Introduction
Pope Hyginus (died c. 142) was the Bishop of Rome from c. 138 to c. 142. Tradition holds that during his papacy he determined the various prerogatives of the clergy and defined the grades of the ecclesiastical hierarchy.
He also decreed that all churches be consecrated. He is said to have died a martyr under the persecution of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, though no records verify this. The chronology of the early bishops of Rome cannot be determined with any degree of exactitude today.
History
According to the Liber Pontificalis, Hyginus was a Greek by birth. Irenaeus says that the Gnostic Valentinus came to Rome in Hyginus's time, remaining there until Anicetus became pontiff (Against Heresies, III, iii). Cerdo, another Gnostic and predecessor of Marcion, also lived at Rome in the reign of Hyginus; by confessing his errors and recanting, he succeeded in obtaining readmission into the Church but eventually fell back into the heresies and was expelled from the Church. How many of these events took place during the time of Hyginus is not known.
The Liber Pontificalis also relates that this pope organized the hierarchy and established the order of ecclesiastical precedence (Hic clerum composuit et distribuit gradus). This general observation recurs also in the biography of Pope Hormisdas, but has no historical value. According to Louis Duchesne, the writer probably referred to the lower orders of the clergy.
The ancient sources contain no information as to his having died a martyr. At his death he was buried on the Vatican Hill, near the tomb of St. Peter. His feast is celebrated on 11 January.
Three letters attributed to him have survived.