Saint Felice lived in Nola during the Roman Empire, in a period when Christian Religion was developing and it was very opposed. Saint Felice became priest and in absence of the “Bishop” Massimo, he took the comand of the Church. On the fresco situated in the Basilica of Saint Stefano, you can see a scene where Felice saves the old bishop with a miraculous bunch of grapes.
When Massimo died, Felice refused to take his place favouring the priest Quinto, who had deserved priestly dignity seven days before him. Felice died on the 14th of
January in an unknown year of the 3rd century and he was buried in the necropolis of Nola called “Cimiterium”. Often our Saint is represented with the Palm of the martyrdom and it is called “Pincis” because at the beginning of V century a.C. a church was built titled to him near “domus Pinciana” in Rome. The lives of Paolino and Felice crossed after the death of Felice. The first Christians in fact started to pray on Felice’s Grave and to be buried near his remains. The testimonians of his life are provided by “Carmina Natalicia” wrote by Paolino.
Paolino was born in Bordeaux in the second part of IV century a.C., he was an aristocratic, intellectual, who loved writing. He married Terasia ,a rich nobile woman and he came to Italy, for the first time to administrate the lands of Campania. After the death of his child Celso, he felt in love with the Story of Saint Felice and decided to move to Cimitile, to convert, to give up all his riches and dedicate himself to poors and to charity with his wife Terasia. In the 409 a.C. he became bishop of Nola and thanks to his faith, he was able to escape from the Barbarians. Paolino made Felice’s Grave a place of cult. He restructured it and built up the Basilica Nova. To make the Sanctuary of Felice more practicable, he fixed the streets to access to the Sanctuary, and built a place to welcome pilgrims. Paolino died on the 22th June of 431 a.C. and he was buried near Saint Felice’s Grave. Nowadays Saint Paolino is remembered in Nola every year by the “Festa dei Gigli”.
The basilical complex of Cimitile currently includes seven buildings. The most important is the Basilica of Saint Felice, born after the deposition of Saint Felice. The grave was very simple and goes back to the III century a.C. When during the Empire it [...]
