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<img height='275' src='http://vaticanstamps.org/VPS/images/296/257.jpg'> 
Pope Sixtus II 
Valerian Martyrs Issue 
Scott 257 (1959)</center>
 
The Feast of Pope Saint Sixtus II is celebrated on August 7, the day after the anniversary of his death in 258 AD. He died during the Valerian persecutions, along with Saints Felicissimus, Agapitus, and four other deacons. Another deacon of Rome associated with Sixtus II, St. Lawrence, was martyred shortly thereafter (his feast day is August 10).
 
The years of the mid-third century witnessed periods of intense Christian persecution, beginning with Emperor Decius for an 18-month period in 251 to 253 AD. Because Christians would not sacrifice to the Roman gods nor in the Emperor’s name, they were identified as unpatriotic. In 257, Emperor Valerian ordered Christians to sacrifice to the Roman gods and to not hold meetings in cemeteries (catacombs). In 258 he ordered bishops and other ranking clergy to be put to death. Roman senators and others were to sacrifice to Roman gods or lose their property and life. Christian widows who refused to disavow their faith were to be banished. Christian civil servants were to be reduced to slavery. Due to this unrelenting persecution, it is believed that the relics of Saints Peter and Paul were relocated for safety to the Basilica of San Sebastian Outside the Walls, to be later returned to the basilicas which bear their names, once the turmoil passed.
 
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<img height='375' src='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/Legendari_di_sancti_istoriado_uulgar%2C_1497_%E2%80%93_%28santo_Sisto_papa%29_-_BEIC_IE4411203.jpg'> 
The Martyrdom of Pope Sixtus II in the "Golden Legend" (1497) 
From Wikimedia Commons, in the Public Domain</center>
 
It is told that on August 6, 258, Pope Sixtus was preaching to a group of believers in the cemetery of Praetextatus. When challenged by soldiers, he refused to disavow his faith in Jesus Christ. He was killed with a sword and beheaded, then buried in the cemetery of Callixtus across the road on the Via Appia. The cult of Sixtus and his Companions became one of the most famous among the Roman martyrs. The following inscription honoring Pope Sixtus was placed on his tomb in the catacomb of Callixtus by Pope Damasus I:
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"At the time when the sword pierced the bowels of the Mother, I, buried here, taught as Pastor the Word of God; when suddenly the soldiers rushed in and dragged me from the chair. The faithful offered their necks to the sword, but as soon as the Pastor saw the ones who wished to rob him of the palm (of martyrdom) he was the first to offer himself and his own head, not tolerating that the (pagan) frenzy should harm the others. Christ, who gives recompense, made manifest the Pastor's merit, preserving unharmed the flock."
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Pope Sixtus II appears on three stamp issues released by Vatican City. At the top of the article is the stamp picturing the pope from the 1959 Valerian Martyrs issue. Below are the two stamps from the 1955 issue honoring the 500th anniversary of the birth of Fra Angelico, featuring his fresco "Saint Lawrence Receiving the Treasures of the Church from Pope Sixtus II". And in 2012, Pope Sixtus II is depicted on the souvenir sheet showing Raphael's "Sistine Madonna":
 
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<img height='275' src='http://vaticanstamps.org/VPS/images/296/195.jpg'>
<img height='275' src='http://vaticanstamps.org/VPS/images/296/196.jpg'> 
Saint Lawrence Receiving the Treasures of the Church from Pope Sixtus 
Fresco by Fra Angelico (circa 1449) 
Scott 195-196 (1955)
 
<img height='375' src='http://vaticanstamps.org/VPS/images/296/1498.jpg'> 
Raphael's "Sistine Madonna" (with Pope Sixtus II on the left) 
Scott 1498 (2012)</center>
 
REFERENCES: 
<li>Wikipedia, <a href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Sixtus_II'>Pope Sixtus II</a> 
<li>Farmer, David, Oxford Dictionary of Saints 
<li>Beutner, Dawn Marie, Saints: Becoming an Image of Christ Every Day of the Year 
<li>Attwater, Donald, and John, Catherine, Penguin Dictionary of Saints 
<li>Pirozzi, Greg, Vatican Notes, Volume 60, Number 351, page 19, 2012, <a href= 'http://vaticanstamps.org/vaticannotes/idisplay.php?p=60-351-18-19&r=0'>Essays of the 1959 Valerian Martyrs Issue</a> 
<li>Hamilton, James C., Vatican Notes, Volume 64, Number 367, pp. 8-11, 2016, <a href= 'http://vaticanstamps.org/vaticannotes/idisplay.php?p=64-367-08-09&r=0'>Vatican City, A Philatelic and Historical Journey Part V: Missionaries and Martyrs</a> 
<li>Vatican Philatelic Society website, www.vaticanstamps.org, Stamp Database Search

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