Calixt I.

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Little is known about Calixt I (also Callist I , Kalixt I. Calixtus I or Callixtus I ; * possibly around 160; † 222 ), Bishop of Rome from 217 to 222. His tenure was at the time of the Roman emperors Elagabal and Severus Alexander .

Pope Calixt gives instructions on fasting (French miniature for the Legenda Aurea , 14th century)

His name (κάλλιστος kállistos ) means "the most beautiful" ( Greek / Latin ).

Saint Hippolytus of Rome , a contemporary and adversary of Calixt, tells the following about him: As a young slave, Calixt was appointed by his master to supervise a bank - but he lost the money that had been entrusted to him by other Christians. He fled Rome but was detained on a ship. To avoid slavery, he jumped overboard. He was saved and brought back to Carpophorus , but was released at the intercession of his believers. They hoped he could get some of the money back. However, he was arrested again after a battle broke out in a synagogue . Calixt had tried to collect debts or borrow money. He has now been sent to the mines of Sardinia .

In 190 Calixt was acquitted with Hippolytus of Rome and some other Christians at the request of Marcia , a concubine of the Emperor Commodus . His health, however, was so groggy that after Antium was sent where he recovered and a pension by Bishop Viktor I. received.

As bishop, Calixt I exempted newly baptized from their time of penance for their sins committed before baptism. His rigorously minded contemporary Hippolytus, a Roman catechist who stylized himself as the counter-bishop of the more liberal Calixt I in his writings , polemicized against this decision and the scandalous possibility, in his eyes, that former murderers, adulterers and fornicators without adequate penance at the meal worship services of the Christians were allowed to participate.

Furthermore, Calixt came out against the heresy of Sabellius , the modalistic monarchianism , whereby Hippolytus again accused him of not taking action against it zealously.

It is possible that Calixt died a martyr around 222, perhaps during a popular uprising . But there is no evidence for the legend according to which he was thrown into a well on the site of today's Church of San Callisto . He was buried in the cemetery of Calepodius on Via Aurelia . His relics were in the 9th century in the Abbey Cysoing in Tournai , later to Reims , Fulda , Naples Rome and in several churches converted .

After his death, the presbyter Hippolytus, as the head of ditheism, was once again appointed bishop of Rome, but could not prevail against the recognized Urban I and then Pontianus , but continued to assert himself as the counter-bishop of the schism of Hippolytus named after him until 235 .

The Roman Calixtus catacomb , which he administered as a deacon before his time as bishop, is named after Calixt . He is venerated as a martyr in Todi in Italy, his feast day is October 14th . In art he is mostly depicted with a red robe and tiara or with a millstone around his neck. There is often a well nearby.

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Commons : Calixt I.  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
predecessor Office successor
Zephyrinus Bishop of Rome
(the term Pope was first used after 384)
approx. 217–222 		Urban I.
personal data
SURNAME Calixt I.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kalixt I .; Calixtus I .; Callistus I .; Callistus I.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bishop of Rome (217–222)
DATE OF BIRTH uncertain: around 160
DATE OF DEATH 222