Anicetus

Anicetus (* around 92/100 in Emesa, today's Homs am Orontes ; † April 17 (?) 160/166 (?) In Rome ) was Bishop of Rome from around 154 to 166. He was an Assyrian from Emesa .

During his pontificate , Polycarp of Smyrna attended the Roman Church. He and Anicetus discussed the date of Easter , which the Church of Smyrna celebrated on the Jewish festival of Passover , while the Roman Church always celebrated it on a Sunday , as this is the day of the Lord's resurrection , which is why Sunday is the holy day in Christianity . Anicetus and Polycarp could not agree, but Anicetus allowed Polycarp to follow his tradition . This controversy flared up again in the centuries to come as the Easter Festival dispute .

The Christian historian Hegesippus also visited Rome at this time. This visit is often taken as evidence of the importance of the Bishops of Rome to the Church.

Anicetus was the first bishop of Rome to condemn a heresy by banning montanism . He also publicly opposed the Gnostics and Marcionism . According to the Liber Pontificalis , Anicetus commanded that priests should not wear long hair (perhaps because the Gnostics wore it that way). However, this only became a common custom for the Western Church.

The fact that Anicetus died a martyr (on April 16, 17 or 20) is considered unhistorical. His feast day is April 17th.

The name means "The undefeated" ( Greek ).

literature

• Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz :  Anicet. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2nd, unchanged edition Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-013-1 , Sp. 176.
• Thomas Campbell:  Pope St. Anicetus . In: Catholic Encyclopedia , Volume 1, Robert Appleton Company, New York 1907.

Web links

Commons : Anicetus  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Anicetus in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints
• Complete works of Migne Patrologia Latina with table of contents

predecessor	Office	successor
Pius I.	Bishop of Rome (the term Pope was first used after 384) 154 / 155–166	Soterus