Felix, a priest of Rome, was condemned to be beheaded at the beginning of Dioclesian's persecution.
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August 30
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Felix, a priest of Rome, was condemned to be beheaded at the beginning of Dioclesian's persecution. On the way to execution a stranger cried out that he confessed the same Jesus Christ and wished to give his life too.
Both were beheaded together. The stranger's name was unknown, so the Christians called him Adauctus, 'the one added'. Butler gives about 303; Baring-Gould, the text on this page, gives about 304. The sources differ.
Thin entry · the 1897 book gives only 146 words. We have not filled the gap with invented detail.
TRoman Martyrology. Ado, Usuardus, and almost all Latin Martyrologies. Authority Mention in the Martyrologies, the ancient Acts, and a poem by Marbod of Rennes. ] AINT FELIX, a Roman priest, was taken in the persecution of Diocletian and condemned to lose his head.
Welcome guests and strangers. Hospitality shows up in this account.
Stay faithful when it costs you. This account is about holding firm under pressure.
Martyrs at Rome, 303, under Diocletian [Roman emperor 284–305, who began the ‘Great Persecution’ of Christians in 303] and Maximian [Diocletian’s co-emperor in the West, 286–305]. The Acts, first published in Ado's Martyrology, relate as follows: Felix, a Roman priest, and brother of another priest, also named Felix, being ordered to offer sacrifice to the gods, was brought by the prefect Dracus to the temples of Serapis, Mercury, and Diana. But at the prayer of the saint the idols fell shattered to the ground. He was then led to execution. On the way an unknown person joined him, professed himself a Christian, and also received the crown of martyrdom. The Christians gave him the name Adauctus (added). These Acts are considered a legendary embellishment of a misunderstood inscription by Pope Damasus. A Dracus cannot be found among the prefects of Rome; the other Felix of the legend is St. Felix of Nola; and Felix of Monte Pincio is the same Felix honoured on the Garden Hill. The brother is imaginary (Anal. Boll., XVI, 19-29). Their veneration, however, is very old; they are commemorated in the Sacramentary of Gregory the Great and in the ancient martyrologies. Their church in Rome, built over their graves, in the cemetery of Commodilla, on the Via Ostiensis, near the basilica of St. Paul, and restored by Leo III, was discovered about three hundred years ago and again unearthed in 1905 (Civiltà Catt., 1905, II, 608). Leo IV, about 850, is said to have given their relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor] to Irmengard, wife of Lothair I; she placed them in the abbey of canonesses at Eschau in Alsace. They were brought to the church of St. Stephen in Vienna in 1361. The heads are claimed by Anjou and Cologne. According to the "Chronicle of Andechs" (Donauwörth, 1877, p. 69), Henry, the last count, received the relics from Honorius III and brought them to the Abbey of Andechs. Their feast is kept on 30 August.
Stokes in Dict. Christ. Biog., s. v. Felix (217); Acta SS., Aug., VI, 545; Stadler, Heiligenlexicon, s.v.
TRoman Martyrology. Ado, Usuardus [a 9th-century monk of Paris who compiled a list of saints for each day], and almost all Latin Martyrologies. Authority Mention in the Martyrologies, the ancient Acts, and a poem by Marbod of Rennes. ] AINT FELIX, a Roman priest, was taken in the persecution of Diocletian [Roman emperor 284–305, who began the ‘Great Persecution’ of Christians in 303] and condemned to lose his head. As he was being led to execution he was met by a stranger, who, being a Christian, was so moved by the sight that he cried out with a loud voice, “ I also confess the same law as this man. I confess the same Jesus Christ; and I am ready to lay down my life in witness of these truths.” He was at once seized, led before the magistrate, hastily sentenced, and the martyrs were both beheaded together. The real name of the stranger was never ascertained. He was therefore called Adauctus, or one who had joined himself to the martyr Felix.
Feast: August 30
One short email a day for nine days. The day's prayer, a line from Sts. Felix and Adauctus's story, and a nudge to keep going.
From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain.
From “Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Sts. Felix and Adauctus,” The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907–1914), via Wikisource. Public domain. Matched by name and feast date; text unedited except for our bracketed notes in grey.
From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain in the United States. Reproduced unedited, except for short bracketed notes in grey that we added to explain names and terms (“S.” is the old abbreviation for Saint). Some history and judgments reflect 19th-century scholarship.
