The Pope Podcast

Changing venues

2009-04-18T07:56:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, for the past few months I have been looking for a way for us to interact more. I have decided that moving the podcast page over to facebook.com is a better way to facilitate this dialogue. SO just click on the link above and come join The Pope Podcast at facebook.com. Please be advised that you will have to sign up for an account. After you sign up on facebook just look for The Pope Podcast and sign up to be a fan. Thanks so much everyone and please remember to take care of yourselves, and each other, and God Bless!!

Frapr Map

2008-11-17T06:13:00.001-08:00

Episode XVIII- Pope Urban I

2008-11-17T06:11:00.000-08:00

There is very little known about the life of Pope Urban. We do know, however, that he was born a Roman and was the son of a man named Pontius. This name is also recorded as Pontianus in other texts.

As far as contributions to the Church during his reign as Pontiff, Urban I is credited with ordering all of the sacred vessels and patens to be made of silver. These were apparently made for some of the surrounding churches during his papacy. At this time in Church history, silver and glass were favorite materials with which the Church melted, shaped and etched it’s impressions onto.

In addition to his work with the sacred vessels, Urban was known for having a very humble disposition towards the act of people’s donations to the Church, now known as tithing. Here is a quote regarding his opinion on donations to the Church, “The gifts of the faithful are offered to the Lord can only be used for ecclesiastical purposes, for the common good of the Christian community, and for the poor, for they are the consecrated gifts of the faithful, the atonement offering of sinners, and the patrimony of the needy.”

Pope Urban has been credited with the conversion of many souls to the Christian faith. One of his most famous converts was a man named Valerian who was the husband of St. Cecilia. Also of note, we can now track to the day the beginning and end of the Popes reigns, as these dates were now being recorded by Church historians whose records have been preserved and verified. Therefore, the official beginning of Urban I’s papacy is October 14, 222.

Though the schism between the Christian Church and Hippolytus remained, we do not know of any exact details surrounding the circumstances of their relationship. We do know that Hippolytus published a book called the Philosophumen, which was solely written to attack Pope Calixtus. Well, obviously Hippolytus was not looking to make amends with the Church, and Urban was as cold as predecessor Calixtus was in dealing with him.

For the most part, there was relative peace between the Church and Roman Empire during Urban’s reign. Emperor Severus had managed to keep his bloodthirsty subjects in check. Severus himself even had a statue of Jesus in his statue collection of Gods. Severus’ relations with the Christians went deeper than this, however. His mother, Julia Mamea, had befriended a Christian writer by the name of Origen. Severus himself even decided in favor of Christians in a lawsuit regarding land between Christians and a tavern keeper. Severus ultimately stated that it was better to have God worshipped on the land as opposed to a tavern being built so people could get drunk.

Though we do not know of the circumstances of his death, Pope Urban I is traditionally credited with being a martyr. Scholars are now starting to argue, however, that he may have indeed died of natural causes. I have to admit that I, too, struggle with believing he was martyred in such times of peace between the Church and Roman Empire. There is a legend of his death which states we was beheaded after he toppled a Roman statue of an idol simply be praying. He is believed to have died in the year 230, and his feast day is celebrated on May 25. He is buried in the Cemetery of St. Calixtus.

While we do not know of the exact circumstances of his death, it is possible that the artistic impressions of Pope Urban may provide us with clues to how he may have died. Apparently, he is often depicted sitting down, wearing the papal tiara and holding a sword pointed down. You can go to the blog to see a picture of this type of portrayal. He has also been featured standing up in his papal garb while holding a bible and grapes. Pope Urban is often associated with grapes, and I am not sure if this is some symbolic reference or if he just really liked to eat grapes. Interestingly, Pope Urban has also been featured being beheaded or scourged at the stake. Though these latter impressions are less common, they provide some insight into how he may have died.

Episode XVI- Pope Calixtus

2008-11-05T21:25:00.000-08:00

Calixtus was a native Roman, the son of a man named Domitius. He was born in a section of the city originally called Ravennatius. Ravennatius later became known as Trastevere, and is situated on the west bank of the Tiber River that runs through Rome. This is south of what is modern day Vatican City. Fishing was a popular occupation in this region, as well as being the home to many Jewish and Syrian immigrants to the area. Eventually, several Roman emperors decided to build private residences in this area. Two very important churches were also built there as well.

Today, Trastevere is more of a tourist spot due to its historical importance. It’s narrow, cobblestoned streets are lined with pubs and restaurants as well as many homes built in the medieval style of architecture. Trastevere is also home to multiple universities. With its mix of young students and wonderful history Trastevere became somewhat of a hotspot for famous artists and musicians during the 1960’s and 70’s.

So Calixtus was born into this unique section of Rome; however life was not easy right from the beginning. It appears that Calixtus was born into slavery, and was the slave of a man named Aurelius Carpoforus. Corpoforus was a relative of Emperor Commodus who reigned from 180-192, during the reigns of Popes Eleutherius and Victor. Although Calixtus had the unfortunate fate of being born a slave, he was blessed to have been born a slave with a Christian master. Carpoforus eventually converted Calixtus to Christianity and freed him.

Carpoforus was generally a good man, and invested in the future of his now former slave Calixtus. Upon his release from slavery Carpoforus gave Calixtus money to open up a money changing shop near what was then called the “public swimming pools” but what later came to be known as the public baths. Unfortunately, Calixtus allowed evil to creep into his heart and eventually he squandered the money lent to him by Carpoforus. It is likely he may have even stolen some of the money.

Well, Calixtus had obviously worn out his welcome in Rome so he decided to head out of town on a ship. Soon after, however, Carpoforus caught up with Calixtus on the ship. We are not sure if he did this to escape capture or possibly commit suicide, but Calixtus jumped off of the ship he was being chased by Carpoforus on. But just before he could make it to the water, two boatmen on the ship caught Calixtus by his hair and dragged him back on board. Carpoforus was disappointed in his former slave, and took Calixtus back to his land to work on his gristmill until all of the money Calixtus had taken was repaid.

Not long after, however, Carpoforus let Calixtus go and relieved him of his debt. It is likely that Carpoforus succumbed to the pressures of other Christians in the community who did not agree with the punishment; however we shouldn’t rule out the likelihood that Calixtus might have talked his way out of the situation as well. After he was freed by Carpoforus, Calixtus returned to the banking position he had prior to the whole incident. Problems arose again for Calixtus however, when one day he was roaming the streets looking for a Jewish customer who owed him money from a loan that Calixtus had paid out. Calixtus found his customer at the synagogue. Instead of waiting for the customer to finish his religious practices for the day and confronting him afterwards, Calixtus decided to go into the synagogue to confront the debtor. Well, this was a huge no-no for the Jews, and Calixtus was jailed for this act. Calixtus was found guilty for his transgression of interrupting a religious ceremony. He was whipped and sentenced to hard labor in the salt mines of Sardinia. His work at the mines was done on a hand mill, which was a job generally reserved for slaves.

Calixtus landed himself in Sardinia during the papacy of Eleutherius, but it was during Victor’s reign that Calixtus found himself released after the pleas of Commodus’ mistress Marcia. Pope Victor was not impressed with Calixtus, however, and when Calixtus returned to Rome to inquire about how he could help the Pope, Victor gave him a rather mundane task out of the area, in a place called Anzio. Anzio is about thirty miles away from Rome. Victor did this most likely just to be rid of Calixtus. It should be noted, however, that other sources have identified the reason for Calixtus being sent away was because his health had deteriorated so much while working in the mines of Sardinia.

I have to argue that Calixtus must have undergone a serious reformation between his time away on this errand for Victor, or he just must have been an extremely charismatic figure. I say this because by the time we get to the papacy of Zephyrinus, Calixtus has now found himself as one of the top administrators of the Church.

It is not known whether there was a preexisting relationship between Calixtus and Zephyrinus or that Calixtus demonstrated a significant turnaround in his behavior while in Anzio, because when Zephyrinus became Pope he gave Calixtus an enormous amount of responsibility. I have to believe that it this point Calixtus had made the necessary and sincere changes in his life to really deserve the office and responsibilities handed to him. This had to be the new Calixtus, because the old Calixtus would have cheated the Church in all sorts of ways. And instead of this, Calixtus proved himself to be a very competent administrator and follower of the faith.

Calixtus evolved from being in charge of specific tasks under Zephyrinus, such as moving and rearranging the cemetery mentioned in the last episode of the podcast, but found himself now dealing with more doctrinal matters of the Church. He was given the job of beating back the heretic philosophies, and eventually proved himself capable in this area as well. Eventually, his talent and prestige with Zephyrinus led to a rivalry between himself and another Christian who became jealous of Calixtus, the philosopher Hippolytus. Hippolytus wanted so bad to have a higher position within the Church, and he resented Calixtus very much.

Here is a brief rundown on who Hippolytus was. He was born around the year 170 in Rome and eventually became one of the most prolific early Christian writers. He was a student of the historian Ireaneus, and was known to have styled his writing after his mentor. Hippolytus was a well-known thinker and became one of the foremost experts on Church doctrine. He basically became what is known as a Christian apologist. An apologist, as mentioned in a previous podcast as well, is a writer of some sort who is known for taking on a certain point of view in an argument and then places their point of view under scrutiny in order to prove their point as being the most logical and correct. Hippolytus was very talented and well known as a Christian apologist, and he openly attacked the heretic philosophies of his day. Hippolytus was especially known for his philosophical battles against the Monarchians in Rome during Zephyrinus’ papacy.

Well, I think Hippolytus allowed his ego to take control of his emotions, because he became very disenchanted with both Zephyrinus and Calixtus. Instead of understanding and appreciating his role in the larger scheme of things as an important asset to the Church and Christ’s word, Hippolytus allowed himself to see Zephyrinus as an imbecile for not being more aggressive towards the Monarchians, as well as seeing Calixtus as being the pet of the Pope who was unworthy of the job given to him.

As you can probably guess, when Calixtus was elected Pope in the year 217, Hippolytus was not happy. Instead of supporting the promotion of his rival, Hippolytus decided to formally break from the traditional and original, Christian church in order to set up his own operation at another place in Rome. Hippolytus declared himself “successor of the apostles and participant in the same grace of the supreme priesthood and magistracy.” A schism within the Christian Church had now occurred.

A schism is a division or split within an organization, and is virtually always ignited by a disagreement of some sort, and Hippolytus made himself the first antipope of the Church. AN antipope is a person who makes a generally accepted claim to be the rightful pope, and is openly opposed to the officially elected and recognized pope of the Church. Typically, antipopes have had a lot of support, including the support of many church officials. Throughout the history of the Church, there have been forty known antipopes. Hippolytus was the first of the forty and he continued on as an antipope from the year 217 until 235. His opposition to the Church lasted through the pontificates of Calixtus, Urban and Pontanius.

By this point Hippolytus had basically declared theological war on Calixtus and the Christians. Hippolytus accused Calixtus of consecrating clergy who had been married multiple times, of allowing certain bishops in general to marry (which was a big no-no), and of being too lenient on adulterers and prostitutes even if these folks had made penance for their sins.

The funny thing about looking at the criticisms of Hippolytus was that he was generally correct. Calixtus was moving away from the very rigorous attitude of previous pontiffs in dealing with sinners. He had even taken the drastic, yet authoritative, step of excommunicating the leader of the Monarchians, a man named Sabellius. But he saw his position in these matters as being more in tune with the original spirit with which Christ evangelized his people. Let us not forget the story of Mary Magdalene.

Calixtus reign coincided with that of a Roman Emperor known as Elagabalus. The only way to really describe this Emperor was that of a buffoon really. Elagabalus was installed as emperor through a coup that was arranged for him by his grandmother. He was installed as Emperor at the age of 14 and lasted for about four years. Elagabalus was seen as a joke by his subjects, as he regularly wore wigs and makeup, was married to five different women, openly declared himself to a man, was known to have prostituted himself and installed religious gods and symbols that his people rejected. The good thing for Calixtus and the Church was that Elagabalus was so involved with himself that he did not pay much attention to the Church. This came to end however in 222 when Elagabalus was murdered. He was replaced by his cousin, Alexander Severus, who was unable to deter the Romans from continuing in their lust for blood and had directed their aggression towards the Christians at this time.

As a result, Calixtus was seized by a mob along with two other priests named Calepodius and Asclepiades. The two priests were quickly executed and their bodies were dragged through the streets of Rome. Calixtus was thrown out of a window in his house and into a well where he was stoned to death. This well is believed to be the same one now located at the basilica of Santa Maria in Trastavere, which is a Church believed to have been built by Calixtus. Calixtus was buried in the “Crypt of the Popes” which he had himself set up, but was rather buried in the cemetery set up by his priestly friend Calepodius on the Via Aurelia. Pope Calixtus’ feast day is celebrated on October 14.

In addition to his theological differences with Hippolytus, Calixtus also decreed that three times a year, Christians should abstain from corn, wine and oil. Combined with the Lenten fast, this practice became known as the fast of the four seasons. I am not aware of this being practiced today in the way it was during Calixtus’ time.

Episode XVI- Pope Zephyrinus

2008-10-20T06:17:00.000-07:00

Zephyrinus was most likely born in the mid second century. He was known to be a Roman; the son of a man known by the name of Abondio, but who is also been named in various sources as Habundius. Nothing else is known of Zephyrinus’ childhood.

Zephyrinus was elected Pope in the year 199. He immediately named our good friend Calixtus as his secretary. This appointment gave Calixtus the enormous responsibility of being the head administrator of all the places of worship that had been provided to the Church by wealthy citizens of the Empire. Calixtus also engaged in activities that ensured the rights of the Church as the owners and administrators of these properties. While this may seem to be a rather small development in Church history, this is actually quite a profound development. We are now seeing the Church beginning to accumulate assets. This trend has continued ever since, and as we will see in later episodes, has served as the foundation for the Church’s entrance into more political affairs later in its history.

Calixtus also reorganized the Church’s formal cemetery. He had it moved from a place called the Via Salaria to another place called the Via Appia. The Via Salaria was a road that connected Rome, which is near the western coast of Italy, to the eastern coast of Italy. The Via Appia switches directions and takes you from Rome down to the Southern coast of Italy. Calixtus did a pretty good job of rearranging the cemetery, and it became the main place for Popes to be buried between the years 235 and 314. It eventually came to be known as the “Crypt of the Popes.”

The Roman Emperor at the time of Zephyrinus’ election was Septimius Severus. Although the Church had enjoyed warm relations with the Emperor during the reign of the previous Pope, Victor I, by the time Zephyrinus came on board these relations had cooled considerably.

The main reason for the rift between the Roman leader and Church appears to revolve around an event that occurred in the year 202. In that year, Septimius Severus had declared that a series of celebrations would be held in his honor, celebrating his tenth year as the Roman Emperor. The celebrations were called “pro salute imperatorums.” Since the Emperor himself was not a Christian, these celebrations were pagan in nature. Well, the Christians within the empire chose not to attend due to these pagan themes. This irritated the Emperor, and he began to issue decrees which led to the persecution of many Christians within the Empire. The main actions taken against the Church was a decree made by Septimius stating that nobody could convert to Christianity during this period of time. The persecutions lasted for about a year, until the Christians began participating the celebrations and customs which did not violate their own values.

During this time the heretic philosophy of Patripassion Monarchianism also flourished. This belief system held that the Father and Son were one Person and that the Father had been incarnated and crucified. This is in contrast to the now well established doctrine of the Holy Trinity that the Church professed. One of the main opponents of this heretic philosophy was a man named Hippolytus. Hippolytus not only criticized the Patripassion proponents, but he criticized Pope Zephyrinus himself for not being tough enough on these folks. Hippolytus even went so far as to call Zephyrinus an ignoramus and even favoring these folks! Yikes! But even though this is not something I think any current official of the Church would ever say something like this about our Holy Father, I have to admit that Zephyrinus kind of made himself a target of criticism because he did not take the strong stance against the Monarchians that his predecessors had in addressing other heretic philosophies.

This sentiment pretty much sums of the general feeling with regard to how Pope Zephyrinus papacy is viewed by most Church historians. He is known as a Pope of strong virtue rather than sound theological grounding. And this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Fortunately for Pope Zephyrinus, Calixtus was right there with him providing Zephyrinus the theological backbone the Church desperately needed to maintain. Also of note, while Hippolytus had a solid base with which to criticize Pope Zephyrinus, some Church historians have speculated that Hippolytus was especially critical of Zephyrinus because Zephyrinus promoted Calixtus instead of Hippolytus.

This period of time sowed the first seed of serious internal distress within the Church, and in our next episode we will encounter the fruits of this distress with the beginnings of what is known as a schism within the Church. And at the heart of this schism was our good old friend Hippolytus, who I am becoming less and less fond of him by the minute here.

In addition to his work against the Monarchians, Pope Zephyrinus also declared that all ordinations of priests, deacons or other official Church positions were to take place in front of the members of the Church.

Pope Zephyrinus eventually passed away in the year 217. It appears he died of natural causes. He was buried in a mausoleum in the cemetery reorganized by his good friend Calixtus.

Pope Victor I

2008-09-29T22:44:00.000-07:00

Pope Victor was most likely born in the early to mid second century. He was born in Africa, and thus carries the distinction of being the first African Pope. His father’s name was believed to have been Felix.

Victor was elected Pope in the year 189. His reign as Pope coincided with the reign of two Roman Emperors, those of Commodus and Septimius Severus. At this time, the relationship between the Church and Roman Empire was quite peaceful. The story of how this peace was made possible is quite ironic, as the person most often credited with creating this air of peace was a woman by the name of Marcia. And I say ironic because of the Church’s position of exercising much stronger management over women’s participation in the Church after the inappropriate practices that had emerged prior to Victor’s papacy.

The stories of Marcia indicate that she was a very strong woman who had an intense desire to help the Christians whom she openly affiliated herself with. Marcia came to the attention of the Pope when she petitioned her husband, Commodus, to pardon a group of Christians who had been jailed and/ or condemned to work in the salt mines in a place called Sardinia. Sardinia is a large island off the western coast of Italy, in the Mediterranean Sea. This group of condemned Christians included our future Pope mentioned in the previous episode, Calixtus.

Pope Victor I also found an ally in the wife of Commodus’ successor, Emperor Septimius Severus. Her name was Julia Domna, and she was the daughter of a great pagan priest named Bassianus. Her family came from Syria, and Julia Domna grew up serving in the local temple with her family. She therefore, developed an appreciation and sympathy for the Christians and their dedication to their own God.

Since Pope Victor had the good fortune of being Pope during an unusually peaceful time of Church/ state relations, he was able to devote more of his time and energies to matters of the Church. Specifically, Pope Victor I focused on matters of theology and liturgy. And, maybe most importantly, Pope Victor also used this time to firmly establish the supreme authority of the Pope in Church matters like never seen before.

In fact, Christians not only were generally accepted throughout the Roman Empire, but they also held positions within the Emperors Courts in Rome. Emperor Commodus employed a Christian man named Prosenes. Emperor Septimius Severus also employed a man named Proculus who once cured Severus of an illness. Severus also employed a Christian wet nurse for his son Caracalla.

Pope Victor inherited the lingering controversy between the Churches of Rome and those of Asia Minor concerning when to celebrate Easter. Those in Rome celebrated this amazing event on the Sunday following the 14^th day of Nisan. The churchgoers in Asia Minor, which is considered to be modern-day Turkey, chose to celebrate Easter on the 14^th day of Nisan itself. This particular belief was known as Quartodecimanism. Pope Victor wrote letters to all of the other Christian Churches, asking for feedback on when they thought the Paschal rite should be celebrated. Eventually, enough support came for the celebration of Easter on the Sunday following the 14^th of Nisan that Pope Victor that he in turn declared it to be the official day to celebrate Easter.

Well… a man by the name of Policrates of Ephesus wrote Pope Victor and told him that they had no intention of changing their celebration from the 14^th day of Nisan to the following Sunday. Victor swiftly and convincingly declared that all members of the Church who celebrated Easter outside of the Sunday after 14 Nisan were no longer a part of the Church of Rome. Victor was immovable in his decision. Not even the pleas of Bishop Ireneaus of Lyon were able to persuade the Holy Father to change his mind. Eventually, the Churches of Asia came around to accepting Pope Victor’s decree.

As a result of this single incident, strength and influence of the Pope as we now know it was born with the papacy of Victor I. Though he was very diplomatic in how he gathered information prior to making decisions, once he made his decision it was final.

Victor’s forceful personality carried over to his dealings with the heretics of his day. He excommunicated anyone claiming false prophesies and philosophies. Some of his most notable opponents included Theodotus and Natale. Victor was a man of compassion, however, and was known to welcome excommunicated members of the church once they repented for their mistakes. Although the heresies persisted after his reign, Pope Victor I gave his successors a clear and convincing method of dealing with them.

In addition to his decree over the celebration of Easter, Pope Victor also declared that if a person had participated in an emergency baptism for some reason or other, such as in a river, spring, sea or other body of water outside of the traditional Church setting, then that person was still entitled to being treated as a full member of the Church. Apparently some folks were struggling with welcoming new people to the Church who were in need of an emergency baptism.

Pope Victor is also believed to have authored a variety of treatises. A treatise is a long and systematic way of addressing a certain topic. Although we are not sure exactly what Pope Victor wrote about in general, we do know that he wrote one particular treatise on dice throwers. He most likely used the treatise to discuss the behavior and why throwing dice was a sinful act. I have to say this is where my love for the Church really grows and grows. I love the detail to which our Church fathers have gone to really take a look at sinful behavior and how it impacts our spiritual lives. While it does not make staying away from the sin any easier sometimes, as I myself can attest to that, it sure does help to explain what is going on with us and within us, while we are experiencing the struggle of addressing a particular sin. We are especially blessed now to be able to read treatises on just about every topic known to man due to the work of our Church brothers and sisters over the millennia.

Pope Victor also introduced the Catholic world to the Latin language. Latin was the native language in his beloved Africa. Pope Victor thus mandated that all masses were to be said in Latin from his time on, straying away from the original Greek language for the first time. This tradition of celebrating the mass in Latin would last for over 1800 years. So yeah, I think it’s safe to say Pope Victor I had a lasting impression on the Church.

Pope Victor I died around the year 199. The resources used in this podcast conflict with regard to whether or not he was a martyr. However, while the sources vary on their opinions as to how Victor died, the Liber Pontificalis also lists him as a martyr. He is buried near St. Peter.

Pope Eleutherius

2008-09-29T22:40:00.000-07:00

Eleutherius was born in a town called Nicopolis, a city that is no longer active on the Midwestern coast of Greece. Although Nicopolis no longer exists, ancient ruins still present in the town tell us the stories of its rich history. Nicopolis was the Greek capital of the region of Epirus in Ancient Greece. At it’s peak, Nicopolis had a population of about 30,000 people.

In addition to knowing where he was from, we also know that Eleutherius’ father’s name was Habundius. Eleutherius’ name means free in Greek.

Prior to being elected Pope, Eleutherius was a deacon in the Church who served under Popes Anicetus and Soter. It is even believed that Eleutherius served as Pope Anicetus’ secretary during Anicetus’ monumental meeting with St. Polycarp regarding the celebration of Easter. He was, therefore, well versed in the intellectual, philosophical and spiritual warfare being waged within the Christian world.

During his time as Pope, beginning around the year 174, Eleutherius made the decree that no food fit for human consumption was to be despised by the Christians. He most likely made this decree in order to oppose the continuing Montanist movement, which prohibited its followers from eating meat.

Eleutherius also brought on board his number one team of theologians and philosophers in order to discuss the Montanist threat and to decide what to do about it. The “A Team,” as I call them, consisted of Saints Irenaeus and Pothinus. St. Irenaeus was a bishop from Lyons, France. Irenaeus was a disciple of our old friend St. Polycarp, and made a name for himself as an early Church apologist. An apologist is an author or writer of some sort who is usually a recognized leader in their particular field. Through their talents in writing, they take a position on a certain issue and argue their point. Irenaeus was a Catholic apologist and well known opponent of Montanism.

St. Pothinus was an older and very respected bishop of Lyons as well. He was ultimately martyred as a result of wounds sustained while he was imprisoned during the Christian persecutions in Lyons, around the year 177. Together, Pope Eleutherius, Irenaeus and Pothinus devised strategies on how to best repel the heretic philosophies facing Christianity during this time.

Pope Eleutherius was Pope during the reign of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Although Marcus Aurelius and the Church had a generally amicable relationship during Aurelius’ reign, especially within the boundaries of Rome itself, the year 177 was a particularly tough one in Christian/ Roman Empire relations.

That year, many persecutions took place in the Roman provinces. Martyrdoms were on the rise again, probably due in large part to the Montanist movement within the Church. The radical Montanist doctrine was perceived as undermining Roman authority, and the Christian faithful paid the price. Lyon, France was a particularly hot spot of some of these Christian persecutions. There is one martyrdom story in particular that has remained in Christian lore throughout the centuries, that of the martyrdom of St. Cecilia.

The story goes that St. Cecilia was a faithful Christian who had married a pagan man named Valerius. Cecilia insisted on remaining a virgin until her wedding day to Valerius, which he respected and agreed to. Valerius was so impressed with his new bride’s faithfulness, he himself converted to Christianity. Then his brother Tiburtius became so impressed with Valerius and Cecilia that he too converted. Well… this was just too much for the Roman prefect of Lyon, Almachius, to handle and so he ordered them to be executed.

Cecilia was placed in a type of sweat lodge where she was expected to suffocate. After three days she emerged from the caldarium of steam unharmed. At that point Almachius ordered Cecilia to be beheaded. The executioner tried three times to behead her, but was unsuccessful. Legend has it the executioner became so freaked out he himself ran away. Cecilia survived three more days but eventually died of the abuse her body had taken over the course of the past week.

Although this was a very strenuous time for Pope Eleutherius, eventually Marcus Aurelius passed away and his son Commodus became the Roman Emperor. Commodus appeared to be much more tolerant of the Christians and recognized the difference in Christian doctrine versus Montantist philosophy. This separation between the Church and Montanists were made very clear by Pope Eleutherius’ work as pope. Peace between Christianity and the Empire characterized the rest of Eluetherius’ papacy.

Although relations between the Church and Roman Empire remained fair after Marcus Aurelius’ death, there remained isolated incidents of Christian persecution within the Empire. One notable instance occurred around the year 186, when a man named Calixtus was sentenced to a flogging by the local prefect named Fuscianus. Calixtus had been accused of disturbing Jewish services for his role in appearing at a synagogue on behalf of a banker to collect certain debts. Calixtus took a pretty bad beating for his “transgression,” but… have no fear for our Christian brother Calixtus as he will be joining us later in the Pope Podcast as our sixteenth Pope.

Pope Eleutherius died in the year 189. He is not recognized as a martyr of the Church. His feast day is celebrated on May 6.

Though he is generally seen as having a strong papacy, Eleutherius has been criticized for his dealings with the Montanists. He has been seen by some as having a rather delayed reaction in dealing with them. While many outsiders of the Vatican criticized him for this, Eleutherius most likely delayed his reaction to the Montanist movement per the request of Christians who had been jailed in Lyon during the time of Cecilia’s persecution. Most likely it was St. Irenaeus who requested patience by Eleutherius. Nonetheless, Eleutherius was able to keep up a now growing tradition of Church leaders who were able to maintain the integrity of the Church and God’s will.

Pope Soter

2008-09-01T15:16:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome back to the Pope Podcast. I am your host Scott Bosse. This is episode 13, titled Pope Soter.

Pope Soter was most likely born in the early part of the second century in a town called Fondi, located in Italy. Fondi is a rather small coastal town located in the province of Lazio region. This area sits in a small plain between the Ausoni and Aurunci mountains and Tyrrhenian Sea. This is all in the western coast of Italy, almost smack dab in the middle of the country. Historically, Fondi has been known as a major passage between Rome and Southern Italy. The region has been a big agricultural center, with roots dating back as for as 1000 BC. Today, Fondi boasts a population of approximately 35,000 residents. It is believed that Soter’s father was from Greece prior to settling in Fondi, and this tie to Greeks would remain a constant theme in Soter’s papacy later in life.

We are not sure about most of the events of Soter’s life leading up to his election as Pope around the year 166. Almost immediately upon taking his place as head of the Catholic Church, Soter began to act upon his Greek roots. You see, the Church had become fairly well established at this point in many regions throughout the Roman Empire. The Greek Church itself had grown to considerable size and influence to it’s native populations. One of Soter’s first acts as Pope was send a bunch of money collected in the offerings to the churchgoers and clergy at the Church of Corinth. The funds were meant to be distributed to the poor. This charitable act would be a common theme throughout Soter’s papacy, and the extent of his generosity and expression of thanks from the folks can be summarized in the following letter that was sent to Soter by the bishop of Corinth, a man named Dionysus:

“Right from the beginning, you introduced the custom of distributing to you brothers various benefits, and of sending to many churches scattered in individual cities the needed support. You thereby respond to the poverty of the wretched and you offer what the brothers who work in the mines really need.” He went on to add, “Bishop Soter has not only maintained that practice (of having a generous spirit like his forefathers), but has increased it be sending ample alms, consoling his afflicted brothers by his word and treating them like a father.”

So what we can already tell in our study of Soter is that he was obviously a very giving and compassionate man with a special affinity for the poor. This letter from Dionysus also points out the strong evangelical spirit that Soter embraced in his compassionate attitudes towards folks who were struggling with their faith.

In addition to his charitable works, Soter took a strong role in his work on behalf of the Church against the heretic philosophies that plagued the Roman Empire. An added challenge during Soter’s pontificate was the reality of persecution from the Roman elite themselves. Pope Soter found himself in an era of increased hostilities against the Christians by the Romans. This was due in large part to the increasing influence of Montanism and reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius.

His most notorious act against the heresies of his day, and regarded by me as the starting point of the controversy of the role women play within the Church, was when Pope Soter decreed that women could no longer be able to touch the paten and chalice as well as forbid women to burn incense during ceremonies. While this decree appears to be quite sexist, there is a logical explanation as to why Pope Soter made this decree.

You see, up to this point women had played a very active role within the Church. A titled often bestowed upon active women in the Church was that of a deaconess. Deaconesses could trace their role within the Church to the times of St. Paul, who had women carrying his epistles to the Romans on his behalf. The traditional role of a deaconess had eventually grown to include responsibilities that included instructing young catechumens, helping women clothe and prepare for full immersion baptisms, assisting the Bishops in administering holy oil to the sick, washing and preparing women’s bodies for burial, transporting messages for Bishops in times of danger as well as doing chores for the Bishops and finally handing out alms in place of the deacons as needed. Typically deaconesses were widows between the ages of forty and sixty, and they were renowned for their diligence to their duties.

Well, some of the heretic philosophies of the day had begun to infiltrate the Catholic Church, and some deaconesses and priests began to seriously distort the nature their responsibilities. The deaconesses had gone from performing the duties mentioned above to all of a sudden living with the men, supposedly in a very strict and platonic way without any intimacy. In some situations, the deaconesses went from being widows in their forties to young women who began performing all sorts of chores around priest’s houses, including sleeping in their bed, apparently to help develop a stronger sense of their chastity. Well, Pope Soter got in there and said to them all “Yeah right, uh, uh, not gonna have it,” and he therefore felt compelled to limit the role of women in the Church. These increasingly inappropriate roles of women in ecclesiastical life became what was known as the tradition of sinisacte.

Although I can see Soter’s point, this did seem like a bit of a drastic step. It seems like he did not have much of a choice however. The Montanists were gaining ground in Rome, as well as a new philosophy with folks calling themselves Adamites. The Adamites were an obscure and relatively lawless sect of Christians who claimed to have regained Adam’s original innocence. And we are talking Adam of the Adam and Eve days and stories. These folks practiced something called “holy nudism” in which they took their clothes off while worshipping. The main tenet of this philosophy was that the concept of marriage was in essence a foreign concept to the Garden of Eden and would never have emerged if not for Original Sin. These folks basically tried to take themselves to the pre- sin days of Adam and Eve. They were like the original free- love hippies of the ancient world and lived a relatively lawless existence. They drew a lot of their beliefs from the Gnostics folks as well.

We don’t know much else about his papacy other than some brief entries I discovered stating that he declared marriage a sacrament that could only be blessed by a priest and that he made Easter a formal occasion to be celebrated every year from his time on.

Soter died around the year 175. Although he was originally believed to have been martyred, we now believe that is not the case and he is no longer officially listed as a martyr in the Catholic Church records. We are not really sure as to where exactly he was buried. There are stories of how his remains had been moved from location to location. At least part of them are believed to now be in the Church of St. Sixtus and another part of them in Toledo, Spain. Other sources used in this podcast also claim the remains to be in the cemetery of Calixtus. I am not sure what the whole story is behind how the remains were split like that. Pope Soter also has a feast day, which is celebrated on April 22.

Episode XII- Pope Anicetus

2008-08-20T20:15:00.000-07:00

Anicetus was born in a town called Emesa, located in western Syria. Emesa has a rich history, filled with many stories of religion, conquerors and culture. It has been influenced by Alexander the Great, and has been the birthplace not only of our eleventh pope, but Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antonius (better known as Elagabalus) and many Syrian presidents. The name Emesa was changed to Homs in the year 636, when the armed forces of a man named Rashidun Caliphate invaded the city and renamed it. Homs is now a flourishing modern day city, with a strong, growing economy, economic opportunities for its citizens, religious tolerance and a population of over a million people. Not much else is known about Anicetus’ early years other than the fact that his name means “unconquered” in Greek.

Anicetus’ papacy is believed to have begun in the year 154. One of the earliest items for him to address in his papacy was to settle the discrepancy of when to celebrate the Easter Passover. For anyone out there who is unfamiliar with Passover, I will give a brief explanation. Passover actually is a Jewish holiday which commemorates the time when God was known to have spared the Jews as he killed the firstborn of non-believing Egyptian families. This occurred when many, many Jews were being kept as slaves in Egypt. God warned the Egyptians to let the Jews go, and if not they would suffer his wrath in the form of killing the firstborn of any non-believing Egyptian family. Soon after this event took place the Jews were liberated from their captivity. We get the name Passover from how God chose to literally pass over the folks who chose to listen to God’s word during this time on how to prevent having their children killed.

Although modern day Christians do not typically celebrate the Passover holiday, many Christians still practiced this tradition in Anicetus’ time. I feel it is safe to assume that most Christians still celebrated the Passover because the Christian movement was not yet that far removed from their Jewish roots, and some elements of their Jewish past remained important parts of the Christian experience. Many people actually commemorated the Jewish Passover along with the traditional celebration of Christ’s crucifixion… known as Easter.

Well, by the time of Anicetus pontificate in the year 154, the Christian Church has become pretty big. There were Christian churches scattered throughout the Roman Empire and other parts of the world. The best way to explain the geographical regions of the Church at this time is to divide it up between East and West. The Western Church included the Western Part of the Roman Empire, such as where Anicetus resided. The Eastern Church resided in what is probably known as the modern day Middle East.

Well… the Eastern Church differed on its interpretation of when the Easter Passover should be celebrated. Many churchgoers in the West felt that the two holidays should be separate and celebrated at different times, leaving the Passover to be celebrated on the fourteenth day of Nisan as traditionally done. And by the way, Nisan is not the great car that some of us drive around on the road, but rather is one of the months in the Hebrew calendar which happens to also be the same month when Christ was crucified. So many Christians in the east wanted to celebrate the Easter Passover to be celebrated on the 14th day of Nisan, which could really be any day of the week, while many Christians in the west wanted to keep celebrating Easter on Sundays as had been previously decreed by Pope Pius.

So Pope Anicetus found himself in a sort of pickle here and wasn’t really sure what to do. The problem became so controversial that he risked a schism taking place within the Church. A schism is defined as a division or split in an organizational movement. So basically Anicetus was trying to prevent the Eastern members of the Church from breaking away from the West, which makes sense because, c’mon, we’re talking about dates here. I mean, it’s not like the two sides disagreed on fundamental beliefs. They just couldn’t coordinate their dates! So in order to bring some sanity to the issue, Pope Anicetus sought out the help of Saint Polycarp of Smyrna.
Polycarp was renowned within both Western and Eastern sides of the Church for his relationship with the Apostle John. Polycarp was seen as being one of the final links to the original founders of the Church, and seen as a Church authority within his role as the Bishop of Smyrna. Smyrna is a city located on the Western coast of what is modern day Turkey. Although Pope Anicetus and Bishop Polycarp disagreed on when the Easter Passover was to be celebrated, in the end Pope Anicetus conceded his position to Polycarp, and allowed the Christians in the East to continue celebrating Easter on the 14th day of Nisan, regardless of what day of the week it was. Although Anicetus conceded his position to Polycarp, which may be seen as a sign of weakness by many, I personally feel it was a very wise move. Anicetus risked the possibility of the Church splitting if he did not work carefully to reconcile both sides of the debate. I feel this act by Anicetus demonstrates how wise he was, especially as the Church continued to beat back more heretic beliefs throughout the Roman Empire.

Another notable visitor to Anicetus was the church historian named Hegesippus. Hegesippus made a name for himself as one of the earliest and most cited church historians. Although much of his work has been lost to history, it was Hegesippus’ work that is often cited as foundational work for later church historians like Eusebius and St. Jerome. Hegesippus himself was canonized a saint. Hegesippus was also a key ally for Pope Anicetus in his philosophical and theological warfare against the heretic philosophies of the days. In fact, Hegesippus was such a rock star during his own time, his mere visit to Rome to see Pope Anicetus made it very clear to others that the Pope was becoming a very respected and important post of the still emerging Church which served to strengthen the idea of the monarchical episcopate.

While Anicetus’ predecessors focused their efforts on the Gnostics of Rome, Anicetus’ challenge came in the form of a new philosophy called Montanism. Montanism is described as a particular offshoot of Christianity, and derives its namesake from its founder, a man named Montanus. Basically, Montanus felt that he had received a series of revelations from God in the form of the Holy Spirit. Montanus was accompanied by two women who also claimed to have been visited by the Holy Spirit. Together, these three went about the land of their native Phrygia, which is also located in what is now modern day Turkey. These three went about their native land, and eventually to Rome, speaking of wild visions brought to them by the Holy Spirit. These three seem to be like the first evangelicals as we now know them, loudly and charismatically proclaiming the glories of God and Christianity. In fact, in the research for today’s show, Montanism is often compared to what is now known as Pentecostalism.

In summary, the differences between Christianity as we Catholics see it and Montanism are:

The belief that the prophecies of the Montanists superseded and fulfilled the doctrines proclaimed by the Apostles.

The encouragement of ecstatic prophesying, contrasting with the more sober and disciplined approach to theology dominant in orthodox Christianity at the time and since.

The view that Christians who fell from grace could not be redeemed, also in contrast to the orthodox Christian view that contrition could lead to a sinner’s restoration to the church.
The prophets of Montansim did not speak as messengers of God: “Thus saith the Lord,” but rather described themselves as possessed by God, and spoke in his person. “I am the Father, the Word, and the Paraclete,” said Montanus. This possession by a spirit, which spoke while the prophet was incapable of resisting, is described by the spirit of Montanus: “Behold the man is like a lyre, and I dart like the plectrum. The man sleeps, and I am awake.”

A stronger emphasis on the avoidance of sin and church discipline than in orthodox Christianity. They emphasized chastity, including forbidding marriage.

Some of the Montanists were also “Quartodecimen” (“fourteeners”) preferring to celebrate Easter on the Hebrew date of 14 Nisan, much like the Eastern church mentioned earlier in this episode.

Although there appears to have been a greater focus on opposing the Montanists during the Anicetus’ papacy, there was no shortcoming of energy in his efforts against the usual Gnostics as well. What seems to set Anicetus apart, however, was that he faced what could really only be described as more of a three pronged attack. This third belief system that he had to compete with was called Marcionism.

The roots of Marcionism go back to a man named Marcion of Synod around the year 144. Marcion was a wealthy ship owner who originally came from Turkey. We are not sure who Marcion claimed to be inspired by in his religious belief system, but here is a basic rundown of what it was anyways. We do know, however, that Marcion was a Catholic to begin with. Marcionism accepted Jesus as man’s savior who was sent by God. They see Paul as his chief disciple and reject just about all Jewish philosophy, including their holy scripture, the Torah, as well as their interpretation of God, called Yahweh. Marcion’s beef against Yahweh is that he saw Yahweh as one who created an imperfect world. Marcion was one of the first theologians to draw a clear distinction between Judaism and Christianity, citing Christianity as a clear step up in maturity of religious thought. I believe this is quite different than most Christian’s outlook on Judaism, who see Christianity as being evolved from Judaism and a continuation of all that Judaism promised. This story is mainly told in the Old Testament. Interestingly, Marcion is sometimes credited as being one of the first people to even draw the distinction between the Old Testament and new. Eventually Marcion was booted out of the Catholic Church for continuing to express these beliefs. The main reason for being kicked out were that in essence he was preaching anti-Semitism as well as the fact that Marcionism’s philosophies were a little too close to the Gnostic way of thinking for Pope Anicetus to feel comfortable accepting. I mean, he was spending all of this time and energy fending off the Gnostics, so why concede to another faith like Marcionism that was pretty similar. The line had to be drawn somewhere.

Although I am sure the Catholic Church was very strained during these times of spiritual warfare against these competing philosophies, this was also a time of tremendous growth for the Church. I feel that this period of time, maybe more than any other up to this point, provided the Church with the opportunity to essentially test out its doctrines and ensure it was based in sound philosophical and theological reasoning. In fact, this exact issue played a pretty profound role in my own conversion experience. For me, once I finally accepted the idea of Jesus Christ as being my savior, it was easy to accept the Catholic faith because what other vehicle of salvation has such a tried and proven track record against competing philosophies. Surely, in my opinion, if one particular faith was absolutely better than Catholicism, more folks would gravitate towards that. But it’s really hard to argue with over one billion followers and two thousand years of competition.

In addition to carrying the torch of religious warrior, Pope Anicetus also is known for his decree that priests were to not have long hair. This was most likely because many of the Gnostic folks had their hair long and Anicetus wanted to make a clear distinction between the two.
Although the exact details remain unknown, Pope Anicetus was believed to have died a martyr in the year 167. Apparently Roman Co-Emperor Lucius Veras was responsible for his execution. April 17 is his feast day.

In conclusion, Pope Anicetus was embroiled in basically the singular task of battling the heretic philosophies of his day, his pontificate added a new layer of philosophical and religious flavor to the arguments of the day concerning which religion was truly the one to salvation. But Anicetus was able to continue to propel the Church forward while maintaining the integrity of the Church. Sure, there were time where he had to assert his authority as Pope, but Anicetus serves as a perfect example of strong leadership during a rocky time in the growth of our Church.

Episode XI- Pope Pius I

2008-08-03T06:47:00.000-07:00

The Liber Pontificalis states that Pius was born in the latter part of the first century in Aquileia, a city located in the Fruili region of Northeastern Italy. Aquileia was a key city of the Roman Empire; serving as a fortress on the northeastern frontier to protect the Roman Empire and its allies from invaders coming from what is now modern day Eastern European lands. Although it was originally settled for military use around the year 183 BC, within 50 years it had become a prominent center of trade, with gold, amber and brickfields supplying the Aquileian economy with a healthy influx of money and trade.

The later settlement by peoples of Egyptian, Syrian, Celtic, Greek, and Jewish cultures added to the further development of craftsmanship in areas such as glasswork, metallurgy, wine and oil importation even though I think we are talking about olive oil here and not the fossil fuel we use today to power our cars. By the time of Pius’ birth in the latter part of the first century, Aquileia was reaching the pinnacle of its greatness.

Very little is known of Pius’ early life in Aquileia other than his father’s name is given as Rufinus and that he quite possibly had a brother named Hermas who was a writer. Hermas’ name, spelled HERMAS, is also given as Erma, and spelled ERMA, in other texts. The connection between Pius and Hermas appears to have been inferred by historians through Hermas’ work, in which he claims to be Pius’ brother on multiple occasions. Interestingly, Hermas and Pius are referred to as freedman in many historical texts. This assumption has been made because in one of Hermas’ books, called “The Shepherd of Hermas,” he identifies himself as a former slave. This would indicate that at one point in their lives they had been slaves or came from a family of former slaves.

Besides these brotherly claims, Hermas also wrote about the need for his fellow Christians to be more engaged in their spiritual lives and to not become lazy in the development of their faith. Hermas wrote of a particular tool that could be implemented in spiritual development and what would become very important at a later date, called repentance or reconciliation.

Pius was elected Pope around the year 140. His reign as pope was fairly prolific, as he became Pope during a particularly busy time of Christian development in the Roman Empire. This development was due in part to the relatively decent relationships between the Church and Roman Emperors of Pius’ reign. The first of Pius’ challenges came from the persistent Gnostic culture in Rome. In spite of the efforts of his predecessors, Gnosticism had continued to flourish due to the efforts of people like Valentinus, Cerdon and Marcion; all of whom were very influential Gnostic thinkers of the day. These three often came to Rome to speak to the people there regarding their philosophies.

While Pius struggled in his defense of the Church against these other philosophers, one of the main developments from this conflict was the emergence of the Pope as the main figure in charge of the entire Catholic contingent. In other words, we now have the emergence of the monarchical episcopate we have referred to in earlier episodes of the Pope Podcast. Basically, Pius took charge and excommunicated all Catholics who gravitated towards the Gnostics philosophies. Excommunication from the Church was a pretty big deal. Defined, excommunication means that these folks were kicked out of the Church. The more formal definition basically implies that folks who have strayed away from the basic tenets of the faith have taken themselves out of harmony, or communion, from the Church. This usually means that someone who is excommunicated has made a clear choice to not adhere to the faith, and the Pope basically formalizes this sentiment by giving them the boot. Fortunately, excommunication is not forever, and if someone who has been excommunicated repents for their straying from the faith, they can be readmitted to the faith community.

During this time of intellectual and spiritual warfare against the Gnostics, Pius found a strong ally in a man now named Saint Justinus, also known as St. Justin. St. Justin was a Christian teacher and prolific author. His work is the best known of the early Christian writers. Although my focus on St. Justin will be quite narrow and specific to his relationship with Pope Pius, I highly recommend you go to the blog and click on the link to his name to read more about him. OK, back to Pope Pius. During Pius’ reign, St. Justin was a key figure in convincing Pope Pius to accept and welcome into the Christian community many Jews who had been seen as heretics. Pius’ baptism of these folks was an example to the Jewish community of how Christians should be evangelizing and welcoming of others to the faith.

In addition to being a key figure in the battle against the Gnostics, Pius also declared that Easter was to be celebrated on the Sunday following the full moon in March. He did this in order to distinguish the Christian Easter from the Jewish Easter which was celebrated on the day of the full moon in March.

Pius was the one who ordered the compilation and publication of our handy dandy “Liber Pontificalis” that I have referred to many times throughout the podcast.

Pius has also been credited with initiating the building of one of the oldest Churches in Rome, the Church of Santa Pudenziana. Although this Church as we now know it was not built until about the fourth century, its story dates back to Pius’ time. Legend has it that Pius named the Church after a woman named Pudentiana. She is stated to be the daughter of Saint Prudens and sister of Saint Praxedes, although there are discrepancies in the dates given regarding the lives of these family members. For example, Prudens was believed to have been an associate of St Peter and believed to have died a martyr in the mid to late first century, while Pudentiana and Praxedes were believed to have been contemporaries of Pope Pius.

Nonetheless, both Pudentiana and Praxedes were believed to have built a baptistery in their father’s house. This baptistery was used to baptize pagans. Paganism has a pretty broad and complex definition which has changed over the centuries, so I am going to go back to my old pal Wikipedia in defining this term. Therefore, paganism is defined as, and I am paraphrasing here, “a folk religion encompassing elements of spirituality, shamanism, animisticity and polytheism.” Basically, it is just about anything outside of the monotheistic faiths which believe in only one God. And by the way, if there are any pagans out there listening, I sincerely don’t mean to butcher that definition or misrepresent your faith system, so if you have a better definition of paganism I would love to hear it and get some more clarification on that.

OK, so back to Pudentiana. So she is known for having helped Pius build this baptistery and helping to baptize pagans. She is believed to have died a martyr at the age of 16, though we do not have the exact details and circumstances surrounding her death. In spite of the lack of clarity on these issues, she has still been named a Saint and had a church dedicated in her honor, so she certainly is remembered as an important member of the faith community.

Church historians initially believed that Pius died a martyr, however Church historians later determined this was probably not true due to the fairly decent relationship between the Church and Roman Empire. Historical records seem to be consistent however in stating that Pope Pius died in the year 154 or 155.

In addition to having his feast day celebrated on July 11, Pius has also had the honor of having his namesake adopted by twelve other popes over the following centuries, which is a testament to how revered he is within the Church. As for his virtuosity and respect for the Eucharist, the following has been written about Pope Pius by the historian Petrai, Pius was a good man who “lived on bread, water and fruit, who banned the use of possessions donated for divine worship for any other purpose, who threatened with every serious punishments priests who lived in concubinage, and who was so scrupulous in his ministry as to adopt similar punishments for those priests who, during the Mass, had negligently spilled a drop of wine from the chalice.”

Praying For The Babies

2008-07-01T20:57:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone. I have had some very exciting news on the baby front. My cousin and her husband just welcomed their daughter Haylee into the world. She was a fighter during the labor, and came in at a whopping 9 pounds. Way to go mom!!

We have also learned my brother-in-law and his wife are expecting their second baby, and some friends of ours their third! Whew!

This just reminds me of how exciting the bringing of a new soul to this world is and how it should be celebrated. Let's not forget to pray for the children that never get the chance to join us in this world because of abortion, but also not forget to pray for the mom's who are in the position of thinking that is the only option for them. There is so much more we can do to help women in these situations. We all have a gift that God has blessed us with. Let's try to figure out what our gifts are that we can contribute to this cause. Thanks for checking in and God Bless.

Pope Telesphorus

2008-06-28T08:22:00.000-07:00

This chapter on Pope Telesphorus brings us to a new phase of Christian development in the world, that of spiritual warfare.

Early Life

Telesphorus was believed to be of Greek descent, and born at a place called Terranuova (TERRA-nu-OVA.) This city is located in the Italian province of Calabria, which is located at “the tip of the boot” of Italy. It appears the town is now spelled a little differently, and is currently pronounced as Taurianova (TORIA-NOVA). Taurianova today remains a small and peaceful coastal town with a population just over 15,000 people.

Not much else is known about Telesphorus from his childhood years.

Role in the Church

Telesphorus was believed to have been ordained a priest and became a hermit back in his hometown. A hermit is basically someone who chooses to live in relative isolation from the rest of the world. With regards to early Christian hermits, these folks generally spent most of their days and nights alone, contemplating the wonderful mysteries of our wonderful Savior, Jesus Christ through prayer and penance. There were most likely times, however, where Telesphorus would venture into the local town in order to help his fellow brothers and sisters as acts of charity. This was an important aspect of hermetic life, as even the earliest Christian perspectives of hermeticism believed that by nature human beings were relational, and there was a lot of spiritual gain in interacting with and helping their fellow man.

Well, at some point, Telesphorus decided to go to Rome. We are not certain when exactly he went to Rome or what his priestly role was in the Roman Catholic community. Catholicism at this time in Rome was experiencing a serious challenge by a new group of spiritual philosophies. Many of the proponents of these philosophies went to Rome because it was the demographic epicenter of the Empire at the time; a perfect breeding ground for converts to these new ideas. Chief among these philosophies was that of the Gnostics.

Wikipedia defines Gnosticism as “a diverse, syncretistic religious movement consisting of various belief systems generally united in the teaching that humans are divine souls trapped in a material world created by in imperfect god, called the demiurge, who is frequently identified with the Abrahamic God. The demiurge may be depicted as an embodiment of evil, or in other instances as merely imperfect and as benevolent as its inadequacy permits. This demiurge exists alongside another remote and unknowable supreme being that embodies good. In order to free oneself from the inferior material world, one needs gnosis, or esoteric spiritual knowledge available to all through direct experience or knowledge of God. Gnosis is the Greek word for knowledge. Jesus is identified by some Gnostic sects as an embodiment of the Supreme Being who became incarnate to being gnosis to the earth. In others he was thought to be a gnosis teacher, and yet others, nothing more than a man.” Hopefully it is pretty apparent how this philosophy differs from Catholic doctrine.

Pope Telesphorus regarded these ideas that were gaining popularity as heresies against the church, with the folks propagating these ideas called heretics. A heresy is defined as the dislocation of some complete and self-supporting system of belief. He regarded Gnosticism as a perversion of Christianity, and a serious threat. Therefore, by the time he was elected Pope, around the year 125, he had clearly made up his mind that his pontificate would be dedicated to leading the Christians against these heresies by engaging in a type of spiritual warfare against these other belief systems.

Telesphorus’ background as a hermit proved to be a perfect fit for the Christian followers during this time. His monastic-like discipline allowed him the chance to implement various forms of spiritual discipline into the Christian way of life in order to refine their spiritual resolve. He is credited with introducing the Lenten fast and celebration of Christmas Mass at midnight. The Lenten fast is a period of time before Easter where Catholics typically abstain from certain types of pleasures, coupled with prayer, penitence and almsgiving. The purpose of the Lenten fast is to both commemorate the time Jesus spent in the desert completing his own fast as well as honing our spiritual selves through discipline. It’s almost like a yearly boot camp for the soul. Hey, Telesphorus was serious about this spiritual warfare stuff.

Historians are not certain as to reason why Telesphorus adopted the celebration of the Christmas Mass at midnight. We do know that Christmas begins the new liturgical season for Catholics. A liturgical season is the calendar year within the Church in which particular feasts, memorials or other celebrations are tracked within the Catholic tradition. It seems fitting that the liturgical year begins at the time we celebrate Christ’s birth, as Catholics often find the Christmas season to be one of reflection, celebration and ultimately renewal.

Telesphorus has also been credited with introducing the hymn called the Gloria in excelsis deo to the Mass. He is most likely to have done this during one of his midnight Christmas masses. The words in this hymn are supposed to be those that were spoken by the angels present at the time of Jesus’ birth. This is an awesome praise hymn which is always sung at Mass. Here’s an audio example of this hymn as it is sung today:

Glory to God in the highest
And peace to his people on Earth.
Lord God, heavenly King,
Almighty God and Father,
We worship you, we give you thanks,
We praise you for your glory.
Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father,
Lord God, Lamb of God,
You take away the sin of the world:
Have mercy on us;
You are seated at the right hand of the Father:
Receive our prayer.
For you alone are the Holy One,
You alone are the Lord,
You alone are the Most High
Jesus Christ,
With the Holy Spirit,
In the glory of God the Father. Amen.

So by the looks of this hymn, it’s seems to be pretty clear to me who Pope Telesphorus was trying to place as the Supreme Being of man and earth.

Telesphorus was also known to always celebrate Easter on Sundays, though there is no record that he made it a part of Church doctrine during his Pontificate.

Death

Telesphorus was believed to have died a martyr in the year 136 or so. I cannot identify a reason for this martyrdom, which is a tremendous source of frustration for me. I mean, how can the sources state that it is clear he was martyred without giving any reason for this happening. The sources in this podcast conflict also with the emperor of the Roman Empire who may have been responsible for Telesphorus’ death. The two possible candidates for Telesphorus’ executors would be either Roman Emperors Hadrian or Pius.

There is a strong reason to believe that Telesphorus was most likely martyred under the reign of Hadrian, especially if you take into account the stories of his travels and actions towards the end of his reign as emperor. Briefly, the story reads like this: Hadrian once traveled to Greece around the year 124 to participate in something called the Eleusinian Mysteries. These mysteries was the formal introduction of initiates into the Cult of Demeter and Persephone. Only a select few were allowed to enter into this cult, as the knowledge of the mysteries of the cult were reserved only for the initiated. In summary, this philosophy stated that the soul was ultimately a miserable entity that was subservient to the desires of the body. The relationship between physical acts and rituals was closely intimate in this cult, and by engaging in these acts one could purify their soul from the defilements of nature. The acts themselves became a way of renewal of spirit, so to speak, which enabled the participant to continually elevate themselves intellectually and spiritually through this process. It had clear roots in the mythologies of Demeter and Persephone themselves.

We also know that Hadrian had a strong hatred for anything and everything Jewish. It may have had something to do with the strong conflicting views between Hadrian and the Jewish leaders, who did not allow Hadrian to influence their spiritual beliefs. Hadrian was a Hellenist, which simply means a propagator of Greek culture. This would include the Eleusinian Mysteries mentioned above as being within his realm of beliefs. It was fairly common for foreign subjects of the Roman Empire to be “Hellenized.” In an effort to break the Jews who refused to be Hellenized, Hadrian mandated that his subjects in Jerusalem allow him to construct pagan temples as well as stop the Jewish practice of circumcision. The Jews revolted and war broke out, with the Roman army suffered huge losses, though in the end Hadrian’s army won. This revolt intensified Hadrian’s hatred for the Jews and he aimed to wipe them out altogether, including erasing them from all Roman maps. He even went so far as to rename the territory Palestine, after the most hated rivals of the Jews, the Philistines.

Hadrian recognized the connection between Judaism and Christianity, and feared towards the end of his reign that the two would unite against him. He also probably feared that the Christian faith would ultimately undermine his own influence in spiritual matters, especially with a leader like Telesphorus who openly preached the Word of God and need for the end of heretic beliefs like that of the Gnostics… and cults.

Honors

Many historians seem to have seriously minimized the charisma with which Telesphorus must have had in leading the Church at this time. Christianity was a pretty new belief system in the ancient world, without the deep roots within the culture like it has today. Telesphorus must have had to carefully implement these powerful spiritual tools in order to have made it through this period of time.

Pope Telesphorus’ feast day is generally celebrated on January 5.

Telesphorus has also been named the patron saint of the city of Saint-Telesphore, which is located in the southwestern part of Quebec province in Canada.

And finally, the Carmelites, an order of Nuns of the Church, cite Telesphorus as their patron saint as he has been cited by some sources as having spent at least a portion of his days as a hermit on Mount Carmel in Israel.

Conclusion

With the pontificate of Pope Telesphorus, we find some of the earliest beginnings spiritual development exercises that Catholics still use today. Obviously, his discipline from his days as a hermit proved to be invaluable in challenging the competing belief systems of his day. I believe the presence of Telesphorus at this particular time in the Church provides us with yet another example of the Divine Intervention of the Holy Spirit within the Church. It appears that Telesphorus was placed in the exact right time and place to lead his fellow Christians through a relatively perilous, and possibly disastrous, period of time in the development of Christian doctrine. Only a disciplined, intelligent and great leader like Telesphorus could have brought us through this time.

Episode VIII- Pope Sixtus I

2008-06-08T14:06:00.000-07:00

In this chapter we will see how the Papacy of Pope Sixtus I takes us even further through the development of some vital aspects of the early Church.

Early Life

Pope Sixtus I was born in the Via Lata section of Rome. The Via Lata was the name of a long street in the center of Rome. It was particularly unusual in that it was longer and wider than most Roman streets at the time. It is located near the Pantheon and Forum Romanum, which are now the locations of some fascinating ruins of the great Roman Empire.
His father’s name was believed to be Pastor.

Role in the Church

Pope Sixtus was believed to have been elected Pope in the year 115, also during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. Sixtus had the benefit of being Pope during a relatively good period of time with regard to relations between the Roman Empire and Catholic Church. In fact, at one point Emperor Hadrian drafted a very pro-Catholic letter to another governing official of the Empire in Asia, stating:

“If someone makes accusations and proves that the Christians are violating the laws, then you will punish according to the gravity of their responsibility: but, by Hercules, if someone uses it as a pretext to slander another, you decide according to seriousness and have that person punished.”

So in essence Hadrian was stating that Christians should be prosecuted according to the laws themselves and not by the local people or official’s particular feelings towards Christianity itself. Well, it looks like Christianity has finally made it as an accepted part of Roman society. What a far cry from the days of persecution of our Lord Jesus and our other early Church fathers.

Pope Sixtus is most notable for introducing three major reforms to early Church practice. The first of these reforms was the decree that only ordained priests were able to touch the sacred vessels of the Mass, which are the chalice and the paten. A chalice is the cup Catholics use to drink the Precious Blood of Christ during the Mass. A paten is a shallow plate or disc which holds the consecrated Host that will be eaten during the Eucharistic celebration of the Mass. The consecrated Host is the bread that has become the Body of Christ through the process of transubstantiation.

Over time a lot of people have become upset by this particular development, asking questions like “Well what makes a priest so special that only he gets to touch the sacred vessels and nobody else?” To understand this you have to understand the formation of the priesthood and how people perceived this position within the Church. Christ appointed his disciples as the Vicars of Christ on Earth. This means that the priests were the ones taking Jesus’ place within the Church. So it is believed that Jesus bestowed the responsibility of consecrating the Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Christ solely to the priests, and that the priests along could only distribute Holy Communion. The Church has relaxed this position today in that while the priest is still the only one to perform the consecration itself, but other lay parishioners are now able to distribute the Eucharist by becoming what is known as a Eucharistic minister. Eucharistic ministers can be both men and women.

Sixtus’ second reform was in mandating that after the priest recites the Preface in the Mass that he recite the Sanctus with the rest of the congregation. The Sanctus is actually a hymn that is traditionally sung as the last part of the initial prayers as he is beginning to consecrate the Eucharist. Here is the Sanctus hymn:

“Holy, holy, holy Lord,
God of power and might.
Heaven and Earth are full of Your glory,
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest,
Hosanna in the highest,
Hosanna in the highest.”

After this hymn is sung by all Catholics then kneel at the pews in reverence as the priest completes the consecration of the Eucharist.

The third innovation by Pope Sixtus was his mandate to bishops who have been summoned to the Holy See to not return to their diocese unless they are presenting an Apostolic letter of some sort. The Holy See is the name of the central governing body of the Catholic Church. By doing this, Sixtus asserted Rome as the hub of Catholic influence throughout the rest of the world.

Pope Sixtus was also the author of at least two known important writings. The first of these letters explains the Church’s doctrine of the Holy Trinity. The Holy Trinity refers to the recognition of the relationship between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit united as one.
The second letter written by Sixtus again discusses the importance of Rome as being the center of Catholic influence.

Death

Pope Sixtus was believed to have died around the year 125 or 126. Although he was initially believed to have been martyred, there is no evidence to support this claim.

Pope Sixtus was believed to have originally been buried next to St. Peter. There are stories that his bones, or relics, were moved to a place called Alatri in the year 1132. To this day, Alatri celebrates Pope Sixtus I as its patron saint.

Honors

The feast day of Pope Sixtus I is celebrated on April 6. Also, throughout the history of the Church there have been four other popes who have named themselves after Pope Sixtus. The fact that there are four other Popes who have named themselves after Sixtus is an honor in and of itself, and demonstrates just how important he has been to the Church.

In Catholic tradition, Popes always used their birth names until about the sixth century when a man named Mercury ascended to the Papacy. He did not want to have the Papal name of a pagan god so he chose a new name for himself. The tradition has stuck ever since, and today most Popes choose a name with a previous Pope with whom they relate to in some way. Also, as a side note, Sixtus’ name was most likely spelled differently than we know it today. It was most likely originally spelled “XYSTUS.”

Conclusion

In conclusion, this chapter shows us just how far back our Catholic roots go. It’s hard to believe that here we are in the early second century and we are discussing the implementation of elements of the Mass that are still in use today. For me it just goes to show just how powerful Jesus’ promise of never letting the Church die is and how real his presence is even in our own lives.

Pope Sixtus was a very important Pope in our early Church. His reforms have survived the tests of time, and he continues to be seen as a very influential and positive advocate in forming early Church doctrine. His concepts of the Holy Trinity have been part of a dialogue that has persisted for centuries, and added to the brilliance of the Church’s expression of our Lord in Heaven.

Episode VII- Pope Alexander I

2008-05-27T22:16:00.000-07:00

In this chapter, we will explore the life and papacy of one of our more mysterious Popes. And in spite of our lack of information about his life, his contributions that we do know about will enable us to take a closer look at some elements of the Church that are still in use today.

Early Life

Pope Alexander I was believed to have been born into a noble family in the Caput Tauri region of Rome. This region was where the Porta S. Lorenzo stood, a main entrance gate to ancient Rome. Caput Tauri means “Head of the Bull.” Apparently, there was actually the skull of a bull in the arch of the gate. Amazingly, this gate is still in use today, but more as a tourist attraction than point of entry into Rome itself.

Role in the Church

Alexander was elected Pope around the year 107, shortly after the passing of Pope Evaristus. His ascendance to the papacy was probably the first time a Pope was not elected by testamentary designation. This means he was not a disciple of the previous Pope. The tradition of the succession of Popes up to this time had been for a previous Pope to have great influence in the appointing of his successor to the Papacy. In Alexander’s case, his election was based on the testimony of priests and deacons, with the ultimate election having been decided by the parishioners themselves.

Amazingly, Alexander was believed to have been elected Pope while still in his twenties, indicating he must have been a very talented scholar and charismatic leader within the Christian community. The book “The Popes: Histories and Secrets,” also states he had a number of followers within the imperial court. Two notable followers of his were the prefect Ermetes and the tribune Quirinius.

A Roman prefect was an appointed official who was in charge of one of many areas of Roman society. A tribune was an elected governor of Roman society, usually related to military affairs. So as you can see, Pope Alexander’s influence may have touched upon many parts of Roman society.

Alexander’s Papacy is generally recognized to have begun during the reign of Emperor Trajan. It was towards the end of Trajan’s reign as emperor that Roman society became more tolerant of the Christians in Rome. This effort was spearheaded by a man named Pliny the Younger, who argued to the Roman elite that Christian persecution needed to be stopped as the Christians were not committing any crimes against the Empire itself. This change in Roman thinking most likely began just prior to the beginning of Alexander’s papacy, and continued while he was Pope.
Pope Alexander I has been credited with modifying a part of the Canon of the Mass. A Catholic Mass is the official celebration in which Catholics celebrate the life of Jesus and look to unite with Christ through the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the bread and wine which, Catholics believe, becomes the actual body and blood of Christ.

There is a part of the Mass where the priest will begin to initiate a process called the transubstantiation of the bread and wine you see into the body and blood of Christ. Transubstantiation is an extremely important element of Catholic tradition, and is generally recognized as one of the main things that sets Catholicism apart from other Christian traditions. It has also been an extremely controversial topic and is best explained by highly educated Church scholars. Although transubstantiation is a very complex thing to explain, probably the best way to explain it is to say that the substance of the bread and wine becomes the body and blood of Christ, although the presence of bread and wine remains intact to the physical senses.
During the mass the priest initiates this process of transubstantiation by saying a few prayers. The very first prayer begins with the Latin words Qui Pridie, which means “Who, the day before He suffered..” Alexander I has been credited with adding the phrase Qui Pridie to the beginning of the very first prayer of the Canon of the Mass. In English, the actual prayer reads like this:

“Who, the day before He suffered took bread into His holy and venerable hands, and with His eyes lifted up to Heaven, unto Thee, God, His almighty Father, giving thanks to Thee, He blessed, broke and gave it to His disciples, Saying: Take this and eat it, FOR THIS IS MY BODY.”

So here the phrase Qui Pridie is the beginning of the prayer in which the priest invites our Lord to become one with us spiritually in the form of the bread you see with your eyes. The prayer itself is kind of like a retelling of the story of how Jesus himself showed the disciples how to actually do this at the Last Supper.

Pope Alexander was also the first to implement the use of Holy Water after he made a blessing using a mixture of water and salt. Holy Water has many, many special meanings throughout Christianity, and especially Catholic tradition. In Catholicism it is specially prepared, and more importantly has been blessed by a priest. Holy water is most commonly used to be blessed with and make the Sign of the Cross at church. This gesture reminds Catholics of our baptismal promises we have agreed to keep and practice in our daily lives.

Death

As with most of our previous Holy Fathers, the circumstances surrounding Pope Alexander’s death are shrouded in mystery. The sources used in this book indicate that Pope Alexander was decapitated at the hands of Emperor Hadrian. Pope Alexander was believed to have been beheaded with his friend Ermetes, as well as with two other priests, named Eventius and Theodulus. It is likely that Hadrian had Alexander killed simply because Alexander was preaching in public, although Christian persecution was relatively rare during this time. The historian Eusebius indicates in his writings that Pope Alexander I died in the “third year of the reign of the Emperor Hadrian.”

Honors

Pope Alexander I has been honored with a feast day, which is celebrated on May 3, which is the day he was believed to have died. May 3rd is a busy for Catholic feasting as it is also the feast day of the Martyrs Eventius and Theodulus as well as that of the Bishop and Confessor St. Juvenal. Therefore, one does not necessarily have to be a Pope to have a feast day in the Catholic Church, but one must be a saint to have a feast day and it’s pretty hard to become a saint.

It appears that Pope Alexander shares his feast day with these three other amazing saints because their tombs were found together in a buried cemetery near the place where Alexander was believed to have been martyred. This was believed to be at the Via Nomentana, a road in ancient Rome, and scholars originally thought he was buried here. Historians now believe the tomb of Alexander found on the Via Nomentana is not our Alexander, but another Roman citizen named Alexander. Pope Alexander I is now believed to have been buried closer to the tomb of St. Peter.

Conclusion

While the information available clearly falls short of shedding a clear light on the life and papacy of Pope Alexander I, I feel as though we are continuing to discover the basis of what has become the wonderful expression of our faith today. We have now seen how the formation of our sacred Mass is beginning to take shape as well as the implementation of a much used tradition that still exists in our Church today, that of Holy Water.

Episode VI- Pope Evaristus

2008-05-12T19:37:00.000-07:00

Today's episode takes us back to some familiar territory, that of the unknown really. There is not a lot of documented information about Pope Evaristus, so we will try our best here to provide you with the best impression of what his story and his contributions to the Church.

Early Life

We are not exactly sure when Pope Evaristus was born, however, the Liber Pontificalis states his father was a Hellenic Jew. During this time in history, being Hellenic refers to someone who was of Greek origin, so this would mean that he was born into a Jewish family of Greek ancestry. Although the sources used for this podcast state that his father was from Bethlehem, we are not sure if Evaristus lived there himself.

Role In the Early Church

Although there is very little known about our fifth Holy Father, we can attempt to draw some conclusions as to the nature of his papacy. Evaristus was most likely elected Pope in the late first century, around the years 98 or 99.

Evaristus was believed to have made a few notable contributions to the early Catholic Church. The first was that of assigning the first priests to local churches. As mentioned in episode four, Pope Cletus was believed to have ordained priests during his papacy, so we already have the formation of the early priesthood. We now have Pope Evaristus assigning these priests to particular churches, or tituli.

Tituli was the plural form of the common name of early church houses. We have to remember, it was not exactly cool to be a Christian back in those days. While already in its early history Christianity had been generally accepted, it was certainly not as popular as it is today. In fact, under the reign of Emperor Trajan, if a Christian openly practiced their faith they would be persecuted, much like what happened to Pope Clement I.

To get around this issue, many of the early Christians were setting up these little Churches within their own homes. These home churches were officially called domus ecclesia. The name of the owner of the home would be inscribed on a tablet in front of the home, called a titulus. Eventually, the home churches began to be called tituli for short. People in the community would distinguish each church by the name of its owner. This is a very formative development, as we are beginning to see the emergence of the parish priest system of organization we know of today.

Evaristus also has been credited, at times, with creating the first of what were called diaconias in ancient Rome. I have noticed a slight discrepancy in my research materials, however, regarding the context of the terms diaconia. The Oxford Dictionary of Popes states that Evaristus might have instituted seven deacons to escort the Pope, indicating diaconias were in fact a term related to deacons of the Church. Another take on this term is cited by Wikipedia, which defines a diaconia as “an establishment built near a church building, for the care of the poor and distribution of the church's charity in medieval Rome or Naples.” While it would be nice to claim that Evaristus started these charitable organizations during his time, we really can't be certain as our definition states they began in medieval times, not the ancient times of Pope Evaristus.

In addition to assigning priests to the local tituli, Evaristus has been credited with a few major writings. His name has been attached to two letters (or epistles similar to that of Pope Clement I) and two decretals. By the way a decretal is a letter written by a pope with a decision of some sort, usually with regards to discipline. These are usually tied to the motu proprios we discussed in episode four. Unfortunately, most historians today agree Pope Evaristus most likely was not the author of these documents. So while it is likely that Pope Evaristus wrote some important documents to his fellow Christians, we just don't know exactly which ones he wrote.

Death

Pope Evaristus most likely died around the year 107. Catholic tradition states that Pope Evaristus was martyred, however there is no historical evidence to back up that claim. But common sense would tell us that if Evaristus was Pope during the reign of Emperor Trajan, there is a strong chance that he could have been martyred as Trajan was not a fan of Christianity. However it should be noted that Trajan was infamous for being a “virtuous pagan” in that he did not persecute Christians who practiced their faith in private. Therefore, as long as Pope Evaristus respected the rule of Trajan he most likely would have been safe. Also, the Roman Martyrology cites no indication of Pope Evaristus having been martyred. A Martyrology is a catalogue or list of martyrs, arranged in the calendar order of their anniversaries or feasts. The Roman Martyrology of the Catholic Church was first published in the 1500's, so we really don't for sure how Evaristus died.

Pope Evaristus was believed to have been buried next to the tomb of St. Peter.

Honors

Pope Evaristus' feast day is celebrated on October 26.

It should also be noted that the Liberian Catalogue gives his name as Aristus, not Evaristus. I wondered if the difference in Evaristus and Aristus was similar to that Cletus and Anacletus as we discussed in episode four, however I was unable to get an adequate answer to that question. Nonetheless, we should respect the name of Aristus as it remains a part of Catholic tradition in the Liberian Catologue.

Conclusion

In conclusion, with Pope Evaristus we continue to find the early Catholic Church matriculating through another period of growth and organization. Evaristus gave us a leap in terms of the organization of the early Church, establishing a very crude but crucial method of assigning priests that has carried on till this very day. In fact, my own parish is experiencing the reassignment of one of our priests. And if you are listening Father Peter, we wish you the best in your future mission and thank you for all of your service to our parish and community.

So, while we are still not identifying our early Church father's with the monarchical episcopate we have today, the emergence of the Pope as the Vicar of Christ and spiritual leader of our earliest brothers and sisters continues to blossom through this extremely formative period of Catholic history.

Well that's it for today's show. But before I go I would like to note that I believe I made a mistake in our previous episode regarding Pope Clement I. While I was conducting the research for today's episode I realized that I stated Clement died in the year 96. When I came upon the dates of Evaristus' ascension to Pope I began to realize the date given for Clement's death was not making sense. Then, listener “silvergreycat” kindly posted the following comment on the blog, and I am gonna quote you on this “silvergreycat,” I hope you don't mind:

“Domitian died September 18, in year 96. He was followed by Nerva, who ruled until January27, of the year 98, who in turn was followed by Trajan. It seems unlikely, to me, that he (meaning Trajan) would have known about Clement in 96--(as) Trajan was a military governor along the German frontier before becoming emperor--much less have the authority needed to exile and kill the pope.”

Well, “silvergreycat” you are absolutely on target with this observation and I stand corrected. So, to correct myself I want to state that after Emperor Domitian's execution in the year 96, there was a brief period of time in which a man named Nerva served as Emperor. However, Nerva was unable to appease the royal subjects and military commanders of his empire and was succeeded by his adopted son, Trajan, in the year 98. It is in the last years of the first century that Pope Clement I meets his alleged fate at the hand of Trajan, not 96. Thanks again silvergreycat.

OK, that's it for today's show. Thanks again everyone for all of the wonderful feedback and for listening. It is simply amazing to me to be able to share this wonderful story of our Church and the fact you all are hanging in there with me is much appreciated. So until next time, please remember to take care of yourselves, and each other and God Bless!

Episode V- Pope Clement I Part II

2008-05-02T15:11:00.001-07:00

Please click this link to take you directly to the website where you can listen to this episode. Thanks and God Bless!

Episode V- Pope Clement I

2008-04-28T10:39:00.000-07:00

Hello, welcome to the Pope Podcast. I am your host Scott Bosse. This is episode five, titled Pope
Clement I. The story of Pope Clement I provides us with a chance to see the early Church
beginning to mature, along with the emergence of Rome as the epicenter of the new Christian
movement.

Early Life

As with our other early Church fathers, little is known about where Clement was from. Catholic tradition states that our Pope Clement was the same Clement mentioned by Paul in Phillipians 4:3, in which Paul writes:

"Yes, and I ask you, loyal yokefellow, help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life."

Phillipians was an epistle that was written by St. Paul to the Christians in Phillipi. An epistle is a writing directed or sent to a person or group of persons, usually in the form of a letter and very formal in its tone. Phillipi was a city located in ancient Northern Greece. Paul had a strong affinity for the followers in this city, and they returned this love back to him as well. The mention of Clement in this passage has led some historians to believe that Clement was from this area.

There have been other theories as to the origin of Clement. One of these theories states that he was a freedman of the house of Titus Flavius Clemens. Flavius was a cousin of the Emperor Domitian. Although this theory was in vogue mostly during the 19th century, it is most likely false, although there are some pretty good theories out there which make this connection seem plausible. Unfortunately, there just aren't any sources out there that can back up this claim.

Another historian, by the name of Hermas who wrote in the second century, identified Clement as an official correspondent of the early Church. Quite honestly, any of these explanations could make sense to me; however the greatest evidence lies in the passage written by Paul I would also argue that most early Church leaders were "in the trenches" so to speak and were most likely out in the towns and villages with the likes of Peter and Paul.

Role in the Early Church

Pope Clement I is most widely known for his writing of a document called the First Epistle of Clement. OK, this is like really important stuff here because the First Epistle of Clement is widely considered to be the oldest authentic Christian document outside of the New Testament. It is also the first document to assert Rome as the hub of Christian influence throughout the Christian world.

The Epistle is a letter written to the Christians at Corinth. You can go to the blog for a link to the First Epistle of Clement. Give it a shot and see what you think. Instead of reading the whole thing, I will provide you with a brief summary of the context of why Clement wrote this, the audience it was meant for and the impact it had on its audience.

Basically, the Christians at Corinth had kicked out some of their members. Clement felt that none of the offenses mentioned were appropriate reasons for kicking out these members of the Church. He thought their punishment of essentially excommunication was unjustified and needed to be addressed. The highlights of the Epistle can be summarized in about 9 major points. I will highlight these points in chronological order as they appear in the Epistle itself:

1. Clement apologizes for the delay in getting the letter to the Corinthians. This alludes to the troubles they were having in Rome at the time as many Christians were being persecuted and martyred under Emperor Domitian.

2. Clement points out the traditionally solid reputation the Church at Corinth had.

3. Clement points out that jealousy was the root cause of the problems at Corinth. He uses historical examples from the Old Testament, like the story of Cain and Abel, to illustrate how jealousy had taken root in their own Church.

4. Clement states the Corinthians need to apologize to one another for their actions. He specifically refers to the example Jesus Christ had put forth for them to follow.

5. Clement encourages them to observe order, just like all things in nature must follow some sort of order so they may survive.

6. Clement encourages them to forsake evil, or in other words encourages them to tell the devil to blank off if you know what I mean. And if they are able to do this with a pure heart, they will be rewarded by God.

7. Clement reminds them that this forsaking of evil and being of pure spirit are only achievable by having a disciplined mind, body and spirit.

8. Clement reminds them of the virtues of charity and love of one another they learned from Jesus and the Apostles.

9. Clement concludes with a few lines expressing how concerned he is for the Corinthians and how he hopes they will send messages of repentance and joy back with his messengers to Rome.

Wooow, what a cool guy huh? I mean, in this moment Clement had the chance to chastise the Corinthians, and instead he saw it as an opportunity to encourage them and build bridges amongst themselves. He reminded them of their greatness as opposed to their weaknesses. I feel this is an awesome example of how knowledgeable and wise Clement must have been.

In the critiques of this Epistle I thought it was so cool how they note Clement's tone of authority also in this letter. But Clement did it in such an eloquent way. He exerted his authority with respect for his fellow brothers and sisters, and he spoke in a way that made it easy for everyone to understand where he was coming from.

Because Clement referenced the persecution of Domitian in this letter, it was believed to have been written around the year 96 or so. Of course dates like these are always debated and there is a long story of the reasons why certain folks feel it was written in this year or that. I should note that our current Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, once supported a date of 70 in reference to the First Epistle of Clement. I don't know about you all, but I know Pope Benedict is a pretty smart gentleman so I am not gonna argue with him on that one.

Clearly, Clements position as being a Church leader is indicated in this writing. He speaks with an authority and passion only a leader could. I say "a leader" as opposed to "the leader" because we are still not identifying the papacy with the monarchical system we know today.

Other Writings by Clement

Clement has been credited over the years with writing many other wonderful documents, however almost all of these claims have been disproved by Church scholars and historians. In the spirit of keeping the podcast as simple as possible (in order to make it more palatable to all our listeners, not just the hardcore Catholics) I recommend you go to the Podcast blog and check out the links to the other documents attributed to Clement at one time or another. You can decide for yourself on whether or not you think he wrote these.

Death

While there is no definitive record of how Clement died, the story of his death is legendary.
The first stories telling of how Clement died began appearing in print in about the fourth century. These stories tell of how Clement converted a Roman woman named Theodora and more than four hundred other leading Roman citizens. The Emperor at the time, Trajan, had Clement banished to Crimea. Crimea is a place northeast of Rome and, at the time, was a relatively remote location on the fringes of the Roman Empire. While in Crimea, Clement continued his mission as being a vessel of the Holy Spirit. This is a cool story, so here it goes.

OK, so Clement was ordered to perform manual labor in the town of Chersoneses, which is in Crimea, in a stone quarry. When Clement arrived to start his work he noticed the other prisoners were without water and were suffering terribly (and if you have ever been to this region in the summertime you would understand why this was a problem as it can get very hot and humid in the summer months.) Clement wanted to help, but did not know what to do. As a man of deep faith, he knelt down in prayer to ask for help from our Lord. When he opened his eyes, he saw a lamb standing on a nearby hill. He went over to where the lamb was standing and struck the ground with his pickax where, out of the ground water came pouring out. This event helped him to convert two thousand people.

When Emperor Trajan learned of this event, he ordered Clement to be martyred. Legend has it that he had Clement tied to an anchor and thrown into the nearby Black Sea where he drowned. This was believed to occur around the year 96. Isn't that just an amazing story?

Around the year 868, St. Cyril was traveling through the region. He located a mound near the Black Sea. Believing the mound to be an old tomb, he dug up it up to see what was inside of it. Well, what he found must have absolutely startled him. Inside this mound was a pile of bones alongside an anchor. Though there were no scientific methods to verify the identity of the bones and anchor, they were immediately recognized to be the relics of Pope Clement. Relics are an important part of Catholic tradition. A relic is defined as an object or personal item of someone of religious significance. Relics are generally carefully preserved and are revered for their connection with the person they came from who is generally someone highly respected within the faith. Just so you know and don't freak out about this later on, relics can include inanimate objects like books or writings or a piece of a cross. However, relics have also known to be body parts such as hands, or bones in Clements case, that are attributed the figure of significant in the faith. And please don't think it's just us crazy Catholics that do this, Buddhists, Hindus Shamanists and lots of other faith traditions do this as well.

So back to Clement. His relics were taken to Rome by Cyril and were ultimately placed in the Basilica of St. Clement in Rome. I will discuss what a Basilica is and what St. Clement's Basilica is in the next segment of the podcast.

Honors

Pope Clement has been honored for his contributions and sacrifices to the Catholic Church. As mentioned earlier, a Basilica was constructed in his honor later in Rome. A basilica is a large and important churchthat has been given special ceremonial rites by the Pope. These special ceremonial rites by the Pope are the most defining characteristic here as the involvement of the Pope in this way is very important. I mean, there are tons of Catholic Churches all over the world and the Pope can't be involved with all of them personally simply due to logistical reasons, so to have him personally be a part of it is a big deal.

The original construction of St. Clement's Basilica was rather humble in size and design. After it was destroyed in battles, a grander version was later built. This second structure is the version we now know of.

November 23 has been identified as Pope Clement's feast day. On this day every year, his relics are brought from under the Church, where they normally lie, and are taken out for a solemn procession in the nearby streets. They still have many activities at the Basilica, including the hearing of confessions as well as daily Mass. Rosaries are said every weekday at 6 pm. For a more detailed look at the Basilica please visit the blog as I have posted some cool links about the Basilica.

The Basilica of St. Clement provides a wonderful link between ancient history, spiritual piety and modern day Churchgoers. I have to say, I traveled to Europe a few years ago prior to my conversion and I deeply regret missing out on such amazing historical and spiritual places like St Clement's Basilica.

In addition to being honored with a Church and feast day, Pope Clement has been honored through art over the centuries. St. Clement is typically shown as having an anchor at his side or tied around his neck. He is most often depicted wearing Papal vestments. The Papal vestments is a funny term used to describe the clothing the Pope wears. He is also known to be depicted holding the palm of martyrdom. The palm of martyrdom is a palm branch that, in ancient times, was given to victorious soldiers and athletes. In Christian lore, the palm of martyrdom represents the triumph of the person over enemies of the soul. In this case it would represent Clements victory over Trajan. Clement is also depicted as being near a fountain or spring, which relates to the story of his converting the other prisoners in Crimea. The Mariner's Cross is also referred to St. Clement's Cross due to the way he was martyred.

Conclusion

The story of Pope Clement I is a wonderful lesson in the triumph of the human spirit over evil, as well as an opportunity to witness just how strong the Holy Spirit can be. Trajan tried all that he could to stop Clement from sharing the word of God, offered through the story of Jesus and lived by him. But ultimately his efforts would not succeed as we stand here proudly remembering one of our wonderful Church fathers, Pope Clement I.

Episode IV- Pope (Ana)Cletus

2008-04-15T15:31:00.000-07:00

Do any of you recall how in Episode three I gave a brief explanation as to how historians gather information, corroborate it with other information and then attempt to paint the most accurate picture of a person, place or event? Well, the story of Anacletus provides us with the opportunity to test this process of recording history.

The story of Pope Anacletus was a difficult endeavor for me. This was mainly due to the wide degree of conflicting information I encountered throughout my research. It makes it tough to identify a place to really start with Anacletus, so I guess the best place to start would be with his name.

The very name of our third Pope is a source of controversy amongst Church historians. The Oxford Dictionary of Popes claims that in Greek Anacletus meant "blameless." However, Wikipedia states that Cletus meant "one who has been called" and Anacletus meant "one who has been called back." Our old friends, the historians Iraneus and Eusubius, record that both names were attributed to the same individual. However, the Liber Pontificlais and Liberian Catalogue state that Cletus and Anacletus were actually two different people.

Well, all of the controversy seemed to be settled in one fell swoop by Pope John XXIII who, in 1961 declared the feast day of Pope Anacletus to be officially changed to "its right name, Saint Cletus."

Pope John XXIII made this declaration via something called a motu proprio, which is the product of a papal rescript. A motu propio is issued when the Pope is asked by some member of the Church, presumably one of the higher ranking clergy, to address a particular topic of debate directly, as opposed to letting a cardinal or other official respond to the request. When a Pope answers this request directly, it’s called a motu proprio.According to the historical record, it appears that Pope John XXIII was asked to address the issue of Pope Anacletus' feast day. Pope John made the declaration of the name change when he also announced that Cletus', as he is now known, had his feast day changed from July 13 to April 26.

Well, I guess that settled that dispute, right? So now I gotta go back and change everything to Cletus. But up until the time of Pope John XXIII decree, he was known as Anacletus. Yikes. And we Catholics wonder how our history gets muddled up by those not in the Church huh?

Cletus' Role in the Church

Nothing is known of Cletus’ childhood or of how he came to the Catholic Church. Catholic tradition states that Cletus was a Roman who served as Pope for about 12 years. So in our succession of Popes that would give him a starting year 76 and an ending year of 88.

As with Peter and Linus, the monarchical pontificate had not yet been established, making it difficult to figure out exactly what Pope Cletus was able to contribute to the Church during his pontificate. Some sources record that he split Rome into 25 parishes. I would suppose that, if this were true, it was most likely done in an effort to better organize the early Church. Other sources state that he ordained an unknown number of priests.

Death

Cletus died a martyr in the year 91 at the hands of Emperor Domitian. Though there is no consensus on the issue of martyrdom, many historians believe that Domitian may have undertaken a persecution against the Jews and Christians of his era. And if you check out his bio on Wikipedia you can tell the guy was a little paranoid about those around him so it is easy to believe he could have had Cletus martyred. Cletus was believed to have been buried alongside Pope Linus.

Conclusion

I believe today's episode, while short on content, provides us with another lesson to be learned. Jesus Christ promised us that his Church would never die. Even though we are not sure exactly who Cletus was or how he helped in carrying on the faith, he nonetheless did, helping to fulfill the promise made by Christ long ago.

Well, that is all for today's show. I want to thank you for listening to today's episode. Please don't forget to check out the blog at http://www.thepopepodcast.blogspot.com/. Today's music has been provided by a group called The Reunion. The name of this track is titled Day Dreamin. I found this track at garageband.com, which is a very cool resource to locate artists in many different musical genres. That's it for today. Please make sure to take care of yourselves and each other and God Bless.

Feedback

2008-04-14T11:37:00.000-07:00

Hey, everyone!! You can use this feature to add some feedback on the podcast and blog. Let me know what you think, what you would like to see, what's working, what's not... I look forward to hearing from all of you. Thanks and God Bless!

Episode III- Pope Linus

2008-03-29T22:21:00.000-07:00

Tracing the succession of the early Popes has proven to be a difficult task for Church historians. Over the centuries, records of the succession of Popes have been created and destroyed, thus making it quite a cumbersome task.

In circumstances like these, where questions of history are without a definitive record, historians are compelled to use various methods in gathering their information. These methods include, but are not limited to, uncovering old letters, books, sketches, or any other medium used to record events. Once a sufficient amount of information on a particular topic is discovered, historians hope to corroborate the information with other sources. Only after an extensive, and quite exhausting, search are historians able to begin telling the story of a particular place, person or event.

The biggest dilemma facing Church historians is the fact that no pure historical record exists tracing the lineage of the Popes. As a result, the modern Church has turned to the works of noted Church historians such Irenaeus, Jerome, Eusebius, John Chrysostom, as well as early Church records such as the Liberian Catalogue and the Liber Pontificalis. These documents and historians are consistent in identifying Linus as the second Pope.

Not much is known about Linus, but he is typically associated with the Linus mentioned in 2 Timothy 4:21 in which Paul states

"...Eubulus sends greetings to you, as do Udens and Linus and Claudia and all the brethren."

This passage implies that Linus was quite possibly a close associate of St. Paul's. It is even more plausible to deduce that Linus was with Paul towards the end of Paul's life. I say this because second Timothy is believed to have been written by Paul towards the end of his life.

Early Life

According to the Liber Pontificalis, Linus was from the Italian region of Tuscany. Tuscany is a region of the upper west coast of modern day Italy. His father's name was believed to be Herculanus. Other sources identify his mother as Claudia. Is the Claudia Paul mentions in 2 Timothy? That part is unknown but it sure is easy to make that connection.

Linus' Role in the Church

Based on the information mentioned earlier, I feel it is safe to assume that Linus became involved in the early Church after an encounter with Paul. Paul had gone on mission trips to Greece and Turkey and various other parts of the Roman Empire. It is my impression that Linus must have encountered Paul during one of these missionary trips. In looking at the historical records and missionary trips undertaken by Peter, I would make the argument that it's possible for Linus to have been a follower of Peter as well, and may have even been introduced to Paul through Peter. But... this is purely guesswork on my part, maybe even my attempt to add to the discussion a little.

Linus is widely recognized to have served as the Pope of the Catholic Church for about 12 years, from the time of Peter's death in 64 AD to the time of his own death in 76 AD (dates approximate of course.) While we commonly refer to a man in Linus' position at this point in time as "Pope," he was most likely not recognized as such during his lifetime. At the time of Linus' leadership of the early Church, there was not yet a monarchical organizational system put in place like there is today.

Linus ' most notable contribution to the Church as Bishop of Rome was in executing a decree initially issues by St. Peter, declaring that women should cover their heads in church.

Death

Catholic tradition holds that Linus died a martyr and was buried on the Vatican Hill next to Peter. This claim falls short of fact, however, in that there are no indications of any early Christian martyrs between the reigns of Nero and Dometian in Rome. Among the various resources cited in this podcast, it is consistently stated that Nero fell from his position of power in the year 68. The following quarter century was marked more by Roman infighting rather than Christian persecution. Therefore, the details of Linus' death remain shrouded in mystery.

With regard to his burial place, a tomb found in St. Peter's Basilica in 1615 by a man named Torrigio was inscribed with the letters LINUS, and was once taken to be Linus's tomb. This claim has been disputed, however, in that a later manuscript written by Torrigio shows that these were merely the last five letters of a longer name (e.g. Aquilinus or Anullinus).

Honors

The feast day of St. Linus is celebrated on September 23. This is the recognized day of his death around the year 67.

Conclusion

As with peter, the details of Linus' life are hard to piece together, however there are some general conclusions which can be made regarding Linus, such as: he was an Italian, he was an early Church leader, a disciple of Paul and an integral figure in continuing the momentum of the early Church movement. While we continue to know very little about our early fathers, they no doubt deserve the utmost respect and admiration for their efforts of spreading the Good News of Our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Episode II- Introduction

2008-03-16T23:59:00.000-07:00

Hello, and welcome to the Pope Podcast. I am your host Scott Bosse. We're doing something a little different on today's podcast. This episode is going to be an introduction to the podcast.

I guess I'll start with a brief comment on me, so OK, who am I? As I've mentioned, my name is Scott Bosse. I am a proud husband and father of three and as you may have guessed, Catholic. I came to the Catholic Church through the gift of the Holy Spirit in the form of my wife, who's a cradle- Catholic. After we were married I began attending Mass with her and our daughter. Eventually, I began to ask questions... and more questions... and more questions about the Catholic faith. And for the first time I was finally getting some answers, real answers. It all started to make sense. By the time of our son's birth that Summer I had decided to give it a try. I began attending RCIA (which stands for Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) and on Easter of 2005 I was baptized, confirmed and received my first communion and that's when the journey really began.

My time in the Church since has been nothing short of beautiful. I want to be honest, it's been difficult. Adjusting a lifetime of particular habits has not been easy. I'm not perfect. But the opportunity to experience the Lord through the Church has been, and will continue to be, the greatest blessing of my life (with meeting my wife a close second of course.)

So what's a Pope anyways? According to Wikipedia, the Pope comes from the Latin word papa, which means “daddy” or “tutor.” Officially, the Pope is the Bishop of Rome, the spiritual leader of the Roman Catholic Church and head of state of Vatican City. Vatican City is officially recognized as an independent sovereign-state within the country of Italy. Wow, what a job huh? If you would like more information on Vatican City I highly recommend you go to the blog and check out some of the links posted.

Hmmm? Blog, what blog you might be asking yourself. Well, as an extra feature of The Pope Podcast there's a companion blog where you will find a transcript of each episode, links to maps or other topics of interest, pictures of each pope and a Frapper map if you'd like for me and our other listeners know where you tune in from.

OK, so you know a little about me, who the Pope is, where he lives and the blog. How about a little info on when to expect new episodes. It's my sincere intention to submit a podcast on every single pope of the Church, with a new podcast being submitted every other week. What?! That's a lot of Popes you might say. It sure is, 265 and counting, though I truly hope we don't get to 266 for a while. So at the rate of a new episode every other week I am looking at a project which will take about 10 years to complete. A little daunting one might think, but hey, my faith isn't going anywhere, the history isn't going anywhere, and I couldn't imagine doing anything else with my free time.

You see, the history of the Popes is not solely a study of Church history and doctrine. It's a history of the world. Popes, for better or worse, have been involved in worldly affairs since the death of Christ. Their story is filled with all the elements of a great storyt; drama, power, piety, charity, comedy, tragedy and even lust. It is a rich and beautiful history of something I love and hold dearly to my heart, and I look forward to sharing this story to all those willing to give it a listen.

OK, so how about a little bit on the nuts and bolts of the episodes? Let's start where I get my information. Now let me remind y'all, I am in no way a Church scholar. I do not claim to be the end all in Church and Pope history. Though I sincerely hope to remain as true to the history of the Popes and Church as possible, I'm simply telling my version of the story. Sooo, where do I get my information then? Well, I had a few choices on this one, but not many to tell you the truth. There is a lot of info about the Popes out there, but I've had a pretty difficult time finding it in one nice and easy place. There are also many specific resources out there to use for an endeavor like this, however, I wanted to use resources that everyone could get access to if they wished.

So, with that said I'm using three primary resources in my research on The Pope Podcast. The first is the Oxford Dictionary of Popes, written by J.N.D. Kelly and published by Oxford University Press in 1986. Some out there may object to using this resource, but I had a hard time finding a good, concise history of the Popes. Hey, if you think you've got a better book for me to check out, feel free to email me at the email address mentioned later in the podcast.

The second resource I am using is Wikipedia. Ahhhh, many of you may be thinking. Wikipedia is just a bunch of rubbish put out there by random people and they can say whatever they want about The Popes! Well, hold on wait a minute there. I know Wikipedia has its flaws, but it's still a highly accessible resource to those who have internet, it's darn popular with over 2 million articles and counting thus far, a nd it has been highly consistent with my other resources I've been using.

The third primary resource used in this podcast is the web site http://www.newadvent.org/, which claims to be the largest Catholic web site in the world. I'm not so sure about all that but I have found it to be pretty expansive and helpful. These three resources are considered to be my primary resource materials for this podcast.

All of these primary sources in the podcast cite highly respected Catholic resources in their own research such as the Liber Pontificas as well as biographies and encyclicals written by popular Church historians. For my research, this would be considered secondary research as I am not directly referring to these documents.

OK, now you know where I get the info, but what about the music. Let me start with the introduction. The gentleman speaking during the introduction is Cardinal Pericle Felici. Cardinal Felici is announcing the election of Pope John Paul II in 1979 at St. Peter's square in the Vatican. It is a longstanding tradition in the Church to have the senior Cardinal Deacon announce the election of a new Pope from the main balcony to the gathered crowds . I chose Cardinal Felici's announcement of Pope John Paul II because I loved John Paul II so much as he played a special role in my own conversion experience.

The intro music is from the group Enigma, and The song is called “Cantos Gregorianos” or “Gregorian Chant.” Gregorian Chant is something I know little about, but I like the sound of it very much. Give it a listen and you will see what I mean. But Enigma put a high-tempo flavor onto the chant that felt really set the pace for what I was trying to do with the podcast.

The bed music, or music you hear while I am speaking during the podcast, will change over time. Typically I will try and reference who it is on that day's episode. The music comes from various web sites offering license and royalty free copies of the music (hey we are on a tight budget here.) The music you heard in Episode 1: Pope Peter was called “Three Cliffs” by Marbury. The music in today's podcast is performed by Mark Barnwell and the title of this track is "Exotica."

OK, so now The big question, why am I even doing this whole podcast thing? I guess the best way to explain this is to say that I've been searching for a way that I can better serve the Church through my different interests. And since I love the Church, I love history, and I love podcasts, it seemed to be a natural evolution to where this is today. So first and foremost, this podcast is my way of evangelizing Christ's message to all those willing to listen.

So there you have it, The Pope Podcast in a nutshell. But wait, it doesn't stop here. As I mentioned earlier, there is a companion blog to the podcast that you can access at http://www.thepopepodcast.blogspot.com/ You can also reach the blog by clicking the web site link on the top right corner of the iTunes page. Comments and suggestions are also able to be posted by visitors on the blog and feel free to leave us a review in the iTunes page. Constructive feedback only please. I want to get better at this, and your feedback it awesome, but being rude simply isn't cool.

OK, that's it for now. Episode two will be out in two weeks. That will be on Pope Linus. Until then, take care of yourselves and each other and God Bless.

Pope Peter

2007-10-20T23:08:00.000-07:00

Early Life

Peter’s birth name was actually Simon, or Symeon in Greek. According to the Gospel of John, Peter was born in Bethsaida. While its exact location has been lost to history, Bethsaida is traditionally known as a fishing village located on Lake Genasareth. His father’s name is given as ‘Jonah’ or ‘Jonas.’ Peter had at least one sibling, Andrew, who later accompanied Simon when he joined Jesus’ mission throughout Israel.

As an adult, Simon made his living as a fisherman in a village named Capernaum. Fishing was a relatively lucrative occupation at the time, and Simon owned his own fishing boat. Historians are not sure as to how large Simon’s family was. The Gospels are consistent, however, in stating that Simon lived with his mother-in-law at the time Jesus invited him and Andrew to join his ministry. This would imply that Simon was married.

Calling By Jesus

St. John’s Gospel indicates that Simon and Andrew were initially disciples of a man named John the Baptist. One day after spending the day with a man named Jesus, an associate of John the Baptist, Andrew introduced Simon to him. Andrew introduced Jesus as the “Messiah.” Peter was initially skeptical of Jesus as being the Messiah as everyone had claimed. Simon spent a short amount of time with Jesus before returning home.

Soon after, Jesus returned to Andrew and Simon and said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Being still unsure of this man Jesus, Simon asked for a sign of Jesus’ divinity. Jesus instructed Simon to lower his nets. Simon was amazed to catch a huge number of fish. Immediately afterwards, Simon, Andrew and another set of brothers who lived in the area, James and John, joined Jesus in his ministry to become the first of what are now known as the twelve apostles.

Role in the Church

Almost immediately upon joining Jesus’ ministry, Simon had become known as a leader among the apostles. Simon’s leadership was recognized by Jesus, who bestowed a special authority to Simon. The Bible supports this acknowledgement in that Simon, according the almost all variations of Scripture over time, is mentioned many times throughout the New Testament as being spokesman for the Apostles. In addition to being their spokesman, Simon was also privy to some of the more intimate events with Jesus. These events included the raising of Jairus’ daughter, the Transfiguration and the Agony in the Garden. James and John were also witnesses to these events.

After having spent a little while with Jesus and experiencing the glory of his ministry, Jesus asked his disciples who the Son of Man was. Simon replied “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” It was at this moment that Jesus bestowed upon Simon the name Peter, telling him “… and I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church.”

It is at this moment the papacy of the Catholic Church traditionally begins. This is an amazing event, as Peter has now been appointed by Jesus as the one who will carry on the Word of God and be a leader of the followers of the faith. This event also gives Peter the distinction of being the only recognized Pope of the Catholic Church to have been appointed as Pope by Jesus himself. All subsequent Pope were elected by Earthly men.

The Last Supper

The climax of the relationship between Jesus and the apostle occurs during the Last Supper. It was during this time Jesus predicts his arrest and death. Jesus gave the disciples their final lesson before his impending arrest and execution. Jesus went around the room washing each of the disciple’s feet. He began with Peter. This washing of the disciple’s feet by Jesus is seen by many as the epoch of his lessons in explaining the relationship between master and student, and would serve Peter well later in his own mission.

Jesus revealed many other things to the Apostles at the Last Super. He reveled he would be incarcerated and that dark days were ahead. Peter attempted to be confident and declared his desire to protect Jesus at any cost. Peter was also informed that He himself would rebuke Jesus three times during his ordeal. “Verily I say unto thee, that this night, before the cock crows, thou shalt deny me thrice.” Despite his dreary prediction as to the fate of Peter, Jesus also named Peter as the one who would strengthen the disciples upon Jesus’ death. As always, Jesus was correct and Peter indeed did deny Jesus three times on the night of his arrest and subsequent crucifixion.

Life After Jesus

In remaining consistent with his position as leader among the Apostles, Peter was the first one notified of Jesus’ disappearance from the tomb as well as being the first Apostle to enter the tomb itself. Peter was the one charged with leading the selection of Judas’ replacement. Later, Peter has the opportunity to reaffirm his love and devotion to Jesus three times; an effort to counteract his previous three denials of Jesus.

The Acts of the Apostles describe Peter as being instrumental in spreading God’s message after Jesus’ death. His travels took him throughout Jerusalem, Judea and as far north as Syria. Peter was the one who spoke to the others during the Pentecost. This was Peter’s first significant sermon, and he converted a lot of people on this day. Peter was also blessed with the ability to perform miracles. His actions became known throughout Jerusalem and the surrounding areas.

Peter’s message and presence became so prevalent he was eventually arraigned twice by the priests of the Sanhedrin. He openly defied them and was eventually released from his captivity. Peter was instrumental in spreading eh word of Jesus, and undertook missionary trips to Lydda, Joppa and Caesarea. He was influential in assisting early Church leaders in making the decision to evangelize to the Gentiles. The Gentiles were people in Israel who did not adhere to Jewish customs, especially that of circumcision. Nonetheless, Peter evangelized to them and eventually many Gentiles , beginning with a man named Cornelius, converted to Christianity. This event provides another clear example of Peter’s leadership and authority within the early Christian movement.

Between the years 42-44 AD, Herod Agrippa I began a new persecution against the Christians. Eventually Peter was imprisoned. Miraculously, Peter escaped from his imprisonment and returned to the home of one his disciples. Peter clearly understood at this point that to stay meant certain death. He decided to go to “another place” to continue in his ministry. There is little mentioned of Peter in the Bible from this point on, as the story of the Christians begins to focus on the ministry of Paul. However, the Bible does give clues about some of the travels Peter engaged in, in spreading the word of Jesus. There is mention of Peter being present in Antioch. There are also references by Paul in his letter of Peter having travelled to Corinth.

Death

Tradition holds that Jesus had revealed to Peter that he would be crucified. Historical evidence suggest that Nero, the emperor o f Rome during eh year 64 AD, blamed the Christians for the Great Fire of Rome. Peter was in Rome during this time. Nero ordered the death of Peter to which Peter requested crucifixion upside down. Therefore, Rome is traditionally known as the location of the martyrdom of Peter. The Vatican, home to the Pope of the Catholic Church, is believed to have been built at the location of Peter’s crucifixion. The rotunda in front of the main building of the Vatican is now known as St. Peter’s square.

It should be noted Peter was not referred to as a bishop, or Pope, during his lifetime. It is most likely Peter would have rejected such a title. However, Catholic tradition recognizes and hold Peter up as the spiritual and administrative lease of the early Christian movement, much like the Holy Father is recognized as today. There are volumes of books, articles and encyclicals written by other early Church participants, disciples of the apostles and historians all point to Peter as the head of the early Church. Therefore, it is with Peter that the Catholic Church recognizes as the first Holy Father, or Pope.

Honors
Peter has posthumously been awarded many distinctions. There are many feast days within the Catholic Church held in his honor. Peter’s feast day is traditionally celebrated on June 29. Peter shares this feast day with Paul. This tradition dates back to as early as the fourth century in Rome.

Peter has also been identified as a patron saint for many occupations, ailments, institutions and locations. His name is invoked by Catholics to aid in health-related situations as frenzy, foot problems, fever and longevity., Peter is the patron saint of many institutions and cities throughout the world.

Conclusion

Many theories and counter-theories have emerged over the past tow thousand years that both support and deny Peter’s special place in the heart of Jesus and the early Christians. Nonetheless, he remains both a powerful symbol of the fallibility of the flesh and perseverance of the human spirit. To most people, Peter embodies the fullness of human life: fear, bravery, bravery, intelligence, etc. The exact details of Peter’s life may never be fully told, however, he remains an inspirational figure in many Christian traditions, most notably the beginning of one of the most inspirational, spiritual, intelligent and controversial traditions in modern history, that of Pope.