De sanctis Felice et Adaucto
The Power of Faith Over Idols
Saint Felix demonstrates the vanity of pagan idols by destroying them through prayer and the power of his breath.
Felix the priest and his brother, who was also named Felix and was a priest, were offered to Diocletian and Maximian. When the older brother was taken to the temple of Serapis to offer a sacrifice, he blew into the face of the statue, and it fell immediately. When he was led in the same way to the statue of Mercury, he did the same, and the statue fell at once. He did the same a third time at the image of Diana. Therefore, he was tortured on the rack and led a fourth time to a sacrilegious tree to offer sacrifice there; he knelt and prayed, and by blowing on the tree, he uprooted it, and as the tree fell, it crushed the image along with the altar and the temple. When the prefect heard about this, he ordered him to be beheaded on the spot and left his body to the wolves and dogs.
The Crown of Adauctus
An unnamed man joins Felix in martyrdom and is named Adauctus, after which their remains are protected by divine intervention.
Then a man suddenly stepped forward and openly declared himself a Christian. Both of them kissed each other and were beheaded together on the spot. The Christians, not knowing his name, called him Adauctus, because he had been added to Saint Felix for the crown of martyrdom. When the Christians had buried them in the pit that the tree had made, the pagans wanted to dig them up but were immediately seized by the devil. They suffered around the year of our Lord 287.
Read the original Latin
Felix presbiter et frater suus, similiter nomine Felix et presbiter, Dyocletiano et Maximiano oblati sunt. Quorum senior cum ad templum Serapis, ut ibidem sacrificaret, adductus esset, iusufflavit in faciem statuae et prolinus cecidit. Ductus similiter ad statuam Mercurii pariter insufflavit et protinus statua cecidit, Ductus tertio ad simulacrum Dianae similiter fecit, Tortus igitur in equuleo ductus est quarto ad arborem sacrilegam, ut ibidem immolaret, qui flexis genibus oravit et in arborem sufflans eam a radice subvertit et simulacrum cum ara et templo arbore corruente contrivit. Quod cum praefectus audivisset, eum ibidem decollari praecepit et corpus ejus lupis et canibus dereliquit. Tunc quidam in medium repente prosiliens christianum se libere professus est. Ambo igitur se invicem osculantes ibidem insimul decollati sunt, christiani vero ejus nomen ignorantes eum Adauctum vocaverunt, eo quod sancto Felici auctus sit ad coronam martirii. Quos cum christiani in fovea, quam arbor effecerat, sepelivissent, pagani eos effodere volentes protinus a dyabolo sunt arrepti, Passi sunt circa annos domini CCLXXX VII.
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