Hyginus

ON ST. HYGINUS, POPE.

A.D. 156.

Hyginus, Pope and Martyr at Rome (S.)

From various sources.

[1] At Rome on the 3rd of the Ides of January the feast of St. Hyginus the Pope is celebrated, who gloriously consummated his martyrdom in the persecution of Antoninus. So says the Roman Martyrology. The feast of St. Hyginus, January 11. More briefly, Bellinus of Padua: "On the same day, of St. Hyginus, Pope and Martyr. He organized the clergy and distributed the grades." Molanus in his Additions to Usuard, Maurolycus, Galesinius, the Florarium, and other printed and manuscript sources agree. He is called Iginius by some, and by the Greeks Hyginos (Hygeinos).

[2] Many celebrate him on January 10th, on which day the printed Bede, Ado, and certain manuscripts have: "Of St. Hyginus the Pope, who sat at Rome for four years. He organized the clergy and distributed the grades. Also on the 10th. He was buried in the Vatican, on the 4th (Bede: 3rd) of the Ides of January." Notker: "Of Hyginus the Pope, who organized the clergy and distributed the ecclesiastical grades." The German Martyrology: "The feast of St. Hyginus the Pope; whose burial is commemorated on the following day." A manuscript Martyrology of the Church of St. Mary at Utrecht, copied more than 500 years ago: "Likewise of Hyginus, Pope and Confessor." The manuscript Martyrology of the Church of St. Gudula at Brussels: "At Rome, the feast of St. Hyginus, Pope and Confessor, who, organizing the clergy, distributed the offices by grades and established that a godfather should stand sponsor for one being baptized or confirmed." Galesinius also in his Notes: "In the Martyrology of Cremona, written as far back as the time of Alexander III, Supreme Pontiff (who reigned from 1159 to 1181), mention is also made on this day of St. Hyginus the Pope, whom Bede likewise assigns to this day in his Martyrology. But by the opinion of nearly all writers, and, what is chief, by the authority of the Roman Breviary, we have assigned him to the following day."

[3] In what year he entered the pontificate, in what year he departed this life, and how long he sat, is not entirely established, as is also the case with some pontiffs of his era; When and how long he sat. it is not within our scope to spend longer in ordering the chronology of their age. The Book on the Roman Pontiffs says he sat from the consulship of Magnus and Camerinus, the year of Christ 138, until that of Orfitus and Priscus, that is, the year of Christ 149, the second of Antoninus Pius. In the meantime it assigns him only four years, three months, and eight days -- an error manifest and self-contradictory, or at least contradicting the consular tables. The Catalogue of Roman Pontiffs, compiled in the time of Liberius: "Hyginus, 12 years, 3 months, 6 days. He lived in the times of Verus, from the consulship of Gallicanus and Vetus until that of Praesens and Ruffinus." The consuls Romulus Gallicanus and Antistius Vetus held office in the year of Christ 150; Brutius Praesens II and M. Antonius Ruffinus in the year of Christ 153. And thus once more the consular character and the interval of time contradict each other. Eusebius, according to Pontacus, in the first year of Antoninus Pius, Christ 139: "Hyginus, the eighth, received the episcopate of the Roman Church, for four years." The edition of Scaliger: "for eight years." Pontacus notes that others assign the beginning of Hyginus to the second year of Antoninus. But Eusebius again clearly says, History, book 4, chapter 10: "When Telesphorus had departed this light in the first year of his Antoninus's reign and the eleventh of his own ministry, the pontificate of the Roman Church fell by lot to Hyginus." Nicephorus has the same, book 3, chapter 25. But the Greek calculation has erred, because they considered Cletus and Anacletus to be the same person and therefore omitted one, as Baronius noted in the year 154, no. 1, who writes that Hyginus was created pontiff in that year; more correctly, Petavius places it in 152, on January 13th; and this scholar reckons him to have died on January 11th of the year 156, while Baronius says 158. Abbo of Fleury says he sat 15 years, 3 months, and 4 days.

[4] It is therefore not surprising to find such diversity of chronology in more recent martyrologies. The German Martyrology records that he died in the year of Christ 144; the manuscript Florarium in 153; the Carthusians of Cologne under the persecution of Severus. But Severus I assumed the Empire on the 1st of June in the year 193, a long interval after the death of Hyginus. The author perhaps wished to write "of Verus"; for the Book on the Roman Pontiffs also says: "He lived in the times of Verus and Marcus." For although these assumed the Empire only in the year of Christ 161 after the death of Antoninus Pius on the Nones of March, they had already before then been called Caesars: for in the consular Fasti, in the 16th year of Pius, L. Aurelius Caesar and Sextilius Lateranus are read as Consuls.

[5] Moreover, very little has been committed to writing about Hyginus. The Book on the Roman Pontiffs reports that he was Greek by nationality, formerly a philosopher from Athens, and that his genealogy is not to be found, and then: "He organized the clergy and distributed the grades. He performed three ordinations during the month of December: His deeds. 15 priests, 5 deacons, and 7 (others: 16) bishops for various places. He was buried next to the body of blessed Peter in the Vatican, on the 3rd of the Ides of January, and the see was vacant for 3 days." Abbo says 2 days. As for the statement that he "organized the clergy," Baronius believes that certain additions were made by him to the ancient form of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, already established from the times of the Apostles, or at least illuminated: or certainly that what had collapsed under the persecutions of Trajan and Hadrian was restored by him. Ciaconius teaches that the office of cardinals -- not the name -- had been in force from the beginning of the Church (for so great a burden could not have been managed by the strength of one man unless he had many priests and other ministers and helpers); and that their districts, offices, necessary revenues for sustenance, and titles were variously arranged and distributed by Hyginus and other pontiffs.

[6] "Under Hyginus, Bishop of the city of Rome," says Eusebius in his Chronicle for the second year of Antoninus Pius, "Valentinus the heresiarch and Cerdo, the teacher of Marcion, came to Rome." Hyginus appears to have exposed the deceits of these impious men with notable zeal and diligence, as may be inferred from what St. Irenaeus writes, book 3, chapter 4: "For Valentinus came to Rome under Hyginus, grew under Pius, and prolonged his time until Anicetus. Cerdon, moreover, who preceded Marcion, and he himself under Hyginus, who was the eighth bishop, Vigilance and zeal against heretics. coming often to the Church and making public confession, thus ended his days -- now teaching secretly, now again making public confession, now again being convicted by some in the things he taught wrongly, and was separated from the assembly of the faithful." Eusebius writes the same things, book 4, chapter 10. If all these events occurred under Hyginus, as Irenaeus seems to assert, then that man was of remarkable vigilance, learning, and greatness of soul, who detected that crafty impostor, refuted him, and expelled him from the assembly of the faithful, fearing nothing from the disturbances he could stir up, especially at such a time.

[7] What other decrees Hyginus is said to have enacted, we leave to others to examine. Two letters exist under his name, said to have been issued under the consuls Magnus and Camerinus, one to the Athenians, Letters, Decrees. the other to all the faithful of Christ. Then certain chapters are cited by Gratian from the Decrees of Hyginus. Baronius indeed deliberately omitted these as well. Nor are there wanting certain learned men who regard at least some of them as suspect. They are referenced in volume 1 of the Councils, by Ciaconius under Hyginus, by Ribadeneira in the life of Hyginus, by Platina, Jacques Doublet, Peter de Natalibus book 2, chapter 64, André du Chesne, and others who have written the lives of the Roman Pontiffs; and even in the Breviary prepared by the authority of Paul III and the work of Francisco Quiñones.

[8] Martyrdom. At last, under the consuls Plautius Silvanus and Sentius Augurinus, in the 18th year of Antoninus Pius, the year of Christ 156, Hyginus crowned his glorious labors with the triumph of martyrdom. For the fact that he is called a Martyr in all Martyrologies must be taken in the proper sense, unless some other manifest reason opposes it. The persecution had indeed perhaps been suppressed at that time by the edict of Antoninus Pius, but the cruelty of all impious men had not been so mitigated that he could not have been condemned to death by some judge under another pretext, or slaughtered by a mob stirred up by the sacrificing priests of the idols. Molanus in his Notes on the Martyrology of Usuard, and Onuphrius Panvinius in his additions to Platina, consider that he is honored with the title of Martyr because he suffered much for the confession of Christ.