He was elected after a gap of nearly two months after the death of John I, who had died in prison in Ravenna, having completed a diplomatic mission to Constantinople on behalf of the Ostrogoth King Theodoric the Great.

[2] Felix built the Santi Cosma e Damiano in the Imperial forums on land donated by Queen Amalasuntha,[1] and consecrated no fewer than thirty-nine bishops, during his short tenure of four years.

[3] During Felix's pontificate, an imperial edict was passed granting that cases against clergy should be dealt with by the pope or a designated ecclesiastical court.

Felix also defined church teaching on grace and free will in response to a request of Faustus of Riez, in Gaul, on opposing Semi-Pelagianism.

The reaction of the Senate was to forbid the discussion of a pope's successor during his lifetime or to accept such a nomination.