Pope Saint Felix III was
popeThe pope is the Bishop of Rome and, as such, is leader of the worldwide Catholic Church...
from March 13,
483-Byzantine Empire:*Due to Zeno I's Monophysite sympathies, general Illus and Verina, mother-in-law of Zeno, attempt to overthrow Zeno and place a general named Leontius on the throne...
to 492.
Biography
He was born into a Roman senatorial family and said to have been a great-great-grandfather of
Saint Gregory the GreatPope St. Gregory I , better known in English as Gregory the Great, was pope from 3 September 590 until his death...
. Nothing certain is known of Felix until he succeeded
St. SimpliciusPope Saint Simplicius was pope from 468 to March 10, 483.He was born in Tivoli, Italy, the son of a citizen named Castinus. Most of what is known of him is derived from the Liber Pontificalis.St...
.
His first act was to repudiate the Henoticon, a deed of union originating with
PatriarchOriginally a patriarch was a man who exercised autocratic authority as a pater familias over an extended family. The system of such rule of families by senior males is called patriarchy...
Acacius of ConstantinopleAcacius was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 471 to 489. Acacius was practically the first prelate throughout the Eastern Orthodoxy and renowned for ambitious participation in the Monophysitism controversy....
and published by Emperor
ZenoFlavius Zeno, original name Tarasicodissa or Trascalissaeus, Byzantine Emperor was one of the more prominent of the early Byzantine Emperors. Domestic revolts and religious dissension plagued his reign, which nevertheless succeeded to some extent in foreign issues...
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 FullerPeter Fullo was Patriarch of Antioch and Miaphysite.Peter received his surname from his former trade as a fuller of cloth. Tillemont Peter Fullo ("the Fuller") was Patriarch of Antioch (471 - 488) and Miaphysite.Peter received his surname from his former trade as a fuller of cloth. Tillemont...
who had assumed the
SeeIn some forms of Christianity, a diocese is an administrative territorial unit administered by a bishop. It is also referred to as a bishopric or Episcopal Area or episcopal see, though strictly the term episcopal see refers to the domain of ecclesiastical authority officially held by the bishop,...
of
AntiochAntioch on the Orontes was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River...
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.
Felix is often quoted as saying “Not to oppose error is to approve it; and not to defend truth is to suppress it, and, indeed, to neglect to confound evil men - when we can do it - is no less a sin than to encourage them”
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
HeavenHeaven may refer to the physical heavens, the sky or the seemingly endless expanse of the universe beyond. This is the traditional literal meaning of the term in English...
through death, and on the eve of
ChristmasChristmas , also referred to as Christmas Day, is an annual holiday celebrated on December 25 that commemorates the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. The day marks the beginning of the larger season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days. The nativity of Jesus, which is the basis for the anno Domini...
Trasilla died, seeing Jesus Christ beckoning.