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315 ST. PELICITAS 315 prison to be cured of blindness ; baptized by him ; stoned and beheaded with him. BM. St Felicitas (l), Nov. 23, and with her seven sons on their day, Jnly 10. Middle of 2nd century. Represented with seven boys. The Chronicle of Nnremborg represents her holding a large sword with seven heads impaled on the blade. She is invoked by persons anxious for male children. She was a noble Roman widow, mother of seven sons, whom she brought np in the Christian faith. They were tortured and put to death before her eyes, she exhorting them to look up to heaven, ^' whence they expected Christ and His saints." Januarius, the eldest, was scourged with thongs loaded with lead ; Felix and Philip were beaten with clnbs ; Sylvanus was thrown from a rock; ^exander, Yitalis, and Martial were beheaded. Felicitas was kept four months in a dungeon after the death of her sons, and was then beheaded, or, according to another account, thrown into boiling oil. B.M., Nov. 23. AA,S8. Mrs. Jameson (Cahier). Villegas and all the Collections. St. Felicitas (2), March 7. One of the most valuable records of the early Chnrch is the story of the martyrdom of SS. Pkrpetua and Felicitas. (See Perpetua.) Many martyrs of the name of Felicitas are mentioned in various calendars, and honoured on different days and in different places. When there is nothing to distinguish the particular saint, it may generally be inferred that the famous martyr is meant, and that the day and place are those on which some translation or dedication occurred, or some special blessing was attributed to her intercession. AA.SS. St. Felicitas (3), June 5, M. with Feuottla and twenty-one others on the Via Ardeatina, Rome. Smith and Wace, from St, Jerome*8 Mariyrology, St. Felicitas (4), March 8, M. in Africa with Herenia. B.M. St. Felicitas (6), Oct. 21, M. at Capua in the middle of the 3rd century. Smith and Wace. St Felicitas (6), June 3, M. at Rome. St. Felicitas (7), Feb. 17, M at Rome with many otners. St. Felicitas (8), Jan. 9. One of twenty-two martyrs in Africa. St. Felicitas (9), Jan. 10, M. in Africa. St. Felicitas (10), Jan. 13, M. in Africa. St. Felicitas (11), Feb. 3, with St. Felix and others in Africa. St. Felicitas (12), Jan. 11, M. in Spain. St. Felicitas (13), Sept. 2, M. at Rimini with her brother St. Peregrinus and others. SS. Felicitas (14 and 15), Feb. 1, two MM* with many others. St. Felicitas (16), March 13. (See Heremita.) St. Felicitas (17), Feb. 2. (See Cappa.) St. Felicitas (18), or Faustina, July 9, M. with Anatolla (3). St. Felicitas (19), July 5, M. with Perpetua and Agnes. AA.SS. St. Felicitas (20). 4- 420. One of St. Augustine's letters is addressed to "my very dear and very holy mother Felicitas, and to my brother Rusticus." This Felicitas is supposed to be the successor of his sister Perpetua as superior of his nuns at Hippo, and Rusticus is believed to be a priest who ministered to them. He exhorts them to preserve peace and unity in their establishment. There were divisions in the community soon afterwards. He then wrote a letter of reproof, and gave the nuns a rule, the only existing rule of his making, that for men of the Order being comparatively modern (Helyot, Ordres Monastiques, vol. iii.). Felicitas died at the age of eighty, ten years before Augustine. Torelli, Bistretto, calls her "Saint," and the "elder sister of St. Augustine," but Smith and Wace support the statement of Helyot. St. Felicitas (21), March 26. A nun at Padua. Her body was discovered about 1050 in the church of St. Justina, of Padua, by St. Bernard, the bishop, in a tomb bearing an inscription to the effect that she was an illustrious woman who dedicated herself to God with a sacred veil, and served Him day and