Among my eclectic collection of books is one entitled Saints Behaving Badly. A subtitle tells us that these are cutthroats, crooks, trollops, con men, and devil worshippers who became saints. Whew! Some of them were really awful. The life of Augustine, whom I talked about awhile back, was not exactly uplifting for a long time.
Today, as I was looking at the Saint of the Day in the church calendar, I remembered that he was listed in the book. This fella was really something else, and unrepentant until the Lord got through to him. He has catacombs named after him outside Rome. I went down into those cavernous tunnels once. The catacombs were burial places, outside the city. It was illegal to bury the dead within the walls. They served, also, as gathering places for the early Christians and a safe place to celebrate their Mass.
Callistus (or Callixtus) was an embezzler. Around 190 A.D., a Roman Christian named Carpophorus set up a bank for fellow Christians, especially for widows who needed a safe place to keep their funds. He had a Christian slave, Callixtus, who was experienced with handling money. Carpophorus put him in charge. Big mistake. His investment decisions were disastrous and he had a habit of skimming off funds until all the money was gone. He took it on the lam, heading to the nearest ship sailing off to - he didn't care where.
Carpophorus went after him. Callixtus' ship was in a harbor waiting for a favorable wind, when his boss caught up with him. Callixtus dived into the sea and Carpophorus yelled to the crew to get him, which they did. Carpophorus had the felon chained to a gristmill, where he had to turn the wheel all day. As luck (or the Will of God) would have it, the ruined depositors asked Carpophorus to free him so that he could work and pay them back at least some of what was owed them. Callixtus was freed and immediately got into more trouble. He dashed into the Roman synagogue on the Sabbath and demanded money from the congregation. The brawl that ensued had them dragging this felon into the courtroom of the prefect of the city.
The accusers charged Callixtus with disturbing the peace and desecrating a holy place. They also accused him of being a Christian. Carpophorus was there and swore that this man was NO Christian. So, Callixtus was to be scourged and sent to Sardinia to work in the mines. He got lucky again. The mistress of the emperor Commodus decided to help Christians who had been sentenced to the mines. She was a Christian herself (albeit not an exemplary one). She asked Pope Victor I to list all the condemned Christians. He did, but purposely left out Callixtus. However, glib and crying piteously,Callixtus managed to talk his way out.
Eventually Callixtus became repentant. He was a changed man. The Pope allowed him to assist a priest who assigned priests and deacons in Rome. His name was Zephyrinus, and he was elected Pope after Victor died. Callixtus was so changed that the new Pope ordained him a deacon and put him in charge of a Christian cemetery on the Appian Way. That cemetery is now known as the Catacombs of St. Callixtus. By the time Zephyrinus died, Callixtus had become so well respected and demonstrated such real holiness that he was elected Pope!
He reigned as Pope for five years, marked by piety and the virtue of mercy. He decreed that even Christians who had become heretics could be restored to the Church if they repented. He provided for the honorable interment of the Martyrs and instituted Ember Day Fasts of penance. In the year 223 A.D. an anti-christian mob murdered Callixtus and threw his body down a well. Christians recovered his remains. Today his bones lie in the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere, not far from where he was killed.
St. Paul, as the young man, Saul, persecuted Christians. He was present at the stoning death of the proto-martyr, Stephen, a deacon. If this enemy of Christ and His followers could become the great teacher and the very great Saint Paul, I guess a scoundrel like Callixtus, could become a saint as well.
N.B. It took courage to be a Pope in the early centuries. Pope St.Victor I was martyred under Septimus
Severus in 199 A.D.
Pope St. Zephyrinus, watched over the flock for 18 years and defended the doctrine of the Trinity
against heretics. He was martyred under Antoninus in 217 A.D.
10/14/11
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