Dear Father George,

Bless!

Just a further note on the list of Western Saints I sent you last week. In a Russian pre-Revolutionary theological encyclopedia I discovered the following about St. Callistus: “The name of saint was received by Callistus for the martyrs death he underwent during a popular uprising; his commemoration in the Roman Church is on Oct. 14. In the Orthodox Church his name is mentioned only in Appendix I (of the complete Menologion): ‘Names of Saints which are not under the dates in the Menologion of all saints, but which are in Index I and in the Divine-service books:’ and his commemoration is given as Cheese-Fare Saturday.” Evidently he is mentioned in the Cheese-Fare Saturday Service to all who have labored in fasting, although I don’t know if it’s possible to assume that the one Callistus mentioned in the Canon on that day is he or not.

At any rate, there seems to be no difficulty in including St. Callistus among the Saints of the West. St. Hippolytus (and Tertullian too, in whose writings is contained just about all that is known about the Saint) was evidently exaggerating about his teaching, and in any case his martyrdom numbered him among the Saints.

Please let us know anything more you discover about Western Saints and their relics. Pray for us.

With love in Christ,
Seraphim, monk