Adapted from various sources, including Butler's Lives.
Ss. Hippolytus and Cassian, Martyrs (Feast – August 13)
St. Hippolytus of Rome († ca. 236)
There has been a great deal of confusion among historians concerning this Saint, but since the discovery in 1851 of previously missing portions
(the majority, in fact) of one of his writings – the Philosophumena – much of the confusion has been clarified. Shocking though it may seem,
this document appears to show that St. Hippolytus was the first antipope! Fr. Alban Butler was aware that St. Hippolytus of Rome had fallen into schism and heresy,
but had repented and publicly atoned for his sins before suffering martyrdom. But this author died some 70 years before the discovery of the Philosophumena.
This accounts for Fr. Butler's attributing to another St. Hippolytus – a martyred bishop of Porto
(Feast – August 22) – the many writings that were later shown
to have been the work of St. Hippolytus of Rome.
After the discovery of the Philosophumena, most historians agree on the following: Hippolytus was a presbyter of the Church of Rome at the beginning of the
third century. He or the other St. Hippolytus could have been a disciple of St. Irenæus either in Rome or Lyons. It is equally possible that Origen heard a homily
by Hippolytus when he went to Rome about the year 212. In the reign of Pope St. Zephyrinus (198-217) Hippolytus came into conflict with that pontiff and with the
majority of the Church of Rome, primarily on account of the christological opinions which for some time had been causing controversies in Rome.
Hippolytus had combated the heresy of Theodotion and the Alogi; in like fashion he opposed the false doctrines of Noetus, of Epigonus, of Cleomenes, and of Sabellius,
who emphasized the unity of God too one-sidedly (Monarchians) and saw in the concepts of the Father and the Son merely manifestations (modi) of the Divine Nature
(Modalism, Sabellianism). Hippolytus, on the contrary, stood uncompromisingly for a real difference between the Son (Logos) and the Father, but so as to represent
the Former as a Divine Person almost completely separate from God (Ditheism) and at the same time altogether subordinate to the Father (Subordinationism).
As the heresy in the doctrine of the Modalists was not at first clearly apparent, Pope St. Zephyrinus declined to give a decision.
For this Hippolytus gravely censured him, representing him as an incompetent man, unworthy to rule the Church of Rome and as a tool in the hands
of the ambitious and intriguing deacon Callistus, whose early life is maliciously depicted (Philosophumena, IX, xi-xii).
Consequently when St. Callistus was elected pope (217-218) on the death of St. Zephyrinus,
Hippolytus immediately left the communion of the Roman Church and had himself elected antipope by his small band of followers.
These he called the Catholic Church
and himself successor to the Apostles, while naming the great majority of Roman Christians the School of Callistus.
He accused St. Callistus of having fallen first into the heresy of Theodotus, then into that of Sabellius; also of having through avarice degraded ecclesiastical,
and especially the penitential, discipline to a disgraceful laxity. These reproaches were altogether unjustified. Hippolytus himself advocated an excessive rigor.
He continued in opposition as antipope throughout the reigns of the two immediate successors of St. Callistus, St. Urban (222 or 223 to 230) and St. Pontianus (230-35),
and during this period, probably during the pontificate of St. Pontianus, he wrote the Philosophumena. He was banished to the unhealthful island (insula nociva)
of Sardinia at the same time as St. Pontianus (image right), both probably being condemned to hard labor; and shortly before this, or soon afterward,
he became reconciled with the legitimate Pope and the Church of Rome. (It is believed that St. Pontianus resigned his papacy upon news of his exile,
so that the Church could elect another Chief Shepherd. If this is true, he was the first Pope ever to resign.) For, after both exiles had been martyred
on the island of Sardinia, their mortal remains were brought back to Rome on the same day, August 13 (either 236 or one of the following years), and solemnly interred;
St. Pontianus (Feast – November 19) in the papal vault in the catacomb of Callistus and St. Hippolytus in a spot on the Via Tiburtina. Both were equally revered as martyrs
by the Roman Church: certain proof that St. Hippolytus had made his peace with that Church before his death. With his death the schism must have come to a speedy end.
This may account for its identification with the Novatian schism at the end of the fourth century, as we learn from the inscription placed by Pope St. Damasus over the grave of
St. Hippolytus.
The public repentance of St. Hippolytus is described thus by Fr. Butler: St. Hippolytus being brought out of prison, many of those who had been under his care
came to beg his last advice and blessing, as he was going to martyrdom; and he vehemently exhorted them to persevere in the unity of the Church. Fly,
said he,
from the unhappy schism, and return to the Catholic Church. Adhere only to that Faith which subsists from the beginning, which was preached by St. Paul,
and is maintained by the Chair of St. Peter. I now see things in a different light, and repent of what I once taught.
Anti-Catholic critics often scoff when the accounts of the martyrs have to undergo correction. Holy Mother Church has always been careful to seek the
truth in all things, and has often revised the Martyrology. However, when an account has remained for centuries, it is only to be changed when different facts
can be proved with certainty. This had not yet been established with regard to St. Hippolytus; therefore his account in the Roman Martyrology was not changed.
Critics have also made light of the manner of martyrdom said to have been suffered by St. Hippolytus – deeming it to have been based on pagan mythology.
Fr. Butler throws light on this subject also, showing it to have been the pagan persecutors who drew from their own mythology:
When the venerable old man, Hippolytus, was brought before the judge, a group of young people cried out that he was a chief among the Christians
and ought to be put to death by some new and remarkable form of punishment. What is his name?
asked the prefect. They answered, Hippolytus.
The prefect said, Then let him be treated like Hippolytus and dragged by wild horses.
By this sentence he alluded to the mythological Hippolytus,
son of Theseus, who, according to Ovid, was fleeing from the indignation of his father when he met a monster, which frightened his horses.
He was thrown from his chariot, and being entangled in the harness, was dragged along and torn to pieces.
No sooner was the order given than the people set themselves to work in assisting the executioners. Out in the country, where untamed horses were kept,
they took a pair of the most furious and unruly they could find, and tied a long rope between them, to which they fastened the Martyr's feet.
Then they provoked the horses to run away with loud cries, whipping and prodding them. The last words which the Martyr was heard to say as they started, were:
Lord, they tear my body; receive Thou my soul.
The horses dragged him away furiously into the woods, through brooks and over ditches, briers and rocks –
they beat down hedges and broke through everything in their way. The ground, the thorns, trees, and stones were sprinkled with his blood, which the faithful that
followed him at a distance weeping, respectfully soaked up from every place with sponges, and they gathered together all the mangled parts of his flesh and limbs,
which had been scattered about. They brought these precious relics to Rome.
Prudentius testifies that as often as he had prayed at the tomb of the Saint when he was at Rome, for the relief of his infirmities of both body and of mind,
he had always found the desired relief; he professes that he was indebted to Christ for all the favors received, because He gave to His Martyr Hippolytus the power to obtain
for him the divine assistance. He adds that the chapel which contained these sacred relics shone within with solid silver with which the walls were encrusted,
and on the outside with the brightest mirror-like marble which covered the walls, the whole being ornamented with an abundance of gold. He says that from the rising to the
setting of the sun, not only inhabitants of Rome, but many also from remote countries, resorted in great numbers to this holy place to adore God; and that especially on the
Martyr's festival on the Ides or 13th of August, both senators and people came thither to implore the divine mercy, and kiss the shrine which contained his relics.
St. Cassian of Imola († ca. 363)
St. Cassian was a Christian schoolmaster, and taught children to read and write at Imola, a city some 27 miles from Ravenna in Italy. A violent persecution being raised
against the Church, probably that of Decius or Valerian, or according to some, that of Julian, he was arrested and interrogated by the governor of the province.
As he constantly refused to sacrifice to the false gods, the barbarous judge, having informed himself of what profession he was, commanded that his own students
should stab him to death with their iron writing pencils, called styli; for at that time it was the custom for scholars to write upon wax laid on a wooden board,
on which they formed the letters with the sharp end of the stylus, and used the smooth blunt end as an eraser to rub out what was to be effaced or corrected.
The smaller the instruments were, and the weaker the executioners, the more lingering and cruel was the Martyr's death. He was stripped and exposed
in the midst of two hundred boys – among whom some threw their tablets and styli at his face and head, and often broke the boards upon his body;
others cut his flesh or stabbed him with their styli, sometimes only tearing the skin and flesh, and sometimes raking his very bowels (image right).
Thus, covered with his own blood and wounded in every part of his body, he cheerfully bade his little executioners not to be afraid and to strike him with greater force –
not to encourage them in their sin, but to express the ardent desire he had to die for Christ. This took place on August 13 – and so he is venerated along with Saint Hippolytus.
He was interred by the Christians at Imola, where afterwards his relics have been honored with a rich mausoleum. Prudentius tells us that while making his journey to Rome,
he visited the holy Martyr's tomb, and prostrate before it implored the divine mercy for the pardon of his sins with many tears.
He mentions a moving picture of the Saint's martyrdom hanging over the altar, representing his cruel death in the manner he has recorded in verse.
He exhorts all others with him to commend their petitions to this holy Martyr's patronage, who fails not to hear pious supplications.
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