Pope St. Callistus

Pope St. Callistus I governed the Roman Church from about 218 to 222. According to the account of his rival Hippolytus, which must be read with caution given their enmity, he had been a slave, was condemned to hard labor in the mines of Sardinia, and after his release was set by Pope Zephyrinus over the Christian cemetery on the Appian Way that still bears his name, the catacombs of St. Callistus, an early and famous burial place of the popes.

Elected pope himself, he governed amid sharp controversy over the Church's power to forgive grave sins. Against the rigorists led by Hippolytus, who became an antipope, Callistus upheld the merciful teaching that the Church could reconcile even those guilty of serious sins such as adultery after due penance, a stand later vindicated as authentic Catholic doctrine. He is venerated as a martyr, tradition holding that he was killed in a popular disturbance about 222. He is celebrated on 14 October.