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August 13, 2005    Optional Memorial of Saints Pontian, pope and martyr and Hippolytus, priest and martyr Old Calendar: Saints Hippolytus and Cassian, martyrs
Before the reform of the General Roman Calendar today was also the feast of St. Cassian of Immola, a martyr of the neighborhood of Bologna. According to his biography he was a schoolmaster and was delivered with his hands tied behind his back to his young pupils, who stabbed him to death. In the bishop's chapel at Ravenna there is a mosaic of St. Cassian that dates from the fifth century.
Sts. Pontian and Hippolytus  As kind as Severus might have been to the Christians, his successor Maximus Thrax persecuted them. Although Maximus was not a religious man himself, he despised Severus and intended to reverse any attitude to which Severus might have been disposed. He therefore decreed that leaders of the Church be singled out and banished to the labor mines of Sardinia, the famous "Island of Death." Pontian, a Roman and son of Calpurnius, had enjoyed a peaceful reign over the Roman Church during Severus' time, but soon found himself among the first victims of this new emperor. Rounded up with the antipope Hippolytus, Pontian was deported to the labor mines. Since deportation was a life sentence which few survived, Pontian felt obligated to abdicate so that a successor might quickly preside over the Holy See. He is the first pope known to have abdicated. While imprisoned, Hippolytus reconciled his differences with Pontian and even ordered his followers to bring themselves back to the Church. Before he succumbed to the harsh treatment of the mines, Hippolytus became a true confessor of Christ. Pontian, in the mines only two months, was brutally beaten to death by his jailers. His body, with that of Hippolytus, was returned to Rome approximately a year later, during the pontificate of Fabian. He was buried in the cemetery of Calixtus and was rightfully honored by the Church as a martyr. Excerpted from The Popes: A Papal History, J.V. Bartlett. Patron: Hippolytus: Horses; prison guards; prison officers; prison workers. Symbols: Hippolytus: Armour; bunch of large kesy' spear; tails of wild horses; lance; iron hook; horses.
St. Cassian  At Imola the martyr Cassian underwent cruel torments. With hands bound behind his back, the judge delivered him over to his students to be pricked to pieces with iron styles. The small wounds from those little rascals lengthened his time of torment but also made his crown more glorious. He suffered during the persecution of Diocletian. Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch. |
