The First Antipope
By Thomas V. Mirus ( bio - articles - email ) | Mar 30, 2026 | In Lives of the Popes (Podcast)
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The first four of the six popes covered in this installment found themselves in conflict with a priest named Hippolytus, the most brilliant intellectual of the Roman Church at the time. Hippolytus would become the first antipope in the history of the Church, plaguing three successive papacies with his schism. Yet his story has a happy and even poetic ending.
This episode covers popes #15-#20: Sts. Zephyrinus, Callistus I, Urban I, Pontian, Anterus, and Fabian.
Links
Article https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/first-antipope/
Modalism https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/47-heresies-modalism-god-as-monad-with-three-names/
St. Hippolytus of Rome https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-17the-long-strange-trip-hippolytus-rome/
Leo XIII’s encyclical on marriage https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/leo-xiii-on-what-marriage-owes-to-church/
Thomas V. Mirus is President of Trinity Communications and Editor-in-Chief for CatholicCulture.org, hosts both the Catholic Culture Podcast and Lives of the Popes, and co-hosts Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast. See full bio.
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