ST FELIX OF BURGUNDY, BISHOP - 8 MARCH

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH

Saints celebrated on the 8th of March

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

ST FELIX OF BURGUNDY, BISHOP 

(Saint Felix, Bishop and Confessor.) St Felix was a holy Burgundian priest, who converted and baptised Sigebert, prince of the East-Angles, during his exile in France, whither he was forced to retire, to secure himself from the insidious practices of his relations. 

HE WAS ASKED FOR ASSISTANCE

Sigebert being called home to the crown of his ancestors, invited out of France his spiritual father St Felix, to assist him in bringing over his idolatrous subjects to the Christian faith; these were the inhabitants of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire. 

ST FELIX WAS SURPRISINGLY SUCCESSFUL IN THIS UNDERTAKING

Our saint being ordained bishop of Honorius, archbishop of Canterbury, and deputed by him to preach to the East-Angles, was surprisingly successful in his undertaking, and made almost a thorough conversion of that country. 

The most learned and most Christian king, Sigebert, as he is styled by Bede, concurred with him in all things, and founded churches, monasteries, and schools. From those words of Bede, that “he set up a school for youth, in which Felix furnished him with masters,” some have called him the founder of the university of Cambridge. 

SOME HAVE CALLED HIM THE FOUNDER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

St Felix established schools at Felixstowe; Cressy adds at Flixton or Felixton. King Sigebert, after two years, resigned his crown to Egric, his cousin, and became a monk at Cnobersburgh, now Burgh-Castle, in Suffolk, which monastery he had founded for St Fursey. 

HE WAS DRAGGED OUT OF HIS RETIREMENT

Four years after this, the people dragged him out of his retirement by main force, and conveyed him into the army, to defend them against the cruel King Penda, who had made war upon the East-Angles. 

HE REFUSED TO BEAR ARMS

He refused to bear arms, as inconsistent with theh monastic profession; and would have nothing but a wand in his hand. Being slain with Egric in 642, he was honoured as a martyr in the English calendars, on the September 27, and in the Gallican on August 7.

HE WAS BURIED AT DUNWICH

Egric was succeeded by the good King Annas, the father of many saints; as, SS. Erconwald, bishop; Ethelrede, Sexburga, Ethelburge and Edilburge, abbesses; and Withburge. He was slain fighting against the pagans, after a reign of nineteen years, and buried at Blitheburg: his remains were afterwards removed to St Edmond’s-bury. St Felix established his see at Dummoc, now Dunwich, in Suffolk, and governed it seventeen years, dying in 646. He was buried at Dunwich; but his relics were translated to the abbey of Ramsey, under King Canute.

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)