Saint/s of the Day – 30 August – Saints Felix Priest and Martyr and Saint Adauctus (Died c303) – both dying in c303 by beheading in Rome. Patronages – of Montecalvo Irpino, Italy and Felice del Benaco, Italy.
The Roman Martyrology reads today: “At Rome on the Ostian Way the Martyrdom of the blessed Priest, Felix, under the Emperor Diocletian and Maximian. After being racked, he was sentenced to death and as they led him to execution, he met a man who spontaneously declared himself a Christian and was, forthwith, beheaded with the holy Felix. The Christians, not knowing his name, called him Adauctus – the Latin word meaning “added to” because he was added to St Felix and shared his Crown.”
The Priest Felix, meaning the “happy one,” was apprehended in Rome at the beginning of the Diocletian persecution and underwent cruel tortures with admirable constancy.
Eventually he was condemned to beheading. En route to his place of execution, his coming martyrdom so excited a stranger that, the bystander was unable to contain himself. He cried out,
“I too follow and believe the same commandments which this man professes; I too confess the same Jesus Christ and, it is my desire to also lay down my life in this cause.”
The magistrates seized him when they heard this and the two were decapitated side by side.
Both were reverently buried in the Cemetery of Commodilla on the Ostian Way. Later Pope Saint Damasus had their Tomb restored and added the inscription below. Pope Saint Siricius added another Epitaph.
These Martyrs are commemorated in the Sacramentary of Saint Gregory the Great and many ancient calendars, including the Deposito Martyrum (354). Their Church in Rome, built over their graves, in the Catacomb of Commodilla, near the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls and restored by Pope Leo III, was discovered about three hundred years ago and again unearthed in 1905
“Felix, truly and rightly named, for you were happy to have confessed Christ and looked for the Kingdom of Heaven, despising the prince of this world and departing with your faith unimpaired.
Adauctus, too, another conqueror, reveals, my brothers, the most precious faith which hastened his journey to Heaven.” – The Inscription on the Tomb of Saints Felix and Adauctus.
The Artist, Carlo Innocenzo Carlone (1686–1775) painted The Glorification of Saints Felix and Adauctus (1759–1761), seen above. It was commissioned for the Cupola of the Church of San Felice del Benaco on Lake Garda (see the Church below) of which Town our Saints are the Patrons.
AnaStpaul 