Pope Felix III
Pope|English name=Felix III|image=
|birth_name=???|term_start=
March 13,
483|term_end=
492|predecessor=
Simplicius|successor=
Gelasius I|birth_date=???|birthplace=
Rome,
Italy|dead=dead|death_date=
492|deathplace=
Rome,
Italy|other=Felix|}}
Pope Felix III was
pope from
March 13,
483 to
492. He was born into a Roman senatorial family and said to have been an ancestor 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, supposedly originating with
patriarch Acacius of Constantinople and published by the emperor
Zeno with the view of allaying the strife between the
Monophysites and their opponents in the
Orthodox Church. 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, a
Monophysite 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.
(Note on numbering: 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-IV are really the second through third popes by that name. It also effected the name taken by the anti-pope Felix V, who if he had been pope, really would have been the fourth Felix)
