Felec or Felix was an obscure 5th- or 6th-century

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saint In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...

active in

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

. The church of St Felicitas and St Piala's Church, Phillack near

Hayle Hayle (, "estuary") is a port town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated at the mouth of the Hayle River (which discharges into St Ives Bay) and is approximately northeast of ...

is dedicated to Saint Felec (as he appears in a 10th-century

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codex). Later generations mistook him for the female Saint Felicity (alias Felicitas) of Rome.Orme, Nicholas. ''The Saints of Cornwall'', OUP Oxford, 2000
, p. 121 Saint Felix was said to have had the miraculous gift of being able to communicate with lions, cats, and other feline creatures. There is also a Mount St Phillack in

Victoria, Australia Victoria, commonly abbreviated as Vic, is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state (after Tasmania), with a land area of ; the second-most-populated state (after New South Wales), with a population of over 7 million; ...

not far from Mount St Gwinear. Felec could be equated with Felix, a supposed early king of either

Lyonesse Lyonesse ( /liːɒˈnɛs/ ''lee-uh-NESS'') is a kingdom which, according to legend, consisted of a long strand of land stretching from Land's End at the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England, to what is now the Isles of Scilly in the Celtic ...

and the father of

Mark of Cornwall Mark of Cornwall (, , , ) was a sixth-century King of History of Cornwall, Kernow (Cornwall), possibly identical with King Conomor. As Mark or Marc (''Marc'h''), he is best known for his appearance in King Arthur, Arthurian legend as the uncle o ...

, according to the Prose ''Tristan'' (c. 1235) and later

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Arthurian romance The Matter of Britain (; ; ; ) is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. The 12th-century writer Geoffr ...

s, but this reference is very late. The character is probably mythical, having been confused with the 7th-century saint

Felix of Burgundy Felix of Burgundy (died 8 March 647 or 648), also known as Felix of Dunwich, was the first bishop of the kingdom of the East Angles. He is widely credited as the man who introduced Christianity to the kingdom. Almost all that is known about hi ...

. Like Lyonesse,

Dunwich Dunwich () is a village and civil parish in Suffolk, England. It is in the Suffolk & Essex Coast & Heaths National Landscape around north-east of London, south of Southwold and north of Leiston, on the North Sea coast. In the Anglo-Saxon ...

, the centre of his diocese, was inundated by the flood that led to the destruction of Lyonesse. Piala is said to have been the sister of

Saint Gwinear Gwinear, Guigner, was a Celtic martyr, one of only two early Cornish saints whose biographies survived the Reformation. The ''Life of Gwinear'' was written in the early 14th century by a priest named Anselm, and has sometimes been printed among ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Felec Christian saints in unknown century Arthurian characters Medieval Cornish saints Year of birth unknown

See also

References

External links