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Kalista: Roman o prvim kršćanima
John Henry Newman (1801.−1890.), obraćenik, kardinal i pisac, jedan od najvećih kršćanskih velikana, u ovome briljantnu romanu živopisno i poticajno opisuje život prvih kršćana u Rimskome Carstvu.
Radnja se romana odvija sredinom 3. stoljeća u sjevernoafričkoj rimskoj provinciji, u gradu Siki, gdje su kršćani trpjeli velike progone. Neizvjesna sudbina kršćanske zajednice te ljubav lijepe grčke poganke Kaliste i kršćanskoga mladića Agelija isplele su prekrasnu i uzbudljivu pripovijest o važnosti osobnoga svjedočenja i dramatičnosti životnih izbora.
Newman tako kroz svoje likove progovara o sumnjama i preispitivanjima o životu, Bogu i ljudima, istodobno naglašavajući snagu obraćenja koje čovjeka mijenja iz temelja i koje osmišljava njegov život.
Radnja se romana odvija sredinom 3. stoljeća u sjevernoafričkoj rimskoj provinciji, u gradu Siki, gdje su kršćani trpjeli velike progone. Neizvjesna sudbina kršćanske zajednice te ljubav lijepe grčke poganke Kaliste i kršćanskoga mladića Agelija isplele su prekrasnu i uzbudljivu pripovijest o važnosti osobnoga svjedočenja i dramatičnosti životnih izbora.
Newman tako kroz svoje likove progovara o sumnjama i preispitivanjima o životu, Bogu i ljudima, istodobno naglašavajući snagu obraćenja koje čovjeka mijenja iz temelja i koje osmišljava njegov život.
312 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1855
51 people are currently reading
291 people want to read
About the author
John Henry Newman
2,022 books286 followersSaint John Henry Cardinal Newman was an important figure in the religious history of England in the 19th century. He was known nationally by the mid-1830s.
Originally an evangelical Oxford University academic and priest in the Church of England, Newman then became drawn to the high-church tradition of Anglicanism. He became known as a leader of, and an able polemicist for, the Oxford Movement, an influential and controversial grouping of Anglicans who wished to return to the Church of England many Catholic beliefs and liturgical rituals from before the English Reformation. In this the movement had some success. However, in 1845 Newman, joined by some but not all of his followers, left the Church of England and his teaching post at Oxford University and was received into the Catholic Church. He was quickly ordained as a priest and continued as an influential religious leader, based in Birmingham. In 1879, he was created a cardinal by Pope Leo XIII in recognition of his services to the cause of the Catholic Church in England. He was instrumental in the founding of the Catholic University of Ireland, which evolved into University College Dublin, today the largest university in Ireland.
Newman was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI on 19 September 2010 during his visit to the United Kingdom. He was then canonised by Pope Francis on 13 October 2019.
Newman was also a literary figure of note: his major writings including the Tracts for the Times (1833–1841), his autobiography Apologia Pro Vita Sua (1865–66), the Grammar of Assent (1870), and the poem The Dream of Gerontius (1865),[6] which was set to music in 1900 by Edward Elgar. He wrote the popular hymns "Lead, Kindly Light" and "Praise to the Holiest in the Height" (taken from Gerontius).
Originally an evangelical Oxford University academic and priest in the Church of England, Newman then became drawn to the high-church tradition of Anglicanism. He became known as a leader of, and an able polemicist for, the Oxford Movement, an influential and controversial grouping of Anglicans who wished to return to the Church of England many Catholic beliefs and liturgical rituals from before the English Reformation. In this the movement had some success. However, in 1845 Newman, joined by some but not all of his followers, left the Church of England and his teaching post at Oxford University and was received into the Catholic Church. He was quickly ordained as a priest and continued as an influential religious leader, based in Birmingham. In 1879, he was created a cardinal by Pope Leo XIII in recognition of his services to the cause of the Catholic Church in England. He was instrumental in the founding of the Catholic University of Ireland, which evolved into University College Dublin, today the largest university in Ireland.
Newman was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI on 19 September 2010 during his visit to the United Kingdom. He was then canonised by Pope Francis on 13 October 2019.
Newman was also a literary figure of note: his major writings including the Tracts for the Times (1833–1841), his autobiography Apologia Pro Vita Sua (1865–66), the Grammar of Assent (1870), and the poem The Dream of Gerontius (1865),[6] which was set to music in 1900 by Edward Elgar. He wrote the popular hymns "Lead, Kindly Light" and "Praise to the Holiest in the Height" (taken from Gerontius).
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 21, 2020
3.5 stars rounded up because there were some things I just didn't get. The free Kindle edition didn't have translations of Latin phrases that I didn't know. There were spots where the narration went on too long and I felt like I was getting a history lesson rather than a story and in some instances Newman shifted to a 2nd person POV: "It is doubtless very strange to the reader..." There were some really great scenes, characters, and dialogue, though.
December 26, 2022
Although not a great novel, Callista nevertheless describes a great story that brings together, sometimes almost in documentary fashion, Newman's knowledge of the history of the early church and his religious philosophy. The heroine of the title feels a little underdeveloped; by contrast, the spiritual strength and personality of the priest Caecilius is portrayed utterly convincingly and is at the heart of the novel's dramatic conversions.
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June 18, 2013Reviewed by Victoria Clarizio on CatholicFiction.net
“He knelt down and took the pyx from his bosom. He had eaten nothing that day; but even if otherwise, it was a crisis which allowed him to consume the sacred species without fasting. He hastily opened the golden case, adored the blessed sacrament, and consumed it, purifying its receptacle, and restoring it to its hiding-place. Then he rose at once and left the cottage.”
In third century Rome and its colonies, Catholics had to protect their new faith at all costs – especially the source and summit of that faith – the Eucharist. Yet, the scene described here, in which Cæcilius, Bishop of Carthage, is about to be overtaken by a pagan mob, is the exception in a world otherwise the ruled by apostasy.
Read more: http://catholicfiction.net/book-revie...
“He knelt down and took the pyx from his bosom. He had eaten nothing that day; but even if otherwise, it was a crisis which allowed him to consume the sacred species without fasting. He hastily opened the golden case, adored the blessed sacrament, and consumed it, purifying its receptacle, and restoring it to its hiding-place. Then he rose at once and left the cottage.”
In third century Rome and its colonies, Catholics had to protect their new faith at all costs – especially the source and summit of that faith – the Eucharist. Yet, the scene described here, in which Cæcilius, Bishop of Carthage, is about to be overtaken by a pagan mob, is the exception in a world otherwise the ruled by apostasy.
Read more: http://catholicfiction.net/book-revie...
January 8, 2016
Terrific and absorbing story from the third century AD. This was a time when Christians were either forced to sacrifice to the Roman gods or face torture/martyrdom. It was also a time when the church grew despite the hardships. Face forward to today when Christians in the West willingly sacrifice to gods of power, privilege and prestige and in the Middle East and parts of Africa, if Christians do not accept the religion of peace -they are sold into slavery, tortured and possibly beheaded. Of course this is looked on by modern secularists as somewhat acceptable. There are false gods everywhere and confusion reigns -even in the highest position in the Catholic Church. I wonder what Cardinal Newman would think of all this. There are wonderful passages about conversion in this gem.
March 2, 2019
In all respects Newman's fiction is Joris-Karl Huysmans's fiction for the poor man. The same themes are dealt with more beautifully, powerfully, and inventively and with less kitschy, delirious, saccharine sentimentality in Huysmans's 'Against the Grain,' 'The Damned' and 'The Cathedral.'
November 7, 2025
I am on a mission to read novels by famous Catholic authors. Why not John Henry Newman, a convert from Anglicanism, and now a Saint and a Doctor of the Church! He was a prolific writer and preacher, and a gifted novelist. I enjoy history, and so plunged into Callista, as it is a tale of the early Christians under the persecution of the Emperor Decius. I will admit this was difficult reading for me at first. Well, it was written in the 1850's by a former student of Oxford. Once I got into the rhythm of the language, I was able to get involved in the story, and marvel at his use of language. there were quite a few words that I was not familiar with, and I love classic books. I'm glad I read it, and I would really like to get a good biography of this gifted man and saint.
May 17, 2020
An unusual view of how things were for the early Christians, when they were the ones considered to be the pagans. And yet, the views of the ordinary Roman or Greek are in some respects similar to the non-Christian of today.
January 8, 2019
Tako je jedna Grkinja dosla u Afriku ukrasavati poganska svetista, sluziti uzurpacijama Zloga i ojacati davnasnje veze sto covjeka zarobljavaju grijehom; iznenada je pronasla spasenje.
July 12, 2019
Excellent history, both church & secular.
March 23, 2023
A book from yesteryear in style and content. Probably not read much today. I stumbled across it. Seeking out martyrdom isn’t very popular today, and dying for one’s faith isn’t done much anymore.
February 28, 2021
I was disappointed by this book and probably would rate it lower but for the lovely, very 19th-century-style flowing descriptions of early Christian-era North Africa. Probably the most obvious problem was the utter lack of genuine character development; characters enter the scene underbaked and never really seem to grow and come to life on the page, which made the experience of reading this book tedious though the premise was interesting to me. The other glaring problem was that though this is a novel about Christianity and the finding of Christianity amid a pagan world, the story lacked joy, and this is problematic because Christianity is overwhelmingly joyful. The situations of these characters felt dreary and despondent instead, even (especially?) at the conclusion when a heroic martyrdom takes place.
August 29, 2012
Probablemente éste sea una de las mejores novelas históricas que retratan la época de los mártires. Personalmente no había leído nada tan bello e interesante desde "Quo Vadis?"
Y lo es ante todo por el curioso estilo del autor y porque fácilmente se puede extrapolar la novela al tiempo en que vivió el autor. Como tiendo al respeto y la tolerancia de todas las religiones, me llama la atención que Newman equipare el mundo pagano con el anglicano de sus tiempos y el mundo cristiano con el mundo católico de sus tiempos. ¿Todos son cristianos, no? Pero está claro que ésa no era la percepción de su época y que su conversión se debe a las diferencias abismales que él debía de ver entre anglicanismo y catolicismo.
Entrando en la novela, aunque se muestra claramente más respetuoso con el mundo antiguo pagano que otros escritores del tema, fácilmente tendentes al maniqueísmo pro-cristiano, adolece también de ver deteriorado el mundo pagano y su religión como un ritualismo vacío; que algo de verdad histórica hay en ello, pero que claramente denota su postura. Eso sí, es mucho más realista con las comunidades cristianas de la época que otros autores, que tienden a ver el período como una Arcadia dorada y feliz en la que viven los cristianos hasta que vienen los paganos malvados a perseguirles. La tibieza, dejadez, mediocridad y abandono de las comunidades cristianas de la época son fielmente retratadas por Newman y eso hay que reconocérselo.
El proceso de conversión, juicio y martirio de Calixta es un relato bellísimo, poético e inspirador. Aunque nuevamente omite episodios reales como la vida misma que todo autor piadoso se resiste a admitir en el mundo del martirio: las violaciones, los detalles fieles de la tortura y el horror de la muerte pública y vergonzosa. Está claro que Newman no tiene el menor interés en los detalles mencionados y que se centra en la conversión y ascenso del alma de Calixta; pero sinceramente, ver la candidez e ingenuidad con que la mártir pasa su calvario y muere en el potro hace creer que ha comprado muy barato su corona de gloria -como decía Santa Teresa-. En realidad, el martirio es algo más cruento y real; y la ñoñería con que el autor omite los dolores del tormento y la muerte tan rápida de una mártir que es puesta en el potro vestida sólo se explica porque es una novela del s.XIX.
Por lo demás, brillante como producto de su época, sólo cansino en cuanto a demasiado detalladas descripciones geográficas, Calixta es una hermosa novela que vale la pena leer si eres aficionado a novelas históricas de la antigua Roma y sobretodo de la Antigua Cristiandad, como es Quo Vadis? o Fabiola.
Y lo es ante todo por el curioso estilo del autor y porque fácilmente se puede extrapolar la novela al tiempo en que vivió el autor. Como tiendo al respeto y la tolerancia de todas las religiones, me llama la atención que Newman equipare el mundo pagano con el anglicano de sus tiempos y el mundo cristiano con el mundo católico de sus tiempos. ¿Todos son cristianos, no? Pero está claro que ésa no era la percepción de su época y que su conversión se debe a las diferencias abismales que él debía de ver entre anglicanismo y catolicismo.
Entrando en la novela, aunque se muestra claramente más respetuoso con el mundo antiguo pagano que otros escritores del tema, fácilmente tendentes al maniqueísmo pro-cristiano, adolece también de ver deteriorado el mundo pagano y su religión como un ritualismo vacío; que algo de verdad histórica hay en ello, pero que claramente denota su postura. Eso sí, es mucho más realista con las comunidades cristianas de la época que otros autores, que tienden a ver el período como una Arcadia dorada y feliz en la que viven los cristianos hasta que vienen los paganos malvados a perseguirles. La tibieza, dejadez, mediocridad y abandono de las comunidades cristianas de la época son fielmente retratadas por Newman y eso hay que reconocérselo.
El proceso de conversión, juicio y martirio de Calixta es un relato bellísimo, poético e inspirador. Aunque nuevamente omite episodios reales como la vida misma que todo autor piadoso se resiste a admitir en el mundo del martirio: las violaciones, los detalles fieles de la tortura y el horror de la muerte pública y vergonzosa. Está claro que Newman no tiene el menor interés en los detalles mencionados y que se centra en la conversión y ascenso del alma de Calixta; pero sinceramente, ver la candidez e ingenuidad con que la mártir pasa su calvario y muere en el potro hace creer que ha comprado muy barato su corona de gloria -como decía Santa Teresa-. En realidad, el martirio es algo más cruento y real; y la ñoñería con que el autor omite los dolores del tormento y la muerte tan rápida de una mártir que es puesta en el potro vestida sólo se explica porque es una novela del s.XIX.
Por lo demás, brillante como producto de su época, sólo cansino en cuanto a demasiado detalladas descripciones geográficas, Calixta es una hermosa novela que vale la pena leer si eres aficionado a novelas históricas de la antigua Roma y sobretodo de la Antigua Cristiandad, como es Quo Vadis? o Fabiola.
July 28, 2016
Well, after starting this book three different times, I finally made it through. This isn't my normal subject matter: I read it solely because of the title, as it is one of the earliest recorded uses of this name.
Presuming it is roughly historically accurate in the setting and feel of the time, it is a fairly interesting look into what it was like for early Christians. However, the plot is obviously constructed as some sort of morality lesson, or example for "good Christians" to follow. The main characters, to me, don't act like real people would at all - with the possible exception of Juccundus, who is the one anti-Christian. The author's heavy-handedness on what is right in his eyes becomes almost laughably hysterical at times. He professes how evil and abominable the Roman gods and worship are, then goes on to describe idols and rites in gory detail - almost wallowing in it. He supposedly wants to show the power of the one God of Christianity, but then has an evil witch cast a very effective spell against one of the main characters. However, I will say that it was only because of finding the situations so amusing that I managed to make it through what is rather dry and preachy writing.
Overall, if you have a specific reason to read this book, it's tolerable. But if you are not interested in some aspect of the subject matter, don't bother.
Presuming it is roughly historically accurate in the setting and feel of the time, it is a fairly interesting look into what it was like for early Christians. However, the plot is obviously constructed as some sort of morality lesson, or example for "good Christians" to follow. The main characters, to me, don't act like real people would at all - with the possible exception of Juccundus, who is the one anti-Christian. The author's heavy-handedness on what is right in his eyes becomes almost laughably hysterical at times. He professes how evil and abominable the Roman gods and worship are, then goes on to describe idols and rites in gory detail - almost wallowing in it. He supposedly wants to show the power of the one God of Christianity, but then has an evil witch cast a very effective spell against one of the main characters. However, I will say that it was only because of finding the situations so amusing that I managed to make it through what is rather dry and preachy writing.
Overall, if you have a specific reason to read this book, it's tolerable. But if you are not interested in some aspect of the subject matter, don't bother.
November 8, 2012
Newman's scholarship, wit, and understanding of the human condition shine through in this book. It's a bit heavy-handed in parts, especially with respect to "extra ecclesiam [Romam!] nulla salus", which is one of the central themes. However, if you can get past that, a faithful Christian will greatly enjoy this novel.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews