writer, evident in many things, that for the rivers Unda, or Sambroca (commonly the Ter), he substituted the sea, unless you admit the other exposition of Tamayus, about which below. Now let us pursue the arguments of the cult.
[13] Ancient hymns about him, at Vespers Such things the Office suggests, described and taken and somewhat contracted by our Father Gamans, so often praised here, from the ancient Mozarabic Breviary, for the use of the church of Gerona, whence he also transmitted to us the Acts themselves. I thought it lawful for me to file away here and there the harder roughness. The title is: On the Birthday of St. Felix the martyr, our patron, at Gerona.
At First Vespers.
After the apostolic contests and the dread deaths of the Martyrs, the churches of the Spains Felix, the renowned martyr, strengthened by his eloquence and adorned by his martyrdom; patron of the peoples and companion of the angels.
Hymn.
Blessed fountain of perennial life, Light, origin of light, behold the people singing the feasts of the highest Martyr. Receive the vows of those who pray, take the songs of praises. Lo, we sing the tokens of thy dear Felix. Do thou loose the bonds of the tongue, granting sonorous canticles, that we may duly be able to set forth thy mighty deeds. For he, while at Caesarea, city of Mauretania, he studied the letters of worldly discipline, the smoky blasts of the arts * in following thee forsakes. Hearing the faithful being punished, soon he came to Gerona: detained by the governor's command, he is thrust into prison: him laden with iron bonds * the angels address: he is set at the altar, to sacrifice to the bloody idols: he rejects the infamous deed, with his voice professing Christ: the crowd roars, with cloven claws baring his bones. Indeed he is bound to mules, torn apart in his limbs: pressed by the sea-waves, the swelling wave is put beneath him; mingled with the kindly angels he opens his mouth in songs. All the torments with brave breast he outruns *, and after penalties and chains, Col. 024F claws and stripes, leaving the fleshly cloisters, he migrates to the heavenly. Glory to the Father and the Son, to the Spirit and Paraclete, praise, power and virtue, abundance of graces, who, God three and one, exists before the ages.
Prayer.
O God, who to thy blessed martyr Felix, that he might conquer the rage of his persecutors, didst confer so great constancy; we beseech thee that we may be aided by his help, that we may ever deserve worthily to serve thee.
Invitatory.
[14] and Matins Come, all ye troops of the people, to venerate the ethereal king, who his excellent martyr Felix, holding his right hand, gathered among the angels.
Hymn.
O Gerona exceedingly happy, O blessed city! Thou dreadest nothing of evils, relying on so great a Martyr: whoever shall have flowed together hither obtains what he asks. Here, pressed by the virtue of God, the demons are torn, they are scourged, they are bound and burned sharply, and like smoke and ash, they retain no vigor. Here health, longed for by the weary, but flows forth from heaven, sight is opened to the blind, speech comes to the mute, here the deaf receive their ears, and the lame leaps up. Whence we all pray thee, one highest Trinity, that at the Martyr's obtaining thou take away our crimes, repel all harmful things and afford prosperous ones. Here let the clergy shine in life, and the priest be strong. Let the faithful people, which seeks, feel that they have obtained: let every age and sex rejoice in this patron. Glory to the Father and the Son, etc.
[15] In the first vigil. Ant. Felix the most blessed, a native of the Scillitan city, Antiphons, versicles, etc. at Caesarea the metropolis of Mauretania submitted himself to be instructed in the studies of letters. ℣. That he might appear more perfect in all things. Ant. Like an inventive bee Felix began to seek the heavenly kingdoms. ℣. Having landed at the city of Barcelona. Ant. For he was a lover of the faith, chaste, mild, sober, truthful, peaceable, hospitable, almsgiving. ℣. Bestowing good pearls upon the people of Gerona. Ant. Many matrons of the people of Gerona heard most gladly the most blessed Felix preaching. ℣. Because they held him as an apostle and prophet. Ant. To Felix the servant of God the impious Rufinus said: I hear from all that mellifluous words come forth from thy mouth. ℣. Believing to acquire the money bestowed on the poor. Ant. Felix, full of the Holy Spirit, said to Rufinus: O viperish tongue, full of the devil's venom! Depart from me, enticing temptation. ℣. For no one shall be able to separate me from the charity of Christ. The Hymn at Second Vespers is not proper to St. Felix. But the other Antiphons and Responsories have nothing peculiar, as Gamans testifies, since they are taken from the very Acts, to be subjoined below. This one thing he added for the second vigil:
Felix, like a palm, flourishes in the hall of the heavens, and in the house of the Lord is green, like a planting of cedar.
Notes* Or should it not be præcucurrit?
* Tamayus's wording.
* Tamayus: vinclis.
§ III. The relics, miracles, constant veneration, and suspect Acts.
That the sacred deposit of the most holy Martyr was always in the highest veneration at Gerona is most certain, and indeed in his own church, which in the year 817, The highest veneration of the Spaniards. as is in the Marca Hispanica column 346, was still called of St. Felix, most blessed martyr of Christ, of the see of Gerona; so that perhaps it was once cathedral: certainly most singular was the devotion of the Spaniards with which they attended the holy Martyr, so much so that Reccared, king of the Goths, at the end of the 6th century having embraced the Catholic religion, offered a golden crown at his tomb; as in Tamayus the Chronographers of Spanish affairs testify. Further, among the excellent cultivators of the Saint deservedly comes to be numbered Nonnitus bishop of Gerona, about whom St. Ildephonsus testifies in the Catalogue of ecclesiastical writers, chapter 10, in these words: Adhering instantly to the services of the sepulcher of St. Felix the martyr. This matter Morales and Domenech adorn at more length, treating of the favors bestowed on him by his most holy Patron: but they have deservedly complained that the people of Gerona took no care to note down separately those favors or others; so that of the innumerable miracles, as they say, of St. Felix, scarcely anything has come down to posterity, besides a few which St. Gregory of Tours left written.
[17] Miracles from Gregory of Tours. Even in the time of St. Gregory of Tours, says Tamayus, the devotion to the holy Martyr was admirable, on account of a notable miracle which he recounts, book 1, on the Glory of the Martyrs, chapter 92: At a certain time the basilica of Felix the martyr was broken into by thieves. This Martyr suffered at Gerona, a city of Spain. A thief, having seized silken cloaks, woven with gold, and adorned with necklaces, with the rest of the ornaments, went away. As he went, there joins him an unknown man, asking whither he was going. To whom he replied: If my word be kept hidden with thee, I would show thee a great treasure. And he: Show, he said, what thou wilt; it shall be covered by me with all my strength. But he showed him those articles, saying: If these are sold in other regions, they will bring great profit to each of us. And he: I am, he said, a man to whom in diverse regions many are held as friends, and I have a great and secret house: if thou place these in it, henceforth thou wilt sell them when it pleases. And going before, the man followed with his bundle, thinking that he was being led to another city: for God had closed his eyes, and he did not know that he was returning by the way by which he had come. Why many words? They come to the basilica of the Saint, and the man says to him: Behold the house of which I spoke to thee, enter and lay down thy bundle; he too entered. But when, the bundle laid down, he began to look, returning to himself he recognized the basilica of the Saint, from which he had taken away those things: but the man had now withdrawn from him. And so all the things which he had done with that man he narrated to the people: whence it was undoubted that the blessed Martyr himself had appeared to him.
[18] which attribute relics to Narbonne: Gregory then goes on in this manner: The relics of this one (namely of St. Felix) are kept at the basilica of Narbonne. But when the height of this edifice seemed to keep Liguria—which is a most pleasant place—from being seen from the king's palace, king Alaric conferred about these things with Leo his counselor. Who said: Let one framework of the structure be taken down from this building, and the king will more freely contemplate what he pleases. And immediately, the workmen being called, the counselor now humbled the basilica of the Saint—in its buildings, not in its merits—but he forthwith lost the light of his eyes. From these things you understand that two heavenly punishments were taken from men irreverent toward the holy Martyr and his sacred remains. But what is there said about the relics kept at the basilica of Narbonne, that ought altogether to be taken, as Tamayus with all his people expounds, not of the whole sacred body, but of a part of some bones, as they prove from the diploma of Pope Formosus given in the year 893, where the church of Gerona is expressly named, in which even at that time, namely three hundred years and more after the said miracles, B. Felix, martyr of Christ, was resting in body.
[19] The chief ones, however, are kept at Gerona. That the head of the holy Martyr still exists in the secular collegiate church, erected in honor of St. Felix, Tamayus proves from Domenech folio 72 verso, thus speaking: The head of this glorious Saint is still kept in the secular collegiate church of St. Felix, where I myself visited and adored it. And Domenech was writing—at least his work was edited—in 1602. Tamayus adds Pujades disputing about the true place of the deposition of the sacred pledges, where he concludes that both the head and the body are laid up in the church of St. Felix, not in the cathedral, because this is recognized to have been built in the time of Charlemagne, and that one had once been cathedral. Which, however they stand in relation to the temple, whether cathedral or collegiate (which controversy we leave to be settled by the people of Gerona themselves), this at least they seem to evince: that although some relics were once shared with the church of Narbonne and others, the sacred head of the Saint has hitherto most certainly so remained at Gerona that it was never moved: whence you may easily conjecture how much value is to be set on the Cologne testimony given in the year 1594 on the second day of March, which we here subjoin.
[20] Our Father Cuperus described it from the manuscript Reliquary-catalogue of the royal monastery of St. Lawrence, What is to be thought of the Cologne one. commonly the Escorial, in the year 1722, and it is of this kind: In the name of the Lord, amen. Judocus de Junquere, rector of the convent of St. Agnes at Cologne, and the other conventuals, make it testified to all, that we, by unanimous consent and deliberate will, have delivered to the Reverend Father in Christ Balthasar Delgado, delegated by the most invincible Catholic king Philip II to conduct certain private affairs in the Belgic provinces (with the prior indult, however, of the ordinary bishop of the place), three sacrosanct heads; namely the head of St. Frinderna… Likewise the head of St. Felix, who suffered under the governor Datian in the Spains, in the city of Gerona. And another from the society of St. Ursula. Which indeed, etc. That it was the head of some Saint, and indeed by the name of Felix, of whom there is so great a number in the Church, we acknowledge without difficulty; but that it should be predicated of the Gerona one, or that the identity of that head with this our St. Felix should ever be proved, I ask by what reasoning, when, or
by whom it was ever brought to Cologne, against what all the writers testify who ever mentioned St. Felix; from whom we have already most manifestly shown that in the year 1602 it still existed at Gerona, and about those times was honored in his presence by Antonio Vincentio Domenech himself, he testifying it.
[21] No less certain are the things which our Father Felix Matthaeus communicated about the relics of this St. Felix remaining in Spain with companions, Others in Spain in various places. testifying by a writing at Bilbilis on the 27th of April 1722: where, a description being premised of the magnificent, as he says, and sumptuous temple of Torralba dedicated to St. Felix, he narrates that the relics of the holy Martyr, obtained from Gerona, and translated to that place on the 23rd of August 1573, and then on the 26th of the same month most solemnly received and exalted, an immense multitude of the inhabitants of the surrounding villages flocking together, and at the same time singing hymns about the holy Martyr, so that scarcely ever was such a festivity seen in those parts. All of which the praised Felix Matthaeus testifies that he saw there confirmed by authentic testimonies, an excellent cultivator of his synonymous Patron. Others the Marca Hispanica mentions in the monastery of Cuxa of the diocese of Elne. Nor can there be doubt that in various other places of Spain, especially Catalonia, sacred relics of this kind were exposed to veneration, especially in those temples which Morales, Domenech and others assert to have been consecrated in so great a number to the memory of the most holy Martyr, so that to enumerate them one by one I have judged either too much or superfluous. About the Portuguese ones Rodrigo da Cunha testifies in more than one place in his history of Lisbon.
[22] And let these things about the relics of St. Felix, and the temples built in his honor, and so his perpetual and most constant veneration, be enough abundantly said; The miracles neglected at Gerona. of his manifold miracles, received in general, so to speak, the hymn related above is witness, asserting a remedy for any diseases whatever; lest here in vain, what we have been so often compelled to do elsewhere, we again accuse the base carelessness of the people of Gerona, that they have been most negligent in enumerating the singular benefits of their most precious Patron. As for the Acts, we are compelled to place them in that class which, once doubtless written rather late and from tradition not accurately enough, were afterward by the ignorance of others exceedingly disfigured, so that by what authority they avail is not easy to decide safely. That some things were transfused hither from other passions of Martyrs, as we know was very often done, the adjuncts here and there not everywhere agreeing with the place of martyrdom compel us to suspect; and that especially, that they will have the holy Martyr to have been immersed in the sea, so many leagues distant thence, to say nothing of the rest about torments repeated with so monstrous a cruelty—plainly incredible, so that I would say they were nearly gathered from elsewhere, or seem condensed.
[23] The Acts nothing less than genuine. For the rest, that they are more ancient than the ninth century, and so shone before Ado, is most manifest from the compendium given above. That the praised bishop of Gerona Berengarius above also had the same, he himself clearly testifies in the epistle cited to the people of Augsburg: We transmit to you moreover the Passion of St. Felix, in which we have marked beforehand the day of his birthday, namely the Kalends of August. Whether these were ours, or other Acts of that kind, who would now easily conjecture? This indeed seemed to me most especially wonderful, that among so many collections of Passions or Legends I have nowhere hitherto found the very ones edited in their original or Latin phrase. Those which Tamayus compiled by his own effort are not worthy of observation. Further, whatever you judge them to be, such at least you will confess them, that in histories of this kind it is to be most greatly lamented that most unskilled copyists or amanuenses dared to transmute so many things at their own discretion, so that of five manuscript apographs there is none which does not differ from another, so that it was most difficult to dig out the right and sound from the badly distorted. Some injured things we have repaired, or explained in the notes, as far as could be done.
THE ACTS
From the very ancient Moissac codex, collated with four other manuscripts.
Felix, Martyr, at Gerona in Spain (S.)
Romanus, Martyr, at Gerona in Spain (S.)
BHL Number: 2864
From the Moissac codex.
The schools in Africa being deserted, In those days, under the consuls Diocletian and Maximian, in the time when the savage cruelty of persecution was raging against the Christians, the command of the impious Princes was so kept for those placed in the whole world, whether in the provinces of the Easterns or those established in the Western parts, that there was no city or fortress where the idols were not worshipped and nefarious victims slain to the demons. St. Felix therefore was sprung from the Scillitan city, who, when he went to the city of Caesarea, which is established on the coast of Mauretania, which is called its metropolis, where the studies of liberal letters shone forth, there the holy Man submitted himself to be instructed in discipline, that he might appear more perfect in all things. Therefore when, before the voyage, an a unheard-of report was spread among the peoples, because on the coast of the Spains a grave persecution was raging against the Christians; which report St. Felix having learned, like a most prudent bee, which undaunted strives to fulfill the perfection of its work, rejoicing, cast from himself all the volumes of the authors which were carried in his hands, saying: What is to me the philosophy of this world? It is necessary to hasten to that life which gives times to the times, which dreads not the author of death, but beholds the creator of life.
[2] Therefore the ship which b with diverse merchandise was hastening to go to Spain, desirous of martyrdom he sails to Spain, God favoring, he boarded, by whose help, by a prosperous voyage, he landed at the city of Barcelona. Who, when he feigned himself a merchant of vendible things, began within himself to seek how he might arrive at the heavenly kingdoms, and attain the summits of perennial life. Meanwhile the most impious Dacian began to bring persecution upon the Christians: St. Felix, sailing from Barcelona, migrated to Ampurias c, and sitting there began to exercise himself with the divine volumes, and, sweating in continual prayer, that he might deserve to be dear to the people, prayed; for he was a lover of the faith, chaste, sober, mild, peaceable and truthful, he continually bestowed alms on the poor, hospitable beyond measure; to all the brethren arriving he offered himself to meet them with all the joy of love, that he might be equaled to the merits of Abraham, who was proved to have received the Lord too in his hospitality. This he specially admonished all, saying that alms ought by all means to be given, and all the substance of the world to be bestowed on the poor: that anger too should be appeased before the setting of the sun, and all ill-will conquered by goodness.
[3] And when he not only exhorted the people about these virtues, and preaching the faith he is seized but even kindled all to the Christian faith; as a merchant of good things, he both retained spiritual treasures in his heart, and exhorted, saying: Why do we love the dark and perishing life of this world? Let us now hasten to that blessed one which the Lord promises to those who love him in truth: for the terrors of the most impious Dacian, who has troubled all the coast of Spain, together with his father the devil, shall speedily be reduced to nothing, and his threats shall fail and waste away. Therefore, when he sowed good pearls among the people, he passed on into the city of Lerida d, there doing like things. Many matrons, hearing these things, most gladly received the words of the most blessed Felix, whom they held not only as a merchant, who by giving earthly things purchased heavenly; but even called him an apostle or one of the prophets, who showed the way of salvation to all. Why many words? These things are announced by the hearers to a certain Rufinus, who was himself also one of the officials of Dacian; and who, quicker than said, announced to Dacian all that he had heard: to whom Dacian gave such power, that he should thoroughly afflict him and, hindered with chains, consign him to prison, e because he had dared to exhort the people about the divine commandments and had announced to all the people the sect of him who is called Christ.
[4] By this edict also he admonished him, that he was to be persuaded that if he sacrificed ceremonies to the Gods, he should appear to all raised to immense honors; To the prefect flattering him with many things but if he had scorned to sacrifice to the gods, and had been unwilling to adore the countenances of the Princes, wasted with hunger, laden with immense weights of iron on his neck and shoulders, he should be pressed with sharper penalties, lest he further should presume to do these things to our contempt, and to the contumely of our emperors. And when Rufinus returned from the city of Saragossa with the authority of the most impious Dacian, he began solicitously to inquire where the most blessed Felix was staying: to whom it was said, in the middle of the forum with a certain matron, by name Placida, sprung of noble birth. Who, hearing these things, roared like a raging lion, and ordered the courtiers and soldiers to apprehend him, and to bring vehement terrors: believing that he could come to his money; ignorant that it was already bestowed on the poor. So the most blessed Felix is set before the sight of Rufinus, whom he thus addresses, saying: Felix, this I hear from all, that there is such prudence in thee, that mellifluous words proceed from thy mouth; for even my Lord Dacian himself, hearing these things from all, rejoices that such and so great a one has come into this province.
[5] he resists intrepidly and insults him. For thus he commanded me, that I should seek for thee such a wife as may accord with thee in means and morals and nobility. Only see that thou be known to be obedient to him in all things; but if thou wilt lend consent to my most clement and salutary counsel, that thou sacrifice incense to the gods and acquiesce in their ceremonies, straightway I too will grant thee much of my own wealth. The most blessed Felix therefore, filled with the Holy Spirit, thus answered him: O viperish tongue of the devil, full of venom! who so flatter that thou mayest deceive, smile that thou mayest harm, promise earthly things, and try to take away the heavenly. Depart from me, enticing temptation: I have no need of thy favors: keep the good things which thou promisest for thy sons: for no one shall be able to separate me from the charity of Christ; neither angels nor the principalities of this world. To whom Rufinus answered: Then hast thou now deliberated, accursed one, that thou neither acquiesce in my promises, nor lend assent to my salutary counsel? B. Felix answered: They are accursed who are approved like to thee and thy father the devil; let them acquiesce in thy promises, let them obtain thy gifts, with whom thou shalt be burned forever f.
[6] Hence he is beaten with cudgels Hearing these things, Rufinus, considering that he answered with such confidence, ordered him to be beaten with cudgels, and shut up in the depth of the prison. But St. Felix, trusting in the Lord, filled with much joy, said: I give thee thanks, Lord Jesus Christ, because thy grace has drawn near to me, which of old I longingly wished to obtain; and he sang psalms with great confidence, saying: Thou hast proved my heart, O Lord, and visited it by night, thou hast examined me with fire, and iniquity is not found in me. When Rufinus recognized the modulation of this song, the Saint chanting it, he said to the bystanders: Let him be quickly recalled, and with hands and feet bound, let him be placed in a squalid place, that, the substance of food and drink being denied, he may be able to breathe out his soul, who not only despises these things which we urge, but even rises up to our injury. Again
he ordered him to be brought back to him, and when he had been brought back and presented to his sight, Rufinus said to him: Felix, hear me as thy brother, and consent to sacrifice to the gods, that thou mayest be raised to dignities by the governor Dacian: for I too came a stranger, but by obeying his commands, he both made me wealthy and raised me with honors. To whom St. Felix, answering with much boldness, said: If thou shouldst promise me heaven with the multitudes of angels, or shouldst pledge the pleasantness of paradise, I would never acquiesce in thy promises nor incline my mind to gifts.
[7] and with other grave torments Hearing these things, Rufinus ordered him to be bound with heavier chains and dragged by untamed mules through all the streets, that they might reduce the lacerated body of the most blessed Felix into pieces; but because, God helping, though his body was lacerated, his faith remained undaunted, he ordered him to be sent into prison; where, while St. Felix with fixed mind prayed to the Lord, there appeared to him a young man, clad in snowy garments, and said to him: Do not fear, Felix: for I am sent by the Lord Jesus Christ to strengthen thee in all things: and touching all his members, the wounds of his body were straightway healed. But on another day Rufinus, sitting with all, ordered St. Felix to be brought, to whom he thus said: Behold, now sacrifice to our immortal gods, as thou shalt see us today with great joy immolate victims to them; and immediately he ordered the altars of the demons to be honored with nefarious sacrifices; and the most sordid Rufinus, approaching, began before all to invoke the names of the demons with inauspicious voices: You I invoke, gods, Jupiter, Mercury, Saturn, Baal, Accaron g or Minerva, through whom the world glories, and through whom the emperors obtain praise, and through whom my lord Dacian is exceedingly exalted. Help me and all who stand with me: likewise the rest also said.
[8] And he says to St. Felix: Approach, and do quickly as thou hast seen us do, he is tortured in vain. that thou mayest be able to escape the torments which are prepared for thee. Then B. Felix said: O, whom the blindness of the devil through the folly of the heart has grievously seized, depart, unhappy ones, from the things made by your hands, which you impiously adore, and know the living God, who fashioned you from the mud of the earth; since for all things which are made by the hands of men, you will render an account for them to the living God of all the ages. And immediately, inflamed by his words, they rushed upon him, and like bees which, when stung, boil up, and defend the injury with their own destruction: forthwith, having apprehended him, he handed him to the executioners, that they might tear off his nails, and rend the flesh from the skin; and he ordered him to hang head-downward until he should breathe out his soul. But when St. Felix was hung, he said: Arise, O Lord, and attend to my judgment, my God and my Lord to my cause. But hung from the third hour until evening, he felt no pain at all, but the faithful witness in heaven comforted him.
[9] But after the setting of the sun he ordered him to be sent into prison, But by heavenly prodigies and to be guarded more strictly; where immediately such a splendor of light shone, and a nectareous odor of sweetness appeared, that the guards of that prison believed themselves to have been drenched with balsam. The voices also of angels singing psalms with modulated sweetness resounded to all. But the guards, opening the prison and going out, ran to Rufinus, saying: Truly he is a most faithful servant of God, whom thou hast ordered us to guard; for we have seen many marvels this night, which it is not lawful for us to indicate to any of men. But also the voices of angels singing psalms through the whole night we have heard. Then Rufinus, exceedingly angered, ordered him, his hands bound behind his back, to be sunk into the deep of the sea h. And when he had been placed on a ship, he sang, saying: For even there thy hand shall lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me, O Lord. But when he had been led from the shore nearly thirty stadia, they cast him into the sea, and so all the bonds with which he had been bound were dissolved, as if he had been fastened with papyrus: and after the magnitude of the chains was broken, immediately he was seen to walk with his feet upon the waves of the sea, and in the midst of the angels, holding his hands, to chant a hymn and alleluia together.
[10] Then, coming over them from the deep of the sea and boarding the ship, he intimated to them all that had been done: who, embracing his footsteps, said: Pray for us to the Lord, O Martyr of God, that our sins may be forgiven us. the tyrant is the more inflamed. It is announced therefore immediately to Rufinus that St. Felix was walking on the shore exulting and rejoicing, and Rufinus says to his satellites: Rascals, why did you not at all obey my commands, and, as was ordered, the ship running, sink him farther and deeper? Who, proclaiming to him, said constantly that he had been sunk in the long deep of the sea, but recalled to the land, angels accompanying, by divine steering. Then Rufinus cried out like a raging lion, saying: Alas, we are conquered! But I will yet devise crueler kinds of torments, and he says to the executioners: Let his flesh be torn with claws i down to the bones, that so at least his contumacy may be repressed. And when it had been done, St. Felix was brought before the sight of Rufinus, and he began to gaze at him with a truculent countenance, and with turbid eyes, saying: Felix, thou seest how much our gods have had mercy on thee: approach, sacrifice to them even now, and I will make thee their magnificent priest. To whom St. Felix answered, saying: Mayest thou serve them by perpetual right, together with thy father the devil; for I today sacrifice and serve my omnipotent God, who fashioned me from the mud of the earth, and from the deep of the sea, the bonds being broken with which I had been bound together, snatched me by the hands of his angels.
[11] Martyrdom and burial When these things were said by St. Felix, Rufinus ordered the executioners to tear his nails down to the bones and to consume him with the labor of a long journey, that, the wounds being renewed, struck with sharper pain, he might breathe out his soul. And when it had been done, he rendered up his spirit. So the body of the most blessed martyr is recalled k to Gerona, to a certain matron very fearing of the Lord. But I, the most humble Levite of Christ, who also labored long in his passion, having entered into counsel with the provincials, determined this, that we should carry his little body to the Province, a ship being brought. Therefore, when through the whole night prayer had been made, and the effect of the work follows: sleep pressed down our mind with labor, and while we slept on the opposite side of the upper room, the body of the Saint is carried off. Awakened and anxious, running with fear through diverse places, we found him in the monument which the most blessed Martyr had prepared for himself, elegantly and most worthily buried. And because he could not now be carried off by us, we carried away with us relics of his gore together with the deeds, that both in the present life we may enjoy his help, and in the future, the same being our patron, we may obtain the effect of perpetual life; our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, who crowned his Martyr in peace, to whom is honor and glory and virtue, etc.
NOTES.
Hung with head reversed, sunk in the Guixols sea, with millstones placed upon him.
Tamayus again subjoins: This solution being applied, the context of the description here remains, in all its parts, proved and completed. I indeed wish these things to seem such to others; to me they are neither proved nor completed hitherto, nor will they easily be completed.