Saint Pius I was born at Aquileia. He was created pontiff A.D. 142. Like Saint Hyginus, he condemned the followers of Cerdon and his successor in that heresy, Marcion.Saint Pius I was born at Aquileia. He was created pontiff A.D. 142. Like Saint Hyginus, he condemned the followers of Cerdon and his successor in that heresy, Marcion.
“Marcion,” says Fleury, “recognized two principles, the good and the evil, and he claimed to be justified by these words of the Scripture: ‘The tree which beareth good fruit is not evil; and the tree which beareth bad fruit is not good.'” He also availed himself of the parable which advises that we mend not an old garment with new cloth, nor put new wine into old bottles. He repudiated the Old Testament, as having been given by the evil principle, and he composed a work which he entitled Antitheses, or “the Contradictions between the Old Law and the New Testament.” His followers abstained from animal food, and used only water in holy communion. They carried their abhorrence of flesh-meat so far as to suffer death as martyrs. This heresy had a great number of believers, not only in many places, but also during many centuries.
The condemnation pronounced by Saint Pius I added weight to the excommunication pronounced against this heresy by Saint Hyginus.
Pius I had also to combat the heresy of Valentinus, whose origin is not known. “Valentinus at first preached the Catholic faith in Egypt, where he is said to have been born, and afterwards in Rome,” says Fleury, “but it was in the isle of Cyprus that he became perverted from the faith. Possessing both ability and eloquence, he hoped for a bishopric, but being disappointed, he, in his anger, undertook to combat the doctrine of the Church. He had studied the writings of the Greeks, and especially the Platonic philosophy.”
Justin Martyr composed an Apology for the Christians in the year of Christ 150, and placed the following address in the beginning of it:
“To the Emperor Titus Elian Adrian Antonius, pious and august Caesar, and to his son Verissimus, philosopher; and Lucius, philosopher, the son of Caesar by nature, and of the Emperor by adoption, lovers of science; and to the sacred Senate, and the whole Roman people; Justin, son of Priscus Bacchius, a native of Flavia or Naples of Palestine, one of the persecuted, presents this memorial.
“Reason teaches us that those who are truly pious and philosophers esteem and love only the truth, and not old opinions if they are unsound. You are everywhere called pious and philosophical; the effect shows how that really is.
“We do not intend to flatter you in this writing, but to ask you for justice, in accordance with the most sound reason, and to entreat you not to listen to prejudices, nor to adhere to superstitions, nor to passion, nor to give credence to the false reports that have long been circulated, so as to render judgments which must be injurious to yourselves. For ourselves, we are persuaded that no one can do us harm so long as no one can convict us of being evil-doers; you may have us put to death, but you cannot injure us; and in order that this discourse be not thought rash, we beg for an exact inquiry into the nature of the crimes that are imputed to us. If such crimes be proved against us, let us be punished even more severely than such crimes merit! But if we be found blameless, sound reason forbids that you should maltreat the innocent on account of false reports; or rather that you wrong yourselves in punishing in passion and not in justice. The legitimate form of justice is that subjects give a faithful account of their life and conversation, and that princes judge not by violence and tyranny, but in piety and wisdom. It is for us, therefore, to make our life and conversation known to all the world, lest we have imputed to ourselves those crimes which are charged against us in ignorance; and it is for you to show us that you are unprejudiced judges. For if, after receiving this information, you do not act justly, you will no longer have any excuse before God.”
Justin Martyr, in his first Apology, explains the doctrine of the Christians, saying that they adore, first, the eternal God, the author of all things; in the second place, his Son Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate; and in the third place, they honor the prophetic Spirit. Saint Justin proceeds to say that Jesus Christ is the sovereign reason who entirely changes the heart of his worshippers.
Jesus is the supreme reason who changes his followers. The discourses of Jesus were the word of God, brief and exact. They have convinced us. The Christians are the only people who are punished for their creed and worship, while all other religions are tolerated. Some adore trees, flowers, cats, rats, and crocodiles, and generally animals. Moreover, all do not adore the same things – the worship is different, in accordance with their gods; so that each sect is impious in the estimation of all the others. “Nevertheless,” he continues, “the only complaint you make against us is that we do not adore the same gods as you do, and that we offer to the dead neither libations, nor crowns, nor sacrifices. Yet you well know that the others do not agree as to what they shall hold to be gods, or brutes, or victims.”
He goes on to complain that there is no order taken with the impostors who, after the ascension of Jesus, set themselves up as gods, as Simon the Samaritan, of the city of Gitton, who, in the time of the Emperor Claudius, performed divers magical operations, and was recognized at Rome as a god; Menander, a disciple of Simon, who seduced so many at Antioch; and Marcion, who even at that very time taught that there was another God greater than the Creator. Justin Martyr then explains all that took place in the Christian assemblies, and ends by laying before the eyes of the princes the copy of the letter of Adrian to Minutius Fundanus.
To Saint Pius I is attributed a decree ordering the celebration of Easter Sunday; but that celebration had already been ordered by the apostles.
The same pontiff directed that converts from Judaism and from the sect of Cerinthus to the Catholic faith should be received and baptized. At the solicitation of Saint Praxedes, daughter of the senator Pudens, he erected in the palace of that Christian, in which Saint Peter had lodged, the title of the Shepherd, and founded there a church, now known under the name of Saint Pudentiana, sister of Saint Praxedes.
In five ordinations Saint Pius I created twelve bishops, eighteen priests, and eleven, or, according to some, twenty-one deacons. He governed the Church about fifteen years.
- from "The Lives and Times of the Popes", by Alexis-François Artaud de Montor