SAINT ANICETUS—A.D. 157-168

 

ON the 25th of July, A.D. 157, Saint Anicetus, a Syrian priest, son of John, was created pontiff. Between that pope and Saint Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, there was a great controversy, which divided them in opinion, but did not disturb their friendship. It was upon the subject of the celebration of Easter. Anicetus followed the tradition of Saint Peter, in celebrating Easter on the Sunday following the fourteenth day of the moon of the vernal equinox. Saint Polycarp, on the contrary, preferred the tradition of the Apostle Saint John, celebrating on the day of that full moon, which sometimes fell on a week-day. The bishops of Asia did not agree upon that subject with the Roman Church. That question was subsequently decided, as we shall relate in the life of Saint Victor I. This difference of Opinion did not cause any breach of friendship. On one occasion, Anicetus even yielded to Polycarp the honor of offering up the sacrifice of the Mass. Anicetus had the ability to preserve his flock from the poison of error, and to keep the great trust of the faith in all its purity. By his vigilance he suppressed the heresies of Valentinus and of Marcion.

Saint Anicetus suffered martyrdom in the year 168. In five ordinations he created nine bishops, seventeen priests, and fourteen deacons. He governed the Church nearly eleven years. His remains, which for fourteen hundred and twenty-nine years had rested in the cemetery of Calixtus, are at present venerated in the chapel of the Altemps palace at Rome, where they were deposited on the 28th of October, 1504. This favor was granted, by the Pope Clement VIII, to the prince, John Angelo, Duke of Altemps.

 

SAINT SOTER—A.D. 168-177

 

FONDI, near Naples, was the native place of Saint Soter, also in his life called Concordius. He was created pontiff AD 168. Critics are not agreed as to the authenticity of the decretals published under his name. Novaes here repeats the warning which he had already given, that all the decretals up to those of Saint Ciricius, the thirty-ninth pope, who was created AD 384, should be examined with the most scrupulous attention. By the testimony of Saint Deinis, we know that Saint Soter fulfilled his duties with an unfailing zeal, and that he, like his predecessors, who had to use great circumspection, delighted in aiding distant and indigent Christians. He inquired into the sufferings and needs of these who were persecuted for the faith. He sent without delay consolation and provision to those whom the emperor’s orders condemned to work in the mines. The more prosperous Christians were called upon to give large alms, by means of which such sufferings of Christians in the most distant parts of the earth could be diminished and alleviated. At the same time, this pontiff opposed the heresies which gnawed the vitals of Christianity. By means of an affectation of extreme strictness of life, the heretics deluded the multitude: they pretended that the time had arrived which they called the millennium.

The zeal of the sovereign pontiff obtained the important concession that Christians, merely as Christians, should not be condemned—that unless charged with some distinct crime against the state, their Christian creed should not be imputed to them as a crime.

In five ordinations Saint Soter created eleven bishops, eighteen priests, and nine deacons. He governed the Church nine years and a few months. From the cemetery of Saint Calixtus, where his body was at first buried, it was removed by Sergius II, in 845, to the Church of Saints Sylvester and Mart in a'i Monti, and then to the Appian Way, to the Church of Saint Sixtus, belonging to the Dominican Fathers.

To thins reign belongs the miracle of the thundering legion. The following account is given of it by Bossuet:

“In an extreme scarcity of water that was endured by the army of Marcus Aurelius in Germany, a Christian legion obtained rain sufficient to quench the thirst of all the troops, and accompanied by thunder that terrified the enemy. This miracle caused the legion to receive, or to have confirmed to it, the title of the thunder legion. The emperor was touched by that miracle, and wrote to the senate in favor of the Christians. Subsequently his false priests persuaded him to attribute to their prayers and to their false gods the miracle for which the pagans had not even presumed to express a wish”.

Evidence of this miracle is to be seen in the bas-reliefs of the Antonine column. The Romans are there represented with weapons in hand against the barbarians, who are seen extended upon the ground with their horses, while a torrent of rain is pouring upon them, and they seem to be prostrated by the thunderbolts. On that occasion, in fact, Marcus Aurelius, in his letter to the senate, declared that hjs army had been saved by the prayers of the Christian soldiers.

 

SAINT ELEUTHERUS—AD 177-193

 

ACCORDING to several writers. Saint Eleutherus had the surname of Abondio; he was a Greek, and born at Nicopolis, now called Prevesa, in Albania. Others, however, say that he was a Neapolitan, born in Calabria. (It must be remembered that all that part of Italy was also called Magna Graecia.) At the request of Lucius, king of that part of England which was subject to the Romans, this pope sent Fugacius and Damian into that island, to endeavor to convert it to the Catholic faith. It must be remembered that previous to this many Christians were in England, but this was the first organized missionary effort.

Marcus Aurelius was succeeded in the empire by Commodus, and, by a strange but welcome contradiction, the Church, which had been persecuted during the reign of a good prince, was left in peace by a monstrous one. Elected AD 177, Saint Eleutherus governed the Church during fifteen years and a few days. In three ordinations he created sixteen bishops, twelve priests, and eight deacons. He was buried in the Vatican.

 

 

SAINT VICTOR I—A.D. 193-202

 

WHILE Victor I sat in the chair of Saint Peter, especial attention was paid to the question about the celebration of Easter, of which we have already spoken. The dispute was on this question: whether the celebration should take place on the fourteenth day of the March moon, as the Asiatic Churches maintained, or on the Sunday next after that fourteenth day, as was customary at Rome and among the Western Churches. This latter opinion, conformable to the tradition of Saint Peter, prevailed in the council which was assembled in Rome by Pope Saint Victor. However, those who preferred the contrary practice were not condemned until the question was decided by the Council of Nice. But the first decision proves what power Victor then had in the Church. Some excitable persons wanted Saint Victor to excommunicate the Asiatic bishops; but, at the persuasion of Saint Irenaeus, Victor did not pronounce the decree of separation. Novaes gives the names of the authors who believe that fact; but he also gives the names of the authors who, contrariwise, believe that the excommunication actually took place. Among these latter he mentions Baronius, Pagi, Schelstrate, the Bollandists, Basnage, and others. Pierre de Marcas, while he adopts the opinion of the latter authors, adds that Saint Victor, at the urgent request of Saint Irenaeus, subsequently admitted the bishops to communion. Father Zaccaria, with Dumesnil and Daude, believes that Victor deprived the Asiatics of his individual communion, by depriving them of his Pacific Letters (which were given to pilgrims, testifying to their faith and to their communion with the church in whatever place they might reside), and that, at length, he showed himself indulgent and patient, in order that he might conciliate many bishops who disapproved of vexing churches so illustrious, when their docility and obedience might be better left to the work of time.

Saint Victor I decided that common water might, in case of actual necessity, be used in baptism.

In several councils he excommunicated those heretics who maintained that Christ was man and not God, and others who maintained that the body of Jesus was celestial. He condemned Praxeas, who maintained that the Father and not the Son had suffered on the cross, and who denied the three persons of the Most Holy Trinity.

At this period flourished Saint Clement of Alexandria. His name was Titus Flavius Clemens; some call hi, Athenian, which has led to the belief that he was born at Athens. He was deeply learned n literature and philosophy, especially in that of Plato. He was well versed also in the Holy Scriptures and the doctrine of the gospel. At the commencement of his Stromates, he thus informs us of the pains that he took a studying them: “I have not composed this work for ostentation: it is a treasure of memory for my old age, an artless remedy against oblivion and malice, a slight sketch of lively and an mated discourses, and those blessed and truly memorable men whom I have had the advantage to hear”.

Victor, in two ordinations, created twelve bishops, four priests, and seven deacons. He governed the Church about nine years. Saint Nicholas, who was pope in 858, says that Victor was truly, as well as in name, a Victor, or conqueror, because he was martyrized for the traditions of the Church.

Saint Victor I was buried in the Vatican.

He left some books on points of religion. They are lost, but they had obtained the praises of Saint Jerome, who also says that Saint Victor was the first among ecclesiastical authors to use the Latin language, all before him having written in Greek.