Editing Pope Felix III

{{Short description|Head of the Catholic Church from 483 to 492}}
{{Infobox Christian leader 
|type=Pope
|honorific-prefix=[[Pope Saint]]
|name=Felix III
|title            = [[Bishop of Rome]]
|church = [[Diocese of Rome|Church of Rome]]
|image = 
|term_start=13 March 483
|term_end=1 March 492
|predecessor=[[Pope Simplicius|Simplicius]]
|successor=[[Pope Gelasius I|Gelasius I]]
|birth_date=
|birth_place=[[Rome]], [[Roman Italy|Italy]], [[Western Roman Empire]]
|death_date=1 March 492
|death_place= [[Rome]], [[Kingdom of Odoacer]]
|spouse= name unknown
|venerated= [[Catholic Church]]<br/>[[Eastern Orthodox Church]]
|other=Felix

}}
'''Pope Felix III''' (died 1 March 492) was the [[bishop of Rome]] 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 Senate|Roman senatorial]] family &ndash; 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]], and possibly related to [[Pope Agapetus I]].<ref name="coleman">{{Cite web |title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Pope St. Felix III |url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06030b.htm |access-date=2024-01-04 |website=www.newadvent.org}}</ref><ref>R.A. Markus, ''Gregory the Great and his world'' (Cambridge: University Press, 1997), p. 8</ref>

It was also said that Felix appeared as an [[vision (spirituality)|apparition]] to another of his descendants, his great-granddaughter [[Trasilla and Emiliana|Trasilla]] (an aunt of Pope Gregory I), and asked her to enter [[Heaven]], and "on the eve of [[Christmas]] Trasilla died, seeing [[Jesus Christ]] beckoning".<ref>{{CathEncy|wstitle=Sts. Trasilla and Emiliana}}</ref>

==Eutychian heresy==
Eutyches was an [[archimandrite]] 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 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.<ref name=catholic/> 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.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

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.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

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 III of Alexandria|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.<ref name=catholic/>

==Aftermath of the Vandals==
In North Africa, conquered by the fervently [[Arianism|Arian]] [[Vandals]], persecution by king [[Gaiseric|Genseric]] and his son and successor [[Huneric]] had driven many Catholic Romans into exile.<ref>Victor of Vita, ''History of the Vandal Persecution'', 2.3-6 (John Moorhead, trans.), Liverpool: University Press, 1992, p. 25</ref> 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.<ref name=catholic>{{Catholic Encyclopedia |wstitle=Pope St. Felix III |first=Ambrose |last=Coleman |volume=6 |year=1909 }}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography|Christianity|History}}
*[[List of popes]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{BBKL|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070625052951/http://www.bautz.de/bbkl/f/felix_iii.shtml |artikel=Felix II.|band=2|spalte=10|autor= Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Felix III}}
* {{Hl-Lex|b|Felix_III_II_.htm|Felix III (II)}}
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{{s-bef|before=[[Pope Simplicius|Simplicius]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Pope]]|years=483–492}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Pope Gelasius I|Gelasius I]]}}
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{{Popes}}
{{Catholic saints}} 
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Felix 03}}
[[Category:492 deaths]]
[[Category:5th-century archbishops]]
[[Category:5th-century Christian saints]]
[[Category:Ancient Christians involved in controversies]]
[[Category:Italian popes]]
[[Category:Papal saints]]
[[Category:Popes]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Married Roman Catholic bishops]]
[[Category:5th-century popes]]