Pope Pontian

Pope St. Pontian (Latin: Pontianus; died October 235), was the Bishop of Rome from 21 July 230 to 28 September 235. In 235, during the persecution of Christians in the reign of the Emperor Maximinus the Thracian, Pontian was arrested and sent to the island of Sardinia. He resigned to make the election of a new pope possible.

Biography

A little more is known of Pontian than his predecessors, apparently from a lost papal chronicle that was available to the compiler of the Liberian Catalogue of Bishops of Rome, written in the 4th century.

Pontian's pontificate was relatively peaceful under the reign of the Emperor Severus Alexander, and noted for the condemnation of Origen by a Roman synod, over which Pontian likely presided. According to early church historian Eusebius of Caesarea, the next emperor, Maximinus, overturned his predecessor's policy of tolerance towards Christianity. Both Pope Pontian and the Antipope Hippolytus of Rome were arrested and exiled to labor in the mines of Sardinia, generally regarded as a death sentence.