About Today for Monday in the 28th week of Ordinary Time or St. Callistus I, Po & M

October 14

Pope Callistus I

Optional Memorial

Optional Memorial, 1969 Calendar, celebration October 14
1955 Calendar, celebration October 14
*Note: Pope Callistus, also written CALLIXTUS or CALIXTUS

Today we celebrate a great pope and a martyr. Pope Callistus I lived in the first part of the third century.

Our knowledge today about Pope Callistus I comes from two of his enemies, Tertullian and the author of “Philosophumena”, Hippolytus.

Although calumnious, their story about Callistus’s life is based on facts.

According to the “Philosophumena”, Callistus was a slave entrusted by his master with a large sum of money. He lost this money and escaped Rome. Carpophorus, his master, caught him as he was about to jump into the sea. He was released under the assumption that he could recover some of the money. After an other incident, he was fighting in a synagogue, he was arrested again. According to “Philosophumena” he was denounced as a Christian and punished to work in the mines of Sardinia.

He was released in a general amnesty for Christians although his name was not on Pope’s Victor list of martyrs. Being a compassionate man, Pope Victor rescued Callistus also and sent him to Antium with a monthly allowance.

When Zephyrinus became pope, Callistus was entrusted with the burial chambers along the Appian Way. This cemetery belonging to the Church is called ever since the Catacombs of San Callisto.

We know Callistus obtained great influence over Pope Zephyrinus by bribes but we are not told how he became archdeacon and then pope.

Johann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger in “Hippolytus und Kallistus” (Ratisbon, 1853) and De Rossi in “Bulletino di Arch. Crist.”, IV (1886)  was able to shade light on this contemporary scandal and to show that Callistus held the Catholic Faith.

Callistus I, was pope from about 217 to about 222 and was honoured as a martyr in 14 August. The 4th-century Depositio Martirum puts his anniversary on the same date as we celebrate it today.

Image source: Municipal Library of Trento, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons; Public domain