Pope Pontian

Pope Pontian (Latin: Pontianus; died October 235) was the bishop of Rome from 21 July 230 to 28 September 235.[1] In 235, during the persecution of Christians in the reign of the Emperor Maximinus Thrax, Pontian was arrested and sent to the island of Sardinia.

Pope Saint

Pontian
Bishop of Rome
The Martyrdom of Saint Pontianus (Baltasar de Echave, c. 1612)
ChurchCatholic Church
Papacy began21 July 230 (230-07-21)
Papacy ended28 September 235 (235-09-28)
PredecessorUrban I
SuccessorAnterus
Personal details
DiedOctober 235
Sardinia, Roman Empire
Sainthood
Feast day13 August (Eastern Orthodox Church, Catholic Church 1969 calendar)
19 November (Catholic Church 1960 calendar and prior)
Venerated inCatholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church

He abdicated to make the election of a new pope possible.[1] When Pontian resigned on 28 September 235, he was the first pope to do so. It allowed an orderly transition in the Church of Rome and so ended a schism that had existed in the Church for eighteen years. Some accounts say he was beaten to death only weeks after his arrival on Sardinia.

Life

A little more is known of Pontian than his predecessors, apparently from a lost papal chronicle that was available to the compiler of the Liberian Catalogue of the bishops of Rome, written in the fourth century. The Liber Pontificalis states that he was a Roman citizen and that his father's name was Calpurnius. Early Church historian Eusebius wrote that his pontificate lasted six years.[2]

Pontian's pontificate was initially relatively peaceful under the reign of the tolerant Emperor Severus Alexander. He presided over the Roman synod which approved Origen's expulsion and deposition by Pope Demetrius I of Alexandria in 230 or 231.[1][2] According to Eusebius, the next emperor, Maximinus, overturned his predecessor's policy of tolerance towards Christianity.[3] Both Pope Pontian and the Antipope Hippolytus of Rome were arrested and exiled to labor in the mines of Sardinia,[4] generally regarded as a death sentence.[5]

In light of his sentence, Pontian resigned, the first pope to do so, so as to allow an orderly transition in the Church of Rome, on 28 September 235. This date was recorded in the Liberian Catalogue and is notable for being the first full date of a papal reign given by contemporaries. This action ended a schism that had existed in the Church for eighteen years. Pontian was beaten to death with sticks.[2][4] Neither Hippolytus nor Pontian survived, possibly reconciling with one another there or in Rome before their deaths. Pontian died in October 235.[6]

Veneration
Interior of San Ponziano, Rome

Pope Fabian had the bodies of both Pontian and Hippolytus brought back to Rome in 236 or 237, and the former buried in the papal crypt in the Catacomb of Callixtus on the Appian Way.[4][7] The slab covering his tomb was discovered in 1909. On it is inscribed in Greek: Ποντιανός Επίσκ (Pontianus Episk; in English Pontianus Bish). The inscription "Μάρτυρ", "MARTUR" had been added in another hand.[1]

In the Eastern Orthodox Church and the General Roman Calendar of 1969, Pontian and Hippolytus are commemorated jointly on 13 August.[8][9] In those Catholic communities which use a historical calendar such as the General Roman Calendar of 1960, Pontian's feast day is celebrated on 19 November.[10]

San Ponziano, a titular church in Rome, is named in his honour. Churches named for Pontian are also found in Spoleto, Lucca and Carbonia, Sardinia.[11]

See also
  • List of Catholic saints
  • List of popes
  • Pope Saint Pontian, patron saint archive

References
  1. Kirsch, Johann Peter (1911). "Pope St. Pontian" in The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  2. Kelly, J.N.D. (1986). The Oxford Dictionary of Popes. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 16. ISBN 978-0-19-213964-1.
  3. Papandrea, James L. (2012). Reading the Early Church Fathers: From the Didache to Nicaea. Paulist Press. ISBN 978-0809147519.
  4. Fr. Paolo O. Pirlo, SHMI (1997). "Sts. Pontian & Hippolytus". My First Book of Saints. Sons of Holy Mary Immaculate – Quality Catholic Publications. pp. 179–180. ISBN 978-971-91595-4-4.
  5. G. W. Clarke, "Some Victims of the Persecution of Maximinus Thrax," Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, Bd. 15, H. 4 (November 1966): pp. 445–453.
  6. Richard P. McBrien, Lives of the Popes (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 2000), 45.
  7. McBrien, Lives of the Popes, 45.
  8. "Latin Saints of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Rome".
  9. Calendarium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 1969), p. 146
  10. Catholic Encyclopedia.
  11. Rendina, Claudio (December 6, 2007). Le chiese di Roma: storie, leggende e curiosità degli edifici sacri della Città Eterna, dai templi pagani alle grandi basiliche, dai conventi ai monasteri ai luoghi di culto in periferia. Newton Compton. ISBN 9788854109315 – via Google Books.

Sources
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