Pope St. AnterusJust about the only thing that can be said about Pope Anterus is that he was Greek. Not every pope with a Greek name was Greek – it is likely that many were Roman who changed their names in memory of St. Peter whose name was changed to Greek by Jesus. Although the custom continued for a long time and we can find Greek names with popes through the Middle Ages, it has long since fallen out of favor.

Some believe that Anterus was martyred for having caused the Acts of the martyrs to be collected by notaries and deposited in the archives of the Roman Church.This tradition seems old and respectable; nevertheless the best scholars maintain that it is not sufficiently guaranteed by its sole voucher, the “Liber Pontificalis” , on account, among other things, of the late date of that work’s compilation. He was the first pope to be buried in the new papal crypt in the cemetery of Callistus on the Appian Way. The site of his sepulchre was discovered by De Rossi in 1854, with some broken remnants of the Greek epitaph engraved on the narrow oblong slab that closed his tomb, an index at once of his origin and of the prevalence of Greek in the Roman Church up to that date.

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3 COMMENTS

  1. Why are the dates of the Saints life or papacy so often left off these articles, or buried deep in the text? Knowing the dates as you read the article helps put it in context. Thanks

  2. so little about this saint.so one thing we should also get educated with is that the miracles of their precanonization and postcanonisation should be included. Not just how they lived their lives.miracles are told to strengthen faith.

  3. I’d like the dates for sure. I would say that the reason the miracles for his canonization were left off because he was martyred and he lived early enough that the organized records weren’t kept. Martyrs are automatic saints with out the need for pre-canonization miracles. I think that knowing he was a pope and that he died for his faith is enough to strengthen faith.

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