Pontian

Pontian (Latin: Pontianus) was Bishop of Rome in the early third century, holding office from 21 July 230 until his resignation on 28 September 235. The Liberian Catalogue, an important fourth-century list of Roman bishops, makes his dates of tenure among the earliest that can be given with relative precision. According to the later Liber Pontificalis he was a Roman by origin (natione Romanus); no reliable source records the year of his birth or any details of his life before election. He succeeded Urban I and governed the Roman church in the closing years of the emperor Alexander Severus, a period generally described as one of comparative peace for Christians in the capital.

His pontificate coincided with a lasting schism in the Roman community. Hippolytus, a learned presbyter and theologian, had been set up as a rival bishop and is traditionally counted as the first antipope; the division persisted throughout Pontian’s years in office. Later writers also connect Pontian with a Roman synod that confirmed the condemnation of Origen issued by Demetrius of Alexandria. The existence and exact acts of that gathering are not securely documented and are treated with caution by modern historians. Beyond these points the internal history of the Roman church under Pontian is poorly attested, as is typical for the third century.

In 235 Alexander Severus was murdered and Maximinus Thrax became emperor. The new regime launched a persecution directed especially at Christian leaders. Pontian and Hippolytus were both arrested and condemned to forced labor in the mines of Sardinia, a sentence that commonly proved fatal because of the conditions. Later tradition holds that the two men were reconciled in exile, thereby ending the Roman schism. On 28 September 235 Pontian resigned the episcopate—the first Bishop of Rome known to have abdicated—almost certainly so that the Roman church could elect a successor while he was unable to exercise his office.

He died in Sardinia in 235 as a result of the hardships of the mines. After the brief pontificate of Anterus, Pope Fabian had the remains of Pontian and of Hippolytus brought back to Rome. Pontian was buried in the papal crypt of the Catacomb of Callixtus on the Appian Way. A fragmentary Greek epitaph found in that crypt in the early twentieth century names him bishop and martyr. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church; his feast, kept jointly with Hippolytus, falls on 13 August. Apart from this outline the documentary record remains sparse.