ZEFIRINO, POPE, saint. – Successor of Vittore and predecessor of Callisto, consecrated in 199, died in 217. In the Philosophumena it is stated that he placed the deacon Callisto in charge of the cemetery (IX, 11).
In the Hieronymian Martyrology he is listed under 20 December: «Romae depositio Zephirini episcopi»; the Codex Monacensis even gives: «Romae via Appia in cimiterio depositio s. Zephirini episcopi». In the Liber Pont. it is stated that he was buried «in cimiterio suo iuxta cymiterium Calisti via Appia, VIII Ksl. sept.» (I, pp. 62, 139 ff.); this date, 25 August, is rejected by Duchesne, who prefers the other date, 20 December, given by the Hieronymian Martyrology (ibid., p. clviii). His tomb is indicated above ground by the «Notitia ecclesiarum» (R. Valentini and G. Zucchetti, Codice topogr. della città di Roma, II, Rome 1942, p. 88); the Epitome de locis states that he was laid to rest together with the martyr Tarsicio, «in uno tumulo» (ibid., p. 110). G. B. De Rossi, L. Duchesne, and O. Marucchi held that Z. had been laid to rest in the trichora chapel where the bust of G. B. De Rossi now stands. De Rossi nevertheless held that he had first been buried underground and was subsequently transferred above ground, at least by the time of Sixtus III, because his name does not appear in the commemorative inscription placed by that Pontiff in the crypt of the third-century popes. Duchesne held that he had immediately been laid to rest in the above-ground cemetery of Callisto, specifically in the trichora chapel mentioned above. G. Wilpert, on the other hand, preferred to identify his tomb in a trichora chapel situated east of the first. P. Franchi de' Cavalieri thinks that the trichora chapel proposed by Wilpert corresponds better to the «iuxta coem. Callisti» of the Liber Pontificalis, but observes that the tomb found in its centre does not seem contemporary with the construction of the building, whereas the place of honour should not have been in the centre but in the apses; moreover, it cannot be excluded that, in addition to the two surviving chapels, there were others. He therefore concluded that the evidence needed to determine Z.’s tomb is lacking. In the Vatican Grottoes, a catalogue of relics from the ninth century reads: «Zefferini Pap. et Tarsicii», but relics of Z. and Tarcisio are also listed in S. Silvestro in Capite.