Pope Pius I

Pius I (Greek: Πίος) was the bishop of Rome from c. 140 to his death c. 154,^[1] according to the Annuario Pontificio . His dates are listed as 142 or 146 to 157 or 161, respectively.^[2] He is considered to have opposed both the Valentinians and Gnostics during his papacy. He is considered a saint by the Catholic Church with a feast day in 11 July, but it is unclear if he died as a martyr.

Pius is believed to have been born at Aquileia, in Northern Italy, during the late 1st century.^[3] His father was an Italian ^[4] called Rufinus, and according to the Liber Pontificalis was also a native of Aquileia.^[5] According to the 2nd-century Muratorian Canon ^[6] and the Liberian Catalogue ,^[7] Pius was the brother of Hermas, author of the text known as The Shepherd of Hermas . Its author identifies himself as a former slave, a fact which has led to speculation that both Hermas and Pius were freedmen. However Hermas' statement that he was a slave may just mean that he belonged to a low-ranking plebeian family.^[8]

According to Catholic tradition, Pius I governed the church in the middle of the 2nd century during the reigns of the Emperors Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius.^[3] He is held to be the ninth successor of Saint Peter,^[1] and to have decreed that Easter should only be kept on a Sunday. Although he is said to have ordered the publication of the Liber Pontificalis,^[3] in fact compilation of that document was not started before the beginning of the 6th century.^[9] Pius is also said to have built one of the oldest churches in Rome, Santa Pudenziana.

Justin Martyr taught Christian doctrine in Rome during the pontificate of Pius I but the account of Justin's martyrdom does not name Pius. Given the brevity of the account this is hardly remarkable.^[10] The heretics Valentinus, Cerdon, and Marcion visited Rome in Pius' time, and he is believed to have excommunicated both groups.^[11] Catholic apologists see this as an argument for the primacy of the Roman See during the 2nd century.^[3]

There is some conjecture that Pius was a martyr in Rome, a conjecture that entered earlier editions of the Roman Breviary . The study that had produced the 1969 revision of the General Roman Calendar stated that there were no grounds for his being considered a martyr,^[12] and he is not presented as such in the current Roman Martyrology .^[13]

Pius I's feast day is 11 July. In the Tridentine calendar it was given the rank of "Simple" and celebrated as the feast of a martyr. The rank of the feast was reduced to a Commemoration in the 1955 General Roman Calendar of Pope Pius XII and the General Roman Calendar of 1960.

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• 1st-century births
• 154 deaths
• 2nd-century archbishops
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• 2nd-century Romans
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• Italian popes
• Papal saints
• People from Aquileia
• Popes
• 2nd-century popes
• Imperial Roman slaves and freedmen
• Burials at St. Peter's Basilica
• Christian anti-Gnosticism

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