FINDING OUT MORE
THE POPES OF THE CALLIXTIAN COMPLEX AND SOME FATHERS AND WRITERS CONTEMPORARY WITH THEM

Giovanni Del Col, director of the Catacombs of St. Callixtus

This section aims at retelling the history of the Church through the lives and writings of the principal characters, the Popes of the Callixtan complex and some Fathers of the Church who were their contemporaries:

   5 Martyr Popes (Pontian, Fabian, Cornelius, Sixtus II and Eusebius)
   11 Confessor Popes (Zephyrinus, Anterus, Lucius, Stephen I, Felix, Eutychian, Gaius, Melchiades, Mark and Damasus)
   Besides these there was a remarkable number of Bishops, Deacons and lay Martyrs, who bore witness to the faith by the shining example of their lives and their sacrifice.

The Crypt of the Popes and those of St. Gaius, of St. Eusebius and of St. Cornelius in the Catacombs of San Callisto tell glorious chapters in the story of the Church in Rome. Pope St. Damasus refers to them in his fifty poems which relate to the Popes and other illustrious martyrs. These works are striking in the beauty of the script by Filocalus, in the sonority of their latin verses and their conciseness of expression celebrating the martyrs of the Church of Rome.
The poem of Pope Damasus placed before the tomb of Sixtus II in the Crypt of the Popes records, apart from the Popes who "have kept the altar of Christ", i.e. the faith of the Christian Community, the latin and greek Popes, together with the multitude of the laity, children, youths and old who "have preferred to keep their virginal purity" rather than betray their faith.
While reading the names of popes Pontian, Anterus, Fabian, Lucius and Eutychian on the walls, we remember that Sixtus II was also buried here. The broken and incomplete incriptions, beside the name of pontiff, carry the title of e_i (episcopos) which marks them out as leaders, pastors of the Church of Rome.
Although only names, they bring back the story of the Church in Rome in the Third Century. It is a story of faith, of suffering and of martyrdom.
The first one to spring to mind is the Pope and Martyr, St. Pontian (21st July 230-28th September 235). The five years of his pontificate were marked by vigorous pastoral action, disputes and the struggle against heresy. Pope Pontian brings to mind, the figure of his unyielding opponent Hippolytus (217-235) - roman priest and antipope. He was an outstanding figure in Christian Rome of the Third Century. The theologian of the Roman clergy, he was however a controversial character due to his intransigence against the authority of the bishop. This had begun in the reign of pope St. Callixtus (217-220) when, in his rigorism, he refused reconciliation and pardon to those who had committed adultery, as had been granted by the pontiff.
To the differences in teaching were added motives of personal opposition, of ill-concealed envy when Callixtus was preferred to him as successor to Pope Zephyrinus. Not counting the accusations, the calumnies and the disparaging comments on the person and policies of the pope, Hippolytus finally made a total break: he had himself made bishop and founded his own church, leading part of the clergy and people of Rome into schism.
This rupture, lasting more than twenty years, continued during the pontificate of Pontian, who however in his greatness of heart tried to welcome Hippolytus and his group back into the unity of the Church. Pontian, exiled to Sardinia in 235 and condemned to forced labour, abdicated soon after his arrival on the island. It was the first time in the history of the popes. It was not just to avoid difficulties for the Church in Rome during his absence, but also to make it easier for Hippolytus to return to the Church. The latter had been exiled and condemned "ad metalla" i.e. to work in the mines. In fact, Pontian had the joy of receiving him back and sharing with him the crown of martyrdom.
To Pope Pontian succeeded Pope St. Anterus (21st November 235- 3rd January 236). He was greek in origin and spent the 43 days of his very brief pontificate in prison.
He was followed by Pope St. Fabian (10th January 236 - 20th January). A roman by birth, he was martyred in 250 during the persecution of Decius. Cyprian speaks of him in terms of great esteem (Ep. 30.5): "Post excessum nobilissimae memoriae viri Fabian" - "after death, a man of most noble memory". He was venerated in the East as a great miracle worker. Origen wrote a treatise defending him against accusations of heresy (Euseb. E.H. 6,36,4).
Apart from the beginning and the end, his pontificate coincided with an exceptional period of peace, prosperity and growth for the Church. He was an energetic and far-sighted administrator. In the Liberian Catalogue (a collection of biographies of the popes), we learn that he carried out many projects in the catacombs, organizing the development of San Callisto. His successor, Cornelius, writing to bishop Fabian of Antioch, mentions his organisation of the lower clergy. Fabian divided the city into 7 ecclesiastical regions, each with its own titulus (the future parishes), its own clergy and its own catacombs. There were now 7 deacons in Rome, each assisted by 1 subdeacon and 6 acolytes. There were more that 46 presbyters and 52 readers, and exorcists (Euseb.E. H. 6.43.11).
From his school came eminent pontiffs like Cornelius, Lucius, Stephen and probably Sixtus II and Dionysius. The remarkable work of Fabian was brought to the attention of the emperor Decius himself, who made this judgement: "I would rather receive news of a rival to the throne than of another Bishop in Rome." News of his martyrdom was immediately sent to the other Communities ( S. Cyprian. 55.9).
On the death of Fabian there followed a vacancy of 14 months. The clergy, because of the violence of the persecution of Decius, deliberately postponed the election of a successor. An additional reason was that many of their members, including the presbyter Moses, the most likely successor to the pope, were in prison.
The principal spokesman for the clergy of Rome during the interregnum was the priest named Novatian. As soon as the restrictions of the persecutions were lifted, it was possible to elect the new pope. Moses was dead and the choice of the vast majority fell on Cornelius (March 251-June 253). He was a Roman described by Cyprian as being without ambition and who had risen through all the ranks of service in the church. "He was elected," - Cyprian goes on to say - "not on his own initiative, but through his humility, prudence and goodness."
Novatian, whom some had preferred to Cornelius, vigorously contested the election of his rival. He had himself elected bishop and with a little group of his followers began a real schism.
The principal matter of disagreement between the legitimate pontiff Cornelius and the antipope Novatian was the attitude towards the "lapsi", i.e. those christians who for fear of the persecutions had renounced the true faith and who after the persecutions were over, asked to be readmitted into the communion of the Church.
Novatian was totally against readmission, while Cornelius was open to it. Probably this open-mindedness of Cornelius had contributed to his being elected. Novatian energetically worked to be recognized by the bishops of the principal Christian Churches, while in Rome the rigorist group of clergy and laity, headed by Novatian, judged the pope too lenient and refused to obey him.
Cyprian of Carthage and Dionysius of Alexandria intervened in favour of Cornelius. Cyprian in particular helped the pope to overcome the rigorist opposition. In the autumn of 251, the pope was able to convoke a synod of 60 bishops and clergy. At this, Novatian and his followers were excommunicated. Dionysius wrote them a sympathetic letter, inviting them to make peace with the pontiff.
Cornelius is remembered also for the letters written to other churches on the problem of the schism. In a letter preserved by Eusebius, church historian from Caesarea, Cornelius gives us interesting details, of great historical value, on the various ranks of clergy in the Church at Rome in his time.
When in June 252 the persecution broke out again under the emperor Gallus, Cornelius was arrested and banished to Centocelle, present-day Civitavechia. Here he received the congratulations of Cyprian and here he died in June of the next year. His body was transported to Rome and buried in the Crypt of Lucina at the Catacombs of San Callisto. The inscription on his tomb is the first epitaph of a pope in Latin, which has come down to us.
The antipope Novatian born about the year 200 was the given very high intelligence and received the very best literary and philosophical training available. When he first came to Rome, he was an eminent member of the Roman clergy and author of an outstanding tract on the Blessed Trinity, which earned him the title of founder of Roman theology.
His contemporary pope Cornelius, however, described him as someone lacking personal charm, who had himself consecrated bishop in opposition to the will of the people and clergy, but perhaps this was just gossip. His predecessor had judged him worthy of ordination and the college of presbyters of Rome had accepted him as a fitting spokesman during the gap of fourteen months of following the death of Fabian.
The election of Cornelius proved critical for Novatian. Disillusioned by his rejection and in dispute with the pope on the question of the "lapsi" he brought about a schism which spread as far as Spain, Armenia and Mesopotamia and which continued in isolated communities until the Fifth Century.
Novatian was a prolific writer and is quoted even by St. Jerome who cites four of his works. The historian Socrates tells us that Novatian died a martyr in the 258 during the persecution of Valerian (253-260).
To Cornelius succeeded St. Lucius I (25th June 253 - 5th March 254), a Roman. Cyprian asserts that he was pope for only eight months, that he was exiled by the emperor Valerian, but that in August of the same year 253, he was able to return to Rome. Cyprian affirms that on the question of the lapsi, he followed a moderate line.
Stephen I (254-257), a roman, followed Lucius I after a vacancy of two months. He insisted on asserting the primacy of the pope above all in his arguments with Cyprian, the influential bishop of Carthage. This was above all in matters of church discipline and in theological questions such as the validity of baptism administered by heretics. Stephen, following the traditions of Rome, Alexandria and Palestine held such baptisms valid, while in contrast to this bishop Cyprian had called two synods to reject as invalid baptism given by heretics.

On this matter the pope finally refused to receive the envoys of Cyprian. Re-baptism was contrary to tradition and he would not countenance it. The danger of breaking off communion in the Church was so great that Dionysius of Alexandria, who held the same opinion as the pontiff, felt it necessary to write to pope Stephen imploring him to adopt a less intransigent line.
The situation threatened to become desperate and was saved only by the death of pope Stephen on 2nd August 257 and of Cyprian, who died a martyr the following year.
These incidents bring to light the preeminent position of the Church of Rome at the middle of the Third Century in determining questions of doctrine and discipline. Stephen emerges as an authoritarian and intransigent prelate, fully conscious of his powers and special prerogatives. He was the first pope that we know of to find a formal basis for the roman primacy in the mission given by Christ to the apostle Peter, as quoted in St. Matthew's Gospel: "Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. . ."
Stephen was buried in the Crypt of the Popes in the catacombs of Callixtus.
Sixtus II (August 257 - 6th August 258), greek by origin, was the most famous pope buried in San Callisto. Eusebius in his History of the Church and Cyprian of Carthage both speak of him. Pope Damasus, in a poem dedicated to him, records the "tempora quo gladio secuti pia viscera matris - in the times when the sword of the persecutor struck the flesh of the Mother (Church)". The soldiers of the cruel tyrant surprised the pope while he was proclaiming holy scripture to the faithful and the pontiff, to save his people whom he wanted to defend, offered his head to the sword of the executioner.
The cruel tyrant was the emperor Valerian, who had proclaimed two decrees which prohibited the christians from entering the cemeteries and from holding religious functions. A second decree sanctioned bishops, priests and deacons to be immediate beheading, without any formal process.
Thus it was that the soldiers seized the pope and the four deacons who were with him and beheaded them the same day. Cyprian announced this to the African bishop Successus "Sixtus was sent to his death on the eighth day before the Ides of August and with him four deacons." (Ep. 80) "capite truncatus est sub die VIII Idus Augustas" "i.e. he was beheaded on the 6th August (258).
According to the Depositio Martyrum, the Liber Pontificalis and the De locis sanctis martyrum, he was buried in the same cemetery of San Callisto in the Crypt of the Popes.

We have no precise facts concerning the next two popes: Eutychian (4 January 275 - 7th December 283), from Luni in Liguria was the last pope to be buried in the Crypt of the Popes, and Gaius (17th December 283 - 22nd April 296) but their inscriptions are still extant. Their pontificates fell during the period of peace which preceded the persecution of Diocletian.
After Gaius came Marcellinus (30 June 296 - 25th October 304) who died during the persecution of Diocletian but not as a martyr. We know only that he was buried in the Catacombs of Priscilla. However, his name is recorded in the famous inscription of the Deacon Severus which is found in the cemetery of Callixtus.
In latin hexameters, Severus tells us that had constructed a cubiculum with arcosolia "for himself and his dear ones where he might dwell in peace". He had been authorised by "pope Marcellinus." The term "pope (papa)", synonymous with the bishop of Rome, appears for the first time in this inscription, in the abbreviation "PP" used even today by the popes in their signatures.
The next pope to be buried in San Callisto, in a crypt which bears his name, was Eusebius (18th April -21st October, perhaps 310). He was elected during the persecution of Diocletian. He was the most beloved and venerated by the christians of his day for the kindness and mercy he demonstrated during the few months of his pontificate.
He courageously and decisively confronted the thorny question of the "lapsi = the fallen" i.e. those christians who, in the time of persecution for fear of losing their goods, of being sent into exile, of suffering torture or death, had denied their christian faith. Some of these were called the libellatici , from libellum, in other words from the declaration, sometimes obtained through favouritism or bribery, that they had made the sacrifice to the gods. When the storm of persecution had passed, repentant of their apostasy, they asked to be readmitted into the Church.
One part of the clergy of Rome, headed by Heraclius, an influential dignitary of the Church was absolutely opposed to this while pope Eusebius declared himself amenable and favourable. The disagreement became an open dispute, such that the emperor Maxentius sent into exile the leaders of both factions. Pope Damasus records this in the inscription placed before the tomb of pope Eusebius. "Heraclius - he writes - vetuit labsos peccata dolere. Eusebius miseros docuit sua crimina flere" (Heraclius forbade the lapsed to weep for their sins[i.e. would not let them do public penance], while Eusebius taught that they might weep with many tears, i.e. do penance".
Pope Eusebius, exiled to Sicily, died there a few months later. The Church in Rome considered him to have suffered martyrdom. His body was brought to the capital and buried in the Catacombs of San Callisto. The crypt which bore his name, adorned with marble and made more illustrious by the inscription of pope Damasus, was one of the most frequently visited by pilgrims down the ages.

The Catacombs have rightly been called the archives of the Church since they provide exact and well-documented historical evidence concerning:-
* the Fathers of the Church
* martyrdom in the Early Church
* the pure and simple profession of the faith of innumerable christians in the many storms of persecution and in periods of peace
- in the family, in society, at work and all the circumstances of their everyday lives.

Recently, in receiving the members of the Archaeological Commission and Directors of he Catacombs, Pope John Paul II declared:
" These monuments are invested with great historical and spiritual significance. In visiting them, we come in contact with the evocative elements of Christianity from the earliest times. We can, so to speak, touch with our hands the faith which animated the ancient Christian community. . . How then could we not be moved by such simple but eloquent reminders of these first witnesses to the faith ?"
Now we must look forward to the historic moment of the Great Jubilee, during which the catacombs of Rome will assume afresh their privileged place of prayer and pilgrimage. . . Together with the great Roman basilicas, the catacombs will be essential gathering places for the pilgrims in the Holy Year."

We have looked at some of the popes buried in the Catacombs of San Callisto and outlined their pontificates as given to us by the historians and Fathers of the Church. There emerges a Church guided with authority by the Martyr and Confessor Popes, illuminated by their holy lives and sometimes enriched by their blood. To quote the expression of Pope Damasus, "they have truly kept the altar of Christ", the Church born in Rome.

THE SIXTEEN POPES OF SAINT CALLIXTUS

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