Pope Felix III (died 1 March 492) was the

bishop of Rome A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop i ...

from 13 March 483 to his death. 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. 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 ( la, Gregorius I; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great, was the bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 to his death. He is known for instigating the first recorded large-scale mission from Rome, the Gregori ...

, and possibly related to Pope Agapetus I.Coleman, Ambrose. "Pope St. Felix III." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. 6 Apr. 2013
/ref> It was also said that Felix appeared as an

apparition Apparition may refer to: Supernatural * Apparitional experience, an anomalous, quasi-perceptual experience * A vision, something seen in a dream, trance, or religious ecstasy *Ghost, the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appea ...

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 cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the bel ...

, and "on the eve of

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

Trasilla died, seeing Jesus Christ beckoning".

Eutychian heresy

Eutyches was an

archimandrite The title archimandrite ( gr, ἀρχιμανδρίτης, archimandritēs), used in Eastern Christianity, originally referred to a superior abbot ('' hegumenos'', gr, ἡγούμενος, present participle of the verb meaning "to lead") wh ...

at Constantinople. In his opposition to Nestorianism he seemed to have taken the opposite view to extremes. In an effort to defuse controversy regarding the teachings of Eutyches, in 482 Emperor Zeno, at the suggestion of Patriarch Acacius of Constantinople, had issued an edict known as the

Henoticon The ''Henotikon'' ( or in English; Greek ''henōtikón'' "act of union") was a christological document issued by Byzantine emperor Zeno in 482, in an unsuccessful attempt to reconcile the differences between the supporters of the Council of C ...

. 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, 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 deposed Martyrius of Antioch and assumed the See of Antioch in 470. Peter Mongus took the See of Alexandria. 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 ( grc-x-koine, Ἀρειανισμός, ) is a Christological doctrine first attributed to Arius (), a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt. Arian theology holds that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who was begotten by G ...

Vandals, persecution by king Genseric and his son and successor Huneric 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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