Hieromartyr
Hieromartyr Callistus I, Pope of Rome
епископ Римский 218 — ок. 222
Also known as: Каликст I
Hieromartyr Callistus I (Callixtus), Pope of Rome — a former slave who became Bishop of Rome (218–222), known for his leniency toward repentant sinners; according to tradition, he was martyred c. 222.
Hieromartyr Callistus I served as Bishop of Rome from 218 to 222, succeeding Pope Zephyrinus. In his youth he had been a slave of the wealthy Christian Carpophorus, entrusted with managing community funds for a banking operation; after losing the deposited money he tried to flee and was punished with labor in the mills, but later gained his freedom and the trust of Bishop Zephyrinus, who put him in charge of the Christian cemetery on the Appian Way (later known as the Cemetery of Callistus).
As pope, he showed mercy toward repentant sinners by readmitting them to the Church, recognized the validity of marriages between free persons and slaves, and permitted twice-married men to be ordained — policies that drew sharp criticism from the rigorist Hippolytus of Rome.
According to tradition, St. Callistus was martyred around 222 during a period of persecution (one account holds he was drowned in a well) and was buried in the cemetery of Calepodius on the Via Aurelia. His relics were later transferred to the Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere in Rome, where they are still venerated today.
His feast is kept on October 14/27.
HONEST CAVEAT: veneration of Hieromartyr Callistus is strongest in the Western (Roman Catholic) and Western-rite Orthodox traditions; no dedicated extended vita could be found in Russian-language Orthodox liturgical sources (days.pravoslavie.ru/pravenc.ru) — the available material is more historical-encyclopedic than liturgical in character, which is typical for ancient pre-Schism Roman bishop-martyrs.