Zephyrinus

Saint Zephyrinus was bishop of Rome from 199 to 217. He shepherded the Church in the time of Emperor Septimius Severus and stood against teachings that denied the divinity of Christ.

Ministry

He was a Roman by birth and succeeded Victor I. A close counsellor was the deacon Callixtus, to whom he entrusted the care of the Church's cemetery at Rome and who later succeeded him at the helm of the Church. In his time, around 202 or 203, the persecution edict of Septimius Severus appeared. Origen also visited Rome then, eager to see so ancient a Church.

Against errors

The followers of Theodotus, who taught that Christ was a mere man, appeared in Rome, along with teachers such as Praxeas, who confused the Persons of the Holy Trinity. An old account preserved by Eusebius tells how the confessor Natalius, enticed by the Theodotians, repented and fell weeping at Zephyrinus's feet. The priest Hippolytus accused Zephyrinus of leaning toward Modalism, yet the Church has kept him in memory as an orthodox shepherd and defender of the divinity of Christ.

Commemoration

He reposed in the Lord on 20 December 217 and was buried in the cemetery on the Via Appia, near the Catacomb of Callixtus. It is not certain that he was a martyr. He is commemorated on 26 August in the English-⁠language Orthodox calendar and the old Roman calendar, and on 20 December, the day of his repose, in the Orthodox Churches according to Wikipedia.