Editing Hippolytus of Rome (section)

== Legends ==
The name Hippolytus appears in various hagiographical and martyrological sources of the early Church. The facts about the life of the writer Hippolytus, as opposed to other celebrated Christians who bore the name Hippolytus, were eventually lost in the West, perhaps partly because he wrote in [[Hellenic Greek]]. [[Pope Damasus I]] dedicated to a Hippolytus one of his famous epigrams,<ref name="EB1911" /> referring to a priest of the [[Novatianism|Novatianist]] schism, a view later forwarded by [[Prudentius]] in the 5th century in his "Passion of St Hippolytus". In the Passionals of the 7th and 8th centuries, he is represented as a soldier converted by [[Saint Lawrence]], a legend that long survived in the [[Roman Breviary]]. He was also confused with a martyr of the same name who was buried in [[Portus]], of which city he was believed to have been a bishop,<ref name="ODCC"  /> who was put to death by drowning in a deep well.<ref name="SHMI" />

According to Prudentius' account, a martyr Hippolytus was dragged to death by wild horses,<ref>[[John Foxe]], [[Foxe's Book of Martyrs|Book of Martyrs]] (E. Hall, 1833) [https://books.google.com/books?id=JMU8AAAAYAAJ&q=Martina&pg=PA41 p. 41].</ref> a striking parallel to the story of the mythological [[Hippolytus of Athens|Hippolytus]], who was dragged to death by wild horses at Athens. He described the subterranean tomb of the saint and states that he saw there a picture representing Hippolytus' execution. He also confirms 13 August as the date on which a Hippolytus was celebrated but this again refers to the convert of Lawrence, as preserved in the [[Menaion]] of the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]].

The latter account led to a Hippolytus being considered the [[patron saint]] of horses. During the [[Middle Ages]], sick horses were brought to [[St Ippolyts]], [[Hertfordshire]], England, where a church is dedicated to him.<ref>[http://www.hertfordshire-genealogy.co.uk/links/ippollitts.htm Ippollitts (A Guide to Old Hertfordshire)]</ref>