Sts. Pontian & Hippolytus
St. Pontian
Sts. Pontian and Hippolytus were rivals for the papacy. During Pontian’s pontificate (AD 230-235) the schism led by Hippolytus of Rome came to an end. Both Pontian and Hippolytus were exiled by the emperor Maximinus Thrax to Sardinia. According to Liber Pontificalis he died along with Hippolytus in the Sardinian mines, but not until the two saints had reconciled.
Hippolytus was a vehement and determined cleric for whom even orthodox doctrine and practice were not sufficiently rigorous. Nonetheless, he was an orthodox theologian, one of the best prior to the liberation of the Church by Constantine the Great almost a century later.
St. Hippolytus’ writings come to us primarily in fragments, but they do add much to our knowledge of the Roman liturgy and the structure of the Church in the second and third centuries. His works include Scripture commentaries and apologies against heresy. In addition, his chronicle of the world served for centuries as a chronology from the creation of the world up to the year 234.
