secure of possessing Christ.[4] He could not even be prevailed upon to
accept what the rich offered him. He rented a little spot of barren
land, not exceeding three acres, which he tilled with his own hands, in
such manner as to receive his subsistence from it, and to have something
left for alms. Whatever was bestowed on him, he gave it immediately to
the poor. If he had two coats, he was sure to give them the better; and
often exchanged his only one for the rags of some beggar. He died in a
good old age, on the fourteenth of January, on which day the
Martyrology, under the name of St. Jerom, and all others of later date
mention him. Five churches have been built at, or near the place where
he was first interred, which was without the precinct of the city of
Nola. His precious remains are at present kept in the cathedral; but
certain portions are at Rome, Benevento, and some other places. Pope
Damasus, in a pilgrimage which he made from Rome to Nola, to the shrine
of this saint, professes, in a short poem which he composed in
acknowledgment, that he was miraculously cured of a distemper through
his intercession.

St. Paulinus, a Roman senator in the fifth age, forty-six years after
the death of St. Damasus, came from Spain to Nola, desirous of being
porter in the church of St. Felix. He testifies that crowds of pilgrims
came from Rome, from all other parts of Italy, and more distant
countries, to visit his sepulchre on his festival: he adds, that all
brought some present or other to his church, as wax-candles to burn at
his tomb, precious ointments, costly ornaments, and such like; but that
for his part, he offered to him the homage of his tongue, and himself,
though an unworthy victim. [5] He everywhere expresses his devotion to
this saint in the warmest and strongest terms, and believes that all the
graces he received from heaven were conferred on him through the
intercession of St. Felix. To him he addressed himself in all his
necessities; by his prayers he begged grace in this life, and glory
after {149} death.[6] He describes at large the holy pictures of the
whole history of the Old Testament, which were hung up in the church of
St. Felix, and which inflamed all who beheld them, and were as so many
books that instructed the ignorant. We may read with pleasure the pious
sentiments the sight of each gave St. Paulinus.[7] He relates a great
number of miracles that were wrought at his tomb, as of persons cured of
v