Saint Hyginus

Hyginus was an Athenian and a philosopher, and he was the ninth bishop of Rome, from about 138 to 142. His pontificate was short and left no great deeds, but it left rules — and rules, unlike deeds, last. According to the Liber Pontificalis, it was he who put order into the Church’s hierarchy: he drew a clearer line between the duties of presbyters and deacons, created the role of subdeacon, and organized the minor orders. And tradition credits him with something that still touches millions of families today: **the institution of the godfather and godmother** at baptism. If you have a compare or a comare — and in some families the compare is a serious figure, for life — the chain starts a long way back, with a Greek pope of the second century. Those were difficult years at home, too. The Gnostic Valentinus was going around Rome, and so was another, Cerdo, who confessed his errors, was taken back and then fell into them again. While Hyginus governed, the Mausoleum of Hadrian was being built in the city, the one we now call Castel Sant’Angelo. An ancient tradition has him dying during the persecution of Antoninus Pius, but there is no proof of martyrdom. He was buried near Saint Peter, and much later his body was moved to the sanctuary of the Gesù Vecchio, in Naples, where it still is. If your name is Igino, today is your name day: it’s rare, but that’s exactly why those who have it remember it. A pope we know almost nothing about, and a custom of his that lives on in every baptism.