Urban I

Urban I (?-May 23, 230) was the seventeenth pope of the Catholic Church from 222 to 230.

Elected pope the same year in which the last emperor of the Severus dynasty, Alejandro Severo, ascended the throne after the assassination of Heliogábalo, which allowed him a pontificate free of persecution and a time of boom of Christianity in Rome.

However, he had to face a serious problem that arose within the Church itself and that had originated during the pontificate of Calixtus I: the schism caused by Hippolytus of Rome who had proclaimed himself pope becoming the first antipope of the history of the Church.

Very little is known about the life of this pope and many of the works attributed to him lack historical foundation, such as the conversion and baptism of Saint Cecilia (patron saint of musicians), her husband Valeriano and Tiburcio on the Tiber River, and that he had a church built in the place where she was martyred and where the remains of the saint rest, as well as those of her predecessor, Pope Calixto I.

In Germany he is the patron saint of grape harvesters, and in the Middle Ages he was invoked in storms, against gout and against drunkenness.

He died a martyr on May 25, 230 when Emperor Alexander Severus ruled in Rome.