Hyginus, Pope, Saint

HYGINUS, Pope, Saint. - He is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on January 11 as a martyr, but no ancient source knows of or recalls his martyrdom. The exact time of his pontificate is likewise uncertain. In the most reliable episcopal lists he is called the successor of Pope Telesphorus: he would therefore have been elected in 138. The duration of his pontificate too is attested variously and poorly by the sources; the notice reported by Eusebius, who attributes four years of governance to him, seems more trustworthy: he would thus have died in 142.

The accounts of his life are very few and no less uncertain. According to the Liber Pontificalis he was of Athenian origin and a philosopher. During his governance he is said to have instituted the Minor Orders of the ecclesiastical hierarchy and to have distributed the various offices of the clergy. Certain decretals are also attributed to him, which are certainly apocryphal. From St. Irenaeus it is known that during his pontificate the Gnostics Valentinus and Cerdo came to Rome to spread their errors. The latter even succeeded, by means of a deceitful confession of faith, in being received into the community, but then, once unmasked, he was driven out of it.