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.

According to legend, after decapitation, they miraculously stood to their feet, picked up their own heads, walked forty paces uphill, and prayed before lying down in death.

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.

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.

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.