medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
According to his notice in the _Liber Pontificalis_, Felix was a Samnite, that is, someone from Benevento or the surrounding area. Nominated by king Theodoric to succeed pope St. John I, he was consecrated on 12. July 526. During the so-called semipelagian controversy he transmitted to the bishops of southern France a series of positions on grace and free will that were promulgated as canons by the synod of Orange in 529. In the same theological context, Felix approved St. Caesarius of Arles' _De gratia et libero arbitrio_. Felix died in 530. His feast day in Benevento is 22. September. Today (12. October) is his day of commemoration in the Roman Martyrology.
Felix' major monument is the since greatly rebuilt papal basilica and Roman stational church of Santi Cosma e Damiano on the via dei Fori Imperiali. Created in the circular temple of Jupiter Stator (also known as the Temple of Romulus, i.e. of Maxentius' son of that name) and in an adjacent structure belonging to the Forum Pacis, it is particularly noteworthy for its much restored sixth-century apse mosaic. An illustrated, English-language web page on this church is here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santi_Cosma_e_Damiano
A ground plan:
http://67.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m08e81cpb71qdnrgdo1_500.jpg
The apse mosaic and the mosaic over triumphal arch:
http://tinyurl.com/yatzydo
Some period-pertinent images of pope St. Felix IV (III):
a) as depicted (at far left, holding a model of the church) in the restored sixth-century apse mosaic in Rome's basilica dei Santi Cosma e Damiano:
http://archelaos.com/popes/imgx/Felix_IV_2.jpg
Detail views (Felix):
http://www.catholictradition.org/Papacy/papal-gallery71.jpg
https://vinoconvistablog.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/italy-2011-437.jpg
b) as depicted (right margin, fourth from top) in a woodcut in the Beloit College copy of Hartmann Schedel's late fifteenth-century _Weltchronik_ (1493; _Nuremberg Chronicle_) at fol. CXLIIv:
https://www.beloit.edu/nuremberg/book/6th_age/left_page/5_folio_CXLIIv.pdf
Best,
John Dillon
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