Hippolytus of Ostia

Holy Hieromartyr Hippolytus of Ostia was bishop of Ostia, the port of Rome at the mouth of the Tiber, and a Christian theologian, a disciple of Saint Irenaeus of Lyons. He received a martyr's death in the year 269, together with Censorinus, Sabinus, the virgin Chrysia and many others. The Church commemorates him on 12 February (new style).

His writings

Hippolytus is known as a Christian theologian who wrote many works against heretics. He composed a Paschal Canon, a famous work on Christ and the Word on the Antichrist. He also wrote many commentaries on Holy Scripture: on Genesis, Exodus, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, on the Gospels of Matthew, Luke and John, on the prophets Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and Zechariah, on the Psalms of David and on the Apocalypse. Part of his writings survives only in fragments. Preserved entire are the homilies on the Theophany of the Lord and on the prophet Daniel, whose pages are a model of the art of ancient church preaching.

Martyrdom

Saint Censorinus was the first dignitary in the reign of the Emperor Claudius II (268-270). On the strength of a denunciation, he was seized and imprisoned for his faith in Christ. In prison he raised a dead man in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, after which twenty soldiers, the guards of the prison, believed in Christ. Together with Censorinus they were beheaded. Then the virgin Chrysia was brought to trial, who courageously confessed herself a Christian and was tortured. After savage torments she was drowned in the sea. Saint Sabinus was beaten with a heavy hammer, then hung from a tree and his body burned with fire, and in the torments he gave his holy soul to the Lord.

With Saint Chrysia there suffered Philicles, Maximus, Herculinus, Venerius, Styracinus, Menas, Commodus, Hermes, Maurus, Eusebius, Rusticus, Monagrius, Amandinus, Olympius, Cyprus, Theodore, Tribune, the priest Maximus, the deacon Archelaus and the bishop Cyrinus. Saint Hippolytus, bishop of Ostia, learning of the torments of the martyrs, came to the court despite his old age and rebuked the executioner for his cruelty, calling him bloodthirsty. The judge, enraged, gave the holy bishop over to torment. After long tortures they bound his hands and feet and threw him into the sea.

The relics of Saint Hippolytus were laid in Rome, in the church of the Holy Martyrs Laurence and Pope Damasus.