Saint Felix of Valois

Felix of Valois, OSsT (French: Félix de Valois; (April 16, 1127 – November 4, 1212) was a French Catholic former Cistercian hermit and a co-founder (with John of Matha) of the Trinitarian Order. Butler says that Felix was born in 1127. He was surnamed Valois because he was a native of the province of Valois. Tradition holds that he renounced his possessions and retired to a dense forest in the Diocese of Meaux, where he gave himself to prayer and contemplation. Much later sources sometimes identify him with Hugh (II), supposed son of Ralph I, Count of Vermandois by Eleanor of Champagne. John of Matha, a young nobleman, a native of Provence, and doctor of divinity, who was later ordained priest, having heard of the holy hermit of Cerfroid, sought him out, and put himself under his direction. John proposed to him the project of founding an order for the redemption of captives. Felix, though seventy years of age, readily agreed. Felix and John set out for Rome in the depth of winter and arrived there in January 1198, the beginning of the pontificate of Innocent III. They had letters of recommendation from the Bishop of Paris, and the new pope received them with kindness and lodged them in his palace. Though little in favor of new orders, Innocent III granted approval to this enterprise in a Bull of 17 December 1198, under the named of the Order of the Holy Trinity for the Redemption of Captives. Innocent appointed John of Matha superior-general and commissioned the Bishop of Paris and the Abbot of Saint Victor to draw up for the institute a rule, which he subsequently confirmed. Felix returned to France to establish the Order. He was received with great enthusiasm, and King Philip Augustus authorized the institute in France and fostered it by signal benefactions. Margaret of Blois donated 20 acres (81,000 m2) of the wood where Felix had built his first hermitage, and on almost the same spot he erected the famous Monastery of Brumetz, the motherhouse of the Order.