Pontian

The holy Hieromartyr Pontian was bishop of Rome from 230 to 235. He is the first bishop of Rome known to have resigned his see, so that the Church would not be left without a shepherd in time of persecution.

Ministry

He was a Roman citizen, the son of Calpurnius according to the Liber Pontificalis, and was elected on 21 July 230, after Saint Urban I. At first the Church lived in peace under Emperor Severus Alexander. He presided over the Roman synod that approved the condemnation of Origen pronounced at Alexandria, around 230 or 231.

Exile and death

In 235 Emperor Maximinus Thrax began a persecution. Pontian and Hippolytus, who had separated from the bishops of Rome, were arrested and sent to forced labour in the mines of Sardinia, from which few returned. On 28 September 235 Pontian resigned his see so that Rome could choose a new bishop, and this is the first fully certain date in the history of the bishops of Rome. According to some accounts Hippolytus was reconciled with him before death.

Pontian died soon after in Sardinia, in October 235, of ill treatment; some sources say he was beaten with sticks. Saint Fabian brought the bodies of Pontian and Hippolytus back to Rome in 236 or 237, and Pontian was laid in the Catacomb of Callixtus, where the slab of his tomb, with his name in Greek, was found in 1909. The Church commemorates him on 13 August together with Hippolytus.