The Latin Martyrdom of *Felix (bishop of Thibiuca, martyr in Italy or of Carthage, S02084), tells of his martyrdom under Diocletian; in one version he is martyred at Venosa, in another at Nola (both in southern Italy); in the latter version, his relics are returned to Carthage (central North Africa). Written in either Italy or North Africa, sometime during Late Antiquity.
E07390
Literary - Hagiographical - Accounts of martyrdom
Passio sancti Felicis episcopi et martyris Christi, qui passus est sub Diocletiano et Maximiano die III kalendas septembres.
This Martyrdom survives in the manuscript tradition in two different variants. Both start with essentially the same story:
The emperors Diocletian and Maximian order all the people to give up the holy books. The edict is published in Thibiuca on the Nones of June [3 June]. Felix, the bishop of Thibiuca is at the time in Carthage. In the meantime, the curator Magnilianus summons the presbyter Aper, and readers Cyrulus and Vitalis and interrogates them about the holy books.
When Felix returns from Carthage, he is interrogated and refuses to surrender the books. He is thrown into prison and sent to Carthage. There he is interrogated by the proconsul (or legate) Anulinus, who hands him over to the praetorian prefect on the Ides of July [15 July]. The prefect eventually orders Felix to be sent to the emperors.
In the Venosa version (Delehaye 1921, 247-52):
Felix is then sent off by sea to Italy, where he is taken first through Sicily and is greeted by the faithful of Agrigento, Catania, Taormina and Messina. Eventually he ends up at Venosa (ancient Venusium) in Apulia. There:
Et ductus est ad passionis locum - etiam ipsa hora luna in sanguinem est conversa - die tertio kalendas septembris.
'And so he was conducted to the place of his martyrdom, and at the same hour the moon was transformed into blood; on the third day before the Kalends of September [30 August]'
In the Nola version (Delehaye 1921, 252-9):
He is sent to Rome, and ends up at Nola (in Campania). There:
'Et conpleta oratione, ductus est a militibus ibidem in Nola et decollatus est die IV kl. aug. et apud Mediolanum corpus eius positum est et reliquie eius ad Africam per religiosos Dei servos et matris ecclesiae filios perlatae sunt et positae in vico qui dicitur Scillitanorum in Fausti. In eodem autem venerabili loco et multa mirabilia fiunt et languores universi curantur in nomine Domini Iesu Christi, cui est honor, gloria et potestas et imperium una cum sancto Spiritu in saecula saeculorum, amen.'
'After finishing the prayer, he was conducted by the soldiers to that place in Nola and was beheaded on the 4th day before the Kalends of August [28 July]. His body was placed in Milan, and his relics were taken to Africa by the religious servants of God and the sons of the Mother Church, and they were placed in [the basilica] of Faustus, on the street called of the Scillitans. Many miracles happen and all weaknesses are healed in that venerable place in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose is the honour, glory, and power, and might with the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.'
Text: Delahaye 1921.
Summary and translation: Stanisław Adamiak.
Saint’s feast
Cult PlacesCult building - independent (church)
MiraclesMiracle at martyrdom and death
Miracle after death
Healing diseases and disabilities
RelicsBodily relic - unspecified
Transfer, translation and deposition of relics
Transfer/presence of relics from distant countries
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Source
As we have seen above, there are two textual traditions of the Martyrdom, which diverge once Felix is taken to Carthage.In one of them, Felix is taken from Carthage to different places in Sicily, and then to the mainland of Italy, to Venosa in northern Apulia, where he is killed. In this version there is no mention of his burial.
According to the second version (which itself survives in two variant families of manuscripts) he is killed at Nola (close to Naples), from where at least some of his relics are returned to Carthage for burial in the basilica of Faustus, seemingly by way of Milan (though Delehaye plausibly points out that the name 'Mediolanum' could well be a scribal error).
On the basis of these two versions, Delehaye, created a text which attempts to reconstruct a lost African original Martyrdom of Felix (Delehaye 1921, 268-70): stripping out everything after the moment Felix is taken to Carthage and interrogated there, and assuming that the story of his relics ending up in the basilica of Faustus (as in the Nola version) is in fact a record of his burial in Carthage after martyrdom in the city.
With such a complicated textual history, it is impossible to say which version (Nola or Venosa) is the older, and whether Delehaye's plausible hypothesis - that both versions were elaborations of an African Martyrdom, with the intention of claiming Felix for two different places in Italy - is correct. Although it is probable that there was an earlier version of the Martyrdom, in which Felix was martyred in Africa, not Italy, this cannot be proven on the basis of the existing texts.
It is also very unclear when the different versions of this Martyrdom were composed.
Discussion
The events described in the Martyrdom occur soon after the publication of the edict of persecution in 303.The episcopal see of Felix is disputed, because the name appears in different forms in the various manuscripts. Delehaye (1921, 259-60) identified it as Thibiuca (modern Henchir Zouitina), west of Carthage, because several manuscripts give a name that is close to 'Thibiuca' and because Bede in his Martyrology records, in his record of Felix (E05610), that 'Tibiuca' is thirty-five miles from Carthage (which is approximately correct for Thibiuca, though it is unclear where Bede derived this information). Duncan-Jones (1974), however, subsequently argued that the see was probably another small Roman city, also around thirty-five miles from Carthage, whose name is unknown but which is known from inscriptions to have contained a prominent family, the Magniliani - the same rare name as that of the local official who first interrogated Felix and his clergy. On balance, Delehaye's choice of Thibiuca seems more probable than that of Duncan-Jones.
In the second family of manuscripts of the Nola version of the story, the date of martyrdom is changed from 28 July to 15 January, in order to assimilate Felix of Thibiuca with Felix of Nola (S00000), whose feast day is on 14 January.
The basilica of Faustus, where (according to the Nola version) Felix's relics ended up, was a well-known church in Carthage. Augustine pronounced some of his sermons there (Sermo 23 and 261), and it is mentioned by the African bishops in their letter to Pope John II in 535, as a place where many martyrs were buried (E07671); this is also confirmed by the Martyrologium Hieronymianum in its entry for 15 July (E04882). 15 July is the same date as that given by our Martyrdom for the audience of Felix before the proconsul in Carthage, and so the probable date of his death in Carthage (if we reject the history of his travel to Italy as a later interpolation). Felix is not, however, mentioned in the Hieronymianum amongst the African saints it lists as venerated in the basilica of Faustus on 15 July, though one of his possible companions (named however in only a few manuscripts), Ianuarius, seems to be.
Interestingly, Felix is also not mentioned anywhere in the Calendar of Carthage which probably dates from the early sixth century, where we would expect to find a Carthaginian martyr. Following Paul Monceaux, Y. Duval speculates that prominent cult of Felix in Africa may have started only after an entirely hypothetical (and somewhat implausible) transfer of his relics to Italy during the Vandal period (429-533), which led to the writing of the Venosa and Nola versions of his Martyrdom and to enhanced interest in the martyr in his native Africa, as well as more widely (Duval 1982: 729).
There is one inscription from Thibiuca which probably attests to the cult of Felix in the city (E07391).
'The street of the Scillitans' (where the basilica of Faustus was located according to the Nola version of the Martyrdom) was perhaps named after the martyrs of Scillium (of AD 180, the first known martyrs of North Africa), unless it was named after a community of living Scillitans.
Bibliography
Editions:Delehaye, H., "La passion de S. Félix de Thibiuca", Analecta Bollandiana 39 (1921), 241-276.
Maier, J.L., Le dossier du donatisme. I. Des origines à la mort de Constance II (303-361) (Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der Altchristlichen Literatur 134; Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1987), 46-57.
Translation:
Tilley, M.A., Donatist Martyr Stories: The Church in Conflict in Roman North Africa (Translated Texts for Historians 24; Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1996), 7-11. [Tilley's translation is of Delehaye's stripped-down hypothetical lost original text.]
Further reading:
Duncan-Jones, R., "An African saint and his interrogator," Journal of Theological Studies 25:1 (1974), 106-110.
Duval, Y., Loca sanctorum Africae: Le culte des martyrs en Afrique du IVe au VIIe siècle (Rome: École Française de Rome, 1982), vol. 2, 728-730.
Stanisław Adamiak
27/06/2019
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00913 | Scillitan Martyrs, martyrs in Carthage from Scillium | Uncertain | S02084 | Felix, bishop of Thibiuca, martyr in Italy or of Carthage | Felix | Certain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Stanisław Adamiak, Cult of Saints, E07390 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E07390