St Felix of Valois

Confessor (1127-1212)

Saint of the day November 20

St Felix of Valois:

Born in the French province of Valois, St Felix gave up his possessions as a young man and retired to a dense forest near Meaux, where he spent his life as a hermit. He was already 71 when St John of Matha, 33 year€ his junior, who came to his retreat, suggested the foundation of a religious Order for redeeming Christian captives from the Moors in Spain and North Africa. In obedience to a vision, the two saints set out for Rome in 1198, and after the matter had been considered in several solemn conclaves of Cardinals and Papal advisers, Pope Innocent III confirmed the “Order of the Holy Trinity for the Redemption of Captives”.

Returning to France, Felix was enthusiastically welcomed, and King Philip Augustus helped to establish the new Order at the site of St Felix’s hermitage, and from there the Trinitarians spread with amazing rapidity, so that within 40 years there were 600 monasteries established in all parts of the world. Felix remained in France, establishing the new Order there and in Italy while his co-founder, St John of Matha, travelled to Spain and Barbary. St Felix was never officially canonized but his cult was recognized by Pope Alexander VII in 1666.