Pope St. Cornelius, Martyr

The Epigrams of Pope St. Damasus I

Pope St. Damasus I wrote a series of epigraphs for the tombs of martyrs and other Christians which allowed him to literally leave his mark on the Eternal City. He employed Furius Dionysius Filocalus to do the actual engraving of the epigrams. Filocalus had distinguished himself early during the pontificate of Liberius with his completion of the Chronography of 354. The Chronography is a series of smaller documents. One of these documents is the Deposito Episcoporum, which lists the reigns and burial places of the popes from Lucius (c. 253-254) until Liberius, who was reigning at the time.

Although Damasus had knowledge of the burial sites of his predecessors going back one hundred and twelve years, he did not choose to honor every one of his predecessors. Damasus honored three popes who are buried in the Catacombs of Callistus with individual inscriptions: Xystus (II), Cornelius and Eusebius. In so doing, he carefully selected those popes that had some aspect of their pontificate with which he could identify personally.

The overall aim of the epigraphic program of Damasus was to honor the martyrs of Rome, but Xystus is the only one honored by Damasus who is included in the Deposito Martyrum. The Deposito is another document within the Chronography that is essentially a church calendar and lists the burial places and natales, or dates of commemoration, for the martyrs. The Deposito did not include popes who had suffered exile but were not martyrs in the strict sense. With his epigrams, Damasus was the first to consider these exiled popes to be martyrs.

Popes vs. Antipopes

In the epigram that Damasus wrote in honor of St. Hippolytus, he refers to him as a “presbyter in schism” but identifies the schism as that of Novatian. This is an anachronism, since the schism of Novatian took place during the reign of Cornelius. Damasus additionally states that when an unidentified persecution began, Hippolytus confessed the Catholic faith and died a martyr, although Damasus characteristically does not give details of the martyrdom. H.P.V. Nunn argued, “Nothing better illustrates the confusion and obscurity which enveloped the history of the Roman Church owing to the destruction of the records in the persecution of Diocletian than the fact that Damasus had to depend on uncertain oral tradition in writing the epitaph of this celebrated person.” However, the Chronography of 354, which Damasus most likely used as a source for his epigrams, mentions Hippolytus as a presbyter who shared the exile to Sardinia with Pontian. Damasus may have honestly been unaware of the discrepancy. At any rate, the epigram of Hippolytus can be seen as an indirect exhortation for current schismatics, with whom Damasus contended throughout his pontificate, to be rejoined in communion with the bishop of Rome.

 Incidentally, the epigraph that Damasus wrote for Cornelius makes no mention of Novatian, whose schism was the most significant aspect of the pontificate of Cornelius. In the wake of the Decian persecution, Cornelius supported the re-admittance of lapsi to the Church, a practice opposed by a rigorist minority centered mostly in North Africa. Adherents of the minority view elected a Roman presbyter named Novatian as a bishop in opposition to Cornelius.

 Like Cornelius, Pope Eusebius and his predecessor Marcellus I, faced a crisis in the Church regarding the attitude toward the lapsi following a serious persecution. The election of Marcellus took place after a considerable interregnum following the martyrdom of the similarly named Marcellinus in the persecution under Diocletian. According to the epigram that Damasus composed for him, Marcellus, in contrast to Cornelius, required the lapsi to perform serious penances in order to gain readmission.190 Many of them rebelled violently in response and the ensuing unrest caused Maxentius to banish Marcellus. His successor Eusebius faced a situation more similar to that of Cornelius. The otherwise unknown Heraclius opposed the reception of lapsi back into the church, much as Novation had done. The resulting unrest caused Maxentius to banish Eusebius from Rome as well.

Ultimately, Damasus chose to honor Cornelius because he identified with his predecessor. Cornelius had faced a schism as did Damasus, and by identifying himself with his predecessor, Damasus hoped to demonstrate that his Ursinian and Luciferian opponents were in the wrong as the Novatianists who had opposed Cornelius had been. Both the tales of Pope Sts. Cornelius and Damasus demonstrate the importance of not breaking away from the Church,  even when the Pope might be in error, perhaps grievously, over the proper application of the mercy of God.

 Pope St. Cornelius, ora pro nobis!