Pope Saint Felix III

Life story

Felix came from a Roman senatorial family. He is said to have been an ancestor of Pope Gregory the Great. He is numbered III because an earlier Felix, installed by the Arians, is usually regarded as an antipope, so some works call him Felix II.

He was pope from 13 March 483 until his death on 1 March 492, in the period of Odoacer's kingdom in Italy. He rejected the Henotikon, Emperor Zeno's edict of 482 that tried to reconcile the parties disputing the nature of Christ; historians treat this as the start of the Acacian schism. He sent a letter of remonstrance to Patriarch Acacius of Constantinople, and in 484 he excommunicated Peter Mongus. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, when his envoys were pressured into communion with the heretics, he called a synod of seventy-seven bishops. The rupture lasted until 519.

In the west, in 487 he held a synod and wrote to the African bishops about readmitting Catholics who had been rebaptised as Arians under the Vandals. His feast is 1 March.

Works and witness

• Pope from 13 March 483 until his death on 1 March 492
• Rejected Emperor Zeno's Henotikon
• Excommunicated Peter Mongus in 484, opening a schism that lasted until 519
• Set conditions in 487 for readmitting Africans rebaptised by Arians

Saints from the same country

Saint Agnes, Saint Lawrence, Saint Cecilia, Saint Sebastian

References

• Catholic Encyclopedia (New Advent), 'Pope St. Felix III (II)'

Written by Anawim from documented history. Some details about ancient saints rest on tradition and are marked as such.