St. Calixtus I. Pope,martyr

Anyone interested in ancient Christian monuments cannot visit Rome without seeing the famous Catacombs of Calixtus. This extensive underground burial ground is named after Pope Saint Calixtus I, whose feast day is on 14 October.

Saint Calixtus I came from a Christian family. He was born in the second half of the 2nd century in Roman Zátiberí (now Trastevere). We know quite a lot about his life from the writings of his contemporary, Hippolytus of Rome. The disadvantage of these sources is that they are one-sided. Hypolitus was Calixtus’ personal enemy and therefore sought to find in his life anything that would portray him in the worst possible light. Nevertheless, Hippolytus’ testimony is historically valuable, and, alongside other sources, it enables us to better understand the life of Pope Calixtus I than that of many of his successors.

Calixtus’ parents were slaves, and he was a slave himself in the household of an imperial courtier in his youth. His master was wealthy because Emperor Commodus gave him large properties and allowed him to open a bank as a reward for his service as a legionnaire. As he was a Christian, some Christians also deposited money in his bank. Calixtus demonstrated specific abilities when his master entrusted him with managing this particular bank. However, he was a poor farmer. He lost a lot of money through frivolous lending. Fearing severe punishment, he decided to escape. He had already boarded a ship in the port of Ostia, but he was caught. The Lord punished him by making him do hard work. After a while, the Lord released him from this duty on the condition that he recover the borrowed money from the debtors. Some of the debtors were Jews, and it seems that Calixtus sought them out when they were gathered in the synagogue. The Jews were outraged by this. Not only did he not receive the money, he was also accused of being a Christian and of violating their rights, which were guaranteed by Roman law.

He was imprisoned and sentenced to forced labour in the Sardinian mines, where other Christian convicts also worked. After some time, however, he and several other Christians were released. This was thanks to the religious concubine of Emperor Komodo, who, at the initiative of Pope Victor, asked the emperor for mercy for the imprisoned Christians. Nevertheless, Pope Victor did not want Calixtus to remain in Rome and offered him a position and security in the nearby city of Ancyra.

Pope Victor was succeeded by Zephyrin in 198. Zephyrin called Calixtus to Rome to serve as his collaborator, ordained him a deacon, and entrusted him with managing a crucial Christian cemetery on the Via Appia, a road in Rome. As Calixtus was entrusted with this task for a long time, the cemetery became known as the Catacombs of Calixtus.

Calixtus proved himself well in his service to the Roman Church and, after Zephyrinus’s death, he was elected as his successor. This greatly upset the learned but proud priest Hippolytus, who considered himself the most suitable candidate for the papal throne. He refused to recognise Calixtus’s election and was himself elected by his supporters as an antipope. This was the first case of antipopeism in church history. However, after a long split, Hippolytus finally died reconciled to the Church in 235.

Pope Calixtus served as pope for five years. He solved essential questions that had caused contradictions between the faithful and the clergy during his time as pope. He allowed those excluded for apostasy or serious moral offences to return to the Church if they repented and asked to rejoin the community. Furthermore, he recognised the validity of marriages between free citizens and slaves without reservation. By doing so, he overcame discriminatory Roman laws that prohibited marriage between a slave man and a free woman.

Calixtus also intervened in religious disputes, maintaining a prudent and moderate attitude throughout. However, he definitely condemned clearly erroneous insights. One such case was that of the heretic Sabellius, who rejected the Church’s doctrine of three persons in the Holy Trinity. Calixtus showed admirable patience towards the rebellious schismatic Hypolite. He never condemned him and rose above his slander and insults with noble dignity.

Pope Calixtus died a martyr on 14 October 222. He was ambushed and killed by anti-Christian rioters in Zatiberia. Given the circumstances, it was probably not feasible for the Roman faithful to transfer Calixtus’ body across the Tiber to the distant catacombs on the Appian Way. Therefore, he was buried in the nearby Kalepodius cemetery on the Via Aurelia. This created an interesting situation. In the papal crypt of the Catacombs of Calixtus, popes from the 3rd century onwards were buried, starting with Zephyrin — except for Calixtus I, after whom the crypt was named. In the 8th century, Calixtus’s remains were transferred from the Via Aurelia to the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere. Despite his relatively short reign, Calixtus I is considered one of the most important popes of Christian antiquity. He was the first pope after Peter and Paul to achieve liturgical veneration in the Roman Church.