Gelasius was only pope for a short time, having ruled little more than three and a half years at his death on November 19, 496. His feast day is November 21.
What was he known for?Gelasius had to deal with the Acacian Schism, which still divided the East and West over the correct teaching on the nature of Christ. Presumably fed up with the nonsense, Gelasius didn’t shy away from writing in definite, and sometimes severe, tones in an effort to get his point across. His writings and teachings covered things like the supremacy of the pope over the whole Church, the
Manichean heresy, the abolition of a pagan festival called the “Lupercalia,” and (as we read above) the proper understanding of the relation between church and state. On papal supremacy in particular, it’s generally understood that Gelasius’ writings on the primacy of the Chair of Peter were the the Church's strongest arguments in favor of it for many centuries, before or after his reign.
Fun fact: Pope Gelasius I is the man to thank for the veneration of one of the Church’s most storied saints. In 494, Gelasius is said to have canonized St. George, the legendary dragon-slayer, noting that he was one of many saints "whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose actions are known only to God."
What else was going on in the world at the time?Clovis I, the king of the Franks, was baptized at Rheims just a month after the death of Gelasius I, on Christmas Day 496. His choice of Catholicism over Arianism, along with the Frankish kingdom becoming what we now know as France, is the primary reason France is known as “The Eldest Daughter of the Church.”
Coming Monday....Pope Anastasius IISOURCES (and further reading)