Pope Anterus
| Anterus | |
|---|---|
| |
| Birth name | Anterus |
| Papacy began | November 21, 235 |
| Papacy ended | January 3, 236 |
| Predecessor | Pontian |
| Successor | Fabian |
| Born | ??? ??? |
| Died | January 3 236 Rome, Italy |
Pope Saint Anterus, was bishop of Rome from November 21, 235 to January 3, 236, succeeding Pope Pontian, who had been deported from Rome along with the antipope Hippolytus to Sardinia. His reign was a very short one, lasting only 40 days.
It is claimed he was martyred, the persecutions of Emperor Maximinus the Thracian. While it is true that his successor died in exile in the Sandinian mines, there is no evidence for this being the case with Anterus. He was buried in the papal crypt of the cemetery of St. Callixtus in Rome and later made a saint, as were all the early popes.
Biography
The Liber Pontificalis indicates that Anterus was a Greek and that his father's name was Romulus. He became pope after his predecessor, Pontian, was sentenced to exile in the Sardinian mines under the persecution of Emperor Maximinus I, known as the Thracian. Nothing else is known of his background, and little if anything is known of his episcopacy, which lasted less than a month and a half.
The congregation of the antipope and later saint Hippolytus, who was exiled with Pontian, may have been reconciled with the main body of the Roman church during Anterus' time, but the sources make it equally possible that this reunion occurred either just before the sentence of exile was enforced or during the time of Anterus' successor, Pope Fabian I.
The idea of his martyrdom is supported by the fact that his predecessor died in the mines after being exiled under persecution, but it is undermined by the report in the Liberian Catalog of the popes that he "fell asleep," a euphemism for a natural death.
A later tradition holds that Anterus was martyred for having caused the Acts of the martyrs to be collected by notaries and deposited in the archives of the Roman Church. While this tradition cannot be dismissed out of hand, most scholars maintain treat it skeptically, since its source, the Liber Pontificalis, is of relatively late date an routinely ascribes to each pope accomplishments that are clearly anacrhonistic.
The site of Anterus' sepulchre was discovered by the Italian archaeologist Giovanni Battista de Rossi in 1854, who found some broken remnants of his Greek epitaph engraved on the narrow oblong slab that covered his tomb. A letter once attributed to him is now dismissed as a later forgery. His feast is celebrated on January 3.
| Roman Catholic Popes | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by: Pontian |
Bishop of Rome Pope 235–236 |
Succeeded by: Fabian |
Notes
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