Saint Callistus I

We know Callistus’s life almost solely from Hippolytus of Rome, who was his opponent, and it’s worth keeping that in mind as you read it. According to that account, Callistus was a slave. His master, an imperial freedman named Carpophorus, had entrusted him with money to invest; the business went badly, Callistus ran away, was caught and sentenced to the mill. Pardoned, he caused a disturbance in a synagogue and ended up sentenced to labor in the mines of Sardinia, around 186. Freed a few years later, he returned to Rome, became deacon to Pope Zephyrinus and was put in charge of the Christian cemetery on the Appian Way: that place is still called the Catacombs of Saint Callistus today, and it’s the most important in Rome, with the tombs of sixteen popes. In 217 he was elected pope, and Hippolytus — who was the most respected theologian in the city and expected that post for himself — had himself elected against him. He was the first antipope in history. The reason for the conflict was, once again, discipline: Callistus admitted to reconciliation even those who had committed grave sins, and he recognized unions between free women and slaves, which Roman law did not allow. Hippolytus accused him of laxity. He died in 222, killed in a riot, according to tradition. Hippolytus and Callistus were reconciled, but only after Callistus’s death: they are both saints. If your name is Callistus, today is your name day.