Calixtus I (or Callistus), Pope

Calixtus I (Or Callistus), Pope the son of Dionysius, and a Roman, succeeded Zephyrinus in 217 or 220. According to the Acta Martyrum, he was put to death by being drowned in a well, after suffering a long imprisonment, Oct. 14, 222, or Oct. 12, 223, but the story is doubtful. He was succeeded by Urban 1. The new MS. of Hippolytus calls him a "heretic," a "servile and deceitful profligate, and an embezzler." In doctrine, according to Hippolytus, Calixtus was a Noetian, or worse; in practice, a violator both of the ecclesiastical and the moral law. And yet he is a saint of the Romish calendar! He is said to have built the basilica of St. Mary Trans Tiberim, and the cemetery on the Appian Way now called the catacomb of St. Sebastian (where 174,000 martyrs are said to lie buried). Ughellus, Italia Sacra, vol. i; Biog. Univ.; Meth. Qu. Rev. 1851, p. 649; Schaff, Hist. of Christian Church, 1:291, 447. SEE HIPPOLYTUS.