at prayer

St. Felix
Sant Feliu Church. Gerona.
Feast Day 1 August: Llubi.
Martyr. 304.

It is difficult to distinguish fact from legend. He was born of good family in Carthage and studied in Caesarea where he was baptised as a Christian. During the persecution of the Christians by Diocletianus at the end of the third century, he left Africa and travelled to Spain with St Cucuphas, the latter going to Barcelona and Felix to Gerona.

There he converted so many heathens that his activities soon attracted the attention of the authorities and he was thrown into prison. As he refused to recant, he was tortured, although he was saved from death by angelic intervention several times.

On one occasion, he was thrown into the sea with a millstone attached to his neck and a gentle breeze guided him back to shore. Eventually, he was flayed alive with iron hooks and died on the same day, in the same year, as his fellow missionary St Cucuphas.

The sarcophagus of the saint, in St Feliu Church, dating from the fourth century, indicates that by then the Christian community was entrenched and powerful as the marbles it is made from are of the finest quality and were worked in Rome.

Spain became a Catholic nation in 589 when the Spanish king, Recaredo I and all his court, converted to Christianity. Subsequently, the king travelled to Gerona to offer a gold crown at the tomb of the Spanish saint.