Felix of Rhuys

Venerable Felix was a Breton hermit and abbot, a Benedictine monk, who rebuilt the monastery of Saint-⁠Gildas-⁠de-⁠Rhuys. He was born around 970 at Quimper and departed to the Lord on 4 March 1038. He is venerated in the Western tradition and commemorated on 4 March.

He was born of wealthy parents. He held in great regard Saint Paul Aurelian, who had built a monastery at Lampoul on the island of Ushant and whose relics had been moved, around 960, to Fleury Abbey. Felix became a hermit on Ushant. In the time of the Norman invasions he left his hermitage and took refuge at Fleury, at Saint-⁠Benoît-⁠sur-⁠Loire, where he was welcomed by Abbo of Fleury.

Geoffrey I, Duke of Brittany, asked the abbot of Fleury to rebuild the abbey of Rhuys, founded by Saint Gildas in the sixth century on the Gulf of Morbihan and destroyed by the Normans. The abbot entrusted the work to Felix. The old abbey had been built of wood, on the remains of a Roman fortified settlement. Felix built in stone. The work began in 1008 and ended in 1032, with the consecration of the church by Judicaël, bishop of Vannes and brother of the duke.