Pius I

Pius I was bishop of Rome in the middle of the second century, between about 140 and 154 (the dates differ by source). He shepherded the Church of Rome in the years when it had to defend itself against Gnostic heresies and the teaching of Marcion. He is counted a saint of the undivided Church and is commemorated on 11 July.

Ministry

According to the Liber Pontificalis he was a native of Aquileia in northern Italy and had a brother named Hermas. The Muratorian Canon, from the second half of the second century, says that The Shepherd was written by Hermas while his brother Pius was bishop of Rome. In that book Hermas calls himself a former slave, which has led to the guess that both brothers were freedmen.

In his time Saint Justin Martyr was teaching in Rome, and the Gnostic teachers Valentinus and Cerdo were there. Marcion, who rejected the Old Testament, reached Rome around 140 and, according to tradition, was cut off from the Church of Rome at a synod around 144. It is said that Pius fixed Pascha on Sunday, but this cannot be proved. Tradition also credits him with building the church of Santa Pudenziana, one of the oldest in Rome, though early sources do not confirm it.

Commemoration

It is not known for certain whether he died a martyr. The view that he did entered the older breviaries of Rome, but it rests on no early source, and the present Roman Martyrology no longer presents him so.