[3] Two prominent sources exist for Urban's pontificate: Eusebius's history of the early Church and an inscription in the Coemeterium Callisti that names the Pope.

[1] It is believed that the schismatic Hippolytus was still leading a rival Christian congregation in Rome and that he published the Philosophumena, an attack on Urban's predecessor, Callixtus I.

[1] Due to the relative freedoms the Christian community had during Severus's reign, the Church in Rome grew, which led to the belief that Urban was a skilled converter.

However, when excavating the Catacomb of Callixtus Italian archaeologist Giovanni de Rossi uncovered the lid of a sarcophagus which suggested that Urban was in fact buried there.

As no contemporary accounts of Urban's pontificate exist there have been many legends and acts attributed to him which are fictitious or difficult to ascertain the factual nature of.

A further belief, now known as an invention from the 6th century, was that Urban had ordered the making of silver liturgical vessels and the patens for twenty-five titular churches of his own time.