Saint of the Day – 26 March – St Felix (Died c400) Bishop of Trier, Germany, Consecrated by St Martin of Tours. Died in c400. We know that St Felix brought the Relics of St Paulinus of Trier back from Phrygia, where he had died in exile and built a Church to house them.
The Roman Martyrology reads today: “At Treves, the Bishop St Felix.”
In the list of Bishops of the Diocese of Trier, he appears in eleventh place after Saint Brittone or Britto and before Maurice II.
We know little about him. Tradition reports that he was Consecrated as the Bishop in 386, by Saint Martin of Tours, his friend. But since this Consecration was made with the agreement of the usurper Emperor, the Holy See did not recognise the legality of the appointment, even if it considered it valid.
His Episcopate was also marked by the trial of Priscillian and his followers and their subsequent execution for heresy and witchcraft which can be seen as the first inquisitorial action in the Church.
In 538, Felix, accused of not having campaigned vigorously enough against that verdict, for reasons of peace, after the Synod of Turin, renounced the appointment as Bishop by abdicating.
Some of his contemporaries, including Saint Sulplice Sévère, praised his virtues.
Saint Felix is believed to have died around the year 400.
His Feastday was set for today, 26 March.
AnaStpaul 