ON ST. FELICISSIMUS, CONFESSOR,
AT NOCERA IN UMBRIA.
From Ferrarius.
CommentaryFelicissimus, Confessor, at Nocera in Umbria (S.)
J. B. S.
Here is another Saint, as well as the former, passed over in all the other sacred Fasti, except the Catalogues of Ferrarius, those same ones of which we have just treated; the notice being taken from the monuments of the church of Nocera alone: His cult is established, but his age is unknown. such at least, that, from the immemorial cult there, he can most safely be numbered among the Saints, although the things which are narrated concerning him are vague, certainly affixed to no distinct time. We do not judge that the position or place of cult should be more fully described: for the twin Nocera among the Italians is well enough known; the one in the Picentes, not so far from Naples; from which we have sufficiently distinguished ours, by its situation in Umbria, namely between Assisi and Camerino, which it may suffice to have noted here in passing. I wondered, says the praised Ferrarius, that no mention of time is contained in the Acts of St. Felicissimus. We have sought it elsewhere in vain; so that consequently nothing remains but that we here faithfully subjoin the eulogy composed by him.
[2] Felicissimus, at Nocera, a city of the Umbrians, The eulogy. born of his father Rufinus, a man most pious toward the poor, in the village of Sicimano, as an infant, against his parents' will, betook himself to Nursia into the monastery of St. Eutychius; where, when in a short time he had learned letters, he began to preach to others. Entreated by his father, at last, having received the blessing from the monks (whose habit he had not yet put on), he returned home, and, giving himself to works of piety, took care of orphans and widows, especially the needy. But when he had several times granted even his own garments to the poor, expelled from home by his father, who bore this with an iniquitous mind, he is sent to pasture the oxen; and when he had given a cow to a poor man asking alms (since he had nothing else to give), fearing his father's anger, he fled to a place whose name is Politianum: where, a staff being fixed, when it straightway flowered, he understood that he ought to settle there. Serving God, therefore, with prayers and vigils, when he had begun to shine with miracles (for among other things he restored sight to a blind man), he converted many sinners to good fruit. Finally, having stayed there many years, he passed to the Lord on the Ides of July. He shone with miracles also after death; for when a robber, having entered the church of Felicissimus and, the more precious things being taken away, thinking he had accomplished much of the way through the night, was found in the morning near the same church, escaped death by a vow made to St. Felicissimus that he would perpetually serve his church. A certain one possessed by a demon, brought to the same church, was freed in the presence of many. Another, having rashly dared to touch the sacred relics of St. Felicissimus, his arm being straightway benumbed, penitent, obtained pardon and health.