Santa Maria in Trastevere
Today is the memorial of Pope St. Callistus I, who died a martyr in the Trastevere area of Rome in 222 or 223. I posted on him last year this date, for his history is interesting.
Born a slave who lost his master’s fortune, he later was ordained a deacon for Rome. When the pope died in 217, Callistus was elected to succeed him (as often happened in those days, i.e., a deacon was elected pope!) Unfortunately, the loser in the conclave, Hippolytus, set himself up as an anti-pope and hurled all sorts of insults and the like Callistus’ way. So did Tertullian, a famous Church father. As pope, Callistus made some unpopular decisions such as those who had committed serious sins such as fornication, adultery, worship of false gods, etc, could be reunited with the Church after public penance. He also declared that slaves and free Christian could marry each other. Hippolytus and Tertullian strongly condemned these decisions. (Hippolytus later was exiled and still later reconciled with the Church and he is now venerated as St. Hippolytus.) The rather violent disagreements in the Church at that time about these doctrinal and moral questions may seem stunning to us today. As we know, St. Callistus’ decisions have remained the teaching of the Church and the protests of Hippolytus and Tertullian have faded into history.
Santa Maria in Trastevere
It is said that St. Callistus was martyred at what is now the Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere, and his body thrown into a well. There is a church over that well to this day. Also, St. Callistus is buried in the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere. It is a very ancient church will absolutely marvelous frescoes and mosaics, with granite columns that originally were taken from ancient Roman buildings of the Empire.
I would recommend any traveler to Rome to take the time to go to Santa Maria in Trastevere and visit Callistus’ tomb and the beautiful church in which he is buried.
