The Saints: St. Callistus I

Died 222/ Feast - Oct. 14

According to St. Hippolytus, this Roman native was a slave condemned to Sardinia’s salt mines because he mishandled a banking operation for his Christian master. Afterward he lived in Anzio, and was made a deacon and administrator of the Appian Way Christian cemetery by Pope Zephyrinus, whom he succeeded in 217. As pontiff, he was criticized for readmitting to the Church, following suitable penance, those guilty of adultery, fornication and apostasy under persecution. He may have died in a popular uprising, and was venerated as a martyr.