St. Zephyrinus

Simple (1955 Calendar): August 26

Pope St. Zephyrinus reigned as the Vicar of Christ from 199 to 217 AD.  During part of his reign, the Church endured the bloody persecution of Emperor Septimus Severus. Pope Zephyrinus rejoiced in the triumphs of the martyrs, but he also had much to suffer from heresies and apostasies attacking the Faith. It was his glory that the heretics called this holy Pope the principle defender of Christ's divinity.  The holy pontiff died on December 20, 217 AD.

SAINT ZEPHYRINUS, a native of Rome, succeeded Victor in the Pontificate, in the year 2O2, in which Severus raised the fifth most bloody persecution against the Church, which continued not for two years only, but until the death of that emperor in 211. Under this furious storm this holy pastor was the support and comfort of the distressed flock of Christ, and he suffered by charity and compassion what every confessor underwent. The triumphs of the martyrs were indeed his joy, but his heart received many deep wounds from the fall of apostates and heretics. Neither did this latter affliction cease when peace was restored to the Church. Our Saint had also the affliction to see the fall of Tertullian, which seems to have been owing partly to his pride. Eusebius tells us that this holy Pope exerted his zeal so strenuously against the blasphemies of the heretics that they treated him in the most contumelious manner; but it was his glory that they called him the principal defender of Christ’s divinity. St. Zephyrinus filled the pontifical chair seventeen years, dying in 219. He was buried in his own cemetery, on the 26th of August. He is, in some Martyrologies, styled a martyr, which title he might deserve by what he suffered in the persecution, though he perhaps did not die by the executioner.  

REFLECTION.—God has always raised up holy pastors zealous to maintain the faith of His Church inviolable, and to watch over the purity of its morals and the sanctity of its discipline. We enjoy the greatest advantages of the divine grace through their labors, and we owe to God, a tribute of perpetual thanksgiving and immortal praise for all those mercies which He has afforded His Church on earth.   Source

May all of us call on St. Zephyrinus to fight the continued heresies that assert that our Lord was not divine - heresies present in Arianism, Islam, and other sects.

Collect:

O Eternal Shepherd, who appointed blessed Zephyrinus shepherd of the whole Church, let the prayers of this martyr and supreme pontiff move You to look with favor upon Your flock and to keep it under Your continual protection. Through our Lord . . .

Prayer Source: 1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal