January 20 — the day of Joe Biden’s inauguration — is also the feast day of Pope St. Fabian, a pope who was chosen, not by an election, but by a dove descending upon him as a sign of God’s favor.
Fabian wasn’t even a cleric at the time; he was a farmer who came to Rome to witness the selection of a new pontiff, and happened to be there when the bishops asked God to make clear who He wanted to lead His Church.
When a symbol of the Holy Spirit immediately descended upon this rustic layman, I guess they took it seriously, and, according the record, they were right to do so: he administratively reformed the Church and also sent out the seven “apostles to the Gauls” as missionaries. Maybe, as a farmer, he appreciated the value of sowing a lot of seeds.
What’s also remarkable is that he came into a contentious Church which was divided between followers of the traditionalist antipope St Hippolytus and the followers of Pope Pontian, against whom Hippolytus had been in schism since the days of the progressive Pope St Callixtus. (Yes, there was a split between traditionalists and progressives, and, yes, there were Saints on both sides.)
Pontian, who had gone into captivity, had abdicated the papacy so that a new pontiff could be chosen; this was how Fabian ended up with the job. By the end of Fabian’s tenure as Pope, this nearly twenty-year-old tension between the two congregations had come to an end.
Despite his record on war and criminal justice — and accusations that he is a sexual predator — many progressives and leftists are celebrating the Biden inauguration as a return to normalcy. But you should always be cautious about a leader who makes you feel too comfortable.
What Fabian and the unusual story of his appointment to the Papal throne tells us is that both meaningful reform and the healing of deep divisions are possible, but only as a genuine grace from God, not by the efforts of our princes.
Pope St Fabian, pray for us and for our civil and ecclesiastical leaders.
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Image: Wikimedia Commons / PD-US
