The Seventh Day of Christmas: Sylvester

Happy seventh day of Christmas! Today the Church celebrates the memorial of Saint Sylvester I, pope and confessor.

He was born in the southern Italian town of Sant’Angelo a Scala to two Roman citizens, Rufinus and Justa. He was ordained by Pope Saint Marcellinus just before the persecutions of Diocletian got underway. He survived those years of terror and saw the triumph of Constantine in the year 312. Two years later he succeeded Saint Melchiades as Pope.

Christianity was legal at last, and it was during Saint Sylvester’s Pontificate that the great basilicas founded at Rome by Constantine were built — St. John Lateran, Santa Croce, and the old St. Peter’s in the Vatican.

Among other achievements, he convoked the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea. He did not himself attend the council, but he was represented by two legates, Vitus and Vincentius, and he approved the council’s decrees.

Saint Sylvester established the Roman school of chant and music, and he is responsible for the first Roman Martyrology. He died on 31 December 335 and is buried in the Catacomb of Priscilla in Rome.

Come, O Lord, to the help of your people,
sustained by the intercession of Pope Saint Sylvester,
so that, running the course of this present life under
your guidance,
we may happily attain life without end.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Amen.