Hippolytus of Rome
Church Father, Theologian, Martyr | |
---|---|
Born | c. 170 AD Rome |
Died | c. 235 AD (age about 65) Sardinia |
Venerated in |
|
Pre-congregation | |
Feast | |
Trinitarianism | |
Main interests | Apologetics, Eschatology, Christology, Exegesis |
Hippolytus of Rome (
Starting in the fourth century, various legends arose about him, identifying him as a priest of the Novatianist schism or as a soldier converted by Saint Lawrence. He has also been confused with another martyr of the same name.[2] Pope Pius IV identifies him as "Saint Hippolytus, Bishop of Pontus" who was martyred in the reign of Severus Alexander through his inscription on a statue found at the Church of Saint Lawrence in Rome and kept at the Vatican as photographed and published in Bunsen.[3]
Life
Little is known for certain about his community of origin. One Victorian theory suggested that as a presbyter of the church at Rome under Pope Zephyrinus (199–217 AD), Hippolytus was distinguished for his learning and eloquence. It was at this time that Origen, then a young man, heard him preach.[4][1]
In this view, Hippolytus accused Pope Zephyrinus of
Some suggest Hippolytus himself advocated a pronounced rigorism.[6] At this time, he seems to have allowed himself to be elected as a rival Bishop of Rome, and continued to attack Pope Urban I (222–230 AD) and Pope Pontian (230–235 AD).[2] G. Salmon suggests that Hippolytus was the leader of the Greek-speaking Christians of Rome.[7] Allen Brent sees the development of Roman house-churches into something akin to Greek philosophical schools gathered around a compelling teacher.[8]
Also under this view: during the persecution at the time of Emperor
Legends
The name Hippolytus appears in various hagiographical and martyrological sources of the early Church. The facts about the life of the writer Hippolytus, as opposed to other celebrated Christians who bore the name Hippolytus, were eventually lost in the West, perhaps partly because he wrote in
According to Prudentius' account, a martyr Hippolytus was dragged to death by wild horses,
The latter account led to a Hippolytus being considered the patron saint of horses. During the Middle Ages, sick horses were brought to St Ippolyts, Hertfordshire, England, where a church is dedicated to him.[11]
Writings
Controversy surrounds the corpus of the writer Hippolytus. In the Victorian Era, scholars claimed his principal work to be the
In 1551 a marble statue of a seated figure (originally female
Hippolytus' voluminous writings, which for variety of subject can be compared with those of Origen, embrace the spheres of
Of exegetical works attributed to Hippolytus, the best preserved are the Commentary on the Prophet Daniel and the Commentary on the Song of Songs.[2] This is the earliest attested Christian interpretation of the Song, covering only the first three chapters to Song 3:7.
The commentary on the
Scholars generally ascribe to Hippolytus[17] a work now entitled the Apostolic Tradition, which contains the earliest known ritual of ordination.[9] The influence of Hippolytus was felt chiefly through his works on chronography and ecclesiastical law.[1] His chronicle of the world, a compilation embracing the whole period from the creation of the world up to the year 234, formed a basis for many chronographical works both in the East and West.[18][1] It is from the Apostolic Tradition that the current words of episcopal ordination in the Catholic Church come from, as updated by Pope Paul VI. Additionally, the 21st chapter of Apostolic Tradition contains what may be a proto-Apostles' Creed.[19]
In the great compilations of ecclesiastical law that arose in the East since the 3rd century, the
Differences in style and theology lead some scholars to conclude that some of the works attributed to Hippolytus actually derive from a second author.[2]
Two small but potentially important works, On the Twelve Apostles of Christ and On the
A consensus of scholarship agrees on a core of authentic texts composed by the second-third century writer Hippolytus, regardless of disputes concerning his community, or the exact dates of his biography: these are the biblical commentaries, including On Daniel, On David and Goliath, On the Song of Songs (partially extant), On the Blessings of Isaac and Jacob, and On the Antichrist. These form a sound basis for exploring and understanding his theology and biblical doctrines.
Eschatology
Hippolytus is an important figure in the development of Christian eschatology. In his biblical compendium and topical study On Christ and the Antichrist and in his Commentary on the Prophet Daniel Hippolytus gave his interpretation of the second advent of Christ.[21]
With the onset of persecutions during the reign of
Hippolytus follows the long-established usage in interpreting Daniel's seventy prophetic weeks to be weeks of literal years. Hippolytus gave an explanation of Daniel's paralleling prophecies of chapters 2 and 7, which he, as with the other fathers, specifically relates to the Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans. His interpretation of events and their significance is Christological.[23]
Hippolytus did not subscribe to the belief that the Second Coming was imminent.[24] In his commentary on Daniel he criticizes those who predict the Second Coming in the near future, and then says that six thousand years must pass from Creation before the Second Coming. He also says that Christ was born 5500 years after Adam, so 500 years have to pass from the birth of Christ "to the consummation of the six thousand years, and in this way the end will be".[25]
Feast days
In the
The
Earlier editions of the Roman Martyrology also mentioned on 30 January a Hippolytus venerated at Antioch, but the details were borrowed from the story of Hippolytus of Rome.[28] Modern editions of the Martyrology omit mention of this supposed Saint Hippolytus of Antioch.
See also
- Apostolic Tradition
- Epistle to Diognetus
- Canons of Hippolytus
- Josephus's Discourse to the Greeks concerning Hades(actually by Hippolytus)
- Papal selection before 1059
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h i public domain: Krüger, Gustav (1911). "Hippolytus". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 519. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Cross 2005
- ^ Hippolytus and His Age, Volume I, frontispiece, 1852, p. 424.
- ^ Jerome's De Viris Illustribus # 61; cp. Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica vi. 14, 10.
- ^ a b "Saint Hippolytus of Rome." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 15 Aug. 2010
- ^ a b c Kirsch, Johann Peter (1912). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company. . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).
- ^ a b "Hippolytus Romanus", Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature (Henry Wace, ed.), John Murray, London, 1911
- ISBN 9004102450
- ^ ISBN 978-971-91595-4-4.
- Book of Martyrs (E. Hall, 1833) p41.
- ^ Ippollitts (A Guide to Old Hertfordshire)
- . Retrieved 2024-04-14.
- ISBN 1-4415-1051-6pages 68–69
- ^ Hippolytus' Commentary on Daniel 1.17
- ^ Mansfeld 1997 notes Origen's use of the schema, but not Hippolytus'.
- ISBN 978-1-4632-0218-7page 9, 34
- ^ "Saint Hippolytus of Rome | antipope". 13 March 2024.
- ^ [1] The Chronicon of Hippolytus T.C. Schmidt and Nick Nicholas, 2010, second edition (rough draft)
- ^ "The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus of Rome" (PDF).
- ^ Ante-Nicean Fathers, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson and A. Cleaveland Coxe, vol. 5 (Peabody MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1999), 254–6
- JSTOR 1583543.
- ^ Dunbar, David G., The Eschatology of Hippolytus of Rome, (Ann Arbor: University Press, 1979)
- ISBN 9780521352581
- ISBN 9780809142439
- ^ "Απο γενεσεως ουν Χριστου δει ψηφιζειν πεντακοσια ετη τα επιλοιπα εις συμπληρωσιν των εξακισχιλιων ετων, και ουτως εσται το τελος." Του Αγιου Ιππολυτου Εις Τον Δανιηλ, Hippolytus. Commentary on Daniel (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-12-31. Retrieved 2020-06-22. Book 4, Paragraphs 23 & 24.
- ^ Calendarium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1969), p. 135
- ^ "Saint of the Day, 22 August". Archived from the original on 2011-04-08. Retrieved 2012-07-22.
- ^ "Saint of the Day, 30 January". Archived from the original on 2020-02-25. Retrieved 2012-07-22.
References
- Achelis, Hans Hippolytstudien (Leipzig, 1897)
- Adhémar d'Ales, La Théologie de Saint Hippolyte (Paris, 1906). (G.K.)
- Bunsen, Hippolytus and his Age (1852, 2nd ed., 1854; Ger. ed., 1853)
- Cross, F. L. (2005). The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Oxford University Press.
- Döllinger, Hippolytus und Kallistus (Regensb. 1853; Eng. transl., Edinb., 1876)
- Gerhard Ficker, Studien zur Hippolytfrage (Leipzig, 1893)
- Hippolytus (170–236). Commentary on Daniel, The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol 5.
- Hippolytus (170–236b). Treatise on Christ and Antichrist, The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol 5.
- Hippolytus, The Treatise on the Apostolic Tradition of St. Hippolytus of Rome, Bishop and Martyr. Trans Gregory Dix. (London: Alban Press, 1992)
- J. B. Lightfoot, The Apostolic Fathers vol. i, part ii (London, 1889–1890).
- Mansfeld, Jaap (1997). Prolegomena: Questions to be Settled before the Study of an Author or a Text. Brill Academic Publishers.
- Karl Johannes Neumann, Hippolytus von Rom in seiner Stellung zu Staat und Welt, part i (Leipzig, 1902)
- Schmidt, T.C. & Nicholas, N., The Chronicon of Hippolytus, second edition (English translation, rough draft), (2010).
- Smith, Yancy W. (2008). Hippolytus' Commentary On the Song of Songs in Social and Critical Context. Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University.
Further reading
- Aragione, Gabriella, and Enrico Norelli (Eds) (2011) Des évêques, des écoles et des hérétiques. Actes du colloque international sur la Réfutation de toutes les hérésies, Genève, 13-14 juin 2008 Éditions du Zèbre, 2011
- Brent, Allen (1995). Hippolytus and the Roman church in the third century : communities in tension before the emergence of a monarch-bishop. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-10245-3.
- Cerrato, J. A. (2002). Hippolytus between East and West : the commentaries and the provenance of the corpus. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-924696-0.
- Eusebius (1927). The Ecclesiastical History and the Martyrs of Palestine. Hugh Jackson Lawlor and John Ernest Leonard Oulton, trans. London: Macmillan.
- Grant, Robert (1970). Augustus to Constantine: The Thrust of the Christian Movement into the Roman World. New York: Harper and Row.
- Handl, András (2021). “A Heavily Bearded Philosopher in Female Underwear. Deconstructing and Reconstructing the Identity of the ‘Hippolytus-Statue.’” Louvain Studies 44, no. 4: 340–64.
- Hippolytus (1934). Easton, Burton Scott (ed.). The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus. New York: Macmillan.
- Hippolytus (2001). On the Apostolic Tradition: an English Version with Introd. and Commentary by Alistair Stewart-Sykes, in Popular Patristics Series. Crestwood, N.Y.: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press. ISBN 0-88141-233-3
- Mansfeld, Jaap (1992). Heresiography in context : Hippolytus' Elenchos as a source for Greek philosophy. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-09616-5.
- Nautin, Pierre (1947). Hippolyte et Josipe. Contribution De La Litterature Chretienne Du Troisieme Siecle. Les Editions du Cerf
- Quasten, Johannes (1953). Patrology: the Anti-Nicene literature after Irenaeus. Westminster, MD: Newman.
- Roberts, Alexander; Donaldson, Sir James; Coxe, A. Cleveland, eds. (1971). The Ante-Nicene fathers : Translations of the writings of the fathers down to A.D. 325: Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, appendix. Vol. 5. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
- Wordsworth, Christopher (1880). St. Hippolytus and the Church of Rome in the Early Part of the Third Century (2nd ed.). London: Rivingtons.
External links
- Refutation of All Heresies
- Against Noetus
- The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus of Rome
- Ante Nicene Fathers Vol. 5: Fathers of the Third Century: Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
- Hieromartyr Hippolytus the Pope of Rome (January 30) Orthodox synaxarion
- Encyclopædia Britannica, Hippolytus of Rome
- Patron Saints Index: Hippolytus
- Saint Hippolytus, Martyr at the Christian Iconography web site
- Here Followeth the Life of St. Hyppolitus, Martyr from Caxton's translation of the Golden Legend
- Colonnade Statue in St Peter's Square
- Works by or about Hippolytus of Rome at Internet Archive
- Works by Hippolytus of Rome at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)