Felix of Nola

Who they were

Felix was born at Nola, near Naples, and lived in the third century. After his father died he gave nearly all he had to the poor and was ordained priest by Maximus, Bishop of Nola. In the persecution of Decius in 250 the bishop fled, and Felix was scourged, chained and imprisoned; the story says an angel freed him to go and help Maximus, whom he found close to death from cold and hunger, and that a spider's web over his hiding place later saved him from capture.

When the persecution ended he refused to become bishop and would not take back his confiscated estate, living instead on three rented acres that he farmed himself and giving the rest to the poor. He died in old age on 14 January, his feast day. Five churches were built in his honour near Nola, and St. Paulinus wrote of the many pilgrims to his tomb.

The miracles

There was never a formal cause: he has been honoured as a saint since before the Church's formal processes began.

Why that counted as sanctity

A priest of Nola who suffered in the persecution of Decius and lived and died poor.