Chapelle Sixtine, Vatican
Saint Sixte II (257-258)
Ce pape naquit à Athènes. C’était un homme d’une
grande culture et d’une doctrine sans faille. Il travailla au rétablissement
serein et sans incidents graves des relations avec l’Église de Carthage. Ce fut
lui qui envoya à Reims les évêques Sixte
et Sinice.
Il fut décapité lors des persécutions organisées par
l’empereur Valérien.
Sixtus (Xystus) II, Pope M, and Companions MM (RM)
Died August 6, 258; feast day formerly on August 6. Pope Sixtus II was a Greek
philosopher who embraced the Christian faith, served as a deacon in Rome,
reached this pinnacle of the church's offices on August 30, 257, and lasted in
it no more than a year, suffering a brave martyr's death. His name is in the
canon of the Roman Mass.
Although Sixtus II was
convinced that anyone baptized by a heretic was truly baptized, he nevertheless
refused to excommunicate or otherwise punish those theologians who disagreed
with him. In his correspondence with Saint Dionysius of Alexandria and
Firmilian of Antioch, he upheld the Roman position of their validity.
Nevertheless, he resumed relations with Saint Cyprian and the churches Africa
and Asia Minor which had been ruptured by Pope Saint Stephen I, his
predecessor. In later centuries, the Church decreed that provided a heretic had
properly used the formulas of baptism, any person so baptized could not be held
to be outside the Christian faith. Why should a man who had embraced the faith
be considered a pagan simply because the one who performed the rite of baptism
was in error in his own beliefs?
In 253, Valerian, who had
the chief of the senate, was elected emperor. At first he was more favorably
disposed toward the Christians than any of the emperors before him had been,
except Philip; and his palace was full of Christians. Thus, the church enjoyed
three years and one-half years of peace. Valerian fell under the influence of
the Persian archmagician named Macrianus, who persuaded the emperor that the
Christians, as avowed enemies of magic and the gods, obstructed the effects of
the sacrifices, and the prosperity of his empire.
According to Saint Cyprian
who considered Sixtus an excellent prelate, Valerian had set forth his first
decree condemning Christianity in April 257. Shortly, Saint Stephen I was
martyred. This persecution lasted three and one-half years until he was taken
prisoner by the Persians. Valerian ordered that the farms and estates, the
honors and the goods, the freedom and even the lives of those who refused to
renounce their faith should be sacrificed. When the persecution intensified the
following year, Cyprian wrote to his fellow African bishops:
"Valerian has sent an
order to the senate to the effect that bishops, priests, and deacons should
forthwith die [even if they are willing to conform], but that senators, persons
of quality, and Roman knights should forfeit their honors, should have their
estates forfeited, and if they still refused to sacrifice, should lose their
heads; that matrons should have their goods seized, and be banished; that any
of Caesar's officers or domestics who already confessed the Christian faith, or
had should now confess it, should forfeit their estates to the exchequer, and
should be sent in chains to work in Caesar's farms. To this order the emperor
subjoined a copy of the letters which he hath dispatched to the presidents of
the several provinces concerning us; which letter I expect, and hope will soon
be brought hither.
"Sixtus suffered in a
cemetery on the sixth day of August, and with him four deacons. The Roman
officers are very keen on this persecution: the people brought before them are
certain to suffer and forfeit their estates. Please notify my colleagues of
these details so that our brothers may be ready everywhere for their great conflict,
that we all may think of immortality rather than death and derive joy rather
than fear from this confession, in which the soldiers of Christ, as we know,
are not so much killed as crowned."
The pope took refuge in the
catacombs of Praetextatus on the Appian Way. There he was discovered preaching
to his flock, seated in his chair. According to some accounts he was still
seated, when he was beheaded. Others say that he was taken away for examination
and returned to the scene for execution. It is certain that he was beheaded in
the cemetery. The Roman Martyrology that he was martyred with his deacons
(Felicissimus and Agapitus), subdeacons (Januarius, Magnus, Stephen, and
Vincent), and Quartus. (Quartus owes his existence to a bad transcript in which
"diaconus Quartus" (the deacon, Quartus) was written in place of the
original "diacones quattuor" (four deacons).) It is likely that
Sixtus suffered with all seven of the deacons of Rome, the six mentioned today,
and Saint Lawrence; the four may not have been subdeacons.
Their bodies were carried
across the Appian Way by their mourners, and placed in the cemetery of Saint
Callixtus. He was one of the most highly esteemed martyrs of the early Roman
church; however, the sayings of a pagan moralist, named Sextus, were wrongly
attributed to Sixtus in the middle ages (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley,
Delaney, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Husenbeth, White)
.
.
In art, Saint Sixtus is
shown holding a money-bag, with his deacon Saint Lawrence and Saint John the
Baptist. At times he may be depicted (1) ordaining Saint Lawrence [Fra
Angelico]; (2) giving Lawrence a bag of money to give to the poor; or (3) as he
is greeted by Lawrence on his way to martyrdom (Roeder).
St. Xystus, or Sixtus II., Pope and Martyr
HE was a Grecian by birth, deacon of the Roman Church
under St. Stephen, and upon his demise, in 257 was chosen pope, being the
twenty-fifth from St. Peter. St. Dionysius of Alexandria consulted him by three
letters on certain difficulties, and recommended to him to bear a little while
with the Africans and some among the Asiatics with regard to their error
concerning the validity of baptism given by heretics. Accordingly this pope
used towards them indulgence, contenting himself with strongly recommending the
truth to them; and his successors pursued the same conduct till that error was
condemned in the plenary council often mentioned by St. Austin. 1 St. Sixtus is
styled by St. Cyprian a peaceable and excellent prelate. Though some have
ascribed eight years to his pontificate, it is certain from all the
circumstances of his history, that he only sat one year. 2
Gallus, the successor of Decius in the empire, and a
persecutor of the Christians, being despised for his cowardice, was slain with
his son and colleague Volusius in 253, after having reigned eighteen months.
Æmilius then assumed the title of emperor; but was killed after he had reigned
four months, without having been acknowledged by the senate; and Valerianus, a
person of a noble family, and great reputation, who had been censor and chief
of the senate, was acknowledged emperor by the consent of the whole world. He
was at first more favourable to the Christians than any of the emperors before
him had been, not excepting the Philips; and his palace was full of religious
persons. By this means the church enjoyed peace during three years and a half:
which tranquillity afforded an opportunity of holding many councils; but in 257
Valerian raised the eighth, or, according to Sulpicius Severus, the ninth
general persecution, which continued three years and a half, till he was taken
prisoner by the Persians. The change wrought in this emperor is ascribed by
Eusebius to a motive of superstition, and to the artifices and persuasion of
one Macrianus, who was extremely addicted to the Persian sect of the Magians,
and to the black art. This man, whom St. Dionysius of Alexandria calls the
archmagian of Egypt, had worked himself into the highest favour with the
superstitious emperor, was raised by him to the first dignities of the state,
and persuaded him that the Christians by being avowed enemies to art magic, and
to the gods, obstruct the effects of the sacrifices, and the prosperity of his
empire. Valerian had reason to tremble for his own safety upon the pinnacle of
his honours; for some compute that only six, out of thirty emperors, who had
reigned from Augustus to his time, had escaped the violent hands of murderers;
but, by declaring himself an enemy to the servants of God, he dug a pit for his
own ruin. He published his first edict against them in April, 257, which was
followed by the martyrdom of Pope Stephen and many others.
The persecution grew much more fierce in the following
year, when Valerian marching into the East against the Persians, sent a new
rescript to the senate to be passed into a law, the tenour and effect of which
St. Cyprian notified to his fellow bishops in Africa as follows: 3—“Valerian has
sent an order to the senate, importing that bishops, priests, and deacons
should forthwith suffer,” (even although they should be willing to conform),
“but that senators, persons of quality, and Roman knights, should forfeit their
honours, should have their estates forfeited, and if they still refused to
sacrifice, should lose their heads: that matrons should have their goods
seized, and be banished: that any of Cæsar’s officers or domestics who had
already confessed the Christian faith, or should now confess it, should forfeit
their estates to the exchequer, and should be sent in chains to work in Cæsar’s
farms. 4 To this order
the emperor subjoined a copy of the letters which he hath despatched to the
presidents of the several provinces concerning us: which letter I expect, and
hope will soon be brought hither. You are to understand that Xystus (bishop of
Rome) suffered in a cemetery upon the 6th day of August, and with him Quartus.
The officers of Rome are very intent upon this persecution; and the persons who
are brought before them are sure to suffer and to forfeit their estates to the
exchequer. Pray notify these particulars to my colleagues, that so our brethren
may every where be prepared for their great conflict; that we may all think
rather of immortality than death, and derive more joy than fear or terror from
this confession, in which we know that the soldiers of Christ are not so
properly killed as crowned.”
St. Xystus suffered in a cemetery; for the
Christians, in the times of persecution, resorted to those subterraneous
caverns to celebrate the divine mysteries. Here they met, though Valerian had
forbidden them to hold assemblies, and here they were hunted out. Quartus must
have been a priest or deacon; otherwise he would not have suffered upon the
spot, but been first pressed by the rack to sacrifice. Some think this name
Quartus a slip of the copiers, and read this passage as follows: “with four
deacons;” 5 for, say these
authors, about that time four deacons suffered at Rome, Prætaxtatus,
Felicissimus, and Agapitus, with their bishop, as the Liberian and other
ancient Calendars testify; and Laurence, who suffered soon after him. This last
was his archdeacon, and seeing him led to execution, expostulated with him,
lamenting to be left behind. 6 “St. Sixtus
replied that he should follow him within three days, by a more glorious
triumph; himself being spared on account of his old age.” Those are mistaken
who say that St. Sixtus was crucified; for the Liberian Calendar assures us,
that he was beheaded in the cemetery of Calixtus, and the expression which St.
Cyprian uses signifies the same. St. Cyprian suffered in the September
following; and all the provinces of the empire were watered with the blood of
innumerable martyrs; 7 for though
Valerian’s first edicts regarded chiefly the clergy, they were soon extended to
the whole body of Christians; old and young, men, women, and children; and
great numbers of every condition, rich and poor, soldiers, husbandmen, slaves,
and even children, were put to cruel deaths, as Eusebius, 8 St. Cyprian, 9 and the ancient
Martyrologies testify.
Note 1. By this plenary
council, Launoy, Sirmond, and Albaspinæus understand the council of St. Xystus
suffered in a cemetery; for the Christians, in the times of persecution,
resorted to those subterraneous caverns to celebrate the divine mysteries. Here
they met, though Valerian had forbidden them to hold assemblies, and here they
were hunted out. Quartus must have been a priest or deacon; otherwise he would
not have suffered upon the spot, but been first pressed by the rack to
sacrifice. Some think this name Quartus a slip of the copiers, and read this
passage as follows: “with four deacons;” 5 for, say these authors, about that time four deacons
suffered at Rome, Prætaxtatus, Felicissimus, and Agapitus, with their bishop,
as the Liberian and other ancient Calendars testify; and Laurence, who suffered
soon after him. This last was his archdeacon, and seeing him led to execution,
expostulated with him, lamenting to be left behind. 6 “St. Sixtus replied that he should follow him within
three days, by a more glorious triumph; himself being spared on account of his
old age.” Those are mistaken who say that St. Sixtus was crucified; for the
Liberian Calendar assures us, that he was beheaded in the cemetery of Calixtus,
and the expression which St. Cyprian uses signifies the same. St. Cyprian
suffered in the September following; and all the provinces of the empire were
watered with the blood of innumerable martyrs; 7 for though Valerian’s first edicts regarded chiefly
the clergy, they were soon extended to the whole body of Christians; old and
young, men, women, and children; and great numbers of every condition, rich and
poor, soldiers, husbandmen, slaves, and even children, were put to cruel
deaths, as Eusebius, 8 St. Cyprian, 9 and the ancient Martyrologies testify.
Arles, assembled
out of all the West in 314; but Bellarmin, Natalia Alexander, &c. explain
it more probably of the council of Nice, because St. Austin calls it a plenary
council of the whole world. [back]
Note 4. It is well known in the Cæsarean law what sort of
servitude that was which the Adscriptitii Glebæ were under, they being slaves
employed in the meanest drudgery of tillage. [back]
Note 5. A mistake of the
contraction quartus for quatuor in an old MS. was very easy. This is the
conjecture of Baluze. “Xystum in cœmeterio animadversum sciatis, 8vo. Id. Aug. et cum
eo diaconos quatuor.” S. Cypr. loc. cit. ed. Baluz. [back]
Note 7. This fierce
persecution was continued during the last three years and a half of Valerian’s
reign. Most flourishing was the condition of his empire till he drew his sword
against those whose prayers were the protection of the state. They still prayed
for those who most unjustly persecuted them; but God revenged their cause, even
in this world. No sooner did this war break out against them, but the provinces
became on every side a prey to barbarians. Valerian marched first against the
Goths and Scythians, who poured in upon the empire from the north; but the
terrible devastations committed by the Persians in Cilicia, Cappadocia, and
other provinces of the east, called him on that side. Finding his affairs there
in a bad condition, he was for purchasing a peace for money of Sapor I. the son
of Artaxerxes, who having revolted with the Persians and slain Artabanus, the
last king of Parthia, had erected upon the ruins of that empire the second
Persian monarchy in 226. Sapor refused to treat with any other person but the
emperor himself, who imprudently ventured his person with but few attendants.
The barbarian caused him to be surrounded, and seized him prisoner, and as long
as Valerian lived, made use of him for a footstool or horseblock, making him
stoop, and setting his foot upon his neck whenever he mounted on horseback. He
led him everywhere about in triumph, loaded with chains, and clad in purple and
all the imperial ornaments. Valerian was taken in the seventh year of his
reign, the seventy-sixth of his age, of Christ 259, and he lived thus seven
years in captivity. Agathias says, that at length Sapor caused him to be flayed
alive, and rubbed over with salt; but this seems only to have been done after
his death, when the Persian had his skin pickled, died red, and hung up in a
temple to be afterwards shown to the Roman ambassadors whenever they should
come into Persia. The pagan Romans seemed little concerned at his misfortune,
or their own disgrace, and his unnatural son Gallien used no great efforts for
his liberty, though, after his death, he caused him to be enrolled among the
gods; and the heathen Romans had always regarded him as one of their best
emperors.
The Christians looked upon this catastrop he as an effect of divine
vengeance upon this unjust persecutor of the saints. Lactantius writes of it as
follows: “Not long after Decius Valerian was inflamed with the like rage, and
in a very little time he shed a great deal of the blood of the saints. But God
afflicted him with a new sort of judgment. He was taken prisoner by the
Persians, and not only lost the empire, but as he had robbed many others of
their liberty, so he lost his own at last, and fell under a most infamous
slavery; for, as often as king Sapor had occasion either to mount on horseback,
or to go into his chariot, he made the Roman emperor stoop down, that he might
make his back a step to get up. And whereas the Romans had made some
representations of the Persians being defeated by them, Sapor used to rally
Valerian, and to tell him, that the posture in which he lay, was a more real
proof to show on whose side the victory went, than all the pictures that the
Romans could make. Valerian, being thus led about in triumph, lived for some
time, so that the barbarians had in him occasion given for a great while to
treat the very name of a Roman with all possible indignity and scorn. And this
was the heightening of his misery, that though he had a son, upon whom the
empire had devolved by his misfortune, yet no care was taken by the son either
to rescue the father, or to revenge his ill usage. After he had ended his
infamous life, his skin was flayed off his body, and both it and his guts being
tinctured with a red colouring, they were hung up in one of the temples of the
Persian gods, to be a perpetual remembrance of so remarkable a triumph, by
which they might always put such Roman ambassadors as should be sent among them
in mind of it, and from so unusual a sight, warn them not to presume too much
upon their own strength, but to remember Valerian’s fall.”
Gallien, his son and successor, terrified by so dreadful an example
of the divine vengeance, as Orosius says, restored peace to the church. He led
a life of debauchery and supine indolence, whilst thirty tyrants in different
parts of the world assumed the purple, and were at war with one another.
Macrianus, the magician, by whose advice Valerian had persecuted the church,
was one of this number, but was slain the first of them with his two sons.
Olenatus, a Saracen, king of Palmyra in Syria, repressed the insolence of the
Persians; for which service Gallien declared him his colleague in the empire,
allotting to him all the East, and giving to his wife Zenobia the title of
Augusta. After the death of her husband she became queen of the East, and is
celebrated for her extraordinary wisdom, learning, and valour. The empire was
at the same time visited with a dreadful pestilence which depopulated its
provinces; and the barbarians on all sides poured in upon it like a torrent,
which, having broken down its banks, impetuously spreads itself over the whole
country. Nor could those nations be any more confined to their snows and
mountains; but, in the end, they overthrew that empire which had formerly
thought them not worth a conquest. The saints shared in these public
calamities; but, by their charity, resignation, and patience, found in them
solid comfort and joy, and by them attained to their crown. God converted all
things to the good of his elect. Gallien was murdered in 268, after an
ingnominious reign of nine years from the captivity of his father. His
successor Claudius II. surnamed Gothicus, a prince of moderation and wisdom,
continued to suspend the edicts of former persecutors during the two years that
he reigned; but, after his death, Aurelian raised the ninth general
persecution. Nevertheless, that some received the crown of martyrdom in the
reign of Claudius Gothicus, is evident from the holy martyr St. Severa, whose
body was found in the cemetery of SS. Thraso and Saturninus, on the Salarian
way, one mile from Rome, in 1730. See the dissertation of F. Lupi on that
martyr’s tomb and epitaph; printed at Panormo in 1734; also the remarks of the
learned canons Boldetti and Maragnoni. [back]
Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume
VIII: August. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
SOURCE
: http://www.bartleby.com/210/8/062.html
(XYSTUS).
Pope
St. Sixtus II
Elected 31 Aug.,
257, martyred at Rome, 6 Aug., 258. His origin is unknown. The "Liber Pontificalis" says that he was a Greek
by birth, but this is probably a mistake, originating from the false assumption
that he was identical with a Greek
philosopher of the same name, who was the
author of the so-called "Sentences" of Xystus.
During the pontificate of his predecessor, St.
Stephen, a sharp dispute had arisen between Rome and the African
and Asiatic Churches,
concerning the rebaptism of heretics, which had threatened to end in a complete
rupture between Rome and the Churches
of Africa and Asia Minor (see SAINT CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE). Sixtus
II, whom Pontius (Vita Cyprian,
cap. xiv) styles a good and
peaceful priest (bonus et
pacificus sacerdos), was more conciliatory than St.
Stephen and restored friendly relations
with these Churches, though,
like his predecessor, he upheld the Roman
usage of not rebaptizing heretics.
Shortly before the
pontificate of Sixtus II the Emperor Valerian issued his first edict of persecution, which made it binding upon the Christians to participate in the national cult of the pagan gods and forbade them to assemble in the cemeteries,
threatening with exile or death whomsoever was found to disobey the order. In
some way or other, Sixtus II
managed to perform his functions as chief pastor of the Christians without being molested by those who were
charged with the execution of
the imperial edict. But during the first days of August, 258, the emperor
issued a new and far more cruel edict against the Christians, the import of which has been preserved in a
letter of St. Cyprian to Successus, the Bishop of Abbir Germaniciana
(Ep. lxxx). It ordered bishops, priests, and deacons to be summarily put to death ("episcopi et presbyteri et diacones incontinenti
animadvertantur"). Sixtus
II was one of the first to fall a victim to this imperial enactment
("Xistum in cimiterio animadversum
sciatis VIII. id. Augusti et cum
eo diacones quattuor"—Cyprian, Ep. lxxx). In order to escape the vigilance
of the imperial officers he assembled his flock on 6 August at one of the
less-known cemeteries, that of
Prætextatus, on the left side of the Appian Way,
nearly opposite the cemetery of St.
Callistus. While seated on his chair in the act
of addressing his flock he was suddenly apprehended by a band of soldiers.
There is some doubt whether he was beheaded forthwith,
or was first brought before a tribunal to receive his sentence
and then led back to the cemetery
for execution. The latter
opinion seems to be the more probable.
The inscription
which Pope Damasus (366-84) placed on his tomb in the cemetery
of St. Callistus may be
interpreted in either sense. The entire inscription
is to be found in the works of St. Damasus
(P.L., XIII, 383-4, where it is wrongly supposed to be an epitaph for Pope Stephen I), and a few fragments of it were discovered at
the tomb itself by de Rossi
(Inscr. Christ., II, 108). The "Liber Pontificalis" mentions that he was led away to offer
sacrifice to the gods
("ductus ut sacrificaret demoniis"—I, 155). St. Cyprian states in the above-named letter, which was
written at the latest one month after the martyrdom of Sixtus,
that "the prefects of the City
were daily urging the persecution in order that, if any were brought before
them, they might be punished and their property confiscated". The pathetic meeting
between St. Sixtus II and St. Lawrence, as the former was being led to execution,
of which mention is made in the unauthentic "Acts of St. Lawrence" as well as by St. Ambrose (Officiorum, lib. I, c. xli, and lib. II, c.
xxviii) and the poet Prudentius
(Peristephanon, II), is probably a mere legend.
Entirely contrary to truth is the statement of Prudentius
(ibid., lines 23-26) that Sixtus
II suffered martyrdom on the cross,
unless by an unnatural trope the
poet uses the specific word cross
("Jam Xystus adfixus cruci")
for martyrdom in general, as Duchesne and Allard
(see below) suggest. Four deacons, Januarius, Vincentius, Magnus,
and Stephanus, were apprehended with Sixtus
and beheaded with him at the same cemetery.
Two other deacons, Felicissimus
and Agapitus, suffered martyrdom on the same day. The feast
of St. Sixtus II and these six deacons is celebrated on 6 August, the day of their martyrdom. The remains of Sixtus
were transferred by the Christians to the papal crypt in the neighbouring cemetery
of St. Callistus. Behind his tomb was enshrined the bloodstained
chair on which he had been beheaded. An oratory
(Oratorium Xysti) was erected above the cemetery
of St. Prætextatus, at the spot where he was martyred, and was still visited by pilgrims of the seventh and the eighth century.
For some time Sixtus
II was believed to be the author
of the so-called "Sentences", or "Ring of Sixtus",
originally written by a Pythagorean
philosopher and in the second century revised
by a Christian. This error arose because in his introduction to a Latin
translation of these "Sentences". Rufinus
ascribes them to Sixtus of Rome, bishop and martyr. It is certain that Pope Sixtus
II is not their author (see Conybeare, "The Ring
of Pope Xystus now first
rendered into English, with an historical
and critical commentary",
London, 1910). Harnack (Texte und Untersuchungen zur altchrist. Literatur,
XIII, XX) ascribes to him the treatise "Ad Novatianum", but his
opinion has been generally rejected (see Rombold
in "Theol. Quartalschrift", LXXII, Tübingen, 1900). Some of his
letters are printed in P.L., V, 79-100. A newly discovered letter was published
by Conybeare in "English Hist. Review", London, 1910.
Sources
Acta SS., Aug., II, 124-42; DUCHESNE, Liber
Pontificalis, I, 155-6; BARMBY in Dict.
Christ. Biog., s.v. Xystus; ROHAULT DE FLEURY, Les Saints de la messe, III (Paris,
1893): HEALY, The Valerian Persecution
(Boston and New York, 1905); 176-9; ALLARD, Les
dernières persecutions du troisième siècle (Paris, 1907), 80-92, 343-349;
DE ROSSI, Roma Sotteranea, II (Rome;
1864-77), 87-97; WILPERT, Die Päpstgraber
und die Cäciliengruft in der Katakombe des hl. Callistus, supplement to De Rossi's Roma Sotteranea (Freiburg im Br., 1909).
Ott, Michael. "Pope St. Sixtus II." The Catholic Encyclopedia.
Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 7 Aug. 2016
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14031c.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Kenneth M. Caldwell. Dedicated to the
memory of Don McGonigle.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. July 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur.
+John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.