PONZIANO, POPE, saint, martyr. — According to the Liberian Catalogue and the Liber Pontificalis, P. was a Roman, the son of a certain Calpurnius; he was pope from 231 to 235, when, together with the presbyter Hippolytus, he was condemned to the mines in Sardinia, where, after abdicating the supreme pontificate, he died as a result of ill-treatment. His body was transported to Rome and buried in the cemetery of Callistus on 13 August.
He is in fact commemorated on this date in the Depositio Martyrum, and his epitaph in Greek, with the designation of martyr, was found in that cemetery in January 1909. He is likewise commemorated on the same day in the Leonine Sacramentary and in the Hieronymian Martyrology, whereas in the Roman Martyrology he is commemorated on 19 November.
If the information concerning his exile in 235 is considered certain, this must have occurred after 18 March, when Alexander Severus was killed and Maximinus Thrax was elected emperor. The latter (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., VI, 28), out of hatred for Alexander’s house, instigated the persecution against the Christians, though it was limited to the leaders of the Church. In execution of the orders, the prefect of Rome (Maximinus, having been elected in the provinces, never came to Rome) relegated P. to Sardinia. There the Pontiff, in order not to leave the Church without a leader, renounced the papacy on 28 September of the same year. Anterus (v.) was elected on the following 21 November. The year in which his body was transferred to Rome is also uncertain, but probably falls between 244 and 249, that is, during the reign of Philip the Arab. In fact, the permission of the Emperor was necessary for such transfers of corpses, and Pope Fabian may have taken advantage of Philip’s benevolence.
There is no connection between P. and the cemetery of the same name on the Via Portuensis.