DIOSCORUS,
POPE. - A deacon of the Alexandrian Church, Dioscorus was forced by the Monophysite controversies into exile and took refuge in Rome, where he was attached to its clergy.
In 535 he was sent by Pope Symmachus to Theodoric to protest against the usurpations of the antipope Laurence; he so successfully pleaded the Pope’s cause that Theodoric ordered the patrician Festus to restore to the legitimate Pontiff the churches and property taken from him and to put an end to opposition against him. In 519 he was a member of the mission sent by Pope Hormisdas to Constantinople to restore peace after the Acacian schism.
Because of his intellectual resources, his knowledge of the Eastern world, and his familiarity with the Greek language, the Pope placed the greatest confidence in him, and Dioscorus was in fact the most important person in the legation. He was designated to explain to the clergy of Constantinople the reasons that had led the Pope to condemn Acacius, and he did so with such skill that he won the approval of the Easterners. Hormisdas therefore addressed a letter to him thanking him for his work and announcing that he would propose him to the Emperor for the see of Alexandria. The negotiations with Justin, however, came to nothing, and Dioscorus remained a deacon in Rome. There he acquired great influence over all, so much so that, in view of his past services and his previous activity which boded well for the future, there was talk of electing him to succeed Felix IV. The latter, however, fearing strife and schism after his death, designated as his successor his archdeacon Boniface, who was in fact elected by a minority and consecrated (Sept. 530). The majority of the clergy, however, elected Dioscorus, who was also consecrated in the Lateran Basilica while Boniface was being consecrated in the Julian Basilica. Dioscorus cannot be numbered among the antipopes (v.). The threatened schism was nevertheless averted since Dioscorus died a few days later (Oct. 14), and his adherents submitted to Boniface, even signing a libellus of retraction and anathema against Dioscorus. Boniface preserved the libellus in the ecclesiastical archives as a posthumous condemnation of Dioscorus, but his successor Agatho (535) burned it before the people in front of the Confession of St. Peter.
