Saint Felix I,  was Pope from 269-274.

See that little white spider scurrying across your bedroom ceiling? Watch him gracefully spinning a strand of silk so he can get down to earth, as you lie there, holding your breath for fear he will drop onto your nose! See him lower himself closer and closer, as you raise your hand to snuff our his life.....Wait! Let him go about his life as you do yours, and listen to the tale of Fidelis.

Once upon a time there lived a pope named Felix. he lived at a time when it was a crime against the country to be a Christian. The followers of Christ spent their days running from one hiding place to another, trying to outwit the Roman police. There were no cars or trains or helicopters to whisk them off to a safe country. So they lived with their leader, Felix, bravely facing the fact that being caught meant certain death. If they had to die for our Lord, very well, they would. But if by prayer and grace they lived, then they would continue to tell other people about God's good news.

The Roman soldiers grew angrier and more threatening, and they declared that they were going to bring Felix before the Emperor. Felix was not a coward but he thought that a leader in hiding would be better than no leader at all, so he took off his royal robes and tall hat and put on the ragged brown robe of a pilgrim. He grabbed a gnarled thorn stick, hunched over and shuffled down the street.

Soon he met a bunch of rowdy soldiers. They stood in front of Felix so he could not walk and said roughly, "Hey, old man! Since you are coming from the direction of the Pope's house, have you seen him, that Christian, Felix? We have some questions to ask him." And they laughed cruelly. "No," Felix said, blowing his nose so his voice was muffled. "I have not met him," he answered truthfully. They let him go and hurried off. Felix hurried too - in the other direction. He knew they would be on to his trick soon and he had better travel quickly. Where, he did not know.

He sopped to catch his breath by a cracked wall with a hole in it. This would be as good a place as any to hide, Felix thought. So he squeezed his body through the hole, knowing that he could still be seen, but where else could he go? He prayed, "Dear Lord, if you want me to stay in this world to lead your Christians, please get me out of this mess! What am I to do?" At that moment, a small white spider ran across the stone wall, stopped at the hole, and quickly, and gracefully, began to spin a web of glossy silk over the hole. She spun fast, over and over in a crisscross of lines until the hole was woven from view.

Felix heard the clanking of the soldiers shields as they returned and the scuffling of their feet on the road. He held his breath as the soldiers stopped. He heard the leader say, "He is not here, that's for sure. This spider's web has not been touched for days. Now where could that old man have gone? Let's get moving!" And Felix breathed again. The Roman soldiers never did catch him, thanks to his faithful friend, the spider. Felix named the spider Fidelis, which means the "faithful one," because of his loyal devotion. Fidelis stayed with the Pope until Felix found another hiding place, an old dried-up well nearby. One day, when he was crouched down in the well, his stomach growling with extreme hunger, Felix heard his name whispered.

He knew the voice to be that of a Christian lady who had been searching for him. She had brought a loaf of rye bread and never did food taste so good to Felix. She brought food to the Pope in this way for many months, until he was once more able to come out and live in the open again. Felix never forgot his friend Fidelis, and forever after let spiders roam about his home. He especially liked the lovely designs they spun in the corners of windows, which caught the sunlight at dawn. Felix said they reminded him of God's light caught in a willing heart.

Source: Once upon a time saints, Ethel Pockocki.