Today the Church honors Pope St. Cornelius.
Ora pro nobis.
Pope Saint Cornelius was a Roman priest who was elected pope during the lull in the persecution of Christians under Emperor Decius (AD 249–251).
During the period of persecution under Emperor Decius, and after the martyrdom of Pope Saint Fabian, the Roman Church was unable to elect a new pope. During the persecution it proved impossible to elect a successor, and the papal seat remained vacant for over a year. In the fourteen months without a pope, the leading candidate, Moses, had died under the persecution. In AD June 251, Decius was killed in battle with the Goths, which provided a brief window for the election of a new bishop of Rome.
Although Novatian was the pre-eminent theologian in Rome, and the first Roman theologian who used the Latin language rather than Greek in his writings, and who had largely administered the Church of Rome during the period of persecution (for which he expected to be elected pope), the moderate Roman Cornelius was elected over Novatian and others as the twenty-first pope in AD March 251. Novatian then proclaimed himself pope, and the Church of Rome fell into schism.
Those who supported Novatian and his rigorist position, that the lapsed could not be re-admitted to the Church under any circumstances, had Novatian consecrated bishop and refused to recognize Cornelius as Bishop of Rome. Both sides sent out letters to other bishops seeking recognition and support. Cornelius had the support of Cyprian, Dionysius, and most African and Eastern bishops while Novatian had the support of a minority of clergy and laymen in Rome. Cornelius's next action was to convene a synod of 60 bishops to acknowledge him as the rightful pope. The synod excommunicated Novatian as well as all Novatianists. Also addressed in the synod was that Christians who stopped practising during Emperor Decius's persecution could be re-admitted into the Christian community only after doing penance.
The verdict of the synod was sent to the Christian bishops, most notably the bishop of Antioch, a fierce Novatian supporter, in order to convince him to accept Cornelius as bishop of Rome. The letters that Cornelius sent to surrounding bishops provide information of the size of the church in Rome at that time. Cornelius mentions that the Roman Church had, "forty six priests, seven deacons, seven sub-deacons, forty two acolytes, fifty two ostiarii, and over one thousand five hundred widows and persons in distress." His letters also inform that Cornelius had a staff of over 150 clergy members and the church fed over 1,500 people daily. From these numbers, it has been estimated that there were at least 50,000 Christians in Rome during the papacy of Pope Cornelius.
As a side note, all Christian worship throughout the world was originally offered in Greek (the language of the New Testament), the Scriptures were read in Greek, and all scholarly theological writing was in Greek. Translations of the Gospels began to appear in the 4th c. AD in regional languages, such as Syriac, Gothi, Ge’ez, Armenian, Coptic, and Georgian, which also shaped growing provincial changes in the liturgy. In the Western Church, translations of the Gospels into Latin began to be made piecemeal by various translators in the early 4th c. AD, which collectively are called the Vetus Latina. It was not until the Vulgate translation (vulgate meaning “vulgar”, the Latin word for “common”, referring to the common language of Rome, Latin) was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in AD 382 that a singular, authoritative Latin version of the Holy Scriptures that Latin began to replace Greek as the language of worship and scholarship in Western half of the Roman Empire. It is a sad note of history that in the 16th c. translations began to be made into regional languages because very few could read Latin, just as had been commissioned by Pope Damasus in AD 382. Latin was a dead language, and mostly only scholars could read or speak it. Even the average clergy not trained as scholars could barely read it, and in the liturgy the people were reciting prayers with little to no comprehension. The response of the Roman Church was regrettably intolerant and violent, and was no small part of what precipitated the Protestant Reformation. Today, no matter the language used in Western Christianity, during the liturgy we can still see the vestiges of the Greek liturgy, such as when we pray “Kyrie Eleison, Christie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison”. The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in AD 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Vetus Latina Gospels used by the Roman Church. Later, on his own initiative, Jerome extended this work of revision and translation to include most of the books of the Bible. The Vulgate became progressively adopted as the Bible text within the Western Church.
The persecutions resumed in AD 251 under the new Emperor Trebonianus Gallus (AD June 251 to August 253). Cornelius was exiled to Centumcellae, Italy, where he died in AD June 253. The Liberian catalogue ascribes his death to the hardships of banishment; later sources say he was beheaded.
Almighty God, by whose grace and power your holy martyr Cornelius triumphed over suffering and was faithful even to death: Grant us, who now remember him in thanksgiving, to be so faithful in our witness to you in this world, that we may receive with him the crown of life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
Amen.
