Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 7.djvu/410

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HIPPO


360


HIPPOLYTUS


from four universities. In 1885 he published "The Climate of Canada and its Relation to Health".

The Montreal MediculJoumal (March, 1907); The Canadian Messenger (.\pril, 1907).

James J. Walsh.

Hippo Diarrhytus (or Hippo Zarrhytus), a titu- lar .see of Northern Africa, now called Bizerta, origi- nally a Tyrian colony. The surname, Diarrhj^us, probably came from the canal that traversed the city. It was captured, fortified, and a new harbour opened by Agathocles (310-307 b. c); later it supported the mercenaries against Carthage, and became a Roman colony in the early days of the Empire. In 1535 of the Christian era it submitted to the protectorate of Spain, but soon cast this off; it was bombarded by the French in 1770, and by the Venetians in 1785. Since its occupation by the French (1S82) Bizerta (in Arabic Ben-Zert, a corruption of Hippo Zarrhytus) has been the chief town of an administrative district. Of its 18,000 inhabitants, 2600 are French, and 0000 Italians. Bizerta has important fortifications, pos- sesses a good trade, and its fisheries are famous. The canal is wide enough to allow men-of-war to enter the lake (the Sisara Lacus of the ancients). St. Restituta, a martyr under Dioeletianj was born there; her feast is kept on 17 May. St. Augustine often preached at Hippo Diarrhytus in the Florentia, Margarita, and St. Quadratus basilicas. The names of six of its bishops, between 255 and 646, are known; the first of them, Petrus, is, in some documents, styled a martyr.

Smith, Diet, of Or. and Horn. Geog., s. v.; Gams, Series Epis- coporum (Ratisbon, lS75t; Toulotte, Geographie de I'Afrique chritienne proconsutaire (Rennes, 1892),

S. PetridI;8.

Hippo Regius, a titular see of Numidia, now a part of the residential see of Constantine (q. v.). Hippo was a Tyrian colony on the west coast of the bay to which it gave its name (Ilipponensis Sinus) ; the surname Regius was bestowed on it as one of the places where the Numidian kings resided. Later it became a Roman colonia and prospered until a.d. 430, when it was taken by the Vandals. The Arabs rebuilt the town in the seventh century. It contains some ancient ruins, a hospital built by the Little Sisters of the Poor, and a fine basilica dedicated to St. Aa^ustine. About two miles distant the Arabs in the eleventh centui-y established the town of Beleb-el-Anab, which the Spaniards occupied for some years in the sixteenth century, as the French did later, in the reign of Louis XIV. France took this town again in 1S32. It is now called Bone or Bona, and is one of the govern- ment centres for the department of Constantine in Algeria. It has 37,000 inhabitants, of whom 15,700 are French, 10,500 foreigners, mostly Italians, 9,400 Mussulmans, and 1400 naturalized Jews. The situa- tion of the town is very pleasing, the climate agreeable in winter, but humid in summer. Its trade is good, and the harbour .serves as an export .station for all the rich inland country. We know seven bishops of Hippo, among them Sts. Theogenes and Fidentius. martyrs, St. Leontius Valerius, who ordained St. Augustine, and the great " Doctor of Grace", Augus- tine himself (305-28 August, 430). Under St. Augvistine there were at least three monasteries in the tliocese besides the episcopal monastery. Three coimcils were held at Hippo (393, 395, 426).

Smith, Diet, of Greek and Roman Geog., 5. v.; Gams, Series Episcoporum (Ratisbon, 1873).

S. P^TRIDfcs.

Hippolytus, Saints, Martyrs. — I. Hippolytus op Rome, presbyter and antipope, date of birth un- known; d. about 236. LTntil the publication in 1851 of the recently discovered "Philosophumena ", it was impossible to obtain any definite authentic facts


concerning Hippolytus of Rome and his life from the conflicting statements about him, as fol- lows: (1) Eusebius says that he was bishop of a church somewhere and enumerates several of his writings (Hist, eccl., VI, xx, 22). (2) St. Jerome likewise describes him as the bishop of an unknown see, gives a longer list of his writings, and sa3's of one of his homilies that he delivered it in the presence of Origen, to whom he made direct reference (De viris illustrilnis, cap. bii). (3) The Chronography of 354, in the list of popes, mentions Bishop Pontianus and the presbi.'ier Hippolytus as being banished to the island of Sardinia in the year 235; the Roman Cal- endar in the same collection records under 13 August the feast of Hippolytus on the Via Tiburtina and Pontianus in the catacomb of Callistus (ed. Momm- sen in "Mon. Germ. Hist.: auctorcs antiquissimi ", IX, 72, 74). (4) According to the inscription over the grave of Hippolytus composed by Pope Damasus, he was a follower of the Novatian schism while a presbyter, but before his death exhorted his followers to become reconciled with the Catholic Church (Ihm, "Damasiepigrammata", Leipzig, 1895, 42, n. 37). (5) Prudentius wrote a hjTnn on the martyr Hippolytus (" Peristephanon ", hymn XI, in P. L., LX, 530 sqq.), in which he places the scene of the martjTdom at Ostia or Porto, and describes Hippolytus as being torn to pieces by wild horses, evidently a reminiscence of the ancient Hippolytus, son of Theseus. (6) Later Greek authors (e. g. Georgius Syncellus., ed. Bonn, 1829, 674 sqq.; Nicephorus Callistus, " Hist, eccl.", IV, xxxi) do not give much more information than Eu- sebius and Jerome; some of them call him Bishop of Rome, others Bishop of Porto. According to Photius (Bibliotheca, codex 121), he w'as a disciple of St. Irenseus. Oriental writers, as well as Pope Gelasius, place the See of Hippolytus at Bostra, the chief city of the Arabs. (7) Several later legends of martyrs speak of Hippolytus in various connexions. That of St. Laurence refers to him as the officer appointed to guard the blessed deacon, who was converted, together with his entire household, and killed by wild horses (Acta SS., August, III, 13-14; Surius, "De probatis Sanctorum historiis", IV, Cologne, 1573, 581 sqq.). A legend of Porto identifies him with the martyr Nonnus and gives an account of his martyr- dom with others of the same city (Acta SS., August, IV, 506; P. G., X, .545-18). (S) A monument of impor- tance is the large fragment of a marlile statue of the saint discovered in 1551 which untlcrwcnt restoration (the upper part of the body and the head being new), and is now preserved in the Lateran museum; the paschal cycle computed liy Hippolytus and a list of his writings are engraved on the sides of the chair on which the figvire of Hippolytus is seated; the monii- ment dates from the third centurj' (Kraus, "Realen- cyklopiidie der christlichen Altertiimer ", I, 661 sqq.). (9) The topographies of the graves of the Roman mar- tyrs place the grave of Hijipolytus in the cemeterj' on the Via Tiburtina named after him, mention the basilica erected there, and give some legendary de- tails concerning him. (De Rossi, "Roma sotter- ranea", I, 178-79); the burial vault of the sainted confessor was unearthed by De Ro.ssi (Bullettino di archeologia cristiana, 1882, 9-76). The discovery of the "Philosophumena" has now made it possible to clear up the most important period of the life of St. Hippolytus through his O'mi evidence, and at the same time to test and correct the conflicting accounts contained in the old authorities. We proceed on the assumption that Hippolytus was really the author of the aforesaid work, an hypothesis almost universally accepted by investigators to-day.

Hippolytus was a presbyter of the Church of Rome at the beginning of the third century. There is no difficulty in admitting that he could have been a disciple of St. Irenxus either in Rome or Lyons. It is