FELIŃSKI, ZYGMUNT FELIX. – Archbishop of Warsaw, born on 6 October 1822 at Wojutyn (Volhynia), died in 1895 at Krakow. In 1851 he entered the Seminary of Zitomir, from which he proceeded to the Ecclesiastical Academy of St Petersburg. Ordained a priest in 1855, he became vicar of the church of St Catherine in the tsarist capital.
He succeeded in gaining the trust and esteem of all the Catholics residing there, and Pius IX, also acceding to the wishes of the Russian government, preconized him in 1862 as archbishop of Warsaw. F. soon found himself in a difficult position, because the Poles regarded him as a creature of the Russian government, while the Russians by no means approved of his open opposition to every measure that in any way infringed the rights of Catholics. On the other hand, the archbishop was sincerely attached to his homeland, and during the revolutionary uprisings of 1863 he addressed a letter to Emperor Alexander II, in which he clearly expressed the necessity of granting Poland independence, even if in the form of a personal union with Russia. After this, the tsarist government ordered him to leave the diocese immediately.
(from G. B. De Rossi, in Balicilino di arch. cristiana, [s. VI], 1 [1884-85], ter. II-III)
FELICITA, saint, martyr – St F. and her seven children, fresco of the 6th century, now destroyed – Rome.
he was first taken to Gaščina, and was then exiled to Jaros-
lavl, where he remained for a full twenty years. In vain did the Pontiff
protest. Only after the agreements of 24 December 1882 between the
Holy See and Russia was the archbishop able to leave his
exile, though renouncing the diocese. Preconized on
15 March 1883 by Leo XIII as titular archbishop of
Tarsus, he went first to Czernowitz, and then to Krakow.
He left memoirs (Pamiętniki, 2 vols., Krakow 1897).