From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   January 14th - St. Felix of Nola   
      
   An account tells us that one day the Bishop of Nola, Maximus, fell to the   
   ground   
   exhausted from hunger and cold fleeing from his persecutors [the persecution   
   of   
   Decius in the 3rd century]. Felix, warned by an Angel, came to help him. He   
   squeezed a cluster of grapes he found miraculously on a bush into the   
   Bishop's   
   mouth to give him some food. Then he carried the old man on his shoulders   
   back   
   home. When the Bishop died, Felix was elected to succeed him.   
      
   Note: According to several reputable sources known today, St. Felix was   
   chosen   
   to be a Bishop, but would have declined the Bishopric, indicating another   
   priest   
   to take that dignity. In such case, this part of The Golden Legend would be   
   historically imprecise, as the comments based on it.   
      
   One day when he was preaching and his persecutors were looking for him,   
   Felix   
   slipped through a narrow opening in the wall of a ruined house and hid   
   there. In   
   a trice, by God's command, spiders spun a web across the space. The   
   pursuers,   
   seeing the web, thought that no one could have gone through the opening, and   
   went on their way. Then Felix took refuge in another place and a widow   
   brought   
   him food for three months, but she never saw his face.   
      
   Finally peace was restored and he returned to his church, were he went to   
   his   
   final rest in the Lord. He was buried outside the city, in a place called   
   Pincis.   
      
   Felix had a brother also called Felix. When the persecutors tried to make   
   him   
   worship the idols, he said to then: "You are the enemies of your gods; if   
   you   
   take me to them, I will blow upon them as my brother did, and they will be   
   shattered."   
      
   Some pagans came to seize Felix but were stricken with intolerable pain in   
   their   
   hands. They howled with the pain, and Felix said to them: "Say 'Christ is   
   God'   
   and the pain will leave you." They said the words and were cured.   
      
   A priest of the old gods came to him and said: "Sir, my god saw you coming   
   and   
   took flight. I asked him why he fled, and he answered: 'I cannot bear this   
   Felix' holiness!' Therefore, if my god fears you so much, how much more   
   should I   
   fear you!" Felix then instructed him and he was baptized.   
   --From The Golden Legend by Blessed Jacobus of Voragine.   
      
      
   Comments of the late Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira: (died 1995)   
      
   Actually we have here a series of small charming facts that would furnish   
   matter   
   for comment for several evenings. I will summarize them.   
      
   Naturally, one is not obliged to believe these small stories. A person   
   overly   
   concerned about whether these facts really happened does not understand the   
   point of these legends. A legend is based on a truth that is disfigured or,   
   perhaps transfigured, by the pious imagination of the people. The lives of   
   the   
   saints often lack pieces of information in some points, which nonetheless   
   provide a few historical clues about what happened. The simple people who   
   admire   
   the saint then start to imagine what could have happened that would explain   
   those unexplained points in harmony with the saint's life. So, they form a   
   hypothesis.   
      
   This hypothesis is so beautiful that it spreads to others, who in turn   
   repeat it   
   over and over. It ends by being transmitted as a legend. It does not have   
   historical precision, but often it transmits an important part of the spirit   
   of   
   the saint.   
      
   Something like this happened with the lives of many saints, giving birth to   
   this   
   true masterpiece that is The Golden Legend by Jacobus of Voragine. In   
   addition   
   to their historical interest - which should not be disregarded - these   
   stories   
   have an extraordinary moral value and a great literary beauty.   
      
   Take for example the life of St. Felix of Nola. Because of his dedication,   
   he   
   took on the burden of a desperate situation. Maximus Bishop of Nola, a city   
   of   
   Italy, is fleeing a persecution of the Roman soldiers and falls to the   
   ground in   
   hunger and cold. The life of this unfortunate man crosses paths with St.   
   Felix'.   
   St. Felix goes to him, feeds him, warms him, brings him back to his home and   
   takes care of him, thus running the risk of being persecuted also. That is,   
   for   
   the love of Our Lord Jesus Christ and His Church, he took it upon himself to   
   shelter the one who was being persecuted. This is the moral profile of St.   
   Felix   
   that we find depicted in The Golden Legend, which perfectly fits the moral   
   profile of a saint.   
      
   How did the legend portray this episode? It paints St. Felix as being warned   
   by   
   an Angel that the Bishop needed his help. It is a beautiful scene. We can   
   imagine St. Felix praying at his place and suddenly, a splendorous Angel   
   appears   
   to him, causing St. Felix to marvel. Instead of giving him a pleasant task,   
   the   
   Angel gives him a difficult one: "The Bishop of Nola is in need and you must   
   go   
   and risk your life to find and save this Bishop." St. Felix accepts; he says   
   "yes" to the Angel as Our Lady did to St. Gabriel.   
      
   Then he goes out, finds the half-dead man, and realizes he has no provisions   
   to   
   give the sick man to restore him. A cluster of grapes appears miraculously   
   on a   
   bush and St. Felix squeezes it to give the poor Bishop some food. The Bishop   
   feels himself relieved not only by the juice of the grapes, but also by the   
   tenderness and care of the man who came to assist him. The selection is not   
   clear whether St. Maximus died soon afterward or later, but this is not what   
   matters here. Someone could ask whether those grapes actually existed as a   
   historical fact. I don't know if they existed or not. Perhaps they are   
   legend.   
   But I think that even if they were only legend, they would be more beautiful   
   for   
   having been born from a Catholic piety that thirsted for the marvelous than   
   if   
   they had actually appeared miraculously on that bush.   
      
   Then St. Felix takes that old Bishop upon his shoulders - we can see that he   
   was   
   a strong man - and carries him as one who carries a great treasure. He   
   brings   
   the Bishop back to his home, lays him in his bed, and takes care of him.   
      
   Then - either shortly afterward or some time later - St. Maximus goes to   
   Heaven.   
   The people gather to mourn the dead Bishop, and choose St. Felix as his   
   successor. Now he is no longer the one who assists the man who was   
   persecuted.   
   Rather, he inherits the cause of the persecution. He takes the cross of the   
   other and carries it on his own shoulders, just as he had carried the man   
   himself some time before. The first was persecuted because he was a Bishop;   
   the   
   second becomes a Bishop to be persecuted.   
      
   You can see that The Golden Legend is describing the high moral profile of   
   St.   
   Felix that corresponds to his actions. The essence of the legend must be   
   true.   
   The accidents of the Angel appearing and the miraculous grapes do not change   
   the   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)