St. Callistus (d 222) followed an unusual path to the papacy. A runaway slave, he was apprehended and spent many years in the Sardinian mines. After his release he found a position with Pope St. Zephyrinus, becoming his trusted adviser and in 217 his successor.
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His election was opposed by a rival candidate, a priest of Rome named Hippolytus, who represented a rigorist vision of the church, and who came to bitterly resent Callistus' merciful approach to sinners. Callistus welcomed adulterers back to communion following public penance...
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He allowed priests to marry and ordained twice and even thrice-married men to the clergy. He recognized marriage between free women and slaves--a violation of Roman law. Hippolytus could not abide Callistus' model of the church as the loving home for saints and sinners.
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Though Hippolytus was unremitting in his attacks on the pope, Callistus never tried to silence him. He remained tolerant even when Hippolytus, believing that the church had fallen into apostasy and sin, had himself consecrated as a rival pope. St. Callistus died a martyr in 277.
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