In 497 St. Simplicius was raised by God to the papacy to comfort and support his church amidst the greatest storms. All the provinces of the Western empire were fallen into the hands of barbarians, infected for the greatest part with idolatry or Arianism. Pope Simplicius was wholly taken up in comforting and relieving the afflicted, and in sowing the seeds of the Catholic faith among the barbarians in the West and the East.