Pope Felix III (died 1 March 492) was the

bishop of Rome The pope is the bishop of Rome and the visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the pope was the sovereign or head of sta ...

from 13 March 483 to his death on 1 March 492. His repudiation of the '' Henotikon'' is considered the beginning of the Acacian schism. He is commemorated on March 1.

Family

Felix was born into a Roman senatorial family – possibly the son of a

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

. He was married and widowed before he was elected as pope. He fathered two children, and through his son Gordianus (a priest) was thought to be great-great-grandfather to

Pope Gregory I Pope Gregory I (; ; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great (; ), was the 64th Bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 until his death on 12 March 604. He is known for instituting the first recorded large-scale mission from Ro ...

, and possibly related to

Pope Agapetus I Pope Agapetus I (489/490 – 22 April 536) was the bishop of Rome from 13 May 535 to his death on 22 April 536. His father, Gordianus, was a priest in Rome and he may have been related to two popes, Pope Felix III, Felix III and Pope Gregory I, ...

. It was also said that Felix appeared as an apparition to another of his descendants, his great-granddaughter Trasilla (an aunt of Pope Gregory I), and asked her to enter

Heaven Heaven, or the Heavens, is a common Religious cosmology, religious cosmological or supernatural place where beings such as deity, deities, angels, souls, saints, or Veneration of the dead, venerated ancestors are said to originate, be throne, ...

, and "on the eve of

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

Trasilla died, seeing

Jesus Christ Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

beckoning".

Eutychian heresy

Eutyches was an

archimandrite The title archimandrite (; ), used in Eastern Christianity, originally referred to a superior abbot ('' hegumenos'', , present participle of the verb meaning "to lead") whom a bishop appointed to supervise several "ordinary" abbots and monaste ...

at Constantinople. In his opposition to

Nestorianism Nestorianism is a term used in Christian theology and Church history to refer to several mutually related but doctrinary, doctrinarily distinct sets of teachings. The first meaning of the term is related to the original teachings of Christian t ...

he seemed to have taken the opposite view to extremes. In an effort to defuse controversy regarding the teachings of

Eutyches Eutyches (; c. 375–454) or Eutyches of Constantinople

, in 482 Emperor Zeno, at the suggestion of Patriarch

Acacius of Constantinople Acacius of Constantinople (Greek: Ἀκάκιος; died 26 November 489) served as the patriarch of Constantinople from 472 to 489. He was practically the first prelate in the East and was renowned for his ambitious participation in the Chalce ...

, had issued an edict known as the Henoticon. The edict was intended as a bond of reconciliation between Catholics and Eutychians, but it caused greater conflicts than ever, and split the Church of the East into three or four parties. The Henotikon endorsed the condemnations of Eutyches and Nestorius made at Chalcedon and explicitly approved the twelve anathemas of

Cyril of Alexandria Cyril of Alexandria (; or ⲡⲓ̀ⲁⲅⲓⲟⲥ Ⲕⲓⲣⲓⲗⲗⲟⲥ; 376–444) was the Patriarch of Alexandria from 412 to 444. He was enthroned when the city was at the height of its influence and power within the Roman Empire ...

, but in attempting to appease both sides of the dispute, avoided any definitive statement on whether Christ had one or two natures. Felix's first act was to repudiate the Henoticon. He also addressed a letter of remonstrance to Acacius. The latter proved refractory and sentence of deposition was passed against Acacius. As Catholics spurned Zeno's edict, the emperor had driven the patriarchs of Antioch and Alexandria from their sees.

Peter the Fuller Peter the Fuller was Patriarch of Antioch (471–488) and a Non-Chalcedonian. Peter received his surname from his former trade as a fuller of cloth. Louis-Sébastien Le Nain de Tillemont (''Empereurs'', tome vi, p. 404) considers that Peter ...

deposed

Martyrius of Antioch Martyrius of Antioch was Patriarch of Antioch from 459 to 471. A Chalcedonian, his patriarchate was dominated by strife between the Chalcedonians and Non-Chalcedonians. Martyrius was deposed by prominent Non-Chalcedonian Peter the Fuller in ...

and assumed the

See of Antioch The Patriarch of Antioch is a traditional title held by the bishop of Antioch (modern-day Antakya, Turkey). As the traditional "overseer" (, , from which the word ''bishop'' is derived) of the first gentile Christian community, the position has b ...

in 470. Peter Mongus took the

See of Alexandria The Patriarch of Alexandria is the archbishop of Alexandria, Egypt. Historically, this office has included the designation "pope" (etymologically "Father", like "Abbot"). The Alexandrian episcopate was revered as one of the three major episc ...

. In his first synod, Felix excommunicated Peter the Fuller. In 484, Felix also excommunicated Peter Mongus, an act that brought about a schism between East and West that was not healed until 519.

Aftermath of the Vandals

In North Africa, conquered by the fervently

Arian Arianism (, ) is a Christological doctrine which rejects the traditional notion of the Trinity and considers Jesus to be a creation of God, and therefore distinct from God. It is named after its major proponent, Arius (). It is considered he ...

Vandals The Vandals were a Germanic people who were first reported in the written records as inhabitants of what is now Poland, during the period of the Roman Empire. Much later, in the fifth century, a group of Vandals led by kings established Vand ...

, persecution by king Genseric and his son and successor

Huneric Huneric, Hunneric or Honeric (died December 23, 484) was King of the (North African) Vandal Kingdom (477–484) and the oldest son of Gaiseric. He abandoned the imperial politics of his father and concentrated mainly on internal affairs. He was ma ...

had driven many Catholic Romans into exile.Victor of Vita, ''History of the Vandal Persecution'', 2.3-6 (John Moorhead, trans.), Liverpool: University Press, 1992, p. 25 When Huneric died, the persecutions were eased, and many of those who through fear had been rebaptized as Arians desired to return to the Church. However, the Vandals remained resolutely Arian. The Catholics appealed to Felix, who convened a synod in 487 and sent a letter to the bishops of Africa, expounding the conditions under which the unwilling apostates were to be taken back.

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