Jesus and Felix, Regula, Exuperantius
Zürcher Veilchenmeister
1506, Schweizerisches Nationalmuseum, Zürich
Unlucky in life
The name on its own ought to bring good luck: after all, Felix means "happy" in Latin. It was the name the Romans gave to those were destined for a fortunate life. That may well be why Felix is still a popular name for boys nowadays. But luck was not on the side of the Felix after whom our hotel(*) is named. During his lifetime, he was anything but fortunate: Felix did not rise to fame as Zurich's patron saint until after his death – only after he and his sister Regula were tortured and beheaded beside the river Limmat. That was almost 2,000 years ago.
Let us travel back in time to the early years of the fourth century of the Christian era. The Roman Empire stretched far beyond Europe, around the Mare Nostrum – from Morocco, across ancient Egypt and as far as what is now Turkey. The siblings Felix and Regula, two young Egyptians, were serving as legionaries in the Roman army. They were Christians, baptised and devout: they belonged to a religious minority whose adherents were mercilessly persecuted by the Emperor Maximian. Legend has it that they were members of the Theban Legion, an exclusively Christian army unit. During a battle in Gaul, the legionaries refused to slay their Christian brothers and instead, they set about missionising their opponents on the battlefield. The Roman potentates saw this as a threat to discipline in the army, and to Rome's authority in the provinces. This was the era of the persecution of Christians and even in the Theban Legion, religious dissenters were summarily executed.
ESCAPE TO TURICUM
However, Felix and Regula managed to escape, together with their servant Exuperiantius. After traversing the Furka pass and the mountains of Uri, they arrived in the Glarnerland and eventually reached Turicum, as Zurich was called back then. They led a monastic life of fasting and prayer here. But it was not long before news of these evangelising Christian aliens reached the ears of Decius, the Roman governor of Turicum. The ruler demanded that the trio cease their missionary activities forthwith – but the siblings and their servant would not be dissuaded from proclaiming the word of Jesus. Decius resorted to torture in an attempt to force Felix and Regula to worship Jupiter and Mercury, the Roman gods. And when his efforts proved fruitless, he had the three of them beheaded without further ado.
However, Felix, Regula and Exuperiantius owe their posthumous careers as the city's patron saints not so much to their gruesome deaths, but rather to a legend which recounts how angels carried the bodies of the decapitated victims – holding their heads in their hands – for a distance of forty steps up a hill to the place where the Grossmünster church stands today. The oldest evidence of the development of this legend dates back to the eighth century and is to be found in the Abbey Library of St. Gallen. Exuperiantius, the third figure, was only added in the 13th century.
VENERATED AS SAINTS
The formation of legends based on the Christian martyrs probably served to stabilise religion in the strictly Catholic Middle Ages. Felix and Regula were venerated as saints in those times, and the sites of their execution and burial became places of pilgrimage. In the 14th century, Felix and Regula were omnipresent: on coins and seals, altarpieces and church windows. And even today, they maintain an official presence: the city's headless patron saints still adorn the seal of the Canton of Zurich. This veneration of saints was only brought to an end by the Reformation, when visual depictions of saints were banned.