Commontide
Liturgical Color: Red
The 3rd Sunday of Epiphany
Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Epiphany
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who took on our mortal flesh to reveal his glory; that he might bring us out of darkness and into his own glorious light.
Most liturgical texts are from the Book of Common Prayer (2019) of the Anglican Church in North America.
The New Coverdale Psalter, © 2019 by the Anglican Church in North America. Used by permission.
Bishop of Rome and Martyr
Ecumenical Commemoration
Fabian was bishop of Rome from 236 until his death in 250, at the opening of the persecution under the emperor Decius. He was a countryman with no standing in the city when he was elected, and the church remembered the election as astonishing. He ordered the work of the Roman deacons, the keeping of the martyrs' records, and the care of the cemeteries. He was buried in the cemetery of Callistus on the Via Appia, and his epitaph there names him bishop and martyr.
Fabian became Bishop of Rome around 236 and served for fourteen years during a period of relative peace for the Church. He oversaw the organization of Rome's catacomb burials, systematized charitable works among the clergy and widows, and maintained ecclesiastical order during the relative stability of the later Severan dynasty. When the Emperor Decius (249–251) issued an edict requiring all subjects to participate in pagan sacrifice and obtain certificates of compliance, Fabian became a marked target.
According to the Depositio Martyrum (354), a contemporary Roman martyrology compiled from official records, Fabian was arrested in 250 and executed by the sword (the traditional Roman method for citizens). Eusebius of Caesarea (Ecclesiastical History VI.29, 39) provides the principal patristic account, noting that Fabian died at the beginning of the Decian persecution and earned distinction among martyrs. Cyprian, writing from Carthage in his Letter 9, explicitly mentions Fabian's martyrdom with evident admiration, describing him as a model of episcopal steadfastness.
Fabian's short pontificate ended under extraordinary circumstances: he was among the first major ecclesiastical figures to fall to the persecution. His status as a bishop gave him prominence within the Church and made him an obvious target for imperial authority seeking to decapitate Christian leadership. The Decian persecution would eventually claim tens of thousands of Christians and forced the Church to grapple with the theological and pastoral question of how to treat those who had lapsed during the crisis.
Traditionally, Fabian was buried in the Catacomb of Callixtus, where his tomb was venerated. Later hagiography embellished his death with supernatural elements (light appearing at his grave, miraculous healings), but the core historical account is reliable.