Saint Of The Day For January 3: Saint Antero, Pope

By An inhabitant of spazio+spadoni On Jan 3, 2023

Antero was the 19th bishop of Rome and pope of the Catholic Church from 21 November 235 to 3 January 236.

He is venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches.

The life of Antero

All we know of him with certainty is that he reigned about forty days, and that he was buried in the famous ‘papal crypt’ in the cemetery of San Callisto in Rome.

The Liber Pontificalis reports that he was martyred under Emperor Maximinus Thrax for having had the Acts of the Martyrs collected by some notaries and then having them deposited in the archives of the Church of Rome.

This tradition seems very old and rather true.

Nevertheless, some illustrious scholars, including Tillemont, argue that it is not sufficiently proven by the mere fact of being reported in the Liber Pontificalis, considering, among other things, its late date of compilation.

The site of his tomb was discovered by Giovanni Battista de Rossi in 1854, thanks to some deteriorated fragments of the epitaph in Greek engraved on the narrow oblong slab that closed his tomb, an indication of both his probable origin and the widespread use of Greek in the Church of Rome at the time.

He is said to have been born in Petelia, a Magna Graecia city, to be identified with today’s Strongoli.

In 1611, there was the translation from Rome of the relics of the Holy Pope Antero, to Giaveno, as a gift from frà Giovanni Battista Cavagno of Novara to the Giavenese don Vincenzo Claretta.