Saint Callistus I

Most of what we know about Callistus comes from his fierce critic, Hippolytus. Callistus was a slave in Rome who managed a bank for his Christian master, Carpophorus. When the bank failed he fled, was caught, and later was sentenced to hard labor in the mines of Sardinia after a dispute. Freed with other Christian prisoners, he returned to Rome.

Pope Zephyrinus made him a deacon and put him in charge of the Christian cemetery on the Appian Way, which still bears his name: the Catacombs of Saint Callixtus, where many early popes were buried. Around 217 Callistus himself was elected bishop of Rome. He insisted that sinners who sincerely repented, even of grave sins, could be readmitted to communion, and he was attacked as too lenient. He died a martyr around 222, probably during a riot in Trastevere, and was buried on the Via Aurelia.

Pilgrims to Rome visit the Catacombs of Saint Callixtus on the Appian Way, with the Crypt of the Popes. In Trastevere, the church of San Callisto stands near Santa Maria in Trastevere, a basilica tradition links to him.

His feast reminds the Church of the mercy offered in the sacrament of Reconciliation.