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Pope St. Felix I

Pope St. Felix I

?–274 CE · Rome

Felix I led the Roman Church during the recovery years after persecution, from 269 to 274. His pontificate is associated with the celebrated case of Paul of Samosata, the deposed bishop of Antioch, whose unorthodox Christology had been condemned by a synod. When Paul refused to vacate his church, the matter was reportedly referred to Emperor Aurelian, who ruled that the building belonged to whoever was in communion with the bishop of Rome and the Italian churches—an early instance of imperial deference to Roman ecclesiastical standing. Felix is also credited, on weaker authority, with regulating the celebration of Mass over martyrs' tombs. He died in 274.

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Stop 0 of 1269–274Born

RomeרומאItaly

We know they were here, but the specifics of what they did at this stop aren’t recorded yet in our corpus.

Rome in this era

Governed by the Roman emperors from the Antonines through the Tetrarchy, Rome housed a bishop's see of growing prestige, was the scene of periodic persecutions, and saw theologians such as Justin Martyr debate and die for the faith in the second century.

About Rome

Rome, on the Tiber in central Italy, grew from an Iron Age settlement into the capital of the Roman Republic and then of an empire that by the 1st century CE ruled the whole Mediterranean. Its Jewish community, attested from the 2nd century BCE, is among the oldest in Europe. Christian tradition holds that the apostles Peter and Paul died there, and the city became the seat of the popes. After the Western Empire ended in 476 it passed to Gothic kings, to Byzantium and then to papal rule as capital of the Papal States, until it became the capital of unified Italy in 1871. Vatican City, independent since 1929, lies within it.

Across the traditions, in Rome at the same time

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In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Pope St. Felix I’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Pope St. Felix I’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Works

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