ST. SYLVESTER OF ROME (DEC. 31ST)

St. Sylvester Blessing Constantine the Great, from an 8th Century Romanesque Mural

Edited by Bp. Joseph

St. Sylvester I (AD 285 - Dec. 31 AD 335) was the bishop of Rome from 31 January 314 until his death. He filled the See of Rome at an important era in the history of the Western Church, yet very little is known of him, including the manner of his death, which some say was sickness and others say was miraculous. He is best known for his relationship with Constantine the Great, and the documents forged in his name supporting the papal rights up and against Orthodox synodality, which are now known to be the product of the 8th Century. 

The accounts of his pontificate preserved in the seventh or eighth-century Liber Pontificalis contain little more than a record of the gifts said to have been conferred on the church by Constantine I, although it does say that he was the son of a Roman named Rufinus. His feast is celebrated as "Saint Sylvester's Day" in Western Christianity on the 31st of December, while Eastern Christianity commemorates it on the 2nd of January.

St. Sylvester did not attend the First Council of Nicaea in AD 325, where the Nicene Creed was formulated, but he was represented by two legates, Vitus and Vincentius, and he approved the council's decision.One of the Symmachian forgeries, the Constitutum Silvestri, is an apocryphal alleged account of a Roman council, which partially builds on legends in the Acts of Sylvester which has been preserved in Greek, Syriac, and in Latin and the fictional stories of Sylvester's close relationship with the first Christian emperor. These also appear in the forgeries called “The Donation of Constantine”. 

Long after his death, the figure of St. Sylvester was embroidered upon in a fictional account of his relationship to Constantine, which successfully supported the later Gelasian doctrine of papal supremacy, papal auctoritas (authority) guiding imperial potestas (power), the doctrine that is embodied in the intentionally forged and planted documents that became known as “Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals” of the eighth century. In the fiction, of which an early version is represented in the early sixth-century Symmachean forgeries emanating from the curia of Pope Symmachus (died AD 514), the Emperor Constantine was cured of leprosy by the virtue of the baptismal water administered by Sylvester, for which he was rewarded with the crown of the Roman Emperor. 

In this tale, the Emperor, abjectly grateful, not only confirmed the bishop of Rome as the primate above all other bishops, he resigned his imperial insignia and walked before St. Sylvester's horse holding the Pope's bridle as the papal groom. The Pope, in return, offered the crown of his own good will to Constantine, who abandoned Rome to the pope and took up residence in Constantinople, as a way to defer to his superior authority. The doctrine behind this charming story is a radical one," Norman F. Cantor observes: "The pope is supreme over all rulers, even the Roman emperor, who owes his crown to the pope and therefore may be deposed by papal decree". The legend gained wide circulation; Gregory of Tours referred to this political legend in his history of the Franks, written in the 580’s.

"Lu Santu Papa Silvestru", a story in Giuseppe Pitrè's collection of Sicilian fables, recounts the legend as follows: Constantine the king wants to take a second wife, and asks St. Sylvester. St. Sylvester denies him permission, calling on heaven as witness; Constantine threatens him, and St. Sylvester, rather than give in, escapes into the woods. Not long after, Constantine falls ill; when he is desperate of ever regaining his health he has a dream which commands him to send for St. Sylvester. He obeys, and St. Sylvester receives Constantine's messengers in his cave and swiftly baptizes them, whereafter (having shown them several miracles) he is led back to Constantine, whom he baptizes also, and cures. 

St. Sylvester and the Dragon 

Another famous folk tale about St. Sylvester is that he killed a dragon that was tormenting the city of Rome by making the sign of the Cross, and after the beast’s death, he resurrected those the dragon had slain. Because of his role as a defender of Rome against evil, the icon of St. Sylvester slaying the dragon became a popular motif in Rome, where it adorns shields, flags, tapestries and is painted in many church murals around Rome. 

COLLECT

ALMIGHTY GOD, bless and help Thy people, that being sustained by the intercession of St. Sylvester, we may run the course of this present life under Thy guidance, that we may happily attain life without end. Through Jesus Christ Thy Son, our Lord, who livest and reignest with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

The Relics of St. Sylvester

(Some text edited from Wikipedia and the Roman Missal)