ON ST. FELIX, BISHOP AND MARTYR,
AT PAVIA IN INSUBRIA.
CommentaryFelix, Bishop and Martyr, at Pavia in Insubria (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
Of this holy Bishop, martyr of Pavia, the first, so far as I know, to make mention among the fuller Usuardine codices, is he whom among the Florentine ones we have called the Strozzian, from the library whence it came forth, in these words: It is sufficiently certain that he is venerated at Pavia; At Pavia, St. Felix, Bishop and martyr; whence most probably he was received by Belinus, from this one by Maurolycus, Molanus, Canisius, and Galesinius, whom last Baronius confesses he followed, when he inscribed the Saint in the Roman Martyrology, unless rather he left him as marked by Belinus. That announcement is read in the Martyrologies already cited; but who this Felix was, of what city he was bishop, when he lived, what he did, at what time he suffered martyrdom, I nowhere find sufficiently clearly set forth, not even in the diligent searcher of the Saints of Italy, Ferrarius, whose alphabetical index plainly deceives; for there, in the series of the holy Felixes, he has it thus: Felix, Bishop of Spalato and martyr at Pavia, XV July, his body in his own church: but in the work itself that Felix is sought in vain, so that consequently recourse had to be had to the writers of Ticinum or Pavia, that thence some light might be fetched, by which it might be permitted to walk more safely through the darkness: how far they agree among themselves, I shall presently make you understand.
[2] I consulted, therefore, Antonio Maria Spelta in his history of the Bishops of Pavia, edited in the year 1597, it is not so established that he was a Bishop there, to see whether he was perchance numbered among the Bishops of that city; but in him St. Felix, Bishop of Pavia, is not known even by name, just as neither had Stefano Breventano spoken of him in his Pavian history printed in 1570, nor Bernardo Sacco in his Ticinensia in 1587, nor Jacopo Gualla in the Sanctuary of Pavia, published or at least reprinted in the same year, so that I should now plainly have believed that Felix the Bishop was unknown to the Pavians, whom the Martyrologies seemed to attribute almost to themselves. After the cited writers, from the sacred Annals and the diptychs of the Bishops of Ticinum, I know not whence Girolamo Bossi collected them, in which St. Felix found his place, placed ninth in order, St. Crispin II being excluded, who was constantly preserved by all the others. From the aforesaid Bossi, Ughelli drew Felix, Bishop of Pavia, in the first volume of Italia Sacra, column 5, thus writing of him: St. Felix the martyr was the prelate of this same church in the year CCLVIII, but was crowned with martyrdom on the XV day of the month of July in the year CCLV, whose sacred relics are honorably preserved in the Cathedral, and of whom the Roman Martyrology makes mention on this day.
[3] which was more recently devised. That the printer erred in marking the year 258 is sufficiently manifest, but I should wish to know whence it was established to Ughelli that the body or relics of St. Felix are honorably preserved in the cathedral. To arrange the matter a little better, Giovanni Battista de Gasparis endeavored in the Breviary of the holy Bishops of the Ticinensian church, edited at Ticinum in 1651, in which, page 36, he composed an encomium for St. Felix, which displeases in many ways, and chiefly in this, that he names no writers as sureties of his statements older than Bossi and Ughelli, besides the Martyrologies cited above by us, from which he could be instructed only concerning the cult of the Saint. The work of Girolamo Bossi is not at hand; nor indeed do I see that much account is to be taken of whatever he could bring forward after fourteen centuries from the death of the Saint, the older writers being plainly silent about such a holy Bishop of Pavia: from which title Gaspari too would far better have abstained, having before his eyes as a somewhat safer guide the aforesaid Jacopo Gualla, in whom I find St. Felix the Bishop, but of Spalato, a martyr buried and honored at Pavia, more rightly to be excluded from the series of the Bishops of Ticinum.
[4] The eulogy of Giovanni Battista de Gasparis But in him the love of country seems to have prevailed, which he had drawn from Bossi, and it so pleased him to claim St. Felix as a Bishop for his fellow-countrymen, that he ascribed to him this eulogy: Felix, admirable for the praises of goodness and justice, illustrious for maturity of manners, for innocence and holiness of life, was initiated with the pontifical mitre of the Ticinensians in the year two hundred and fifty-three. Having obtained so great a ministry, he was in nothing changed from his former manner of life; but the humility of soul which he had within, that also he made manifest without by the cultivation of good works and by charity, so that he was a wonder to the whole city. Not desisting from the preaching of the word of God, he so shrank even from the meeting and conversation of infidels and heretical men, that he earnestly preached that they should not even be approached. You would say that Gaspari had dug up from somewhere some old Acts of St. Felix, from which he contracted into few words the several virtues of that holy prelate: but the epoch of the pontificate and of the martyrdom he circumscribes so distinctly, as if he had consulted authentic records, in which the determined times of the several Bishops had been accurately designated. No more pleasing will be the other part of the eulogy, which he thus continues:
[5] Burning with the desire of martyrdom, opposing himself to the infidels, he in no way proves it. he laid down his life for his sheep, namely at that time in which foreign nations of infidels, the Alps being penetrated, and all Insubria subdued, came to Ticinum. For about that time Felix, most happily completing the course of his last life, in a great disturbance of affairs grievously afflicted by the enemies of the Christian name, by the glorious triumph of martyrdom passed from the body to the heavens on the Ides of July in the year two hundred and fifty-five, in the seventh Decian persecution, which Gallus and Volusianus had continued; whose venerable body the Ticinensians, consumed with grief, honorably and magnificently buried in the church of St. Salvator, afterward called by his name St. Felix. To whom, I pray, does Gaspari suppose he is writing these things? What do they mean, in the middle of the third century, the foreign nations of infidels, who, the Alps being penetrated, subdued all Insubria? Do not these rather indicate Goths or Lombards? But by whole centuries those events are far apart: I gladly confess it; but this is the very thing which I have already said displeases me, wondering at the ignorance of the writer in that matter. But what church of St. Salvator does he preach to us for that same century, in which the holy Martyr was honorably and magnificently buried, the seventh persecution still raging? These things are not aptly enough divided among the times, which I leave to be combined by the Pavians.
[6] Concerning the place of burial, without doubt changed in later centuries, and concerning the appellation of St. Felix that followed thence, that he was of Spalato, Gualla perhaps establishes better, Gaspari thinks more rightly than Ughelli above, in which he almost agrees with the cited Jacopo Gualla, whom he would have followed less badly in other things also. Gualla treats here of St. Felix in the Sanctuary of Pavia, book 5, chapter 14, page 96, expressly calling him a most worthy bishop of the city of Spalato. But by what chance or occasion he came to Pavia, where and for how long he was bishop there, for what cause he deserted his see, when he underwent martyrdom, Gualla had not the means to explore or explain for certain; relating a brief history of the passion, which to discuss at greater length would be superfluous. It is of that kind of passions which, a very few things being changed, can be conveniently fitted to almost any Martyr, distinguished by no characteristics at all, which might be able to lead us to a sufficient knowledge of the time or of the attendant circumstances. But whatever it be, in this it surpasses Gaspari's, that it does not so openly strike against the notes of the times, and that it does not intrude St. Felix of Spalato, against the opinion of all the older writers, into the catalogue of the Bishops of Pavia. It ought to suffice us that from the Martyrologies the cult seems sufficiently established. Yet here also the narration of Gualla himself is to be added:
[7] fitting to him another history, Felix, a most worthy bishop of the city of Spalato, from whom the very basilica where he rests, erected under the name of the Savior, received its name; a man indeed conspicuous for learning and holiness, when he was recalling the people from the worship of idols, and instructing them in the Christian faith; the impious Tarquin, kindled with anger, commands that he should hasten to him at once: whom addressing, and finding him most constant in the faith of Christ, he thrusts into prison: where, while he was continually in prayer, he deserved to hear this divine voice: Felix, if thou persevere in the confession of the faith even unto death, thou shalt receive the crown of immortality among the Saints. To whom Felix said: I give thee thanks, Lord Jesus Christ, almighty King of eternal glory, who standest by me a sinner, and by all who believe in thee. Thou knowest, Lord, that I love thee with my whole heart, and that for thy most holy name I will gladly suffer even the most bloody slaughter. But be thou my helper, that I fail not in the torments; for from thee alone proceeds all victory. But afterward, at Tarquin's command, he is dragged from the prison to him, whom when he saw most constant in the faith, he ordered him to be placed upon an iron cauldron, and under it a great fire to be kindled.
[8] not fitting one altogether proper to him. Then with a great voice Felix cried out: Lord, have mercy on me, as thou hadst mercy on thy servants in the furnace of burning fire. To whose prayer God, inclining the ear of his mercy, sent an angel, who extinguished the fire for him; but many raging against the servant of God, struck down by a furious thunderbolt, descend to hell: at length, the insolent Tarquin commanding, Felix, the best and most holy prelate, is beheaded, having however first exhorted the Christians, even to the last breath of life, for the faith of Christ, to undergo whatsoever torments. When he had been so most bloodily slain, his most holy soul, all resplendent with brightness, was seen to be borne to the heavenly joys between two choirs of angels. Seeing which, the faithless barbarians, terrified, betook themselves to flight. But the Christians most devoutly buried, with many tears, the holy and venerable body of Felix the martyr. But his most holy body, together with the divine Castulus, lies at present in a chest in the middle of the temple of the confessor, called by his name.