ON ST. FELIX, THE THIRD BISHOP OF METZ IN BELGICA I
ABOUT THE YEAR 100.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Felix, Bishop of Metz in Belgica I (St.)
I. B.
[1] The third Bishop of the city of the Mediomatrici in Belgica Prima was St. Felix, of whom mention is made on the 18th of January in the Life of St. Deicola the Abbot, written nearly 1200 years ago, where in chapter 1, number 4, the following is read: "According to the order of the sites, I see that the most opulent city of Metz is adorned in no small measure, upon which the Divinity has deigned so greatly to look that the names of all its Apostles gleam there in golden letters, The name of St. Felix inscribed in golden letters by an Angel written without doubt by an angelic hand. And that happy city merited these first Fathers: Clement, Felix, Auctor, Celestis, Adelphus, Arnulf -- besides those whom the Lord alone knows to be rewarded." The first was St. Clement, believed to be a disciple of the Apostle Peter, who is venerated on November 23rd, the same day as Pope St. Clement I. The second was St. Celestis, or Celestius, on October 14th. The third, then, was St. Felix.
[2] His memory has been recorded on the 21st of February in very many printed and handwritten Martyrologies. The Martyrology of Metz, cited by Meurissius, has: "At Metz, the deposition of St. Felix, Bishop and Confessor." The Roman: "At Metz, St. Felix, Bishop." A manuscript of the monastery of St. Martin at Trier: inscribed in the Martyrologies on February 21 "At Metz, Felix, Confessor." Hermann Greven the Carthusian and John Molanus in their supplement to Usuard, and another Martyrology published at Cologne in the year 1490, and many manuscripts: "In the city of Metz, the birthday of St. Felix, Bishop and Confessor, who sat for 42 years and 6 months." The manuscript Florarium has the same but omits those six months, and adds that he died in the year 128. Galesinius, from the Calendar of Metz, as he says: "At Metz, St. Felix, Bishop and Confessor, who, having vigilantly administered the Church of Metz according to God's will for 40 years and 6 months, rested in the Lord, flourishing in the praise of holy vigils, episcopal virtues, and divine affairs which he carried out religiously." Canisius says the same things of him, but somewhat more briefly. Maurolycus also makes mention of him. Saussaius composes a much more extensive eulogy in his Gallican Martyrology, and says that he was an assistant to St. Dionysius the Areopagite, that he survived him and overcame many persecutions, and that he governed that Church for more than forty years. And he finally adds that a basilica was dedicated to his memory shortly afterward, in which wonders of the Divine Majesty shone forth. Of these matters we have nothing certainly established, nor do we know why the same Saussaius places him again on January 25th.
[3] He is asserted in the records of the archives of Metz to have held the episcopal office for 42 years, as Meurissius testifies, though he does not dare to assent unreservedly. We have no solid evidence on which to rely. how long he sat is uncertain Felix was one of those Bishops about whom Paul the Deacon writes in his book on the Bishops of Metz that it is certain the Church of God grew through their efforts, although their specific deeds are hidden from us. His successor, St. Patiens, is said to have been sent by St. John the Evangelist, as we have related in his Life on February 8th; in which, at number 4, St. John addresses him thus, after he had returned from Patmos to the Churches of Asia: "Dearest one, it has been revealed to me in the Spirit he was the predecessor of St. Patiens that Clement, formerly a Patrician of the City, and his successors, who were directed by my fellow Apostle Peter to the first Belgic Gaul in the city of Metz -- two having died, the one who survives awaits a successor from among our own, according to the revelation." About which revelation he treats again afterward. Meurissius, from the same archives of the Church of Metz, writes that St. Clement died two years after the martyrdom of St. Peter the Apostle, that is, in the year 69 of the common era, though he himself puts 70; and that St. Celestius then sat for 15 years, therefore to the year 84 according to our reckoning. If the 42 years of Felix are added, the result is 126, which is nearly the number expressed by the author of the Florarium. How then could St. Patiens have been sent as his successor, when John himself died in the sixty-eighth year after the Lord's Passion, as St. Jerome relates in chapter 9 of his book on Ecclesiastical Writers, that is, in the year 99 of Christ? But since that Life of St. Patiens was written after the year 1050 and provides no chronological markers, we can establish nothing solidly concerning those earlier Bishops. We published such part of it as we had then obtained. The remainder we afterward transcribed from a codex of Her Serene Majesty the Queen of Sweden, in which mention is made of Pope St. Leo IX, who was elevated to the pontificate in the year 1049.
[4] The basilica which Saussaius says was afterward dedicated to the name of St. Felix is perhaps the one which Meurissius on page 14 writes was built in honor of St. Felix, a Priest of Nola, and was afterward called St. Clement's. There, however, he says a chest exists, filled with various relics of Saints, among which is one arm of this St. Felix, Bishop of Metz. He says his body was entombed in the crypt or cave of St. Clement, next to St. Celestius, his relics but was afterward translated to Saxony by the Holy Emperor Henry.