BONIFACE I, POPE, saint. — The funeral of Pope Zosimus had not yet ended when the archdeacon Eulalius, eager to succeed him, returned to the basilica of the Lateran with some priests and deacons who supported him. Having occupied the church, he was elected pope. But the other priests, about seventy, along with part of the population opposed to Eulalius, gathered the next day in the church of Theodora and elected B., a learned and prudent Roman priest. The following Sunday (29 Dec. 418), Eulalius was consecrated in the Lateran basilica and B. in the church of St. Marcellus. However, the Prefect of Rome, Symmachus, who had sent a report of the events to the imperial court at Ravenna that was rather favorable to Eulalius, received an order from Emperor Honorius to remove B. from the city. The matter was not yet settled: B. had powerful supporters at Ravenna, and even Galla Placidia herself favored him. When better informed, the government decided to summon both parties and submit the controversy to the examination of some bishops. Since no conclusion was reached, the emperor decided to convene a council at Spoleto on 13 June, to which bishops from Gaul and Africa were also invited; in the meantime, the two rivals were to be removed from Rome: if they attempted to return, their election would be annulled.
But Eulalius, having learned that the court had chosen the bishop of Spoleto, Achilleus, to celebrate the upcoming Easter services in Rome, reappeared in the city on 18 March, so that when Achilleus arrived, he found the place already occupied. The days preceding Easter were marked by heated debates and disturbances, until an order arrived from Ravenna to expel Eulalius. Prefect Symmachus had to use force, and after occupying the basilica of the Lateran, where the rebel had barricaded himself, he handed it over to the bishop of Spoleto, who was thus able to celebrate the services there. Eulalius’ conduct, now removed from Rome under close guard, had resolved the issue. B. was recognized as the legitimate pope, and the bishops were informed that the scheduled council was now unnecessary.
The new Pontiff obtained from Emperor Honorius an edict requiring bishops to subscribe to the condemnation of Pelagius and Caelestius, and at his invitation St. Augustine wrote the work *Contra duas epistolas Pelagianorum*. He devoted himself diligently to the hierarchical organization of the Church, intervening in Gaul on behalf of the metropolitan Hilary of Narbonne against Patroclus of Arles, who had been favored by Pope Zosimus, and in Illyricum, where Emperor Theodosius II, in July 421, had issued a decree transferring jurisdiction from the bishop of Thessalonica, the Pope’s vicar, to the patriarch of Constantinople. With the help of Emperor Honorius, B. secured the revocation of the unjust decree. From Africa, where the question of Apris had meanwhile been discussed, he received a somewhat resentful letter from the Council, which had met in Carthage in May 419, informing him of the decisions taken. According to the *Liber Pontificalis*, B. forbade women to wash and touch the sacred linens, clerics to serve in commercial enterprises, and ordered that only priests should place incense in the censer during Mass.
He died on 4 Sept. 422 and was buried on the Via Salaria near St. Felicitas; the Church honors him as a saint and celebrates his feast on 25 Oct.