Hierarch
Hierarch Hyginus, Bishop of Rome
? — †ок. 142
Also known as: Гигин Римский, папа Гигин
Holy Hierarch Hyginus, Bishop of Rome — the ninth head of the Roman Church after the Apostle Peter, a Greek by birth from Athens; almost nothing reliable survives about his pontificate (mid-2nd century) apart from a mention by Hieromartyr Irenaeus of Lyon of the activity in Rome at this time of the Gnostics Valentinus and Cerdo.
Holy Hierarch Hyginus, according to the Liber Pontificalis, was a Greek, a native of Athens — the ninth bishop of Rome after the Apostle Peter. His pontificate is conventionally dated to the mid-2nd century (c. 138-142, other calculations give 136-140).
Extremely little reliable information survives about his tenure. Hieromartyr Irenaeus of Lyon ("Against Heresies," III.4) mentions that during Hyginus's pontificate the Gnostics Valentinus and Cerdo (a forerunner of Marcion) were active in Rome — this is essentially the only near-contemporary testimony about his pontificate. Later tradition (the Liber Pontificalis) credits him with organizing the church hierarchy and instituting the custom of godparents/sponsors at baptism, but this is, by unanimous scholarly opinion, a later formulaic addition of no historical value, typical of the biographies of the earliest Roman bishops.
IMPORTANT NOTE ON MARTYRDOM: the Roman Martyrology and the Liber Pontificalis call him a martyr under Emperor Antoninus Pius, but neither Irenaeus nor Eusebius of Caesarea call him a martyr, and no reliable evidence of a violent death survives — this is the same pattern already established for Popes Zephyrinus and Telesphorus (documented in earlier batches of this research): the title "hieromartyr" for the earliest Roman bishops is formulaic rather than historically grounded. The category has been set to "hierarch."