Nabor and Felix

Saints Nabor and Felix, martyrs, were Roman soldiers killed around 303, in the persecution of Diocletian, at Milan, where their relics are kept. They are commemorated on 12 July.

The reports about them are drawn from the Acts of the martyrs from the end of the fourth century; nothing older has survived, as is true of many saints of antiquity. According to these Acts, Nabor and Felix were Roman soldiers, from Mauretania, put to the sword for the Christian faith at Mediolanum, in the persecution of Diocletian. In the fourth century Ambrose of Milan moved their relics from the cemetery by the city walls into one of the newly built churches. The move is recorded by Paulinus, the biographer of Ambrose. In 1158 Frederick Barbarossa, on taking Milan, gave a part of the relics of Nabor and Felix to his chancellor, Rainald of Dassel, who carried them to Cologne, where they were placed in the cathedral.

In 1969 the names of Nabor and Felix were removed from the new liturgical calendar of the Church of Rome, but services in their honor may be celebrated at the decision of a diocese or a parish. The Catholic Church commemorated them on 12 July, by the calendar before the reform.