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.