Pope St. Cornelius (SAU 042)

St. Cornelius was a third-century pope who reluctantly ascended to the chair of St. Peter in the aftermath of the Decian persecutions. Decius had required verified public sacrifice to the Roman gods and for his--the Emperor’s--well-being of all inhabitants of the Empire except the Jews who were exempted. Some Christians went to their deaths rather than meet the requirement; others either fled or gave in to save their lives. As the persecution abated, the Church was confronted with a seriously divisive issue: Were the Christians who had lapsed to be forgiven or were they forever after to be excluded from fellowship and the sacraments? Novatian, a church leader who had been passed over for the papacy, argued for exclusion; Cornelius, with the backing of the Synod he called, for penance and forgiveness. + Here, St. Cornelius wears the three-tiered papal crown or triregnum and long red cope or ‘mantum’ lined in green over a bright blue tunic and white alb. He carries the papal cross with its three horizontal beams of decreasing length from bottom to top in his left hand. At one and the same time, the three bars represent the Holy Trinity and the World, the Church, and Heaven. In his right hand, he carries a battle or hunter’s horn, his principal attribute since the name “Cornelius” in Latin means “battle horn”. Because his horn resembled ear trumpets used by the hard of hearing, St. Cornelius came to be invoked by persons with ear ailments. In the arts--both fine and devotional, the iconography of this pope saint is remarkably consistent making him readily identifiable. + Persecutions resumed under Trebonius Gallus, the subsequent emperor, when plague broke out in Rome. Christians became scapegoats for the disaster. Pope St. Cornelius died in exile in 253 either from the rigours of his banishment or from decapitation. He is patron of epileptics, earache sufferers, and domestic animals. + Feast: September 16 + Image Credit (SAU 042): Figure extracted from an antique image of Pope Saint Cornelius from a late 19th-century devotional print in chromolithography, originally published by the Socièté de St. Augustin, Bruges, Belgium, from the designer’s private collection of religious ephemera.