medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (14. January) is the feast day of:
Felix of Nola (??). Our information concerning the life of today's less well known saint of the Regno comes from the writings of that later fourth-/early fifth-century Burdigalan retiree in Campania, Pontius Meropius Paulinus (a.k.a. St. Paulinus of Nola). As governor of Campania, P. had taken part in local veneration of this saint in 381. In 394 he left government service and was ordained priest at Barcelona; in the following year he and his wife Therasia returned to their estates in Campania, where they established a monastery at today's Cimitile on the outskirts of Nola and, as Catherine Conybeare puts it (_Paulinus Noster. Self and Symbols in the Letters of Paulinus of Nola_ [Oxford University Press, 2001], p. 5), "more or less reinvent[ed] the cult of Saint Felix."
P.'s promotion of F. included erecting a small basilica over his tomb at Cimitile and his annual writing and public reading of a poem in F.'s honor on the latter's _dies natalis_. We have fourteen of these _Natalicia_ from P.'s pen. They tell us that F., the son of a wealthy Syrian immigrant, became a priest at Nola, suffered during a persecution when he was acting the place of the bishop of Nola, survived, declined election to that post after the incumbent's death, and spent his final years in poverty and toil. Guesses vary as to whether the persecution were that of Decius or of Diocletian. Because of his suffering, F. was considered a martyr. Gregory of Tours ends his _In gloria martyrum_ with a consideration of him.
F. is the patron saint of Cimitile and of nearby Pomigliano d'Arco (NA). His cult spread elsewhere in Italy, e.g. to today's San Felice (SI) in Tuscany, where it is documented from the eighth century onward. But his major center was always at Cimitile, an important late antique and early medieval pilgrimage center. A brief, illustrated, English-language discussion is here, s.v. "Nola":
http://individual.utoronto.ca/hayes/earlychurch/11saints.htm
Views of the ancient parts of this site's Basilica di San Felice in Pincis showing some of the surrounding structure as well:
http://www.napoligold.com/coast/napolisud/soggetto/de24067.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/vkvao
http://www.fondazionepremiocimitile.it/img/02.jpg
A view of F.'s tomb (plus two other views of San Felice) is here:
http://xoomer.virgilio.it/panorami/cimitile.html
More views (but the last one is of the apse in Santo Stefano):
http://www.ganapoletano.it/foto10.htm
Apse and belltower (Paulinus is traditionally credited with having introduced the use of church bells):
http://www.fondazionepremiocimitile.it/img/05.jpg
Better view (old postcard) of the belltower:
http://www.fondazionepremiocimitile.it/img/basilica1.jpg
Best,
John Dillon
Views of San Felice's belltower are here:
http://xoomer.virgilio.it/panorami/cartellina/197.jpg
http://www.meridies-nola.org/cimitile/campanile.jpg
Paulinus of Nola is said to have introduced the use of bells for
Christian worship. Hence this tower has a certain fame.
For the early development of the complex at Cimitile see some of the
articles (esp. that by Dieter Korol) in Gennaro Luongo, ed., Anchora
vitae. _Atti del II Convegno paoliniano nel XVI centenario del ritiro
di Paolino a Nola (Nola-Cimitile 18-20 maggio 1995)_ (Napoli, Roma:
LER, 1998) and, more recently, Hugo Brandenburg and Letizia Ermini
Pani, eds., _Cimitile e Paolino di Nola: la tomba di S. Felice e il
centro di pellegrinaggio: trent'anni di ricerche. Atti della giornata
tematica dei Seminari di archeologia cristiana, Ecole française de
Rome, 9 marzo 2000_ (Città del Vaticano: Pontificio istituto di
archeologia cristiana, 2003; = Sussidi allo studio delle antichità
cristiane; no. 15).
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