Heabdicated to make theelection of a new pope possible.[1] Resigning on 28 September 235, he was the first pope to do so. This allowed an orderly transition in the Church ofRome and so ended aschism that had existed in the Church for eighteen years. Some accounts say he was beaten to death only weeks after his arrival on Sardinia.
A little more is known of Pontian than his predecessors, apparently from a lost papal chronicle that was available to the compiler of theLiberian Catalogue of the bishops of Rome, written in the fourth century. TheLiber Pontificalis states that he was aRoman citizen and that his father's name was Calpurnius. Early Church historianEusebius wrote that his pontificate lasted six years.[2]
Pontian'spontificate was initially relatively peaceful under the reign of the tolerant EmperorSeverus Alexander. He presided over the Roman synod which approvedOrigen's expulsion and deposition byPope Demetrius I of Alexandria in 230 or 231.[1][2] According to Eusebius, the next emperor, Maximinus, overturned his predecessor's policy of tolerance towardsChristianity.[3] Both Pope Pontian and theAntipopeHippolytus of Rome were arrested and exiled to labor in the mines ofSardinia,[4] generally regarded as a death sentence.[5]
In light of his sentence, Pontian resigned, the first pope to do so, so as to allow an orderly transition in the Church of Rome, on 28 September 235. This date was recorded in the Liberian Catalogue and is notable for being the first full date of a papal reign given by contemporaries. This action ended a schism that had existed in the Church for eighteen years. Pontian was beaten to death with sticks.[2][4] He died in October 235. Like Pontian, Hippolytus did not survive his exile. The two may have reconciled with one another in Rome or in Sardinia before their deaths.[6]
Pope Fabian had the bodies of both Pontian and Hippolytus brought back to Rome in 236 or 237, and had Pontian buried in the papal crypt in theCatacomb of Callixtus on theAppian Way.[4][7] The slab covering his tomb was discovered in 1909. On it is inscribed inGreek:Ποντιανός Επίσκ (Pontianos Episk; in EnglishPontianus Bish). The inscription "Μάρτυρ" (martyr) had been added in another hand.[1]
^Papandrea, James L. (2012).Reading the Early Church Fathers: From the Didache to Nicaea. Paulist Press.ISBN978-0809147519.
^abcFr. Paolo O. Pirlo, SHMI (1997). "Sts. Pontian & Hippolytus".My First Book of Saints. Sons of Holy Mary Immaculate – Quality Catholic Publications. pp. 179–180.ISBN978-971-91595-4-4.
^G. W. Clarke, "Some Victims of the Persecution of Maximinus Thrax,"Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, Bd. 15, H. 4 (November 1966): pp. 445–453.
^Richard P. McBrien,Lives of the Popes (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 2000), 45.
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