Part 16 (2/2)

Peter, &c., (l. 6,) and of the very Jews, who were more sincere than the Arians, acknowledging that Christ called himself the natural Son of G.o.d. (John x. 31, &c. l. 7, n. 2, 3, p. 931.) The natural unity of the Father and Son, he demonstrates from that text, ”I and my Father are one,” and others, (l. 8,) and observes that both from the testimony of Christ in the holy scriptures, and from the faith of the church, we believe without doubting the Eucharist to be the true body and blood of Christ, (l. 8, n. 14, p. 955, 956.) He answers several objections from scripture, (l. 9,) and shows there was something in Christ (viz. the divine person, &c.) which did not suffer in his pa.s.sion, (l. 10.) Other objections he confutes, (l.

11,) and in his last book defends the eternity of the Son of G.o.d.

Between August in 358, and May in 359, St. Hilary, after he had been three years in banishment, and was still in Asia, published his book On Synods, to inform the Catholics in Gaul, Britain, and Germany, what judgment they ought to form of several synods, held lately in the East, chiefly by the Arians and Semi-Arians: a work of great use in the history of those times, and in which St. Hilary's prudence, humility, modesty, greatness of soul, constancy, invincible meekness, and love of peace, s.h.i.+ne forth. In this work he mollifies certain expressions of the Semi-Arians in their councils, because writing before the council of Rimini, he endeavored to gain them by this method, whereas he at other times severely condemned the same; as did also St. Athanasius, in his book on the same subject, and under the same t.i.tle, which he composed after the council of Rimini; and expressly to show the variations of those heretics. (See Coutant, vit. S. Hilar. p. c. ci. et praef. in S. Hilar. de Synodis, p. 1147.) Fifteen fragments of St. Hilary's history of the councils of Rimini and Seleucia furnish important materials for the history of Arianism, particularly of the council of Rimini. In his first book to the emperor Constantius, which he wrote in 355 or 356, he conjures that prince with tears to restore peace to the church, and leave the decision of ecclesiastical causes to its pastors. The excellent request which he presented to Constantius at Constantinople, in 360, is called his second book to that prince.

The third book ought to be styled, with Coutant, Against Constantius: for in it St. Hilary directs it to the Catholics, (n. 2 and 12) though he often uses an apostrophe to Constantius. The saint wrote it five years after the council of Milan, in 355, as he testifies; consequently in 360, after that prince had rejected his second request; but it was only published after the death of that emperor, in the following year, as is clear from St. Jerom: He says Constantius, by artifices and flattery, was a more dangerous persecutor than Nero and Decius: he tells him, ”Thou receivest the priests with a kiss, as Christ was betrayed by one: thou bowest thy head to receive their blessing, that thou mayest trample on their faith: thou entertainest them at thy table, as Judas went from table to betray his master.” Fleury (l. 14, n. 26) bids us observe, in these words, with what respect emperors then treated bishops. St.

Hilary in his elegant book against Auxentius, gives the catholics an account of his conferences with that heretic at Milan in 364.

14. In Ps. 64.

15. In Ps. 1, p. 19, 20.

16. Lib. 7, de Trinit. n. 4, p. 917.

17. Lib. 6, n. 37, 38, p. 904.

18. In Ps. 131, n. 4, p. 447, in cap. 16, Matt. n. 7, p. 690.

19. Lib. 11, de Trinit. n. 3.

20. Lib. 3, adv. Constant. n. 8, p. 1243, Ed. Ben.

21. This letter is commended by the most judicious critics, Baronius, Tillemont, Fleury, and Coutant, a monk of the congregation of St.

Maur, in his edition of the works of St. Hilary, and others. The style is not pompous, but adapted to the capacity of a girl of thirteen years of age.

22. Facta est fides temporum, potius quam evangellorum, l. 2, ad Const.

p. 1227. Tot nunc fides existere, quot voluntates, ib. Annuas atque menstruas de Deo fides decernimus, decretis poenitimusm poenitentes defendimus, defensos anathematizamus. ib. p. 1228.

23. Cointe Annal. Fr. ad ann. 538, n. 41, 42, 43.

24. L. de Gl. Conf. c. 2.

25. Alcuin, Hom. de S. Willibrodo.

26. Baillet, Vie de S. Hilaire.

27. Ap. Mab. a.n.a.l. t. 4, p. 644.

28. Aimion. l. 4, c. 17 & 33. Coutant, Vit. S. Hilar. p. cxxiv, cxxv, cxxix.

29. S. Hilar. in Matt. c. 18, v. i. p. 698.

30. 1 Cor. i. 17, & iii. 18. S. Hilar. l. 3, de Trin. n. 24, 25, pp.

822, 823.

31. 1 Par. xxix. 17.

32. Prov. iii. 32.

33. Prov. xi. 20.

34. 2 Cor. i. 12.

35. Eccles. i. 39.

36. Rom. viii. 7.

ST. FELIX OF NOLA, P. AND C.

IT is observed by the judicious Tillemont, with regard to the life of this saint, that we might doubt of its wonderful circ.u.mstances, were they not supported by the authority of a Paulinus; but that great miracles ought to be received with the greater veneration, when authorized by incontestable vouchers.

St. Felix was a native of Nola, a Roman colony in Campania, fourteen miles from Naples, where his father Hermias, who was by birth a Syrian, and had served in the army, had purchased an estate and settled himself.

He had two sons, Felix and Hermias, to whom at his death he left his patrimony. The younger sought preferment in the world among the lovers of vanity, by following the profession of arms, which at that time was the surest road to riches and honors. Felix, to become in effect what his name in Latin imported, that is, _happy_, resolved to follow no other standard than that of the king of kings, Jesus Christ. For this purpose, despising all earthly things, lest the love of them might entangle his soul, he distributed the better part of his substance among the poor, and was ordained Reader, Exorcist, and, lastly, Priest, by Maximus, the holy bishop of Nola; who, charmed with his sanct.i.ty and prudence, made him his princ.i.p.al support in these times of trouble, and designed him for his successor.[1]

In the year 250, the emperor Decius raised a b.l.o.o.d.y persecution against the church. Maximus, seeing himself princ.i.p.ally aimed at, retired into the deserts, not through the fear of death, which he desired, but rather not to tempt G.o.d by seeking it, and to preserve himself for the service of his flock. The persecutors not finding him, seized on Felix, who, in his absence, was very vigilant in the discharge of all his pastoral duties. The governor caused him to be scourged; then loaded with bolts and chains about his neck, hands, and legs, and cast into a dungeon, in which, as St. Prudentius informs us,[2] the floor was spread all over with potsherds and pieces of broken gla.s.s, so that there was no place free from them, on which the saint could either stand or lie. One night an angel appearing in great glory, filled the prison with a bright light, and bade St. Felix go and a.s.sist his bishop, who was in great distress. The confessor, seeing his chains fall off, and the doors open, followed his guide, and was conducted by heaven to the place where Maximus lay, almost perished with hunger and cold, speechless, and without sense: for, through anxiety for his flock, and the hards.h.i.+ps of his solitary retreat, he had suffered more than a martyrdom. Felix, not being able to bring him to himself, had recourse to prayer; and discovering thereupon a bunch of grapes within reach, he squeezed some of the juice into his mouth, which had the desired effect. The good bishop no sooner beheld his friend Felix, but he embraced him, and begged to be conveyed back to his church. The saint, taking him on his shoulders, carried him to his episcopal house in the city, before day appeared, where a pious ancient woman took care of him.[3]

Felix, with the blessing of his pastor, repaired secretly to his own lodgings, and there kept himself concealed, praying for the church without ceasing till peace was restored to it by the death of Decius, in the year 251. {148} He no sooner appeared again in public, but his zeal so exasperated the pagans that they came armed to apprehend him; but though they met him, they knew him not; they even asked him where Felix was, a question he did not think proper to give a direct answer to. The persecutors going a little further, perceived their mistake, and returned; but the saint in the mean time had stepped a little out of the way, and crept through a hole in a ruinous old wall, which was instantly closed up by spiders' webs. His enemies never imagining any thing could have lately pa.s.sed where they saw so close a spider's web, after a fruitless search elsewhere, returned in the evening without their prey.

Felix finding among the ruins, between two houses, an old well half dry, hid himself in it for six months; and received during that time wherewithal to subsist by means of a devout Christian woman. Peace being restored to the church by the death of the emperor, the saint quitted his retreat, and was received in the city as an angel sent from heaven.

Soon after, St. Maximus' dying, all were unanimous for electing Felix bishop; but he persuaded the people to make choice of Quintus, because the older priest of the two, having been ordained seven days before him.

Quintus, when bishop, always respected St. Felix as his father, and followed his advice in every particular. The remainder of the saint's estate having been confiscated in the persecution, he was advised to lay claim to it, as others had done, who thereby recovered what had been taken from them. His answer was, that in poverty he should be the more secure of possessing Christ.[4] He could not even be prevailed upon to accept what the rich offered him. He rented a little spot of barren land, not exceeding three acres, which he tilled with his own hands, in such manner as to receive his subsistence from it, and to have something left for alms. Whatever was bestowed on him, he gave it immediately to the poor. If he had two coats, he was sure to give them the better; and often exchanged his only one for the rags of some beggar. He died in a good old age, on the fourteenth of January, on which day the Martyrology, under the name of St. Jerom, and all others of later date mention him. Five churches have been built at, or near the place where he was first interred, which was without the precinct of the city of Nola. His precious remains are at present kept in the cathedral; but certain portions are at Rome, Benevento, and some other places. Pope Damasus, in a pilgrimage which he made from Rome to Nola, to the shrine of this saint, professes, in a short poem which he composed in acknowledgment, that he was miraculously cured of a distemper through his intercession.

St. Paulinus, a Roman senator in the fifth age, forty-six years after the death of St. Damasus, came from Spain to Nola, desirous of being porter in the church of St. Felix. He testifies that crowds of pilgrims came from Rome, from all other parts of Italy, and more distant countries, to visit his sepulchre on his festival: he adds, that all brought some present or other to his church, as wax-candles to burn at his tomb, precious ointments, costly ornaments, and such like; but that for his part, he offered to him the homage of his tongue, and himself, though an unworthy victim. [5] He everywhere expresses his devotion to this saint in the warmest and strongest terms, and believes that all the graces he received from heaven were conferred on him through the intercession of St. Felix. To him he addressed himself in all his necessities; by his prayers he begged grace in this life, and glory after {149} death.[6] He describes at large the holy pictures of the whole history of the Old Testament, which were hung up in the church of St. Felix, and which inflamed all who beheld them, and were as so many books that instructed the ignorant. We may read with pleasure the pious sentiments the sight of each gave St. Paulinus.[7] He relates a great number of miracles that were wrought at his tomb, as of persons cured of various distempers and delivered from dangers by his intercession, to several of which he was an eye-witness. He testifies that he himself had frequently experienced the most sensible effects of his patronage, and, by having recourse to him, had been speedily succored.[8] St. Austin also has given an account of many miracles performed at his shrine.[9]

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