August 13th.  SS. Pontian & Hippolytus. 

Pontian was Pope from 230 to 235.  He was exiled to Sardinia and died a martyr there.  In Sardinia one of his companions was Hippolytus.  Hippolytus had actually been an opponent of the Roman church, accusing the Popes SS. Callistus and Zephyrinus of excessive laxity in dealing with heretics.  He was reconciled, however, by Pontian, before being martyred like him. Under Pope St. Fabian (236-250) their bodies were brought to Rome.  The cult of Hippolytus is associated with horses, probably because his name means ‘Loosed Horse’.  He was, maybe for that reason, held to have been dragged to his death by wild horses.  In Hertfordshire there is a place, Ippollits, dedicated to him, where in medieval times sick horses were brought into the church to be prayed over.  It was only at the counter-Reformation that the role of Hippolytus as a Church writer was rediscovered and properly emphasised.  Included in his writings are various liturgical texts (actual or model), one of which, a Canon of the Mass, is the basis for the present Eucharistic Prayer No. 2 of the revised Roman Rite.