medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Thursday, January 13, 2005, at 9:27 pm, Phyllis wrote:
> Today (14. January) is the feast day of:
> Felix of Nola (d. c. 260) We know quite a lot about Felix because
> the much more famous and highly literary Paulinus of Nola was very
> devoted to F's cult. He tells that Felix was born at Nola (near
> Naples) and on his father's death gave everything he had to the poor.
> He was imprisoned during the Decian persecution---but released by an
> angel. Later F. was unanimously elected as bishop but refused. His
> tomb was famous for miracles.
We know quite lot about what Paulinus of Nola said about Felix because
we have Paulinus' poems about him. But to say that we therefore know a
lot about Felix requires several leaps of faith (or acts of wishful
thinking, or professions of credulity -- take your pick). Modern
scholarly readers of P. take it for granted that P.'s account
elaborates hagiographically on whatever information he had received
locally about F.: the release from prison by an angel (a hagiographic
topos deriving from Peter's angelically operated release from prison in
the _Acts of the Apostles_) is a case in point. So not all the
information that P. provides can be taken taken literally, and beyond
that it is difficult to know precisely what the tradition was that P.
inherited, to what extent that tradition was either reliable or
uniform, and to what extent P. may have deviated from it in ways that
are not now apparent. For one approach to this problem, see Serafino
Prete, "Paolino agiografo: gli atti di S. Felice di Nola (_carm._ 15-
16)," in _Atti del Convegno: XXXI Cinquantenario della morte di S.
Paolino di Nola (431-1981), Nola, 20-21 marzo 1982 (Roma: Herder,
n.d.), pp. 149-59.
Views of the tomb of Felix and other details from his basilica at
Cimitile (outside of Nola) are here:
http://www.meridies-nola.org/cimitile/cimitile_ft.htm
http://xoomer.virgilio.it/panorami/cimitile.html
http://tinyurl.com/6gbbt
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).
Best,
John Dillon
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