SIMPLICIO, POPE, saint. — A native of Tivoli and the son of Castino, he succeeded Ilaro on 3 March 468. He died on 10 March 483. Despite his lengthy pontificate, little information has come down to us concerning his activity.
He dedicated the churches of S. Stefano al Celio, S. Andrea in Catabarbara on the Esquiline, and S. Bibiana. In the basilicas of S. Pietro, S. Paolo, and S. Lorenzo fuori le mura, he established weekly rotations of titular priests for the administration of the Sacraments. Few letters and acts of S. have been preserved; among them, particular importance attaches to the one addressed to the bishop Zenone of Siviglia, appointing him his vicar for Spain, with the obligation of supervising the execution of papal decrees, and to two others addressed respectively to the bishop of Ravenna and to those of the Abruzzi concerning the appointment of bishops. He was buried in S. Pietro. Adone was the first to include him in his Martirologio, from which it passed into the Romano, where he is commemorated on 2 March.
During his pontificate, the collapse of the Western Roman Empire took place through the action of Odoacre (476), an event that nevertheless left the minds of contemporaries unmoved, since they were already accustomed to barbarian invasions. More important were the developments in the Church of Alexandria, troubled by Monophysite struggles and by the interference of the Byzantine Emperors. After the heretic Timoteo Eluro had been deposed and exiled, he was replaced by Timoteo Salofaciolo, a moderate and charitable man who governed with skill and goodness, restoring peace to that Church. Matters changed in 475, when Basilisco was elected emperor of the East; he published an encyclical condemning the Council of Chalcedon and the Tomo of Pope Leone, and recalled Eluro to Alexandria. In 476 Basilisco was driven out and Zenone resumed the reins of government: Salofaciolo returned to Alexandria, but the Catholic faith suffered a severe blow, especially through the agency of Acacio, patriarch of Constantinople, who, eager to increase his prestige, sought a compromise with the Monophysites at any cost. This was prepared by the election of Pietro Mongo as bishop of Alexandria, notwithstanding that before his death Salofaciolo Giovanni Talaia (v.) as his successor, and shortly afterward by the publication of the Enotico. Throughout all these changes, S. was poorly informed and at times received the information too late; nevertheless, he wrote several letters to Zenone and Acacio requesting the removal of Pietro Mongo from Alexandria, without obtaining anything. No more successful were his efforts to have Pietro Follone, another heretic installed in the Church of Antioch, deposed.