Pope Zephyrinus

Infobox Pope
English name=Zephyrinus


birth_name=Zephyrinus
term_start=199
term_end=December 20, 217
predecessor=Victor I
successor=Callixtus I
birth_date=???
birthplace=Rome, Italy
dead=dead|death_date=death date|217|12|20|mf=y
deathplace=Rome, Italy| infobox popestyles
papal name=Pope Zephyrinus
dipstyle=His Holiness
offstyle=Your Holiness
relstyle=Holy Father
deathstyle=Saint|

Pope Saint Zephyrinus, born in Rome, was pope from 199 to 217. His predecessor was Pope Victor I. Upon his death on December 20, 217, he was succeeded by his principal advisor, Pope Callixtus I.

Papacy

Despite his long pontificate relatively little is known of him. His critic, Saint Hippolytus, described him as a simple man without education, a weak man "unskilled in the church's rule" and dominated by his deacon Callixtus, who succeeded him as Pope. Hippolytus charged him with laxity in enforcing discipline and failure to assert his authority sufficiently in repressing the heresies (especially Sabellianism) then prevalent in Rome. [Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford University Press 2005 ISBN 978-0-19-280290-3)] [ [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9078331/Saint-Zephyrinus Encyclopaedia Britannica Online] ]

Conflicts

Under Zephyrinus, the position of the Christians, which had remained favourable in the first years of the government of Emperor Septimius Severus (193-211), grew constantly worse, and in 202 or 203 the edict of persecution appeared which forbade conversion to Christianity under the severest penalties. [ [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15756c.htm Catholic Encyclopedia: Pope St. Zephyrinus] ]

Eusebius of Caesarea recounts that a certain Natalius who had at first accepted to be made bishop of a group that held that Christ, though conceived by the Holy Ghost, was a mere man, and even inferior to Melchizedek, then repented and begged Zephyrinus to receive him back into the communion of the Church. [ [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15756c.htm Catholic Encyclopedia: Pope St. Zephyrinus] ] [ [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_Christian_Biography_and_Literature_to_the_End_of_the_Sixth_Century/Dictionary/Z/Zephyrinus Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature: Zephyrinus] ]

The Roman priest Hippolytus was a vigorous proponent of a Logos doctrine that emphasized the distinction of the Persons of the Trinity. He taught that the Divine Logos that became man in Christ differs in everything from God and is the mediary between God and the world of creatures. This doctrine in the form in which Hippolytus set it forth aroused many doubts, and another theological school appeared in opposition to it, emphasizing the absolute unity of God. This doctrine, known as Monarchianism, affirmed the sole deity of God the Father and considered Christ to be a manifestation of God in the manner ("modus") of union with human nature. Consequently they were called Modalists or Patripassians, as according to them it was not the Son of God but the Father who had been crucified. Pope Zephyrinus did not interpose authoritatively in the dispute between the two schools. The heresy of the Modalists was not at first clearly evident, and the doctrine of Hippolytus offered many difficulties as regards the tradition of the Church. Unable to respond adequately to the learned arguments of Hippolytus, Zephyrinus said simply that he acknowledged only one God, and this was the Lord Jesus Christ, but it was the Son, not the Father, who had died. [ [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15756c.htm Catholic Encyclopedia: Pope St. Zephyrinus] ]

In his opposition to Zephyrinus, Hippolytus started the first schism in the history of the Christian Church. [ [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9078331/Saint-Zephyrinus Encyclopaedia Britannica Online] ] When Callixtus, whom Hippolytus blamed for the inaction of Zephyrinus, succeeded Zephyrinus as Pope, Hippolytus and a number of his scholars left the Church, and for over ten years Hippolytus stood at the head of a separate congregation, possibly as bishop, and is sometimes considered the first Antipope. [ [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15756c.htm Catholic Encyclopedia: Pope St. Zephyrinus] ]

Feast day

The feast of "St Zephyrinus, Pope and Martyr," formerly held on August 26, ["Calendarium Romanum" (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1969), p. 136] is now celebrated on December 20, the day of his death. ["Martyrologium Romanum" (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2001 ISBN 88-209-7210-7)] Traditional Roman Catholics continue to celebrate his feast day on August 26. [see the General Roman Calendar as in 1954 and the General Roman Calendar of 1962]

References

Books

*Rendina, Claudio, "The Popes Histories and Secrets" (2002)