Sixtus

ON ST. SIXTUS, OR XYSTUS I,

ROMAN PONTIFF, MARTYR,

IN THE YEAR 127.

Sixtus, or Xystus I, Roman Pontiff, Martyr (Saint)

G. H.

BY D. P.

CHAPTER I.

His cultus, age, and Acts.

The most ancient notice of Saint Sixtus, or Xystus, Roman Pontiff, is found in Saint Irenaeus, who as Bishop of Lyon was crowned with a glorious martyrdom in the year 201. He, in book 3 Against Heresies, chapter 3, treats of the tradition of the Apostles, or the succession of bishops in the Church from the Apostles, Mentioned by Saint Irenaeus and adduces only the bishops of the Roman Church, and among these it is said that Alexander succeeded Evaristus, and thereafter Sixtus, the sixth from the Apostles, was appointed Sixtus, and after him Telesphorus, who likewise most gloriously suffered martyrdom. These words of Saint Irenaeus were inserted under his name by Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History, book 5, chapter 6. Sixtus is set down by Irenaeus as the sixth from the Apostles, although he was in fact the seventh from them, for by reason of the similarity of names, Cletus and Anacletus were not distinguished by him and by certain others, but by some carelessness conflated into one and the same person. We treat of this controversy below on April 26, at the Acts of Saint Cletus, Pontiff; on which day Baronius notes that, in matters pertaining to the Roman Church, and in the ancient Catalogue of Roman Pontiffs greater trust is to be placed in her own sons than in others. We judge the most ancient monument of the Roman Church on this question to be the Catalogue of Roman Pontiffs, compiled before the death of Pope Liberius, which is to be divided into several parts, the first of which ends with Pope Urban, who died a martyr in the year of Christ 231; we are of the opinion that this part was gathered by Saint Anterus, before he was Pontiff, inasmuch as he is said to have diligently investigated the deeds of the Martyrs through Notaries. In this Catalogue the eighth Bishop of Rome, and thus the seventh from the Apostle Peter, is placed Saint Sixtus, with this brief notice: "Sixtus, ten years, three months, twenty-one days. He was in the times of Hadrian, from the Consulate of Niger and Apronianus, up to that of Verus III and Ambibulus." Quinctius Niger and T. Vipsanius Apronianus were Consuls in the year of the Christian era 117, Year 117, last of Trajan, in which same year and consulship the Emperor Trajan breathed his last at Selinus in Cilicia, which was afterwards called Trajanopolis, on the 10th of August, and was succeeded by Hadrian, whom he had adopted, mentioned in the said notice. The same years of his See — ten years, three months, twenty-one days — are mentioned in Anastasius On the Lives of the Pontiffs, and in the Liber Pontificalis. The ancient and most complete Acts of Saint Alexander, his predecessor, to be set forth on the 3rd of May, agree. on the death of Saint Alexander he succeeded, In these it is said that after the martyrdom of Saint Alexander, in the same year, by the will of God Trajan died. Saint Alexander was detained in prison for several months; during which time we think Saint Sixtus was Bishop, having been consecrated about December 13 or shortly thereafter in the year 116, and to have acted as Vicar of Saint Alexander, previously his Vicar, and from that point to count the ten years, three months, and twenty-one days which are attributed to him, he dies in the year 127 up to the 3rd or 6th of April in the year 127, on which day he also departed this life as a Martyr. In the said year Titianus and Gallicanus were Consuls, under whom the beginning of the Pontificate of Saint Telesphorus is placed in the Catalogue already praised, and in the preceding year 126 the Consuls were Vespronius Candidus Verus and Ambibulus, or (as others prefer) Ambiguus Bibulus, or more corruptly Angulus or Anniculus; whom Saint Sixtus had as his final Consuls for the whole year, year 10 of the Emperor Hadrian, and he lived for three months under the following Consuls, dying in the tenth year of the Emperor Hadrian. Concerning the various Pontiffs who were appointed Vicars when others were sent into exile, detained in prison, or hindered by other causes, we must treat more accurately elsewhere. Let the reader consult also what is said on April 17 in the Life of Saint Anicetus, Pontiff.

[2] Florus in his Supplement to the Martyrology of Bede, on the third of April in the Atrebatensian and Tournai manuscripts, writes these words: he is venerated on April 3, "At Rome, Saint Sixtus, Pope and Martyr, who, while he presided over the Chair of Saint Peter for ten years, established that during the Canon of the Mass the priest beginning should chant the hymn to the people, namely Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth etc. And he was crowned with martyrdom in the time of Verus and Anniculus," whom we have said to have been Consuls in the last year of Saint Sixtus's life. In precisely the same words and on the same day (except that in place of "Anniculus" is written "Annictus") the memory of Saint Sixtus is noted in a very ancient Martyrology of the monastery of Saint Sabinus in the Pyrenees, from which Saussay published excerpts pertaining to Gaul at the end of his Gallican Martyrology, because in the very opening words of this notice something pertaining to Gaul had been inserted, which seems to have been understood as "Bishop of Convenae." This too is an Episcopal city at the foot of the Pyrenees: but on what basis it once claimed Saint Sixtus for itself, we do not guess; today no vestige of such an opinion survives there, as is gathered from the Gallia Christiana of the Sammarthani, where a catalogue of the Bishops is proposed without any mention of Sixtus. On the same 3rd day before the Nones of April Saint Sixtus is said to have been buried, according to the eulogies written in another Catalogue to be given shortly; and this is proposed by Anastasius and Luitprand, and in the manuscript Deeds of the Supreme Pontiffs extending to Martin V. On the same day also Saint Sixtus is mentioned in the manuscript Martyrology of Lätiens.

[3] But in other Martyrologies, together with the Liber Pontificalis, he is commonly referred to this 6th day of April, which Usuard begins thus: "On the 8th day before the Ides of April, at Rome, the birthday of Blessed Sixtus, Pope and Martyr, who in the times of Hadrian, and on 6 April, that he might gain Christ for himself, willingly endured temporal death." Wandelbert adorns him with this couplet:

On the 8th of the Ides Sixtus, Martyr and Priest, Holds pride of place, having suffered death under Emperor Hadrian.

That Saint Sixtus suffered in this manner under the Emperor Hadrian, the most ancient manuscript Martyrologies all have, and with them Ado, Notker, Bellini, Maurolycus, Felicius, Canisius, and Galesinius. In like manner Eusebius (whom Georgius Syncellus and other Greeks follow) places the death of Saint Sixtus and the succession of Saint Telesphorus under the Emperor Hadrian, but one year later, in the Consulate of Torquatus and Libo, or according to our reckoning, in the year of Christ 128. Alphonsus Ciaconius asserts that he was killed for the confession of the Christian faith on the 8th day before the Ides of April, but in the year of the Lord 139, and of the Emperor Hadrian the 21st and last. But Baronius writes that Saint Sixtus was made Pontiff in the 13th year of Hadrian, and suffered martyrdom in the third year of Antoninus Pius, and of Christ 142. In what manner these two depart from all antiquity we discuss elsewhere: here you will note that the feast of Saint Sixtus, Pope and Martyr, is prescribed with an office of 3 Lessons in the Calendar of the Breviary of Autun for the present day, April 6, as we have it printed in the year 1534; and likewise in the Breviary of Dole among the Burgundians of the year 1519.

[4] Acts from another manuscript Catalogue. Some Acts of Saint Sixtus are indicated in a Catalogue of Pontiffs, from very ancient parchments of the Most Serene Queen Christina of Sweden, to be published by us elsewhere; and from there we transcribe these. "Xistus, by nation a Roman, son of Pastor, from the region of Via-lata, sat ten years, two months, one day. He was in the times of Hadrian up to Verus and Angulus: he is crowned with martyrdom. He established that the sacred vessels should not be touched except by ministers. He established that whichever Bishop was summoned to the Roman Apostolic See, upon returning to his parish, should not be received unless with the letter of salutation of the people confirmed to the Apostolic See. He established that during the Canon of the priest, the people should chant the hymn, Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth etc. He performed three ordinations: eleven Priests, three Deacons, four Bishops in various places. other days, He was also buried next to the body of Blessed Peter in the Vatican, on the 3rd day before the Nones of April, and the bishopric was vacant for two months." Thus far the Acts from the said Catalogue, which we prove elsewhere to have been composed in the sixth century of Christ. Anastasius almost entirely transcribed this Catalogue; but he seems to have read ten years, three months, twenty-one days for the See's duration (as the earlier Catalogue has).

Then he says that a Bishop is not to be received except with letters of Salutation from the Patriarch to the people, which have been formally drawn up. But the Liber Pontificalis: "Let him not be received, except with the formal letters of Salutation to the people from the Apostolic See." Baronius records, under the year 142, no. 7, that these formal or communicatory letters were also called Canonical, Pacificatory, and Ecclesiastical; and Sirmond explains their use at length in the appendix to the second volume of the Councils.

[5] Franciscus Bosquetus, in book 2 of his Histories of the Gallican Church, chapter 1, toward the end, has these words: "From Sixtus I, Bishop of Rome, Peregrinus is said to have been sent into Gaul, Saints Genulph and Peregrinus sent by him into Gaul: who had his See at Auxerre, and Genulph who was at Cahors." But this Peregrinus they attribute to Sixtus II, and perhaps that Genulph must also be attributed to him. We gave the Life of Saint Genulph on January 17, and showed that he was sent by Sixtus II; we shall treat of Saint Peregrinus on the 16th of May, when his mission will be examined.

CHAPTER II.

The burial, translation, and finding of Saint Sixtus.

[6] Saint Sixtus is said to have been buried next to the body of Saint Peter in the Vatican. Onuphrius, On the Seven Churches of the City, page 41, his burial, after noting the Confession of Saint Peter, adds: "Besides the high altar of Saint Peter in the ancient basilica, there were twenty other altars, some enclosed in chapels or oratories, others without such little buildings. The first on the right of the high altar, in the transverse part of the basilica which they call the Cross of the church, toward the apse, was the oratory and altar of Saint Xystus, Pope and Martyr, under which by Pope Paschal II were buried the bodies of the holy Pontiffs, Xystus himself, Fabian the Martyr, and Sergius II." So he there. oratory and altar at Rome, Paschal II sat from the year 1099 to the year 1118. The feast of Saint Sixtus I, Pope, is still celebrated with a double office on this 6th of April in the Vatican basilica, because his body is preserved there, as is prescribed in the Order of the Divine Office for the year 1665, composed by Joseph de Fide, Master of Ceremonies of the same Church. Is the body also there now?

[7] Meanwhile in Ludovicus Jacob, in his Bibliotheca Pontificia, on the occasion of the Decretals and other books falsely attributed to Saint Sixtus, these words are read concerning his body: "It was conveyed from Rome in the year 1132, Histories of the translation to Alatri to the city of Alatri in Latium in the country of the Hernici, and laid in the principal church; and in the year 1584, under the Most Reverend Father Egnatius Danti of Perugia, of the Order of Preachers, Bishop of Alatri, who saw to it that the history of both Translations was written, from which taken, the body was found." Therefore, desiring to be more fully instructed in this matter, we sent letters to the Fathers of our College of Sora, as being nearest to Alatri, to see whether by chance we might obtain the history written at the order of Bishop Egnatius. Father Peter Clodius applied himself not slothfully to the task committed to him, both animated by his own piety toward the Saints, and prompted by the recommendation of Father Eusebius Truchtes, Secretary of the German Assistancy: and so at length the narrative was obtained, which, published in print in the year 1655 by Father Andrea Ferrario, a Roman of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual of Saint Francis, filled six folios; but since he who wanted that single copy preserved for the Church would not allow it to go far from him, it was necessary to take down in writing a synopsis of that otherwise most verbose account, which was done in such a way that nothing of the history was omitted, but only the superfluous and almost childish ornaments of an unseasonably luxuriant style were cut away. This Synopsis, translated from Italian into Latin, runs thus.

[8] In the year 1132 various regions of Italy were afflicted with a dreadful pestilence, In the year 1132 the body granted to the people of Alife, and not a little harm was suffered from it by Alife, an Episcopal city of Samnium, under the Archbishopric of Benevento, now almost deserted, the Bishops for the most part residing at Piedimonte. Seeking a remedy for this evil, the Lord of the said town begged the Roman Pontiff (who was then Innocent II) to grant him the body of some Saint, by whose patronage his city might be cleansed from the impending plague. Heaven heard those prayers sooner than the Pontiff: for it happened almost at the same time that a huge beam in the church of Saint Peter, falling from above, broke a certain altar of the same church; and when it was broken, there appeared inside a small casket, containing the body of Saint Sixtus I, Pope. This event moved the Pontiff to grant this saint as chief Patron to the people of Alife, the mule, unable to proceed further, whose Count reverently receiving the holy relics, and placing them on a well-adorned mule, sent them to Alife. A little more than a third of the way had been completed, when the mule bearing the sacred burden could not be prevented from turning aside from the broad flat road, and struggling up a rugged path into the mountain, and taking her way toward Alatri; and the beast could be moved neither by beatings nor by blandishments to return to the road, however much the muleteers and others present labored.

[9] it is brought into Alatri; Therefore, seeing that they were in vain, they led the mule to the nearby church of Saint Matthew, which lies near the Volubrus (this is a lake beside the greater gate of the city of Alatri); and the matter being soon spread through the city, Peter the Bishop with his Clergy and a great multitude of citizens went out to receive the sacred body. Then it was deliberated which church should be enriched with so great a treasure, and various opinions were voiced by various people, some naming the church of Saint Stephen, others Saint Mary. At length it seemed to the Bishop more advisable to commit the matter to divine judgment, and to deposit the sacred body in whatever church the mule of her own accord should enter. in the cathedral church: So, the mule being let loose, she ascended a certain hill, and betook herself to the Cathedral church of Saint Paul; before the door of which, upon the steps, humbly bending on her knees, she seemed to warn those following that there she must be unburdened: which was done on the 11th of January in the year 1132. But to the people of Alife, grieving their loss, a finger was given: which we do not rashly believe to have been as salutary to their city as the rest of the parts were to Alatri, the raging epidemic being soon extinguished; a finger is granted to the people of Alife, since the city of Alife no less than that of Alatri down to this present day venerates Saint Sixtus as Patron of the Cathedral church, and keeps his Relics in a chapel under the confession, as Ferdinand Ughelli testifies in volume 8 of his Italia Sacra.

[10] the day of the Translation, January 11, is held as a feast, Then with the passage of time, after four and a half centuries had elapsed, the place in which the sacred Relics were hidden came to be forgotten; nevertheless on the 11th of January the festival of the first Translation was yearly observed, and another festival on the Wednesday of Easter in memory of the victory obtained by the Alatrines over the troops of the King of Aragon about the year 1336. This being the state of things, about the year 1584 Philip Compagno, Cardinal of Saint Sixtus, was seized with a desire to search for the body of Saint Sixtus: wherefore, having obtained leave from Gregory XIII, his uncle, who himself had before his Pontificate been Cardinal of Saint Sixtus, he commanded Master Egnatius Danti, Bishop of Alatri, to apply himself to the task most diligently.

[11] Egnatius knew that two of his predecessors had undertaken the same thing and been severely punished, and that one had suddenly been struck blind, and the other had been seized with the falling sickness when the hammer he had raised to break open the altar slipped from his hands: yet relying on the merit of obedience, on the third Sunday of Lent, the body is sought in the year 1584, falling then on the 4th of March, an hour after sunset and the third hour of the day then begun, accompanied by his Vicar General and three others of his household, he ordered the marble altar of Saint Sixtus to be opened, in which a glass vessel full of various relics immediately appeared, with a bulla and a wax seal, so decayed that nothing at all could be read. On March 4 a record is found of the altar consecrated in the year 1157. Also another parchment was found, which, carefully read, displayed these words: "In the year one thousand one hundred and fifty-seven, in the third year of Pope Adrian IV, in the fifth Indiction, on the 12th day of the month of May, this altar was dedicated by Master Rodulph, Bishop of Alatri, in honor of Our Lord Jesus Christ and of his most blessed mother Mary ever Virgin; of Blessed Xystus I, Pope and Martyr, whose body is reposed in this altar; of Saint Lawrence the Martyr, and of the Four Holy Crowned Ones, and of the holy Martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria, and of Saint Romanus the Soldier, and of Saint Jerome the Martyr, and of Saint Cyrilla the Martyr, and of Saint Concordia the Martyr, and of very many other Martyrs of Christ, to whom be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen."

[12] Yet the sacred body was not then found. So the Bishop proclaimed a fast and prayers to the people, as for a matter of the greatest moment, the body itself on the 12th of the same month: and at the beginning of the night preceding Laetare Sunday he ordered two Capuchin Fathers to be summoned, in addition to the aforesaid. Then, breaking the altar, he uncovered a small leaden casket, two palms long and a little more, one palm high and broad; on which were inscribed in ancient characters these letters: HERE IS LAID THE BODY OF SAINT XYSTUS I, POPE AND MARTYR. When the casket was opened, an incense-like odor spread and filled the whole place: and the Bishop, on the last Friday in March, which was the day of Our Lord's Passion, laid out the whole history of the matter to the people from the pulpit. Then care was taken it is translated, solemnly, on April 4. that everything should be arranged for the most fitting translation possible; and first of all, a new casket was prepared from walnut wood, lined inside with heavy silk, and in it was placed the leaden casket, after the Bishop had removed from it the sacred head, to which the venerable white hairs still cling; and there was made a silver bust worth four hundred scudi, such as now is carried every year in procession: he also reserved for himself a bone of the right shin, the head and shin-bone are kept separately, which the nuns of the Order of Saint Benedict, called of the Annunciation, reverently receiving, enclosed in a silver shin-piece. Finally, a place was prepared under the high altar, modeled after that which at that time held the chief place in the Vatican Basilica of Saint Peter; the approach to which is blocked by a double door, one of marble and ancient work, the other of iron and gilded. Finally, with about twenty thousand persons flocking on the said day, the solemnity was performed on April 4: a monument of this, to endure for posterity, was then inscribed by order of the aforesaid Bishop on a certain pillar of the same church; afterwards it was transferred by Master Michelangelo Brancavallerio, also Bishop of Alatri, to another pillar of the same church, more exposed to the eyes of those entering, and it is of this kind:

[13] the history of the event is inscribed on a stone, "The body of Blessed Xystus I, Pope and Martyr, when Count Rainulph was attempting to transfer it from the Vatican Basilica to Alife, the mule bearing it departing from the straight road, miraculously brought it into this Cathedral church, in 1132, in the third year of Our Holy Father Pope Innocent II. But when by the antiquity of times the place of burial

had become unknown, it was sought in vain by most of the Pontiffs of this church, until in 1564, on the 12th day of March, in the 12th year of the Pontificate of Our Holy Father Lord Gregory XIII, Brother Egnatius Danti of Perugia, of the Order of Preachers, Bishop of Alatri, found it enclosed in a leaden coffer, as was engraved in these barbarous letters: 'Here is laid the body of Saint Xystus I, Pope and Martyr'; which he received with great joy, and made known to the whole city and the neighboring cities. With a great concourse of the peoples of all Campania, he translated the body itself most honorably from its lowly place to the high altar, after it had been recognized by the most noble Prelates, Master Gaspar Viviano, Bishop of Anagni; Master Hortensius Baptista, Bishop of Veroli; Master Flaminius Philonardus, Bishop of Aquino; Master James Masinus, Bishop of Segni; Master Julius Ungaresius, Governor of Campania, and confirmed by firm attestation, it was borne upon their own shoulders through the whole city with most noble pomp, on the 4th of April of the same year."

[14] it is placed in the church on April 12, 1585. And this inscription alone (unless we are greatly mistaken) is the history praised above by Ludovicus Jacob, beyond which there is no need to seek any other written at the order of Bishop Egnatius. Now this inscription was put up on the very day on which Sixtus V was elected Pontiff at Rome in the year 1585, namely the 12th day of April: for this a certain Letter of Bishop Egnatius to the said Pontiff, cited by the author of the preceding narrative, seems to affirm. On the Wednesday of Easter the 2nd Translation is commemorated. From then on the people of Alatri have continued to keep the fourth day of the Easter octave more solemnly, leading processional pomps exquisitely prepared throughout the whole city, and singing sacred canticles and hymns composed in honor of their Saint, not without a great concourse of neighbors from all around: for this Saint has become famous enough throughout the whole region on account of the miraculous favors which those who commended themselves to him declare they received from him. Various images have also been engraved in copper, by which the whole series of the event thus far narrated is set before the very eyes.

[15] Occasion of the aforesaid investigation. Someone might now ask why the aforenamed Philip Boncompagno, Cardinal of Saint Sixtus, who had ordered with such zeal that the sacred body be sought out, did not also take care that the whole, or a good part of it, should be brought back to Rome. But whoever considers what cause that Cardinal had for giving such a command to the Bishop of Alatri will easily find a solution to this question. I think therefore, that when he had magnificently restored the church of his Title, situated at Rome on the Appian Way, and almost collapsed and desolate; and since, among other things, the body of Saint Sixtus, likewise Pope and Martyr (second in name and time, but long first in celebrity of name and martyrdom because of the subsequent passion of Saint Lawrence) was believed to rest under the high altar of the same church, having been long ago translated there from the ancient cemetery of the same Saint Sixtus, on the same Appian Way but outside the city; a sufficiently ancient stone, found in the same place, and inscribed with the names of the Saints likewise laid in the said church, giving credit to this: it seems to have been received from the body which was said to be at Rome these things being so, I say, and nevertheless others, because of the Relics of Saint Sixtus translated to Alatri, were in doubt whether the inscription were true (for it is customary for things belonging to several of the same name to be commonly all referred to one more famous person); it is credible that the Cardinal, zealous for his Patron, wrote to Alatri: and when he learned that the body which the Alatrines possessed was not the most celebrated Sixtus of his Title, which they themselves perhaps had previously believed, but another of the same name; he had no reason to disturb the Alatrines further. I believe furthermore that they would not have difficulty in allowing that something of their Saint Sixtus remained in the Vatican: since it is, and always has been, foreign to the custom of the Pontiffs to bestow the pledges of the Saints on others in such a way that the Roman church is entirely deprived of them; but rather they are accustomed to leave to themselves some part of the same, by which the dignity and sanctity of such churches may be preserved there, and the popular devotion toward the Saints may not be lessened, even after a greater part of the holy Body has been carried away.