Sabellianism

Okay, since Fric and Deacon didn’t get to blog on this yet, I’ll start off. Now that the fellas have confirmed by name the “Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier” heresy, they get to protest this form of Modalism properly when its encountered. The fascinating part for me was researching the 3rd century pope who repudiated it however. Saint Callistus took an odd route to the Chair of St. Peter. Callistus was a slave in Rome prior to Constantine’s reign. He lost some money his owner asked him to invest, tried to escape punishment, was caught and ended up in the tin mines. Some weird fluke got him out with other Christians, and he went on to be a primary advisor to uneducated Pope Zephyrinus. Most of what we know comes from a rival and antipope named Hippolytus who thought Callistus unorthodox because of his declaration that adulterers could perform penance and come back into communion with the Church. Callistus was thought to have been martyred, but no one is quite sure how, as the time of general persecution had ended. Interesting stuff. At least to me.