FAITHFUL. - The ancient Christians called fidelis (in Gk. πιστός) the one who had received the sacrament of Baptism, who had obtained the grace of Faith, "Fidem accepit" or "percepit"

FEDELE - Sepulchral inscription of Zosimus f., son of a faithful one (3rd century) - Rome, Christian Museum of the Lateran.
(Int. Enc. Cott.)

(E. Diehl, Inscriptiones Latinae Christianae veteres, Berlin 1924-31, no. 1529 A).

An inscription from Catania commemorates a certain Julia Florensia "pagana nata, fidelis facta" (ibid., no. 1549); one from the Lateran, on the other hand, mentions a Zosimus παντός ἐκπανσών, that is, f. born of Christian parents (O. Marucchi, Monumenti del Museo Cristiano Pio Lateranense, Milan 1910, pl. 57, no. 19). In the same Museum is preserved the inscription of a child, Apronianus, whose grandmother, who loved him so much, seeing him in danger of death, obtained from the Church that he might die as a f. "petivit de Ecclesia ut fidelis de saeculo recessisset".

The term is used sometimes, sporadically, in Rome, at Trier, in Spain; it is frequent at Aquileia, it is common in the Christian sepulchral epigraphy of Africa.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: H. Leclercq, Fidèle, in DACL, V, II, coll. 1586-92; E. Diehl, Inscriptiones Latinae Christianae veteres, I-III, Berlin 1924-31, see index.

Enrico Josi

@incollection{ec5_fedele, author = {Josi, Enrico}, title = {Fedele}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {V}, pages = {1106--1107}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1950}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/fedele} }

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Faithful

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