Pius is believed to have been born at Aquileia, in Northern Italy, during the late 1st century. His father was called “Rufinus”, who was also said to be of Aquileia according to the Liber Pontificalis.
It is stated in the 2nd century Muratorian Canon, and in the Liberian Catalogue, that he was the brother of Hermas, author of the text known as The Shepherd of Hermas. The writer of the later text identifies himself as a former slave. This has led to speculation that both Hermas and Pius were freedmen.
St Pius I governed the Church in the middle of the 2nd century during the reigns of the Emperors Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He was the ninth successor of Saint Peter. He decreed that Easter should only be kept on a Sunday. Although being credited with ordering the publication of the Liber Pontificalis, compilation of that document was not started before the beginning of the 6th century. He is said to have built one of the oldest churches in Rome, Santa Pudenziana.
St Pius I endured many hardships during his reign. The fact that Saint Justin taught Christian doctrine in Rome during the pontificate of St Pius I and that the heretics Valentinus, Cerdon, and Marcion visited Rome at the same time, is an argument for the primacy of the Roman See during the 2nd century. Pope Pius I opposed the Valentinians and Gnostics under Marcion, whom he excommunicated.
There is some conjecture that he was a martyr in Rome, a conjecture that entered earlier editions of the Breviary. The study that had produced the 1969 revision of the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints stated that there were no grounds for his consideration as a martyr, and he is not presented as such in the Roman Martyrology.
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