Pope Callixtus I

Callixtus I
Birth name	Callixtus or Callistus
Papacy began	217
Papacy ended	222
Predecessor	Zephyrinus
Successor	Urban I
Born	??? ???
Died	222 ???
Other popes named Callixtus

Pope Saint Callixtus I, also written Callistus I, was pope from about 217 to about 222, during the reigns of the Roman Emperors Heliogabalus and Alexander Severus. He was martyred for his Christian faith and is a canonized saint of the Roman Catholic Church.

Callixtus had been a confessor who suffered hard labor in the mines of Sardinia before being freed through the efforts of Pope Victor I during the reign of Emperor Commodus. He remained outside of Rome after his liberation until being summoned by his predecessor, Pope Zephryinus I (199-217), to serve has his deacon.

Callixtus was placed in charge of the Christian burial chambers along the Appian Way which bear his name and were rediscovered in 1849 the archaeologist Giovanni Battista de Rossi.

When Callixtus followed Zephyrinus as Bishop of Rome, he established the practice of granting absolution of all repented sins, for which Tertullian took him to task (De Pudicitia xxi). Hippolytus and Tertullian were especially upset by the pope's admitting to communion those who had repented for murder, adultery, and fornication, as well as by his alleged belief in Sabellianism, which he attempted to distance himself from.

It is possible that Callixtus was martyred around 222, perhaps during a popular uprising, but the legend that he was thrown down a well has no historical foundation, though the church does contain an ancient well (Nyborg).

Callixtus was honored as a martyr in Todi, Italy, on August 14. He was buried in the cemetery of Calepodius on the Aurelian Way and his anniversary is given by the 4th-century Depositio Martirum (Callisti in viâ Aureliâ miliario III) and by the subsequent martyrologies on 14 October. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, his relics were translated in the 9th century to the predecessor of Santa Maria in Trastevere.

The Roman Catholic Church keeps the feast day of Pope Saint Callixtus I on October 14.

The Acta of Callixtus are imaginary (CE "Pope St Callistus I").

Biography

Early career

Our chief knowledge of this pope is from his bitter enemies, Tertullian, who had become by this time a Montanist, and Hippolytus of Rome, who had become Callixtus rival antipope. It it necessary therefore to take the facts they present with a grain of salt, while not necessarily dismissing them out of hand. According to Hippolytus' "Philosophumena" (c. ix) Callixtus was originally the slave of Carpophorus, a Christian in the household of the emperor. His master entrusted large sums of money to Callixtus, with which he started a bank in which Christian men and widows invested money. Hippolytus alleges that all of this money Callixtus lost, and he consequently took flight.

Callixtus was eventually apprehended and consigned to the punishment reserved for slaves, the pistrinum, or hand-mill. However, the Christians who had invested with him begged that he might be released in order that they might retrieve at least some of their money. Callixtus then ran into even more trouble with a group of Jews—either because he insulted them during their synagogue worship (as Hippolytus claims) or over another monetary dispute. The Jews brought him before the prefect Fuscianus. Carpophorus claimed that Callixtus was no true Christian, but Callixtus was sent to the mines in Sardinia as a confessor.

Some time after this, Marcia, the mistress of Emperor Commodus, sent for Pope Victor and volunteered to help free any Christian martyrs in the mines of Sardinia. He gave her a list, Hippolytus says without including Callixtus' name. After obtaining a pardon from the emperor, Marcia sent a priest to secure the release of the prisoners. Callixtus fell at his feet, and persuaded him to take him also. Hippolytus claims that Victor was annoyed annoyed at this but, being a compassionate man, he kept silence. Callixtus, rather than returning to Rome, remained in Antium with a monthly allowance from Victor, fact seemingly at odds with Hippolytus claim that Callixtus was merely a criminal rather than a respected member of the Church.

When Zephyrinus became pope, he recalled Callixtus to Rome and placed him in charge of the cemetery on the Appian Way belonging to the Church. Callixtus obtained great influence over Zephyrinus—described as ignorant, illiterate, and grasping allegedly by bribes.

Deconstructing Hippolytus' account

Due to fact of Hippolytus' bitter antagonism toward Callixtus, the above version deserves at least some deconstruction before we proceed. Not even Hippolytus claims that Callixtus lost the money deposited with him through his own fault. Moreover, that Carpophorus, a Christian, should commit a his Christian slave to the horrible punishment of the pistrinum does not speak well for the master's character. On the other hand, the intercession of his fellow Christians on behalf of Callixtus is in his favor and raises the question whether they were entirely motivated by financial interests, as Hippolytus alleges. The declaration of Carpophorus that Callixtus was no Christian was scandalous and untrue. Hippolytus himself admits that it was as a Christian that Callixtus was sent to the mines, and therefore as a confessor. The story that he was left off of Pope Victor's list of Christians sent to the mines is dubious, and even if true does not diminish Callixtus suffering. It was clear that he was released as a Christian and even granted a monthly pension by Victor, so we should probably be skeptical regarding the story that Victor regretted his release.

Finally, it is unlikely that Zephyrinus, who reigned as pope for nearly 20 years, was ignorant and base. Callixtus could hardly have raised himself so high without considerable talents. The story of his ingratiating himself to Zephryinus through bribes therefore must also be treated with skepticism.

Callixtus as deacon

Besides caring for the Christian cemetery along the Appian Way, Callixtus apparently served Pope Zephrynus as his archdeacon and closest adviser. It was in this capacity, apparently, that he made a bitter enemy of Hippolytus. The latter blamed Callixtus for Zephrynus' refusal to intervene on behalf of Hippolytus' party in a theological dispute dealing with the nature of the Trinity and the Incarnation. Hippolytus argued that only God the Son (and not the Father) incarnated in Jesus, while his opponent Sabellius and others took the view that the Son was a modality of God as a United Being, rather than as a distinct person from the Father. Zephrynus failed to speak out forcefully against Sabellius and his colleagues, and Hippolytus grew increasingly bitter against him, making Callixtus the brunt of his angry denunciations and calumnies.

Hippolytus also blamed Callixtus for Zephrynus policy of receiving back into communion such people as the arch-heretic (NAME), who had been the leader of an Adoptionist schism at Rome until a serious of dreams led him to repent and beg to beg Zephrynus for forgiveness. Meanwhile, Hippolytus' own views on theology and Church administration were apparently ignored by the pope in favor of Callixtus's opinions.

So vehemently did Hippolytus blame Callixtus for Zephrynus supposed faults, that when Callixtus was elected the next pope, Hippolytus and some of his party separated themselves from the main body of the Roman Church and Hippolytus served in effect as antipope.

Callixtus as pope

Callixtus papacy was only one fourth as long as his predecessor's, and for the most part he continued the policies he had help Zephyrinus to develop and implement. He was apparently more of a conciliator than a judge, but his tendency to forgive brought him into conflict with the two of the most significant and unbending writers the age in Tertullian and Hyppolytus. Since he left few if any writings of his own, we are thus forced to rely on his critics for information about his views.

The orthodoxy of Callixtus was challenged by both Hippolytus and Tertullian on the ground that in a famous edict he granting communion to those who had committed adultery and fornication after due penance. Tertullian characterizes the decree as follows: "I hear that an edict has been published, and a peremptory one; the bishop of bishops, which means the Pontifex Maximus, proclaims: 'I remit the crimes of adultery and fornication to those who have done penance.'"

However, granting absolution to these moral criminals was an outrage to Montanists such as Tertullian "As to thy decision," he complained, "I ask, whence dost thou usurp this right of the Church? If it is because the Lord said to Peter: 'Upon this rock I will build My Church, I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven', or 'whatsoever though bindest or loosest on earth shall be bound or loosed in heaven'... who art thou that destroyest and alterest the manifest intention of the Lord, who conferred this on Peter personally and alone?" (De Pudicitia, xxi.)

Doubtless Hippolytus and Tertullian were upholding the stricter moral tradition of earlier times. They thus regarded the pope, in decreeing a relaxation, as enacting a new and inappropriate law. However Callixtus based his decree on the precedents of his predecessors during the early days of the Novationist controversy, in which the "catholic" tradition was established that even the most serious sins—including even apostasy and sacrificing to pagan idols—could be forgiven by the bishops.

Other complaints of Hippolytus are that Callixtus did not submit converts from heresy to the humiliation of public penance for their sins; that he had received into his "school" (i.e. the Church) those whom Hippolytus had excommunicated; and that he declared that a mortal sin was not always a sufficient reason for deposing a bishop.

Tertullian (De Exhort. Castitatis, vii) speaks with reprobation of Roman bishops who had been married more than once, and Hippolytus charges Callixtus with being the first to allow this, which was against the rule of Saint Paul as established in his letters. Callixtus also allowed the lower clergy to marry and permitted noble ladies to marry commoners and slaves. Although Paul had insisted that "in Christ there is neither slave no free," such unions were forbidden by the Roman law.

Hippolytus further declared that re-baptizing of heretics—later declared unnecessary by the church—was performed first in Callixtus's day, but he does hold Callixtus answerable for this.

Interestingly, neither Tertullian nor Hippolytus a word criticizes Callixtus character after his promotion to the papacy, nor due they argue against the validity of his election.

Hippolytus, however, indeed regards Callistus as a heretic. He accuses him Di-theism and a type of Sabellianism. In fact, however, both Zephyrinus and Callixtus had been critical of the theologies of both Sabellius and Hippolytus.

Martyr, died c. 223. His contemporary, Julius Africanus, gives the date of his accession as the first (or second?) year of Elagabalus, i.e., 218 or 219. Eusebius and the Liberian catalogue agree in giving him five years of episcopate. His Acts are spurious, but he is the earliest pope found the fourth-century "Depositio Martirum", and this is good evidence that he was really a martyr, although he lived in a time of peace under Alexander Severus, whose mother was a Christian. We learn from the "Historiae Augustae" that a spot on which he had built an oratory was claimed by the tavern-keepers, popinarii, but the emperor decided that the worship of any god was better than a tavern. This is said to have been the origin of Sta. Maria in Trastevere, which was built, according to the Liberian catalogue, by Pope Julius, juxta Callistum. In fact the Church of St. Callistus is close by, containing a well into which legend says his body was thrown, and this is probably the church he built, rather than the more famous basilica. He was buried in the cemetery of Calepodius on the Aurelian Way, and his anniversary is given by the "Depositio Martirum" (Callisti in viâ Aureliâ miliario III) and by the subsequent martyrologies on 14 October, on which day his feast is still kept. His relics were translated in the ninth century to Sta. Maria in Trastevere.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops introduction to saints notes that St. Callistus is "most renowned for the reconciliation of sinners, who following a period of penance, were re-admitted to communion with the Church." [1]

In an apocryphal anecdote in the collection of imperial biographies called the Historia Augustae, the spot on which he had built an oratory was claimed by tavern keepers, but the emperor decided that the worship of any god was better than a tavern. The story is the basis for dating the original structure of the present Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere.

The Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere was a titulus of which Callixtus was the patron. The 4th-century basilica of Ss Callixti et Iuliani (Callixtus and Pope Julius I) was rebuilt in the 12th century by Pope Innocent II and rededicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The 8th-century Chiesa di San Callisto is close by, with its beginnings apparently as a shrine on the site of his martyrdom, which is attested in the 4th-century Deposition Martyri and so is likely to be historical.

The Catholic Encyclopedia laments: "If we knew more of St. Callistus from Catholic sources, he would probably appear as one of the greatest of the popes."

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Catholic Encyclopedia 1908: "Pope St. Callistus"
• Encyclopaedia Britannica: Saint Calixtus I
• Chris Nyborg, "San Callisto": the church
• Chris Nyborg, "Churches of Rome: Catacombe di San Callisto"

Roman Catholic Popes
Preceded by: Zephyrinus	Bishop of Rome Pope 217–222	Succeeded by: Urban I

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