Editing Pope Pontian

{{Short description|Head of the Catholic Church from 230 to 235}}
{{about||others called Pontianus|Pontianus (disambiguation){{!}}Pontianus|others called Pontian|Pontian (disambiguation){{!}}Pontian}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
| type             = Pope
| honorific-prefix = [[Pope Saint]]
| name             = Pontian
| title            = [[Bishop of Rome]]
| church           = [[Catholic Church]]
| image            = Spinello Aretino 008.jpg
| caption          = Portrait by [[Spinello Aretino]], {{circa|1383}} ([[Hermitage&nbsp;Museum]])
| term_start       = 21 July 230
| term_end         = 28 September 235
| predecessor      = [[Pope Urban I|Urban I]]
| successor        = [[Pope Anterus|Anterus]]
| birth_place      = [[Rome]], [[Roman Italy|Italy]], [[Roman Empire]]
| death_date       = October 235
| death_place      = [[Sardinia]], [[Sardinia and Corsica]], [[Roman Empire]]
| feast_day        = {{ubl|13 August (Eastern Orthodox Church, [[Mysterii Paschalis|Catholic Church 1969 calendar]])|19 November ([[General Roman Calendar of 1960|Catholic Church 1960 calendar]] and prior)}}
| venerated        = [[Catholic Church]], [[Eastern Orthodox Church]]
}}
'''Pope Pontian''' ({{langx|la|Pontianus}}; died October 235) was the [[bishop of Rome]] from 21 July 230 to 28 September 235.<ref name="ce">Kirsch, Johann Peter (1911). "Pope St. Pontian" in ''The Catholic Encyclopedia''. Vol. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company.</ref> In 235, during the [[Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire|persecution of Christians]] in the reign of the Emperor [[Maximinus Thrax]], Pontian was arrested and sent to the island of [[Sardinia]].

He [[Papal renunciation|abdicated]] to make the [[election of a new pope]] possible.<ref name="ce"/> Resigning on 28 September 235, he was the first pope to do so. This allowed an orderly transition in the Church of [[Rome]] and so ended a [[schism]] that had existed in the Church for eighteen years. Some accounts say he was beaten to death only weeks after his arrival on Sardinia.

Pontian is venerated as a [[saint]] in both the [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] and [[Eastern Orthodox]] churches.

==Life==
A little more is known of Pontian than his predecessors, apparently from a lost papal chronicle that was available to the compiler of the ''[[Liberian Catalogue]]'' of the bishops of Rome, written in the fourth century. The ''[[Liber Pontificalis]]'' states that he was a [[Roman citizen]] and that his father's name was Calpurnius. Early Church historian [[Eusebius]] wrote that his pontificate lasted six years.<ref name="kelly_popes">{{cite book |last1=Kelly |first1=J.N.D. |title=The Oxford Dictionary of Popes |url=https://archive.org/details/oxforddictionary0000kell |url-access=registration |date=1986 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |page=[https://archive.org/details/oxforddictionary0000kell/page/16 16]|isbn=978-0-19-213964-1 }}</ref>

Pontian's [[pontificate]] was initially relatively peaceful under the reign of the tolerant Emperor [[Severus Alexander]]. He presided over the Roman synod which approved [[Origen]]'s expulsion and deposition by [[Pope Demetrius I of Alexandria]] in 230 or 231.<ref name="ce"/><ref name="kelly_popes" /> According to Eusebius, the next emperor, Maximinus, overturned his predecessor's policy of tolerance towards [[Christianity]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Papandrea|first=James L.|title=Reading the Early Church Fathers: From the Didache to Nicaea|date=2012|publisher=Paulist Press|isbn=978-0809147519}}</ref> Both Pope Pontian and the [[Antipope]] [[Hippolytus of Rome]] were arrested and exiled to labor in the mines of [[Sardinia]],<ref name=SHMI>{{cite book|author=Fr. Paolo O. Pirlo, SHMI|title=My First Book of Saints|year=1997|publisher=Sons of Holy Mary Immaculate – Quality Catholic Publications|isbn=978-971-91595-4-4|pages=179–180|chapter=Sts. Pontian & Hippolytus}}</ref> generally regarded as a death sentence.<ref>G. W. Clarke, "Some Victims of the Persecution of Maximinus Thrax," ''Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte'', Bd. 15, H. 4 (November 1966): pp. 445–453.</ref>

In light of his sentence, Pontian resigned, the first pope to do so, so as to allow an orderly transition in the Church of Rome, on 28 September 235. This date was recorded in the Liberian Catalogue and is notable for being the first full date of a papal reign given by contemporaries. This action ended a schism that had existed in the Church for eighteen years. Pontian was beaten to death with sticks.<ref name="kelly_popes" /><ref name=SHMI /> He died in October 235. Like Pontian, Hippolytus did not survive his exile. The two may have reconciled with one another in Rome or in Sardinia before their deaths.<ref>Richard P. McBrien, ''Lives of the Popes'' (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 2000), 45.</ref>

==Veneration==
[[Pope Fabian]] had the bodies of both Pontian and Hippolytus brought back to Rome in 236 or 237, and had Pontian buried in the papal crypt in the [[Catacomb of Callixtus]] on the [[Appian Way]].<ref name=SHMI /><ref>McBrien, ''Lives of the Popes'', 45.</ref> The slab covering his tomb was discovered in 1909. On it is inscribed in [[Greek language|Greek]]: {{lang|el|Ποντιανός Επίσκ}} (''Pontianos Episk''; in English ''Pontianus Bish''). The inscription "{{lang|el|Μάρτυρ}}" (''[[Christian martyrs|martyr]]'') had been added in another hand.<ref name="ce"/>

In the Eastern Orthodox Church and the [[Mysterii Paschalis|General Roman Calendar of 1969]], Pontian and Hippolytus are commemorated jointly on 13 August.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.orthodoxengland.org.uk/stdaug.htm|title = Latin Saints of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Rome}}</ref><ref>''Calendarium Romanum'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 1969), p. 146</ref> In those Catholic communities which use a historical calendar such as the [[General Roman Calendar of 1960]], Pontian's [[feast day]] is celebrated on 19 November.<ref>''Catholic Encyclopedia''.</ref>

[[San Ponziano, Rome|San Ponziano]], a [[titular church]] in Rome, is named in his honour. Churches named for Pontian are also found in [[Spoleto]], [[Lucca]] and [[Carbonia, Sardinia]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gr8rAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Ponziano%22+%22+|title=Le chiese di Roma: storie, leggende e curiosità degli edifici sacri della Città Eterna, dai templi pagani alle grandi basiliche, dai conventi ai monasteri ai luoghi di culto in periferia|first=Claudio|last=Rendina|year=2007|publisher=Newton Compton|isbn=978-8854109315|via=Google Books}}</ref>

==Gallery==
<gallery widths="200" heights="200">
File:Martyrdom of St Pontianus.jpg|''The Martyrdom of Saint Pontianus'' ([[Baltasar de Echave]], c. 1612)
File:Roma (Q. Monte Sacro Alto) - S. Ponziano 05.JPG|Interior of [[San Ponziano, Rome]]
</gallery>

==See also==
*[[List of Catholic saints]]
*[[List of popes]]
*[[Portal:Catholicism/Patron Archive/August 13|Pope Saint Pontian, patron saint archive]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{CathEncy|wstitle= Pope St. Pontian}}

==External links==
*{{commons category-inline|Pontianus|Pope Pontian}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-rel|grt}}
{{s-bef
| before = [[Pope Urban I|Urban I]]
}}
{{s-ttl
| title = [[Bishop of Rome]]
| years = 230–235
}}
{{s-aft
| after = [[Pope Anterus|Anterus]]
}}
{{s-end}}

{{Popes}}
{{Catholic saints}}{{Portal bar|Biography|Christianity|History|Ancient Rome}}{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pontian}}
[[Category:235 deaths]]
[[Category:3rd-century archbishops]]
[[Category:3rd-century Christian saints]]
[[Category:3rd-century Romans]]
[[Category:Papal saints]]
[[Category:Popes]]
[[Category:Popes who abdicated]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:3rd-century popes]]