SAINT FELIX I
Pope and Martyr
(†274)
Saint Felix was a Roman by birth and the son of the emperor Constance. He was elected Pope after the martyrdom of his predecessor, Saint Dionysius (or Denis), on the last day of the year 269.
Four of his letters are still extant, though one is only a fragment; in the first two he regulates the procedures of justice in the case of accused ecclesiastics and warns against detractors and calumniators. In the third he refutes those who maintain errors still rampant in our day - that Jesus did not behold His Father by the beatific vision and was less than His Father. In the fragmentary fourth letter, the Pope foresees and rejects in advance the heresies of Nestorius and Eutyches, teaching that the Eternal Word is not another Person than Jesus Christ, who is both perfect God and perfect Man.
Saint Felix also wrote against the errors of Sabellius, Paul of Samosate and Manes, head of the Manicheans. He issued many ordinances of great advantage to the Church, such as that the relics of Saints should be enclosed in the altars where the Holy Sacrifice is offered. His life ended in the year 274 under the emperor Aurelian. Although that prince had shown a certain benevolence toward Christians at the beginning of his reign, in that year he ordered a furious persecution which enveloped Saint Felix and was the occasion for his winning a glorious crown of martyrdom (because of the persecution he endured). His body was interred in his own cemetery on the Aurelian Way, where he had also built a church. Saint Felix reigned for five years, ten months and 25 days.
The notice about Felix in the Liber Pontificalis ascribes to him a decree that Masses should be celebrated on the tombs of martyrs ("Hic constituit supra memorias martyrum missas celebrare"). The author of this entry was evidently alluding to the custom of celebrating Mass privately at the altars near or over the tombs of the martyrs in the crypts of the catacombs (missa ad corpus), while the solemn celebration always took place in the basilicas built over the catacombs. This practice, still in force at the end of the fourth century, dates apparently from the period when the great cemeterial basilicas were built in Rome, and owes its origin to the solemn commemoration services of martyrs, held at their tombs on the anniversary of their burial, as early as the third century. Felix probably issued no such decree, but the compiler of the Liber Pontificalis attributed it to him because he made no departure from the custom in force in his time.
The Liber Pontificalis (Latin for 'pontifical book' or Book of the Popes) is a book of biographies of Popes from St. Peter until the 15th century. The original publication of the Liber Pontificalis stopped with Pope Adrian II (867–872) or Pope Stephen V (885–891), but it was later supplemented in a different style until Pope Eugene IV (1431–1447) and then Pope Pius II (1458–1464).
The title Liber Pontificalis goes back to the 12th century, although it only became current in the 15th century, and the canonical title of the work since the edition of French priest Louis Duchesne in the 19th century. In the earliest extant manuscripts it is referred to as Liber episcopalis in quo continentur acta beatorum pontificum Urbis Romae (episcopal book in which are contained the acts of the blessed pontiffs of the city of Rome) and later the Gesta or Chronica pontificum.[
Reflection. The example of our Saviour and of all His Saints ought to encourage us under all trials to suffer with patience and even with joy. We shall soon begin to feel that it is sweet to tread in the steps of the God-Man, and shall find that if we courageously take up our crosses, He will make them light by sharing the burden with us.
Pope and Martyr
(†274)
 |
| Picture of him from the Sistine Chapel in Rome |
Saint Felix was a Roman by birth and the son of the emperor Constance. He was elected Pope after the martyrdom of his predecessor, Saint Dionysius (or Denis), on the last day of the year 269.
Four of his letters are still extant, though one is only a fragment; in the first two he regulates the procedures of justice in the case of accused ecclesiastics and warns against detractors and calumniators. In the third he refutes those who maintain errors still rampant in our day - that Jesus did not behold His Father by the beatific vision and was less than His Father. In the fragmentary fourth letter, the Pope foresees and rejects in advance the heresies of Nestorius and Eutyches, teaching that the Eternal Word is not another Person than Jesus Christ, who is both perfect God and perfect Man.
Saint Felix also wrote against the errors of Sabellius, Paul of Samosate and Manes, head of the Manicheans. He issued many ordinances of great advantage to the Church, such as that the relics of Saints should be enclosed in the altars where the Holy Sacrifice is offered. His life ended in the year 274 under the emperor Aurelian. Although that prince had shown a certain benevolence toward Christians at the beginning of his reign, in that year he ordered a furious persecution which enveloped Saint Felix and was the occasion for his winning a glorious crown of martyrdom (because of the persecution he endured). His body was interred in his own cemetery on the Aurelian Way, where he had also built a church. Saint Felix reigned for five years, ten months and 25 days.
The notice about Felix in the Liber Pontificalis ascribes to him a decree that Masses should be celebrated on the tombs of martyrs ("Hic constituit supra memorias martyrum missas celebrare"). The author of this entry was evidently alluding to the custom of celebrating Mass privately at the altars near or over the tombs of the martyrs in the crypts of the catacombs (missa ad corpus), while the solemn celebration always took place in the basilicas built over the catacombs. This practice, still in force at the end of the fourth century, dates apparently from the period when the great cemeterial basilicas were built in Rome, and owes its origin to the solemn commemoration services of martyrs, held at their tombs on the anniversary of their burial, as early as the third century. Felix probably issued no such decree, but the compiler of the Liber Pontificalis attributed it to him because he made no departure from the custom in force in his time.
The Liber Pontificalis (Latin for 'pontifical book' or Book of the Popes) is a book of biographies of Popes from St. Peter until the 15th century. The original publication of the Liber Pontificalis stopped with Pope Adrian II (867–872) or Pope Stephen V (885–891), but it was later supplemented in a different style until Pope Eugene IV (1431–1447) and then Pope Pius II (1458–1464).
The title Liber Pontificalis goes back to the 12th century, although it only became current in the 15th century, and the canonical title of the work since the edition of French priest Louis Duchesne in the 19th century. In the earliest extant manuscripts it is referred to as Liber episcopalis in quo continentur acta beatorum pontificum Urbis Romae (episcopal book in which are contained the acts of the blessed pontiffs of the city of Rome) and later the Gesta or Chronica pontificum.[
Reflection. The example of our Saviour and of all His Saints ought to encourage us under all trials to suffer with patience and even with joy. We shall soon begin to feel that it is sweet to tread in the steps of the God-Man, and shall find that if we courageously take up our crosses, He will make them light by sharing the burden with us.
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