Pope Urban I
bishop of Rome
170 CE to 230 CE
Pope Saint Urban I is Pope from 14 October 222 to 230.
Born in Rome, he succeeds St. Callixtus I who had been martyred.
For centuries it was believed that Urban too was martyred.
However, recent historical discoveries now lead scholars to believe that he died of natural causes.
Much of Urban's life is shrouded in mystery, leading to many myths and misconceptions.
Despite the lack of sources he is the first Pope whose reign can be definitely dated.
Two prominent sources do exist for Urban's pontificate: Eusebius' history of the early Church and also an inscription in the Coemeterium Callisti which names the Pope.
Urban ascends to the Chair of Saint Peter in the year of the Roman Emperor Elagabalus' assassination and serves during the reign of Alexander Severus.
It is believed that Urban's pontificate was during a peaceful time for Christians in the Empire as Severus did not promote the persecution of Christianity.
Urban is a canonized saint of the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.
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Callixtus—opposed as in other matters, by the schismatic Hippolytus—favors a policy of readmitting adulterers, apostates, and murderers to communion.
Hippolytus, an ethical conservative, is scandalized when Callixtus extends absolution to Christians who had committed grave sins, such as adultery.
At this time, he seems to have allowed himself to be elected as a rival Bishop of Rome Sabellius, a Christian priest, denies the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, contending that God is three only in relation to the world, in so many "manifestations" or "modes" of divine activity.
Sabellius teaches that the unity and identity of God are such that the Son of God did not exist before the incarnation.
Further, because the Father and the Son are thus one, Sabellius expresses the view (called Patripassionism) that the Father suffered with the Son in his passion and death.
Callistus and Hippolytus both oppose the Sabellianist heresy, as do Tertullian and Dionysius of Alexandria.
In order to affirm the unity of God and guard against the charge of polytheism, Tertullian coins the theological term “Monarchianism” to describe this and other forms of the popular second- and third-century heresies that reject Trinitarianism.
Tertullian defines Sabellianism and Patripassionism as the Modalistic form of Monarchism, which maintains God the Father's incarnation in order to hold the Son's divinity and the unity of God.
The other form, called Adoptionist, or Dynamic, views Jesus as a unique person, divinely energized, called to be the Son of God.
Both heresies represent an attempt to reconcile the doctrines of the incarnation and Trinity with philosophical concepts of the unity and immateriality of God.
Callistus, in condemning Sabellius, aids in the establishment and codification of church doctrine about the nature of the Trinity.
It is possible that Callixtus was martyred around 222, perhaps during a popular uprising, but the legend that he was thrown down a well has no historical foundation.
Urban succeeds him.