St Hippolytus

Hippolytus becomes stronger the moment the weak legend is stripped away. The dramatic story that links him to St Laurence and ends with his being dragged to death by wild horses is vivid, but it looks too much like pious romance to carry the real weight of the life. This life turns instead to the firmer figure: the Roman priest and theologian of the early third century, perhaps a disciple of St Irenaeus, and one of the most important writers of the early Roman church. He was not an easy saint. He opposed Popes Zephyrinus and Callistus, believed them too weak against error, and for a time broke communion with the Roman church. That difficulty is not hidden, and it is exactly what makes this life memorable. Hippolytus is not admirable because he was simple, smooth, or immediately lovable.

He matters because grace finally brought a strong and difficult man back into the Church’s unity. During the persecution under Maximinus, Hippolytus and Pope St Pontian were exiled to Sardinia, and the suffering of banishment brought about his martyrdom. Later Rome honored him at the cemetery on the Via Tiburtina, and the devotion surrounding his memory remained substantial. The old statue with the catalogue of his works says almost everything this life needs to say. The real Hippolytus is not a theatrical figure borrowed from Laurence’s legend, but a priest, scholar, controversialist, penitent, reconciled churchman, and martyr. That is a sterner and more convincing holiness.