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St. Felix of Cantalice (c. 1515 – 1587): A Saint of the Roman streets in Central European Context

Born in Cantalice on the north-western border of the Abruzzo (Lazio) around 1515, Felice Porro worked as a farm labourer and a shepherd in Cittaducale. Inspired by the lives of the desert fathers, he was drawn by the ideal of the solitary life and entered the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin in 1544. Having spent two years in various Capuchin monasteries, he went to Rome in 1547 where he remained until his death on May 18, 1587. As a lay brother in the Monastery of San Bonaventura in Rome, he begged for alms for his brothers and the poor―first only bread, later wine and oil as well. Felix, however, not only begged, but also provided spiritual and physical healing in the houses of the rich and the poor for forty years. He devoted his night to prayer and spiritual preparation for his daily service and meeting the citizens of Rome. Humbly, he thanked everyone with “thanks be to God”, so he came to be called Brother Deo Gratias (frate Deo gratias). The leaders of the Church asked this unlearned friar for spiritual advice: Charles Borromeo, Pope Sixtus V whose future papacy he predicted, or Philip Neri who proclaimed him the greatest living saint. Paragon of Capuchin holiness, Felix was canonized in 1712 and became the first saint of his Order. In tandem with the Church reform ushered in by the Council of Trent, Felix’s hagiography and iconography had a huge impact on the spiritual and visual identity of the Capuchin Order. This paper will elaborate on the process of the formation of the saint’s iconography to provide an insight into the mechanisms of dissemination of the veneration of Saint Felix beyond the Apennine Peninsula during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with particular emphasis on his visual representations throughout Central Europe.

Saint Felix of Cantalice, hagiography, iconography, Capuchin Reform, Central Europe

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