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Novatian

Novatian

200 CE–258 CE · Rome

A learned Roman presbyter and theologian (c. 200–258); his On the Trinity is an early Latin statement of trinitarian orthodoxy and the first major theological work composed in Latin at Rome. After Bishop Fabian's martyrdom he led the Roman clergy through the Decian crisis, but when Cornelius was elected pope (251) Novatian accepted consecration as a rival bishop, founding the rigorist Novatianist schism that refused re-admission to the lapsed. He is reported to have died a martyr under Valerian c. 258, an inscription reading "Novatiano Beatissimo Martyri" discovered in a catacomb near the Via Tiburtina in 1932 lending support to this tradition, though scholars debate whether the inscription commemorates the antipope or a different martyr of the same name.

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Stop 1 of 1200–258Birthplace, Ministry, Martyrdom

RomeרומאItaly

What they did here

All securely attested events of Novatian's life — clinical baptism during illness (per Cornelius's letter to Fabius of Antioch), ordination as presbyter, theological writing, rival episcopal consecration by three Italian bishops (251), and death under Valerian (c. 258) — took place in Rome; a 1932 catacomb inscription on the Via Tiburtina records a Novatian as martyr, though identification with the antipope is disputed by some scholars.

Rome in this era

Governed by the Roman emperors from the Antonines through the Tetrarchy, Rome housed a bishop's see of growing prestige, was the scene of periodic persecutions, and saw theologians such as Justin Martyr debate and die for the faith in the second century.

About Rome

Rome, on the Tiber in central Italy, grew from an Iron Age settlement into the capital of the Roman Republic and then of an empire that by the 1st century CE ruled the whole Mediterranean. Its Jewish community, attested from the 2nd century BCE, is among the oldest in Europe. Christian tradition holds that the apostles Peter and Paul died there, and the city became the seat of the popes. After the Western Empire ended in 476 it passed to Gothic kings, to Byzantium and then to papal rule as capital of the Papal States, until it became the capital of unified Italy in 1871. Vatican City, independent since 1929, lies within it.

In Rome at the same time

Julius Africanus, Hippolytus, Origen, Sabellius, Pope St. Sixtus II, Pope St. Stephen I

Across the traditions, in Rome at the same time

See other sages who lived in Rome→

In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Novatian’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

Across the traditions

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Novatian’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Works(2)