CONCERNING SAINT FELIX THE MARTYR,
A MONK OF FRITZLAR IN GERMANY.
CommentaryFelix, monk, Martyr of Fritzlar in Germany (St.)
G. H.
Fritzlar is a city of Germany, in the dominion of the Elector and Archbishop of Mainz, but almost set within Hesse, on the river Eder, He seems to have been slain by the still pagan Saxons where it is read above in the Life of St. Boniface, no. 26, that he erected a monastery. That St. Felix the Martyr was professed in this monastery, Trithemius writes in book 3 On the Illustrious Men of the Order of St. Benedict, chapter 287, in these words: "Felix, Monk of the monastery of Fritzlar (which has long been alienated from the Order), a holy man, and a most fervent preacher of the word of God, after many pursuits of good works, when he was announcing the faith of Christ to the Gentiles, received martyrdom from them. He is venerated on the Nones of June." Thus Trithemius, who lived in those same regions and wrote these things. Concerning the neighboring Saxons, still heathen and enemies of the people of Fritzlar, Serarius discourses excellently in book 3 of Affairs of Mainz, Note 27 on the Life of St. Boniface.
[2] The name in the Monastic calendars. The same St. Felix was inscribed in the Benedictine Martyrologies by Arnoldus Wion, Benedictus Dorganius, Hugo Menardus, Gabriel Bucelinus, with the Calendar of the Benedictine Order in manuscript, likewise Ferrarius in his General Catalogue: but all followed Trithemius alone: in whom, as we have already said, we seem to be able to trust here, even if we do not find the name in other German calendars, until more light shine from elsewhere.