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Hippolytus of

For places named after the , see Saint-Hippolyte Pontian (230–235).[2] (disambiguation). For the character in Greek mythology, Under the persecution at the time of Emperor Maximinus see Hippolytus (mythology). Thrax, Hippolytus and Pontian were exiled together in 235 to , and it is quite probable that, before (170–235) was the most impor- his death there, he was reconciled to the other party at tant 3rd-century theologian in the Christian Church in Rome, for, under (236–250), his body and Rome,[2] where he was probably born.[3] Photios I of that of Pontian were brought to Rome. From the so- describes him in his Bibliotheca (cod. called chronography of the year 354 (more precisely, the 121) as a of , who was said to be a dis- Catalogus Liberianus, or Liberian Catalogue) we learn ciple of , and from the context of this passage that on , probably in 236, the two bodies were it is supposed that he suggested that Hippolytus himself interred in Rome, that of Hippolytus in a cemetery on the so styled himself. However, this assertion is doubtful.[2] Via Tiburtina, his funeral being conducted by the He came into conflict with the of his time and Confessor. This document indicates that, by about 255, seems to have headed a schismatic group as a rival Hippolytus was considered a and gives him the of Rome.[2] For that reason he is sometimes considered rank of a , not of a bishop, an indication that be- the first . He opposed the Roman who fore his death the schismatic was received again into the softened the penitential system to accommodate the large bosom of the Church.[2] number of new pagan converts.[2] However, he was very probably reconciled to the Church when he died as a martyr.[2] Starting in the 4th century, various legends arose about him, identifying him as a priest of the Novatianist 2 Legends or as a soldier converted by Saint Laurence.[2] He has also been confused with another martyr of the same name.[2] Ironically, it is Pius IV who identifies him as “Saint Hip- The facts of his life as well as his writing were soon for- polytus, Bishop of Pontus” who was martyred in the reign gotten in the West, perhaps by reason of his criticism of of Alexander Severus through his inscription on a statue the bishops of Rome and because he wrote in Greek.[2] found at the Church of St. Lawrence in Rome and kept at dedicated to him one of his famous epi- [4] the Vatican as photographed and published in Brunsen. grams, making him, however, a priest of the Novatianist schism, a view later accepted by in the 5th century in his “Passion of St Hippolytus”. In the Passion- als of the 7th and 8th centuries he is represented as a sol- 1 Life dier converted by , a legend that long sur- vived in the Roman . He was also confused with As a of the church at Rome under Pope a martyr of the same name who was buried in , of Zephyrinus (199–217), Hippolytus was distinguished for which city he was believed to have been a bishop.[2] Ac- his learning and eloquence. It was at this time that cording to Prudentius’ account, Hippolytus was dragged of Alexandria, then a young man, heard him preach.[5] to death by wild horses, a striking parallel to the story of He accused of modalism, the the mythological Hippolytus, who was dragged to death which held that the names Father and Son are simply dif- by wild horses at Ostia. He described the subterranean ferent names for the same subject.[6] Hippolytus champi- tomb of the saint and states that he saw there a picture oned the Logos doctrine of the Greek apologists, most representing Hippolytus’ execution. He also confirms Au- notably , which distinguished the Father gust 13 as the date on which a Hippolytus was celebrated from the Logos (“Word”).[2][6] An ethical conservative, but this again refers to the convert of Lawrence, as pre- he was scandalized when Pope Callixtus I (217–222) ex- served in the of the . tended absolution to Christians who had committed grave The latter account led to Hippolytus being considered the sins, such as adultery.[6] At this time, he seems to have al- of horses. During the , sick lowed himself to be elected as a rival Bishop of Rome, horses were brought to St Ippolyts, Hertfordshire, Eng- and continued to attack (222–230) and land, where a church is dedicated to him.[7]

1 2 3 WRITINGS

3 Writings bishop.[8] His works have unfortunately come down to us in such a fragmentary condition that it is difficult to obtain from them any very exact notion of his intellectual and literary importance. Of exegetical works usually attributed to Hippolytus, the best preserved are the Commentary on the Prophet and the Commentary on the .[2] This is the earliest attested Christian interpretation of the Song, cov- ering only the first three chapters to Song 3:7. Hippoly- tus’ Commentary on the Song of Songs interprets the Song as referring to a complicated relationship between Israel, Christ and the Gentile Church. Christ as the Logos is rep- resented in various richly symbolic ways: as the Feminine (“Wisdom”), who was God’s agent in creation and later lived with and inspired the prophets, as the transgendered maker of wine (like Dionysus) that nurtures the Church with his breasts (the Law and the ), as the victorious Helios who rides across the sky and gathers the nations. The commentary returns often to the topic of the of the and was originally written as a mystagogy, an instruction for new Christians. Scholars have usually assumed the Commen- tary On the Song of Songs was originally composed for use during Passover, a season favored in the West for Bap- tisms (see Hippolytus’ Commentary on Daniel 1.17). The commentary on the Song of Songs survives in two Geor- gian manuscripts, a Greek , a Paleo-Slavonic flo- rilegium, and fragments in Armenian and Syriac as well as in many patristic quotations, especially in of 's Exposition on Psalm 118 (119). Hippolytus dif- fered from Origen, who interpreted the Song largely as an Roman sculpture, maybe of Hippolytus, found in 1551 and used allegory of the soul and Christ. Hippolytus, on the other for the attribution of the hand, interpreted the Song as a typological treatment of the relationship between the Church of the Circumcision In 1551 a marble statue of a seated figure (originally typified by Israel and replaced by the Church composed female, perhaps personifying one of the sciences) was of both believing Jews and Gentile Christians. Hippoly- found in the cemetery of the Via Tiburtina and was heav- tus interpreted the Song using the common rhetorical de- ily restored. On the sides of the seat was carved a paschal vice of ekphrasis, a method of persuasion employed by cycle, and on the back the titles of numerous writings by rhetoricians of the Second Sophistic that used well known Hippolytus. Many other works are listed by of themes from popular graphic representations common on Caesarea and . household walls as murals and on floors as mosaics. He Hippolytus’s principal work is the Refutation of all Here- also supplied his commentary with a fully developed in- sies.[2] Of its ten books, Book I was the most important.[6] troduction known as the schema isagogicum, indicating It was long known and was printed (with the title Philoso- his knowledge of the rhetorical conventions for teachers [9] phumena) among the works of Origen. Books II and III discussing classical works. Origen felt that the Song are lost, and Books IV–X were found, without the name should be reserved for the spiritually mature and that of the author, in a of in 1842. studying it might be harmful for the novice. In this he fol- E. Miller published them in 1851 under the title Philoso- lowed 3rd-century Jewish interpretive traditions, whereas [10] phumena, attributing them to Origen of Alexandria. They Hippolytus ignored them. have since been attributed to Hippolytus. We are unable to form an opinion of Hippolytus as a Hippolytus’s voluminous writings, which for variety preacher, for the Homilies on the Feast of Epiphany which of subject can be compared with those of Origen of go under his name are wrongly attributed to him. Alexandria, embrace the spheres of , , Of the dogmatic works, On Christ and the sur- and polemic, chronography, and ecclesiastical vives in a complete state. Among other things it includes law. Hippolytus recorded the first liturgical reference a vivid account of the events preceding the end of the to the Mary, as part of the ordination rite of a 3 world, and it was probably written at the time of the per- Antichrist begins as a Little Horn secution under , about 202. The influence of Hippolytus was felt chiefly through his Hippolytus stated that the prophetic visions plainly and works on chronography and ecclesiastical law. His chron- precisely reveal impending historical events, and that ac- icle of the world, a compilation embracing the whole pe- curacy in their interpretation is necessary. Ten kingdoms riod from the creation of the world up to the year 234, are to depose Rome, and Antichrist is to emerge from formed a basis for many chronographical works both in the midst of them. This daring assertion is perhaps the the East and West. most complete and salient paragraph in his prophetic ex- planation; for although being aware of the risk involved, In the great compilations of ecclesiastical law that arose he states openly, in respect to Rome and her future, what in the East since the 4th century, the Church Orders many the prophets had hidden in mystic representation.[13] Hip- canons were attributed to Hippolytus, for example in the polytus continued to describe the Antichrist, his coming, Canons of Hippolytus or the The Constitutions through his appalling persecution of the , and his annihila- Hippolytus. How much of this material is genuinely his, tion at the second advent, the resurrection of the righteous how much of it worked over, and how much of it wrongly at the end of the world, the kingdom of the saints, and attributed to him, can no longer be determined beyond the punishment of the wicked.[14] He suggested that the dispute even by the most learned investigation, however a Antichrist would be of Jewish origin, and would set up a great deal was incorporated into the Fetha Negest, which Jewish kingdom, plucking up Egypt, Libya, and , once served as the constitutional basis of law in Ethiopia as the “three horns,” and in turn be overthrown by the — where he is still remembered as Abulides. During kingdom of God. The concept of an individual Antichrist the early 20th century the work known as The Egyptian became the common interpretation of the Roman church Church Order was identified as the Apostolic Tradition for centuries, until the rise of the interpretation the An- and attributed to Hippolytus; nowaday this attribution is tichrist as an ecclesiastical system. [15] hotly contested. Differences in style and theology lead some scholars to The Church during Antichrist’s Rule conclude that some of the works attributed to Hippolytus [2] actually derive from a second author. He identifies the woman of Revelation 12 as the church; Two small but potentially important works of Hippoly- the twelve stars are the twelve apostles; the man-child tus, On the Twelve Apostles of Christ, and On the Sev- is Christ. The church flees to the wilderness while An- enty Apostles of Christ, were often neglected, because the tichrist rules during the time of tribulation. The first of manuscripts were lost during most of the church age and the two beasts of Revelation 13 was, he believed, the Ro- found late, thus people were not sure if they are origi- man Empire, the same as the fourth beast of Daniel. The nal or spurious. The two are included in an appendix to second beast with two lamblike horns he applied to the the works of Hippolytus in the voluminous collection of kingdom of Antichrist, the two horns representing An- Early [11] tichrist and his false prophet. This would revive the im- age of the old by healing its deadly wound through governing after the manner of Roman law, thus 4 Eschatology giving it life and making it speak. This application, it might be observed, will occur again and again through the march of the centuries, not only in early periods, but in In On Christ and the Antichrist and Commentary on times as well, and even in the great second the Prophet Daniel Hippolytus gave his interpretation of Advent Awakening of the early decades of the nineteenth prophecies. century. [16]

Parallel outline of , 7 and 8 The seventy-weeks prophecy Hippolytus gave an explanation of Daniel’s paralleling Hippolytus follows the long-established usage in inter- prophecies of chapters 2, 7, and 8, which he, as with preting Daniel’s seventy prophetic weeks to be weeks of the other fathers, specifically relates to the Babylonians, literal years. He makes the “forty-nine” years its first sec- Medo-Persians, Greeks, and Romans. He stated that tion, from the first year of Darius the Mede to Ezra, with Rome existed at the time of his writing, pending parti- the ‘434 years’ reaching between Ezra and the birth of tioning into the predicted ten kingdoms - these in turn Christ. [17] to be followed by the rising of the dread Antichrist, who would dreadfully oppress the saints. All this would be ended by Christ’s Second Advent, accompanied with the Antichrist to rule at endtimes first resurrection of the righteous and the Antichrist be- ing destroyed. Then will follow the inferno and judgment Hippolytus predicted the Antichrist to rule for three and upon the wicked.[12] one-half “times”, i.e. 1260 days, during the last half of 4 7 NOTES

the 70th week. He arbitrarly separated the 70th week 6 See also from the first 69 by a chronological gap, placing it just be- fore the end of the world. The first half of the “week” was • Apostolic Tradition ruled by the two two sack-cloth robed witnesses (Enoch and ) followed in the last half by the Antichrist. He • is apparently the first to have projected such a gap the- • ory. Most early expositors have the 70th week fulfilled in Canons of Hippolytus Christ’s death or the destruction of Jerusalem by Roman • ’s Discourse to the Greeks concerning Hades armies.[18] (actually by Hippolytus)

Date of Second Coming calculated 7 Notes Hippolytus was apparently the first to set a specific date for the second Advent through calculation -- A.D. 500 -- which was 260 year after his time. He assumed, [1] Patron Saints Index: Saint Hippolytus of Rome like Irenaeus his teacher, that inasmuch as God made all [2] Cross 2005 things in six days, and these days symbolize a thousand years each, in six thousand years from the creation the [3] Trigilio, John; Brighenti, Kenneth. Saints For Dummies. end will come. He apparently based his calculation on For Dummies, 2010. p. 82. Web. 20 Apr. 2011. the which had the world beginning about 5500 [4] Hippolytus and His Age, Volume I, frontispiece, 1852, p. B.C..[18] 424.

[5] Jerome’s De Viris Illustribus # 61; cp. Eusebius, Historia 5 Feast days Ecclesiastica vi. 14, 10. [6] “Saint Hippolytus of Rome.” Encyclopædia Britannica. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the feast day of St Hip- 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 15 Aug. 2010 polytus falls on August 13, which is also the Apodosis . of the Feast of the Transfiguration. Because on the Apo- dosis the hymns of the Transfiguration are to be repeated, [7] Ippollitts (A Guide to Old Hertfordshire) the feast of St. Hippolytus may be transferred to the day [8] McNally, Terrence, What Every Should Know before or to some other convenient day. The Eastern Or- about Mary 2009 ISBN 1-4415-1051-6 pages 68–69 thodox Church also celebrates the feast of “St Hippolytus Pope of Rome” on January 30, who may or may not be [9] Mansfeld 1997 notes Origen’s use of the schema, but not the same individual. Hippolytus’. The Roman celebrates St Hippolytus [10] Yancy 2008 jointly with St Pontian on August 13. The feast of Saint Hippolytus formerly celebrated on 22 August as one of [11] Ante-Nicean Fathers, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Don- aldson and A. Cleaveland Coxe, vol. 5 (Peabody MA: the companions of Saint Timotheus was a duplicate of his Hendrickson Publishers, 1999), 254–6 13 August feast and for that reason was deleted when the was revised in 1969.[19] Ear- [12] Froom 1950, p. 271. lier editions of the Roman referred to the 22 August Hippolytus as Bishop of Porto. The Catholic [13] Froom 1950, p. 273. Encyclopedia sees this as “connected with the confusion [14] Froom 1950, p. 274. regarding the Roman presbyter resulting from the Acts of the of Porto. It has not been ascertained whether [15] Froom 1950, p. 275. the memory of the latter was localized at Porto merely in connection with the legend in Prudentius, without fur- [16] Froom 1950, pp. 276-277. ther foundation, or whether a person named Hippolytus [17] Froom 1950, p. 277. was really martyred at Porto, and afterwards confounded in legend with Hippolytus of Rome.”[20] This opinion is [18] Froom 1950, p. 278. shared by a Benedictine source.[21] [19] Calendarium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Earlier editions of the also men- 1969), p. 135 tioned on 30 January a Hippolytus venerated at , but the details it gave were borrowed from the story of [20] :Sts. Hippolytus [22] Hippolytus of Rome. Modern editions of the Roman [21] Saint of the Day, 22 August Martyrology omit all mention of this supposed distinct Saint Hippolytus of Antioch. [22] Saint of the Day, 30 January 5

8 References • Eusebius (1927). The Ecclesiastical History and the Martyrs of Palestine. Hugh Jackson Lawlor and John • Hans Achelis, Hippolytstudien (Leipzig, 1897) Ernest Leonard Oulton, trans. London: Macmillan.

• Adhémar d'Ales, La Théologie de Saint Hippolyte • Grant, Robert (1970). Augustus to Constantine: The (, 1906). (G.K.) Thrust of the Christian Movement into the Roman World. : Harper and Row. • Bunsen, Hippolytus and his Age (1852, 2nd ed., 1854; Ger. ed., 1853) • Hippolytus (1934). Easton, Burton Scott, ed. • Cross, F. L. (2005). The Oxford Dictionary of the The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus. New York: Christian Church. Oxford University Press. Macmillan. • Döllinger, Hippolytus und Kallistus (Regensb. 1853; • Hippolytus (2001). On the Apostolic Tradition: an Eng. transl., Edinb., 1876) English Version with Introd. and Commentary by Alistair Stewart-Sykes, in Popular Patristics Series. • Gerhard Ficker, Studien zur Hippolytfrage (Leipzig, Crestwood, N.Y.: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press. 1893) ISBN 0-88141-233-3 • Froom, LeRoy (1950). The Prophetic Faith of our • Fathers (DjVu and PDF) 1. Mansfeld, Jaap (1992). Heresiography in context : Hippolytus’ Elenchos as a source for Greek philoso- • Hippolytus (170–236). Commentary on Daniel, The phy. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 90-04-09616-7. Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol 5. • Quasten, Johannes (1953). Patrology: the Anti- • Hippolytus (170–236b). Treatise on Christ and An- Nicene literature after Irenaeus. Westminster, MD: tichrist, The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol 5. Newman. • Hippolytus, The Treatise on the Apostolic Tradition • Roberts, Alexander; Donaldson, Sir James; Coxe, of St. Hippolytus of Rome, Bishop and Martyr. Trans A. Cleveland, eds. (1971). The Ante-Nicene fathers Gregory Dix. (London: Alban Press, 1992) : Translations of the writings of the fathers down to • J. B. Lightfoot, The vol. i, part ii A.D. 325: Hippolytus, , , , ap- (London, 1889–1890). pendix 5. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.

• Mansfeld, Jaap (1997). Prolegomena: Questions to • Wordsworth, Christopher (1880). St. Hippolytus be Settled before the Study of an Author or a Text. and the Church of Rome in the Early Part of the Third Brill Academic Publishers. Century (2nd ed.). London: Rivingtons. • Karl Johannes Neumann, Hippolytus von Rom in seiner Stellung zu Staat und Welt, part i (Leipzig, 1902) 10 External links • Smith, Yancy W. (2008). Hippolytus’ Commentary On the Song of Songs in Social and Critical Context. • Ante Nicene Fathers Vol. 5: Fathers of the Third Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University. Century: Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix. • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). • Against Noetus Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. • Refutation of All

• Catholic Encyclopedia: St. Hippolytus of Rome

9 Further reading • Encyclopaedia Britannica, Hippolytus of Rome

• Brent, Allen (1995). Hippolytus and the Roman • The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus of Rome church in the third century : communities in tension before the emergence of a monarch-bishop. Leiden: • Hieromartyr Hippolytus the Pope of Rome (January Brill. ISBN 90-04-10245-0. 30) Orthodox and synaxarion

• Cerrato, J. A. (2002). Hippolytus between East and • Martyr Hippolytus of Rome (August 13) West : the commentaries and the provenance of the corpus. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0- • The Holy Martyr Hippolytus the Prologue from 19-924696-3. Ochrid by Nikolai Velimirovic 6 10 EXTERNAL LINKS

• Philosophumena; or, The refutation of all heresies, formerly attributed to Origen of Alexandria, but now to Hippolytus, bishop and martyr, who flour- ished about 220 A.D. Translated from the text of Cruice at the Internet .

• Patron Saints Index: Hippolytus • Saint Hippolytus, Martyr at the Christian Iconogra- phy web site • Here Followeth the Life of St. Hyppolitus, Martyr from Caxton’s translation of the Golden Legend 7

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