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{{short description|Coptic Orthodox and Roman Catholic saints}}
{{Expand German|Felix und Regula}}
{{Infobox saint
|honorific_prefix=[[Saint]]s
|name=Felix, Regula and Exuperantius
|birth_date=
|death_date=11 September 286
|feast_day= 11 September
|venerated_in=[[Coptic Orthodox Church]]<br>[[Eastern Orthodox Church]]<br>[[Oriental Orthodox Churches]]<br>[[Roman Catholic Church]]
|image=File:Altartafel Kapelle Spannweid Zürich Stadtheilige.jpg
|caption=Jesus and Felix, Regula, Exuperantius, 1506
|birth_place=[[Egypt]] 
|death_place=[[Grossmünster]], [[Switzerland]]
|titles=Martyrs 
|canonized_date=
|canonized_place=
|canonized_by=Pre-Congregation
|attributes=
|major_shrine=Sts. Felix and Regula at Zürich
|suppressed_date=
|patronage=Zürich
}}

[[File:Zürich - Wasserkirche - Märtyrerstein - Krypta IMG 1189.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Wasserkirche]] church [[Crypt]] with 'Martyr stone', the supposed execution site]]

'''Felix and Regula''' (together with their servant '''Exuperantius''') are [[Coptic Orthodox]] and [[Roman Catholic]] saints. They are the [[patron saint]]s of [[Zürich]]. 

Felix and Regula were brother and sister, beheaded in the third century, along with Exuperantius, for converting to Christianity.<ref>[https://ccdl.claremont.edu/digital/collection/cce/id/833/ Claremont Colleges Digital Library, Retrieved 2023-04-01]</ref> Their [[feast day]] is 11 September in the Gregorian calendar,<ref>[https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/religion-past-and-present/felix-and-regula-SIM_07532 Bischof, Franz Xavier, "Felix and Regula", ''Religion Past and Present''] 2011 {{ISBN| 9789004146662}}</ref>  celebrated on the same day using the Julian calendar (which is the 24th of September Gregorian), the 14th of Tout in the Coptic Calendar. 

==History==
Felix and Regula were siblings, and members of the [[Theban legion]] which was based in Egypt under [[Saint Maurice]] and stationed in [[Agaunum]] in the [[Valais]], [[Switzerland]]. When the legion refused to sacrifice to Emperor [[Maximian]], the order was given to execute them.<ref>''Codex Parisiensis'', [[Bibliothèque nationale de France|Bibliothèque nationale]], 9550, reproduced in Louis Dupraz, ''Les passions de st Maurice d'Agaune: Essai sur l'historicité de la tradition et contribution à l'étude de l'armée pré-Dioclétienne (260–286) et des canonisations tardives de la fin du IVe siècle'' (Fribourg 1961), Appendix I. Dupraz writes to confirm the historicity of the Theban Legion.</ref> The siblings fled, reaching Zürich (then called [[Turicum]]) via [[Glarus]] before they were caught, tried and executed in 286. According to legend, after [[decapitation]], they miraculously stood to their feet, [[cephalophore|picked up their own heads]], walked forty paces uphill, and prayed before lying down in death. They were buried on the spot where they lay down, on the hilltop which would become the site of the [[Grossmünster]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.zuerich.com/sites/default/files/media_text_reformation_en_2015_09.pdf |title="The First Christians in Zurich: The Legend of Felix and Regula", Zurich Tourism |access-date=2016-07-17 |archive-date=2016-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160814182757/https://www.zuerich.com/sites/default/files/media_text_reformation_en_2015_09.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>
[[File:Prozessionsachse murerplan.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Detail of a plan of Zürich, 1576. Shown is the [[Grossmünster]] church, burial place of Saints Felix and Regula, at the river [[Limmat]] the [[Wasserkirche]] (Water Church), their execution site, and on the left side of the Limmat the [[Fraumünster|Fraumünster Abbey]], where important [[relics]] of the saints used to be on display to the public.]]

This story was revealed in a dream to a monk called Florentius in the 8th century. It largely contributed to the massive conversion of the inhabitants of these regions to Christianity and had such an impact on Zurich that these three saints still appear on the seal of Zurich today.

In the 9th century, there was a small monastery at the location, outside the settlement of Zürich which was situated on the left side of the [[Limmat]]. The [[Grossmünster]] was built on their graves from ca. 1100, and the [[Wasserkirche]] was built at the site of their execution.<ref>[https://lenews.ch/2016/12/06/siblings-carry-their-severed-heads-40-paces-to-become-zurichs-patron-saints/ "Siblings carry their severed heads 40 paces to become Zürich’s patron saints", ''le News'', June 12, 2016]</ref> 

From the 13th century, images of the saints were used in official seals of the city and on coins. On the saints' feast day, their relics were carried in procession between the Grossmünster and the [[Fraumünster]], and the two monasteries vied for possession of the relics, which attracted enough pilgrims to make Zürich the most important pilgrimage site in the bishopric of [[Konstanz]]. 

With the dissolution of the monasteries by [[Huldrych Zwingli]] in 1524, their possessions were confiscated and the graves of the martyrs were opened. There are conflicting versions of what happened then. [[Heinrich Bullinger]], a [[Protestant]] theologian, claimed that the graves were empty save for a few bone fragments, which were piously buried in the common graveyard outside the church. The Catholics, on the other hand, claimed that the reformers were planning to throw the relics of the saints into the river, and that a courageous man of [[Canton of Uri|Uri]] (who happened to be exiled from Uri, and by his action earned [[amnesty]]) stole the relics from the church. He carried them to [[Andermatt]], where the two skulls of Felix and Regula can be seen to this day, while the remaining relics were returned to Zürich in 1950, to the newly built ''St. Felix und Regula'' Catholic church. 

The skulls have been [[Carbon 14]] dated, and while one dates to the Middle Ages, the other is in fact composed of fragments of two separate skulls, of which one is medieval, and the other could indeed date to Roman times.

Zurich’s [[Knabenschiessen]] competition, which started in 1889, originated with the feast day of the saints on 11 September, which came to be the "national holiday" of the early modern [[Republic of Zürich]].

==Historicity==
The account of the Theban legion is regarded as fictitious by many modern historians.<ref>Woods, David, "The Origin of the Legend of Maurice and the Theban Legion", ''Journal of Ecclesiastical History'' '''45''' (1994), pp. 385–95.</ref> However, other historians believe that historical and archaeological evidence places the legion in Switzerland at that time.<ref name="Bindman">David Bindman, Henry Louis Gates, Karen C. C. Dalton, [https://books.google.com/books?id=YkWsdzJCNTsC&dq=martyrs+of+agaunum&pg=PA139 ''The Image of the Black in Western Art Pt. II''] (Italy 1979: Menil Foundation), 139.</ref><ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/1582882 Jstor, Retrieved 2023-04-01]</ref>

[[File:Zürich - Felix und Regula 1130 IMG 1191.JPG|thumb|upright|Felix & Regula in 'Stuttgarter Passionale' (1130)]]

==See also==
* [[Portal:Catholicism/Patron Archive/September 11|Saints Felix and Regula, patron saint archive]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== Literature ==
* Hansueli Etter, Urs Baur, Jürg Hanser, Jürg Schneider (Hrsg.): ''Die Zürcher Stadtheiligen Felix und Regula. Legenden, Reliquien, Geschichte und ihre Botschaft im Licht moderner Forschung''. Hochbauamt der Stadt Zürich/Büro für Archäologie, Zürich 1988 {{ISBN|3-905243-01-6}}
* Walter Nigg: ''Felix und Regula, Aneignung einer Legende''. Zürich: SV International, Schweizer Verlagshaus, 1983. {{ISBN|3-7263-6361-0}}
* Jürg Hanser, Armin Mathis, Ulrich Ruoff, Jürg Schneider: ''Das neue Bild des Alten Zürich''. Zürich 1983
* Cécile Ramer, ''Felix, Regula und Exuperantius; Ikonographie der Stifts- und Stadtheiligen Zürichs''. Zürich: Antiquarische Gesellschaft, 1973.

==External links==
{{commons category|Saints Felix and Regula}}
* [http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/cpg111 CPG 111], 1470s manuscript containing the legend of Felix and Regula as well as that of [[Saint Meinrad]].
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110106233334/http://www.hist.uzh.ch/projekte/felixregula/stationen/grossmuensterzwingliplatz.html University of Zürich: «Die Stadt Zürich und ihre Märtyrer - ein multimedialer Pfad»] {{in lang|de}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110706221218/http://agok.ch/media/index.html Orthodox Vesper in honor of St. Felix, St. Regula and St. Exuperantius]
* [http://www.abbaye-saint-benoit.ch/saints/germain/index.html Saints Germain et Randoald, Martyrs] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140630203258/http://www.abbaye-saint-benoit.ch/saints/germain/index.html |date=2014-06-30 }}
* [https://felixundregula.ch/ ''Felix and Regula'' Official Church website]

{{Coptic saints}}

{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Felix And Regula}}
[[Category:286 deaths]]
[[Category:3rd-century Christian martyrs]]
[[Category:3rd-century Christian saints]]
[[Category:Ancient Christian female saints|Regula]]
[[Category:Brother-sister duos]]
[[Category:Cephalophores]]
[[Category:Saints from Roman Egypt]]
[[Category:History of Zurich]]
[[Category:Groups of Christian martyrs of the Roman era]]