FELLER
34
FENEBERG
f)ope received them with the utmoet kindness and
odged them in his own palace. The project of found-
ing the order was considered in several solemn con-
claves of cardinals and prelates, and the pope after
fervent prayer decided that these holy men were in-
spired by tiod, and raised up for the good of the
Church. He solemnly confirmed their order, which he
named the Order of the Holy Trinity for the Redemp-
tion of Captives. The pope commissioned the Bishop
of Paris and the Abbot of St. Victor to draw up for the
institute a rule, which was confirmed by the pope, 17
December, 11 98. Felix returned to France to estab-
lish the order. He was received with great enthusiasm,
and King Philip Augustus authorized the institute in
France and fostered it by signal benefactions. Marga-
ret of Blois granted the order twenty acres of the wood
where Felix had built his first hermitage, and on al-
most the same spot he erected the famous monastery
of Cerfroi, the mother-house of the institute. Within
forty years the order possessed six hundred monas-
teries in almost every part of the world. St. Felix and
St. John of Matha were forced to part; the latter went
to Rome to found a house of the order, the church of
which, Santa Maria in Navicella, still stands on the
Caelian Hill. St. Felix remained in France to look
after the interests of the congregation. He founded a
house in Paris attached to the church of St. Maturinus,
which afterwards became famous under Robert (iu-
guin, master general of the order. Though the Bull
of his canonization is no longer extant, it is the con-
stant tradition of his institute that he was canonizetl
by Urban IV in 1262. Du Plessis tells us that his
feast was kept in the Diocese of Meaux in 1215. In
1666 Alexander VII declared nim a saint because of
immemorial cult. His feast was transferred to 20
November by Innocent XI in 1679.
Du Plessis, Hisl. de I'/glise dr il/pa i<j (Paris, 1731); Butler, Lives of tht- ^Saints; Acta SS,, 20 Nov.
Michael M. O'Ivane.
Feller, FRANfois-XAViER de, author and apologist, b. at Brussels 18 August, 1735; d. at Ratisbon 22 May, 1802. He received his primary scientific education in the Jesuit College at Luxemburg, studied philosophy and the exact sciences at Reims, 1752-54, after which he joined the Society of Jesus at Tournai. Appointed professor of humanities soon after, he edited the "Mus;e Leodienses" (Liege, 1761), a collection of Latin poems in two volumes composed by his pupils. Later he taught theology in various institutions of the order in Luxemburg and Tyrnau (Hungary). After the suppression of the order he was active as preacher in Liege and Luxemburg until, at the approach of the French army in 1794, he emigrated to Paderborn and joined the local college of the ex-Jesuits. After stay- ing there two years, he accepted the invitation of the Prince of Hohenlohe to come to Bavaria and join the court of the Prince-Bishop of Freising and Ratisbon, Joseph Konrad von Schroffenburg, with whom he re- mained, dividing his time between Freising, Ratisbon, and Berchtesgaden.
Feller was very amiable and talented, gifted with a prodigious memory, and combined diligent study with these abilities. His superiors had given him every opportunity during his travels of cultivating all the branches of science then known, and the wealth and diversity of his writings prove that he made good use of his advantages. All his writings attest his allegiance to the Jesuit Order and his un- tiring zeal for the Catholic religion and the Holy See.
Although he became prominent as a literary man only after the suppression of his order, he had pre- viously contributed articles of note to the periodical " La clef du cabinet des princes de I'Europe, ou recueil historique et politique sur les matieres du temps" (Luxemburg, 1760). During the years 1773-1794 he was the sole contributor to this journal, which com-
prised in all sixty volumes and was, from the first
mentioned date (1773), published under the title
"Journal historique et litteraire". Because he pub-
licly denounced the illegal and despotic attempts at
reform on the part of Joseph II, the journal was sup-
pressed in Austrian territory and was, consequently,
transplanted first to Liege and then to Maastricht.
Its principal articles were published separately as
" Melanges de politique, de morale chretienne et de
litt^rature" (Louvain, 1822), and as "Coursde morale
chretienne et de litt^rature religieuse" (Paris, 1826).
His next work of importance is entitled " Dictionnaire
historique, ou histoire abr^g^e de tons les hommes qui
se sont fait un nom par le genie, les talents, les vertus,
les erreurs, etc., depuis le commencement du monde
jusqu'a nos jours" (Augsburg, 1781-1784), 6 vols. He
shaped this work on the model of a similar one by
Chaudon without giving the latter due credit; he also
showed a certain aniiount of prejudice, for the most
part lauding the Jesuits as masters of science and
underrating others, especially those suspected of Jan-
senistic tendencies. This work was frequently re-
vised and republished, e.g. by Ecuy, Ganith, Henrion,
P^rennes, Simonin, Weiss, etc. ; from 1837 it appeared
under the title of " Biographic universelle ". His prin-
cipal work, which first appreared under the pen-name
"Flexierde Reval", is " Catechisme philosophique ou
recueil d'observations propres a defendre la religion
chretienne contre ses ennemis" (Liege, 1772). In his
treatise, " Jugement d'un ecrivain protestant tou-
chant le livre de Justinus Febronius" (Leipzig, 1770),
he attacked the tenets of that anti-papal writer.
Many of his works are only of contemporary interest.
Biographie Universelte, XIII, 505; Hurter, Nomenclator.
Patricius Schlauer.
Felton, Thomas. See Morton, Robert.
Feltre, Diocese of. See Belluno-Feltre, Dio- cese OP.
Feneberg, Johann Michael Nathanael, b. in Oberdorf, Allgau, Bavaria, 9 Feb., 1751; d. 12 Oct., 1812. He studied at Kaufbeuren and in the Jesuit gymnasium at Augsburg, and in 1770 entered the Society of Jesus, at Landsberg, Bavaria. When the Society was suppressed in 1773, he left the town, but continvied his studies, was ordained in 1775 and ap- pointed professor in the gymnasium of St. Paul at Ratisbon. From 1778-85 he held a modest benefice at Oberdorf and taught a private school ; in 1785 he was appointed professor of rhetoric and poetry at the gym- nasium of Dillingen, but was removed in 1793, to- gether with several other professors suspected of leanings towards lUuminism. A plan of studies drawn up by him for the gymnasium brought him many enemies also. He was next given the parish of Seeg, comprising some two thousand five hundred souls, and received as assistants the celebrated author Christoph Schmid, and X. Bayer. He was a model pastor in every respect. Within a short time he executed a chart of the eighty-five villages in his parish, and took a census of the entire district.
In the first year of his pastoral service he sustained severe injuries by a fall from his horse, which necessi- tated the amputation of one leg just below the knee. He bore the operation without an anjesthetic, and con- soled himself for the loss of the limb by saying: Non pedihiif:, sill ronli- ilHii/imun Deum (We love God not with our feet but with our hearts). Shortly after, his relations with the priest Martin Boos led him to be suspected of false mysticism. Boos had created such a sensation by his sermons that he was compelled to flee for safety. He took refuge at Seeg with Feneberg, who was a relation, and assisted him in parochial work for nearly a year. In the meantime he strove to con- vert or "awaken" Feneberg to the higher Christian life, the life t)f faith and love to the exclusion of good works. Boos's followers were called the Erweckten
