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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 that 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 the 26th of August. He is, in some Martyrologies, styled
a martyr, which title he might deserve by what he suffered in the
persecution, though he perhaps did not die by the executioner. SOURCE: EWTN
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