Pope Pontian

Pope Saint Pontian
Papacy began	21 July 230
Papacy ended	28 September 235
Predecessor	Urban I
Successor	Anterus
Personal details
Born	c. 200
Died	October 235 Sardinia, Roman Empire
Sainthood
Feast day	13 August

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 under the Emperor Maximinus the Thracian, Pontian was arrested and sent to the island of Sardinia. He resigned to make the election of a new pope possible.^[1]

Pontificate

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 Bishops of Rome, written in the 4th century.

Pontian's pontificate was relatively peaceful under the reign of the Emperor Severus Alexander and noted for the condemnation of Origen by a Roman synod over which Pontian likely presided.^[1] The next emperor, Maximinus, however, overturned his predecessor's policy of toleration towards Christianity. Both Pope Pontian and the Antipope Hippolytus of Rome were arrested and exiled to labour in the mines of Sardinia, generally regarded as a death sentence.^[2]

As a consequence of his sentence, Pontian resigned as bishop on 28 September 235, in order to provide for an orderly transition in the Church of Rome. This brought a schism which had existed in the Roman Church for 18 years to an end. Neither Hippolytus nor Pontian survived, reconciling with one another there before their deaths. Pontian died in October 235.^[3]

Remembered

Pope Fabian had the bodies of both Pontian and Hippolytus brought back to Rome in 236 or 237 and buried in the papal crypt in the Catacomb of Callixtus on the Appian Way.^[4] 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 "MARTUR" had been added in another hand.^{[citation needed]}

Pontian's feast day was previously celebrated on 19 November, but since 1969 both he and Hippolytus are commemorated jointly on 13 August.^[5]

Notes

References

•  "Pope St. Pontian". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pope Pontian.

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