D
Denise1957
Guest
Today is the Commemoration day of St. Zephyrinus, elected Pope of the Catholic Church in the year 202, and filling the pontifical chair for seventeen years until his death in 219. Here’s a short biography of the saint, taken from The Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler:
Link to EWTN article that features this biography:
ewtn.com/saintsholy/saints/Z/stzephyrinus.asp
“Zephyrinus, a native of Rome, succeeded Victor in the pontificate, in the year 202, in which Severus raised the fifth most bloody persecution against the Church, which continued not for two years only, but until the death of the emperor in 211. Under this furious storm this holy pastor was the support and comfort of the distressed flock of Christ, and he suffered by charity and compassion what every confessor underwent. The triumphs of the martyrs were indeed his joy, but his heart received many deep wounds from the fall of apostates and heretics. Neither did this latter affliction cease when peace was restored to the Church. Our saint had also the affliction to see the fall of Tertullian, which seems to have been owing partly to his pride. Eusebius tells us that this holy Pope exerted his zeal so strenuously against the blasphemies of the heretics that they treated him in the most contumelious manner; but it was his glory that they called him the principal defender of Christ’s divinity. St. Zephyrinus filled the pontifical chair seventeen years, dying in 219. He was buried in his own cemetery on 26 of August. He is, in some Martyrologies, styled a martyr, which title he might deserve by what he suffered in the persecution, though perhaps he did not die by the executioner.”
Link to EWTN article that features this biography:
ewtn.com/saintsholy/saints/Z/stzephyrinus.asp
“Zephyrinus, a native of Rome, succeeded Victor in the pontificate, in the year 202, in which Severus raised the fifth most bloody persecution against the Church, which continued not for two years only, but until the death of the emperor in 211. Under this furious storm this holy pastor was the support and comfort of the distressed flock of Christ, and he suffered by charity and compassion what every confessor underwent. The triumphs of the martyrs were indeed his joy, but his heart received many deep wounds from the fall of apostates and heretics. Neither did this latter affliction cease when peace was restored to the Church. Our saint had also the affliction to see the fall of Tertullian, which seems to have been owing partly to his pride. Eusebius tells us that this holy Pope exerted his zeal so strenuously against the blasphemies of the heretics that they treated him in the most contumelious manner; but it was his glory that they called him the principal defender of Christ’s divinity. St. Zephyrinus filled the pontifical chair seventeen years, dying in 219. He was buried in his own cemetery on 26 of August. He is, in some Martyrologies, styled a martyr, which title he might deserve by what he suffered in the persecution, though perhaps he did not die by the executioner.”
). I was a little bit sad though. It’d have just been a bit cool to have been to a Mass that wasn’t a big Feast like Corpus Christi or Fifth Sunday after whatever-have-you 
!