Felix of Nantes

Saint Felix was bishop of Nantes in Gaul in the sixth century. He was born around 511 to 514 and fell asleep on 8 January 582 or 584, after more than thirty years as bishop. He is honoured as a saint in the Orthodox and the Catholic Churches.

Beginnings

Felix came from a noble family, the Nonnichii, with large estates in Aquitaine. He was born at Bourges and was the son of Eumerius, the fifteenth bishop of Nantes. He was married. According to some sources he was made bishop at thirty-⁠seven, in 551, while others give 548 or 549. The custom of the time required that on his consecration his wife part from him: she entered monastic life, and he was elected to the see.

Ministry

At his consecration he sold his property and gave the money to the poor. He completed the cathedral inside the city walls, begun before him by Bishop Eumerius. The poet Venantius Fortunatus, who counted him a friend, praised in a poem the cathedral of three naves, with great columns and a lofty dome, covered with tin outside and adorned within with mosaics and gold. Felix also organized works along the Loire that won land for farming.

He often mediated between the Bretons and the Frankish kings. Guerech II, count of Vannes, plundered the dioceses of Rennes and Vannes and repulsed the troops sent by King Chilperic against him. At the entreaties of Bishop Felix the count withdrew his forces and made peace. King Chlothar I entrusted him with the government of Nantes in 560. He took part in the councils of Paris, in 556 or 557, of Tours, in 567, where it was noted that some Gallo-⁠Roman customs of ancestor worship were still kept, and again of Paris in 573, helping to draw up the canons, which shows his zeal for the order of the Church.

He was known for virtue, eloquent speech and learning. Yet Saint Gregory of Tours, who bears witness to his holiness, once complained that the bishop of Nantes had unjustly accused him of favouring his nephew, and he was more than once displeased at Felix's wish to increase the already great wealth of his family.

Repose

Felix fell asleep on 8 January, at nearly seventy, after thirty-⁠three years as bishop. He was buried in the cathedral of Nantes. His cousin Nonnichius was elected to succeed him. He is commemorated on 8 January, and in the Roman Catholic calendar also on 7 July.