Today August 13

Today is the feast of St. Hippolytus, died c. 235 AD, during the persecution of Maximinus. He was a brilliant Roman priest and theologian -- and he knew it -- but that didn't keep him from being wrong. He so criticized the commoner Pope St. Zephryinus for "not [being] quick enough to detect heresy" and Pope St. Callistus I, a former slave and embezzler, that he actually went over the line and accused the cardinals' votes for both men as being invalid and set himself up as pope. Callistus was indeed also a commoner and a repentant sinner -- and, more important, the real pope, successor to Peter. Neither held heretical beliefs, including about the nature of Jesus Christ, and in his heart of hearts (brain of brains, as it were; he was a very smart man), Hippolytus knew it too, but any stick will do to beat someone you so oppose. Additionally, Zephyryinus, Callistus (who was killed and thrown into a well), and HIS successor Pontian were, in Hippolytus' not-so-humble opinion, FAR too easy on the lapsi, lapsed Catholics who sinned or apostatized during persecution, because Pontian allowed them to return to the Church after a period of penance. Evidently, Hippolytus disfavored them EVER returning. He wasn't big on forgiveness: not for fornicators, not for adulterers, and especially not for apostates. But then that makes it even more ironic when, in a huge dragnet of persecution of Christians -- heck, to Maximinus ALL Christians looked the same -- Hippolytus was thrown into the same concentration camp as Pontian, and he converted -- reverted -- and asked forgiveness for his own apostasy. Pontian welcomed him back with open arms. Later, Pontian was beaten to death by guards. Hippolytus died of his harsh treatment too, and his body was later buried with honor on the Tiburtine Way.