26 AUGUST – SAINT ZEPHYRINUS (Pope and Martyr)

Zephyrinus, the son of Habundius, was a Roman by nationality. He succeeded Pope Saint Victor I to the See of Peter in 198 AD and ruled the Church of Rome for 18 years. Zephyrinus decreed that every cleric, deacon and priest should be ordained in the presence of all the clergy and the lay faithful. He also ruled that at a Mass celebrated by a bishop (1) there should be vessels of glass before the priests in the church and servitors to hold them, (2) that the priests should stand around the bishop and assist him at all times, other than during those parts of the Mass that belonged to the bishop alone, and (3) that only the hosts consecrated by the bishop should be distributed by the priests to the people. Zephyrinus was martyred in Rome in 217 AD under the emperor Heliogabalus and was buried in his own catacombs on the Via Appia.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Zephryrinus was the first Pontiff to be buried in the celebrated crypt where the Popes of the third century came after their combat to sleep their last sleep. The catacomb which thus succeeded the Vatican cemetery in the honour of sheltering the Vicars of Christ had been opened thirty years before by the virgin martyr Caecilia. As, when at the point of death, she had consecrated her palace into a church, so now from her tomb she caused her family burial place to pass into the hands of the Church. This gift of the Caecilii was the inauguration, in the very face of the pagan government, of common Church property officially recognised by the State. Zephyrinus entrusted the administration of the new cemetery to the person who ranked next to himself in the Roman Church, viz: the archdeacon Callixtus. The holy Pontiff witnessed the growth of heresy concerning the Unity of God and the Trinity of the Divine Persons. Without the help of the special vocabulary, which was later on to fix even the very terms of theological teaching, he knew how to silence both the Sabellians to whom the Trinity was but a name, and the precursors of Arius, who revenged themselves by reviling him.

Victor I was the Pontiff of the Pasch, and you also, Zephyrinus, his successor, were devoured by the zeal of God’s house to maintain and increase the regularity, the dignity, and the splendour of the divine worship on Earth. In Heaven the court of the Conqueror of death gained, during your pontificate, many noble members, such as Irenaeus, Perpetua and the countless martyrs who triumphed in the persecution of Septimus Severus. In the midst of dangerous snares you were the divinely assisted guardian of the truth whom our Lord had promised to His Church. Your fidelity was rewarded by the increasing advancement of the Bride of Jesus, and by the definitive establishment of her foothold on the world which she is to gain over wholly to her Spouse. We will meet you again in October, in company with Callixtus who is now your deacon, but will then, in his turn, be Vicar of the Man-God. Today give us your paternal blessing and make us ever true sons of Saint Peter.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, during the persecution of Valerian, the holy martyrs Irenaeus and Abundius, who were thrown into a sewer from which they had taken the body of blessed Concordia. Their bodies were drawn out by the priest Justin and buried in a crypt near St. Lawrence.

At Ventimigilia, a city of Liguria, St. Secundus, martyr, a distinguished man and officer in the Theban Legion.

At Bergamo in Lombardy, St. Alexander, martyr, who was one of the same legion and endured martyrdom by being beheaded for the constant confession of the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Among the Marcians, the Saints Simplicius, and his sons Constantius and Victorian, who were first tortured in different manners, and then being struck with the axe, obtained the crown of martyrdom in the time of the emperor Antoninus.

At Nicomedia, the martyrdom of St. Adrian, son of the emperor Probus. For reproaching Licinius on account of the persecution raised against Christians, he was put to death by his order. His body was buried at Argyopolis by his uncle Domitius, bishop of Byzantium.

In Spain, St. Victor, martyr, who merited the crown of martyrs by being slain by the Moors for the faith of Christ.

At Capua, St. Rufinus, bishop and confessor.

At Pistoja, St. Felix, priest and confessor.

At Lima in Peru, St. Rose of St. Mary, virgin, of the Third Order of St. Dominic. Her feast is celebrated on the thirtieth of this month.

And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.

Thanks be to God.