St. Gelasius I

Biography

St. Gelasius I (d. 496) was elected pope on March 1, 492, and governed the Church for less than five years. The Liber Pontificalis describes him as African by origin, and he may have been born in Rome to a family from North Africa. Before his election he was a close collaborator of Pope Felix III and drafted many of his letters. As pope he continued Felix's firm stand in the Acacian Schism, a break with the Church of Constantinople over the teaching of the Council of Chalcedon, insisting that unity must rest on the true faith. In a famous letter of 494 to the Emperor Anastasius I, he wrote that the world is governed by two powers, the sacred authority of bishops and the royal power of rulers, each with its own sphere. This letter shaped Christian thinking on Church and state for centuries. In Rome he helped the city's many refugees and poor during a time of war and famine, opposed the lingering pagan festival of the Lupercalia, and set rules for the ordination of clergy. He was a prolific writer, though some later works bear his name without being his, including the Gelasian Sacramentary and the Gelasian Decree. Contemporaries praised his humility and his care for the poor. He died in November 496. His day coincides with the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

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