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Pope SaintAnterus
Bishop of Rome
ChurchCatholic Church
DioceseRome
SeeHoly See
Papacy began21 November 235
Papacy ended3 January 236
PredecessorPontian
SuccessorFabian
Personal details
BornPetilia Policastro, Calabria
Died(236-01-03)3 January 236
Rome, Roman Empire
Sainthood
Feast day3 January[1]

Pope Anterus was the bishop of Rome from 21 November 235 to his death on 3 January 236.[2]

Anterus was the son of Romulus, born in Petilia Policastro,[1] Calabria. He is thought to have been of Greek origin,[3] and his name may indicate that he was a freed slave.[4] He succeeded Pope Pontian, who had been deported from Rome to Sardinia, along with the antipope Hippolytus. He created one bishop, for the city of Fondi.[3]

Some scholars believe Anterus was martyred,[3][5] because he ordered greater strictness in searching into the acts of the martyrs, exactly collected by the notaries appointed by Pope Clement I.[3][6] Other scholars doubt this and believe it is more likely that he died in undramatic circumstances during the persecutions of Emperor Maximinus the Thracian.[4]

He was buried in the papal crypt of the Catacomb of Callixtus, on the Appian Way[3] in Rome. The site of his sepulchre was discovered by Giovanni Battista de Rossi in 1854, with some broken remnants of the Greek epitaph engraved on the narrow oblong slab that closed his tomb;[6] only the Greek term for bishop was legible.[5] His ashes had been removed to the Church of Saint Sylvester in the Campus Martius[3] and were discovered on 17 November 1595, when Pope Clement VIII rebuilt that church.[3]

See also[edit]

  • List of popes
  • List of Catholic saints

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Pope Saint Antherus » Saints.SQPN.com
  2. ^ Shahan, Thomas (1907). "Pope St. Anterus" in The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g de Montor, Artaud (1911). The Lives and Times of the Popes: Including the Complete Gallery of Portraits of the Pontiffs Reproduced from Effigies Pontificum Romanorum Dominici Basae : Being a Series of Volumes Giving the History of the World During the Christian Era. New York: The Catholic Publication Society of America. pp. 49–50. OCLC 7533337.
  4. ^ a b Levillain, Philippe; O'Malley, John W. (2002). The Papacy: An Encyclopedia. London: Routledge. pp. 63, 557. ISBN 978-0-415-92230-2.
  5. ^ a b Marucchi, Orazio (2003). Manual of Christian Archeology 1935. Vecchierello, Hubert (translator). Kessinger Publishing. p. 48. ISBN 978-0-7661-4247-3.
  6. ^ a b Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Pope St. Anterus" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Titles of the Great Christian Church
Preceded by
Pontian		 Bishop of Rome
235–236		Succeeded by
Fabian