The chorus of the Balassagyarmat Trinity parish-church functions named after St. Felician since 1974. Its name is taken from the Roman martyr lying in a glass-coffin in one of the side-altars of the church.
St. Felician's altar
Unfortunately, the concrete life of St. Felician if unknown, his body had been found in Roman catacombs. He died a martyr in the cause of his faith, during the great pursuits against Christians. The method of his execution was stoning to death, which is certified by the crackings on the body's skull. He is most likely to have been a Roman soldier converted to Christianity, as suggested by the plaster statues standing on the two sides of his side-altar: St Florian on his left, who was also a Roman soldier converted to Christianity, and died a martyr in 304, in the time of Diocletianian pursuits against Christianity; and Longinus, Roman captain on the right, who had been present at the crucifixion of Christ, and, influenced by that, later converted. The body-relics of St Felician were given to earl Pál Balassa - the builder of several churches in the Highlands - by pope Clement XIII for his merits. It had been preserved in the castle of Kékkő (at present Slovakia ), then - to grant it public respect - on the consecration of the church in Balassagyarmat (20. August, 1759), he placed it on the side-altar dedicated to this purpose, in a glass-coffin. Since then - although the coffin has been opened several times and the clothes of the body changed - the relic of St. Felician is still lying in our church. Its local respect is revealed by the fact that two of the church's bells have received his name: the one cast in 1808 read: „ S. Felicianem ora pro nobis”, and a later, 100 kg bell cast in 1889 showed the Hungarian title: „Szent Felícián vértanú, könyörülj érettünk.” (St. Felician martyr, pray for us)
The body of St. Felician in the glass-coffin, with palm in his hand, the symbol of martyrdom
In the beginning of the 1970s it was urged by the chorus-master of the time, János Varga, to name the chorus after him. The idea of adopting St. Felician's name had come from Lajos Trizna, who realised the importance and individuality of the unique, yet almost completely faded cult of the relic. János Varga welcomed the plausible suggestion, moreover, in 1977 he asked father Dénes Szedő, resident of Balassagyarmat to write a hymn of St. Felician, over the song „Itt jelen vagyon...” ( = O Pater Sancte) of the Small Hungarian Usualis.