Pope Saint Felix III was pope from March 13, 483 to 492.

Biography

He was born into a Roman senatorial family and said to have been a great-great-grandfather of Saint Gregory the Great. Nothing certain is known of Felix until he succeeded St. Simplicius.

His first act was to repudiate the Henoticon, a deed of union originating with Patriarch Acacius of Constantinople and published by Emperor Zeno with the view of allaying the strife between the Miaphysite Christians and Chalcedonian Christians. He also addressed a letter of remonstrance to Acacius. The latter proved refractory, and sentence of deposition was passed against Acacius.

In his first synod, Felix excommunicated Peter the Fuller who had assumed the See of Antioch against Papal wishes. In 484, Felix also excommunicated Peter Mongus, who had taken the See of Alexandria - an act which brought about a schism between East and West that was not healed until 519.

Family

It is said that Felix appeared to one of his descendants, his great-granddaughter Trasilla (an aunt of St. Gregory the Great), and asked her to enter Heaven through death, and on the eve of Christmas Trasilla died, seeing Jesus Christ beckoning.^[1]

Numbering Note

Pope Felix II is now considered an anti-pope. At the time however, this fact was not recognized and so the second true Pope Felix is known by the official number III. This has advanced the numbering of all subsequent Popes Felix by one. Popes Felix III and IV are really the second and third popes by that name. It also affected the name taken by the antipope Felix V, who if he had been pope, really would have been the fourth Felix.)

References

1. ↑ CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Sts. Trasilla and Emiliana

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