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 Saint Pope Damasus I 1600th Anniversary of Death Scott 749-751 (1984) December 11 is the Feast of Saint Pope Damasus I, who died on this day in 384 AD. Damasus was of a Spanish family and the son of a priest, born in Rome, and a deacon of Rome under Pope Liberius. Damasus was chosen as the successor to Liberius in 366 but was opposed by a minority who favored another candidate. This led to serious violence in the streets, but eventually the armed forces supporting Damasus prevailed, with the assistance of the Emperor Valentinian I (364-375). However, thereafter, it is said by some that the violence tainted Damasus’ pontificate. Pope Liberius (352-366) confronted Arianism, the heresy which rejected the Trinitarian concept of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Condemned at the Council of Nicaea (325), Arianism continued to have followers thereafter, including some emperors such as Constantius II (337-361), one of Constantine the Great’s sons and emperor. Liberius was imprisoned for two years and pressured to accept Felix as a joint ruler. Eventually Felix and his supporters were expelled from Rome. However, at some point it appears that Liberius relented (waffled) in his opposition to the emperor’s Arian views and did not punish Arian bishops thereafter. Only after Constantius II died (361) were decrees regarding Arianism repealed by Liberius. Therefore, the turmoil of Liberius’ pontificate impacted his successor. Damasus also confronted various heresies associated with Arians, Donatists, and Macedonians. Unlike Liberius, he spoke out forcefully against Arianism. He also promulgated a canon of scriptures and commissioned St. Jerome to prepare a Latin edition of the Bible. Some historians date the beginnings of a regular papal archive to this pontificate. An interesting aspect of these years is that St. Ambrose (Bishop of Milan, 374-397) served as a personal secretary to Pope Damasus I, who therefore interacted with two of the four early doctors of the Church. Damasus also took responsibility to identify and memorialize the tombs of Roman martyrs, the location of which might have been lost to subsequent ages. Among these inscriptions is one at the Basilica of St. Lawrence Outside the Walls suggesting that the relics of Saints Peter and Paul were relocated to that basilica from the crypt at St. Peter’s during the Valerian Persecutions of the mid-3rd century. Another of Damasus’ inscriptions is located in the Crypt of the Popes at the Catacombs of St. Callixtus. The damp area of the Pre-Christian and Christian necropolis was drained during his pontificate. This is where St. Peter’s tomb is located under the newly constructed Old St. Peter’s Basilica. It was during Damasus’s pontificate that the emperor Theodosius I proclaimed Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire (380), a mere 67 years after it was proclaimed tolerated as one of many in the Edict of Milan (313). REFERENCES: |
