(251-253) Martyr, born Rome; died Centumcellæ (Civita Vecchia). He had scarcely been elected when Novatian set himself up as antipope. Cornelius gathered sixty bishops at a synod in Italy and established himself as the legitimate pontiff. Through Saint Cyprian and Saint Dionysius he gained the support of Africa and the East. As pope he sanctioned Saint Cyprian's mild measures for receiving again into communion those who had apostatized in the Decian persecution, and his correspondence with the saint remains as evidence of the primacy of the chair of Peter. Feast, Roman Calendar, September 14,.