ON ST. FELIX OF TONIZA, MARTYR, IN AFRICA,
TIME UNCERTAIN
CommentaryFelix, martyr, at Toniza in Africa. (S.)
H. D.
[1] St. Felix, martyr at Toniza "At Toniza in Africa, of Felix" is the clear reading of the Hieronymian codices on this day, to which Ado added a commentary: "At Toniza in Africa, the birthday of St. Felix. On whose solemnity the blessed Augustine seems to expound a certain psalm to the people, where among other things he speaks of his passion, saying: Felix the martyr, truly happy both in name and in crown, whose day is today. And you should know, brothers," and he goes on copying out Augustine as far as the words "that he might be crowned" D. Giorgi, Martyrologium of Ado, p. 564.. In the same words, the passage of Augustine being suppressed, Usuard announces St. Felix Sollerius, Martyrologium of Usuard, p. 654..
We say nothing of the Little Roman, which has nothing beyond the name of the place and of the saint, as also of Wandelbert, who gives only the name of the saint MG., Poetae Latini vol. II, p. 598.. In the auctaria of Bede Acta Sanctorum, March vol. II, p. XXXVIII. forty companions are assigned to St. Felix, through the carelessness or ignorance of some amplifier, who out of two announcements of this day made one by conflation, as Sollerius very well conjectured Sollerius, work cited, p. 654..
[2] was praised We copy out entire the passage of Augustine adduced by Ado, from the Enarration on Psalm CXXVII, 6 [Works of St. Augustine, vol. IV (Paris, 1691), p. 1439; P. L., vol. XXXVI, col. 1680.]. "Therefore, brothers, Felix the martyr, truly happy both in name and in crown, whose day is today, despised Ado omits. the world1. Was he perhaps happy on this account, because he feared the Lord, on this account blessed, because his wife was like a fruitful vine on the earth and his sons had surrounded his table? All these things he has perfectly, but in the body of him who is here described: and because he understood it so, by St. Augustine he despised things present that he might receive things to come (An forte-futura) Ado omits.. And you should know, brothers, that he did not suffer the death which other martyrs suffered. For he confessed Ado omits., and was put off for the torments; on another day his body3 was found lifeless. For they had shut the prison on him, but3 for the body, not for the spirit. Him whom the executioners were preparing to torture there, they found absent. They lost their cruelty. He lay lifeless, without feeling toward them, that he might not be tortured; with feeling before God dominum Ado., that he might be crowned here Ado breaks off.. Whence is not this man also happy, brothers, not only in name, but also in the reward of eternal life, if he loved these things?"
[3] is Ado's conjecture. That at Toniza, which is now the port of La Calle, distant twenty-four Roman miles from Thabraca according to the Antonine Itinerary and the Peutinger Table, in proconsular Numidia C. I. L. VIII, 1, p. 513., some martyr by the name of Felix suffered on the eighth day before the Ides of November, is probable from the Hieronymian list. That this is the very Felix whom Augustine praised, Ado supposed, and was the first to assert, with some doubt; and to establish this conjecture of his our Sollerius sought arguments in vain Sollerius, work cited, p. 654., nor have we found any.