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 FELICITAS

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FELICITAS

first outbreak of hostilities multitudes of Christians had openly apostatized, or resorted to the expedient of purchasing certificates from the venal officials, attest- ing their compliance with the emperor's edict. Besides this the custom of readmitting apostates to Christian fellowship, if they could show tickets from confessors or martyrs in their behalf, had resulted in widespread scandals.

While St. Cyprian was in exile he did not succeed in checking the revolt even though he wisely refrained from exconimunicating those who differed from him in regard to the treatment of the lapsi. After his return to Carthage (251) he convoked a synod of bishops, priests, and deacons, in which the sentence of excom- munication against FeUcissimus and the heads of the faction was reaffirmed, and in which definite rules were laid down regarding the manner of readmitting the lapsi. The sentence against Felicissimus and his followers did not deter them from appearing before another council, which was held in Carthage the follow- ing year, and demanding that the case be reopened. Their demand was refused, and they sought to profit by the division in the Roman Church which had arisen from similar causes, except that in this case the charge of laxity was levelled against the orthodox party. This proceeding and the fact that the Council of Car- thage had decided with so much moderation in regard to the lapsi, modifying as it did the rigoristic policy of Cyprian by a judicious compromise, soon detached from Felicissimus all his followers, and the schism disappeared.

MoNCEAUx, Hist. Liu. de VAfrimie Chrlt. (Paris, 1901 ),

II, 208 sq.; Leclercq, L'Afrique chrctienne (Paris, 1904), I, 175 sq.; Benson, Cyprian, His Life, His Times, His Work (London, 1897), 133-180; Idem in Diet. Christ. Biog., s. v.

Patrick J. Healy.

Felicitas, Saint, Martyr. — The earliest list of the Roman feasts of martyrs, known as the "Depositio Martyrum " and dating from the time of Pope Liberius, i. e. about the middle of the fourth century (Ruinart, Acta sincera, Ratisbon, p. 632), mentions seven mar- tyrs whose feast was kept on 10 July. Their remains had been deposited in four different catacombs, viz. in three cemeteries on the Via Salaria and in one on the Via Appia. Two of the martyrs, Felix and Philip, re- posed in the catacomb of Priscilla; Martial, Vitalis and Alexander, in the Cocmctcrium Jordanorum; Sil- anus (or Silvanus) in the catacomb of Maximus, and Januarius in that of Pra^textatus. To the name of Silanus is added the statement that his body was stolen liy the Novatians {hunc Silaniim martyrem Nova- tiani Jurati sunt). In the Acts of these martyrs, that certainly existed in the sixth century, since Gregory the Croat refers to them in his " Homiliaj super Evan- gclia" (Lib. I, hom. iii, in P. L., LXXVI, 1087), it is stated that all seven were sons of Felicitas, a noble Roman lady. According to these Acts Felicitas and her seven sons were imprisoned because of their Chris- tian Faith, at the instigation of pagan priests, during the reign of Emperor Antoninus. Before the prefect Pul)!ius they adhered firmly to their religion, and were delivered over to four judges, who condemned them to various modes of death. The division of the mar- tyrs among four judges corresponds to the four places of their burial. St. Felicitas herself was buried in the catacomb of Maximus on the Via Salaria, beside Silanus.

These Acts were regarded as genuine by Ruinart (op. cit., 72-74), and even distinguished modern archae- ologists have considered them, though not in their present form corresponding entirely to the original, yet in substance based on genuine contemporary rec- ords. Recent investigations of Fiihrer, however (see below), have shown this opinion to be hardly tenable. The earliest rccciisii)n of tlio.se Acts, edited by Ruinart, does not antedate tlie sixth century, and appears to be based not on a Roman, but on a Greek original.

Moreover, apart from the present form of the Acts, various details have been called in question. Thus, if Felicitas were really the mother of the seven martyrs honoured on 10 July, it is strange that her name does not appear in the well-known fourth-century Roman calendar. Her feast is first mentioned in tlie "Mar- tyrologium Hieronymianum", but on a different day (23 Nov.). It is, however, historically certain that she, as well as the seven martyrs called her sons in the Acts, suffered for the Christian Faith. From a very early date her feast was solemnly celebrated in the Roman Church on 23 November, for on that day Gregory the Great delivered a homily in the basilica that rose above her tomb. Her body then rested in the catacomb of Maximus; in that cemetery on the Via Salaria all Roman itineraries, or guides to the burial-places of martyrs, locate her burial-place, speci- fying that her tomb was in a church above this cata- comb (De Rossi, Roma sotterranea, I, 176-77), and that the body of her son Silanus was also there. The crypt where Felicitas was laid to rest was later en- larged into a subterranean chapel, and was redis- covered in 1SS5. A seventh-century fresco is yet visible on the rear wall of this chapel, representing in a group Felicitas and her seven sons, and overhead the figure of Christ bestowing upon them the eternal crown.

Certain historical references to St. Felicitas and her sons antedate the aforesaid Acts, e. g. a fifth-century sermon of St. Peter Chrysologus (Sermo cxxxiv, in P. L., LII, 565) and a metrical epitaph either written by Pope Damasus (d. 384) or composed shortly after his time and suggested by his poem in praise of the martyr: —

Discite quid meriti prsestet pro rege feriri;_ Femina non timuit gladium, cum natis obivit, Confessa Christum meruit per ssecula nomen. [Learn how meritorious it is to die for the King (Christ). This woman feared not the sword, Ijut per- ished with her sons. She confessed Christ and merited an eternal renown. — Ihm, Damasi Epigrammata (Leipzig, 1895), p. 45.] We possess, therefore, confir- mation for an ancient Roman tradition, independent of the Acts, to the effect that the Felicitas who reposed in the catacomb of Maximus, and whose feast the Roman Church commemorated 23 Nov., suffered martyrdom with her sons; it does not record, however, any details concerning these sons. It may be recalled that the tomb of St. Silanus, one of the seven martyrs (10 July), adjoined that of St. Felicitas and was likewise hon- oured; it is quite possible, therefore, that tradition soon identified the sons of St. Felicitas with the seven martyrs, and that this formed the basis for the extant Acts. The tomb of St. Januarius in the catacoml:) of Prsetextatus belongs to the end of the second century, to which period, therefore, the martyrdoms must be- long, proliably under Marcus Aurclius. If St. Felicitas did not suffer martyrdom on the same occasion we have no means of determining the time of her death. In an ancient Roman edifice near the ruins of the Baths of Titus there stood in early medieval times a chapel in honour of St. Felicitas. A faded painting in this chapel represents her with her sons just as in the above-mentioned fresco in her crypt. Her feast is celebrated 23 Nov.

Ruinart, Aeta sincera marlyntm (Ratisbon, 18.59), .72-74; Acta SS., July, III. 5-18; Bibliotheea haijiographica lalina, I, 429-30; Allard, Hisloire lies persecutions (2nd ed., Paris, 1892), I, 345-68; Auafc, Hisloire de.i persecutions de I'Eglise jvsgv'it la fin des Antonins (Paris, 1845), 345 sq^., 439 sqq.; Doulcet, Essai sur les rapports de VEglise chrctienne avec I'Etat romain pendant les trois premiers sitclcs (Paris. 1883), 187-217; Dn- FOURCQ, Gcsta Martt/rmn romains (Paris. 1900). I, 223-24; De Rossi. BMeUino di areheol. crist. (1884-85), 149-84; Fuhrer, Ein lieilrag zur Losiing der Felicilasfrage yreising, 1890); Idem, Zur Felicitasfrage (LeipziE. 1894); ROnstle, llagio- graphische Sludien iiber die Passio Felicilatis aim VII filiis (Paderhorn, 1894); Marucchi, La calacombc romanc (Home, 1903), 388-400.

J. P. lilRSCH.