The most illustrious among the bishops of Nantes was saint Felix,
a person of the first rank in Aquitain, some say of Bourges in the
First Aquitain; others more probably think of the Second Aquitain
on the sea-coast and nearer Brittany. In the world he was more
illustrious by his virtue, his eloquence, and learning, than by his
dignities and high birth. The Greek language was as familiar to him
as his own; he was a poet and orator, and seems from Fortunatus’s
expression to have written a panegyric on the queen St. Radegundes
in verse. He had been married when he was called to succeed Evemer,
the holy bishop of Nantes, toward the close of the year 549, in
the 37th year of his age. His zeal for discipline and good order
appeared in the regulations he made for his own diocess, and in the
decrees of the third council of Paris in 557, in the second of Tours
in 566, and the fourth of Paris in 573. His charity to the poor had
no other bounds but those of their necessities, and considering
that the revenues of the Church were the patrimony of the poor, he
reserved to himself only the prudent and troublesome administration
of them for their use. He sold for them and the Church his own
patrimony, and made it his study and earnest endeavor that no one
in his diocess should pass unrelieved in distress. His predecessor
had formed a project of building a cathedral within the walls of the
city of Nantes, which Felix executed in the most magnificent manner.
Fortunatus describes it to have been composed of three naves, of
which the middle was supported by great pillars. A great cupola was
raised in the middle. The church was covered with tin, and within was
only azure, gold, mosaic, paintings, pilasters, foliages, various
figures, and other ornaments. Euphronius archbishop of Tours, and the
bishops of Angers, Mans, Rennes, Poitiers, and Angouleme performed
the dedication; no bishop of the Britons was invited to the ceremony;
for which it appears that their commerce with the French was not
entirely free. The Britons were then possessed of no lands in the
diocess of Nantes except the territory of Croisic, in which was the
palace of Aula Quiriaca or Guerrande, vulgarly Warand, probably so
called from Guerech I. the British count of Vannes, who resided
there. Canao, one of his successors, when Felix was made bishop, had
put to death three of his brothers, and held a fourth named Macliau
in prison. St. Felix by his intercession saved his life, and obtained
his liberty. St. Gregory of Tours complains that bishop Felix had
been prepossessed by false informations against Peter, Gregory’s
brother, and accused him of favoring an unworthy nephew; but in
other places bears testimony to his eminent sanctity, which is much
extolled by Fortunatus and others. Guerech II. count of Vannes,
plundered the diocesses of Rennes and Vannes, and repulsed the troops
which king Chilperic sent against him; but, at the entreaties of St.
Felix, withdrew his forces, and made peace. The holy prelate died on
the 8th of January in 584, the seventieth year of his age, of his
episcopal dignity thirty-three.
He is honored at Nantes, of which he was the sixteenth bishop from
St. Clair, on the 7th of July, the day of the translation of his
relics. See Fortunatus, l. 3, c. 4, 5, 6, 7. St. Gregory of Tours,
l. 5, c. 5. Ceillier, t. 16, p. 562. M. Travers, Histoire abrégée
des Evêques de Nantes, tome 7, part 2, des Mémoires de Littérature
recueillis par P. Desmolets de l’Oratoire. Stilting the Bollandist,
t. 2, Jul. p. 470. Lobineau, Vies des SS. de Bretagne, p. 121.