Felix I pope
Third-century pope whose letter on the unity of Christ was invoked two centuries later against Nestorius.
- Antiquity
- Italy
- Feast day December 30
- † 274
- Pope
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Felix governed the Church of Rome from 269 to 274, between two persecutions, in the years when the emperor Aurelian was reorganising the Empire. He intervened in the affair of Paul of Samosata, bishop of Antioch deposed for his doctrine on the person of Christ, and the letter he wrote on that occasion was cited at the Council of Ephesus in 431 as an early witness to the unity of the incarnate Word. The Liber pontificalis credits him with the custom of celebrating Mass over the tombs of martyrs — the origin of the altar with relics. He was buried in the catacomb of Callixtus.
