FELIŃSKI, ZYGMUNT FELIX. - Archbishop of Warsaw, b. 6 Oct. 1822 at Wojutyn (Volhynia), d. 1895 at Kraków. He entered the Seminary of Zhytomyr in 1851, whence he passed to the Ecclesiastical Academy of St. Petersburg. Ordained priest in 1855, he became vicar of the church of St. Catherine in the tsarist capital.
He knew how to win the trust and esteem of all the Catholics residing there, and Pius IX, also yielding to the desire of the Russian government, preconized him in 1862 as Archbishop of Warsaw. F. soon found himself in a difficult position, because the Poles considered him a creature of the Russian government, while the Russians did not at all welcome 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 own homeland, and during the revolutionary disturbances of 1863 he addressed to Emperor Alexander II a letter in which he clearly expressed the necessity of granting Poland independence, albeit 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 Bullettino di arch. cristiana, [s. VI], 1 [1884-85], ter. II-III)
FELICITA, saint, martyr - St. F. and her seven sons, Fresco of the 6th century, now destroyed - Rome.
Forced to leave Warsaw on 14 June 1863, taken first to Gatchina, he was then exiled to Yaroslavl, where he remained for fully twenty years. In vain the Pontiff protested. Only after the agreements of 24 Dec. 1882 between the Holy See and Russia could the archbishop leave his exile, renouncing the diocese, however. Preconized on 15 March 1883 by Leo XIII as titular Archbishop of Tarsus, he went first to Chernivtsi, and then to Kraków. He left memoirs (Pamiętniki, 2 vols., Kraków 1897).
