Urban I, Pope, St.
URBAN I, POPE, ST.
Pontificate: 222 to 230. Urban's pontificate, about which little is known, fell in the reign of Alexander Severus, who was favorably disposed toward Christians. Urban inherited from Calixtus the schism of hippolytus, who by now had few followers. The Adoptionist students (see adoptionism) of Artemon and the Montanists of Proclus (see montanism) seem also to have declined. The Liber pontificalis says, among other things, that Urban was a Roman, the son of Pontianus (the name of Urban's successor). It also errs in making him a martyr under Diocletian, buried in the cemetery of Praetextatus. This anachronism facilitated the association of Urban with St. cecilia. He probably was buried in the cemetery of Calixtus, according to the report of the martyrology of st. jerome and the discoveries of G. B. de Rossi.
Feast: May 25.
Bibliography: eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastca 6:21, 23. g. b. de rossi, La Roma sotterranea cristiana, 4 v. (Rome 1864–97) v.2. j.n.d. kelly, Oxford Dictionary of Popes (New York 1997), 15–16.
[e. g. weltin]