St. Damas

CURRICULUM VITAE

He became a deacon and a guide to Pope Liberius. In 366, a significant portion of the clergy and faithful elected him as pope at the age of 61. He was the first to have authority over the whole church, and the term “Apostolic See” was coined then. He resolved doctrinal disputes with the Arians, and the rebellious Pope Ursinus was also a problem. Damasus introduced Latin into the liturgy and commissioned Jerome to prepare a Latin translation of the Scriptures, known as the Vulgate. He renovated the old Roman burial grounds in the catacombs, revived the cult of martyrs, and marked about 60 of their graves with poetic inscriptions. He died after 18 years and two months of pontification.

CV FOR MEDITATION

PURITY OF LIFE AND THE STRIVE FOR PEACE

He was born in Rome around 305 to the family of Laurentius and Anthony, who held the spiritual office of exceptor and lector at St. Lawrence. He later became a priest. Damas had a sister, Irene, and soon followed his father in altar service. He became an ostiary in the church of St. Lawrence and later rose to the rank of deacon. He strove for a virtuous, ascetic life and higher education, for which he had a marked talent. In 355, as a deacon, he accompanied Pope Liberius into exile to Berea in Thrace. According to some accounts, he received priestly ordination from the pope there, and they soon returned together.

After Liberius’ death (+ 26. 9. 366), a new pope was immediately elected, and Damasus I was legitimately elected by the majority of the clergy and the faithful. However, he was not the only one recognized. At that time, seven priests and three deacons, dissatisfied with Liberius’ direction, gathered in Transnistria, along with a part of the laity, and elected the unworthy deacon Ursinus as bishop by acclamation. Damasus’ friends were angered by the result and rushed to Transnistria, where the first severe skirmish broke out, lasting three days and leaving some dead.

Thus began the pontificate of Damasus in Rome with a sad schism, which Damasus I, consecrated to office by the Bishop of Ostia on Wednesday, October 1st, in the Lateran, certainly did not want, could not be responsible for, and bore very painfully. As a duly elected Pope, however, he was not allowed to yield to Ursinus in the interest of the Church.

The Roman prefect Viventius, fearing further unrest, first expelled Ursinus and his deacons from Rome as the instigators and, a little later, also the seven priests who had constantly incited their people against Damasus. Ursinus’ followers, however, rebelled, forcibly freed the arrested priests, and led them triumphantly to the Marian Basilica of Liberius, where they fortified themselves.

The siege of the basilica, with the outbreak of bloody fighting, took place on October 26, and 137 people reportedly died. The basilica remained in the hands of the schismatics. Ursinus’ followers also settled in the suburbs, where they occupied the church of St. Agnes on the Nomentana road. Fierce battles continued here until the prefect’s decisive intervention, after which the arrested Ursinus was sent to Gaul, but later suffered again in northern Italy, from where he plotted against Damasus and in Milan against Bishop Ambrose. Around 374, Ursinus, with the help of the false testimony of the Jewish-Christian Isaac, even brought Damasus to trial on charges that, according to legend, concerned the almost 70-year-old man committing adultery. Indeed, the Roman prefect threatened to condemn him unless the emperor Gratian intervened. He freed Damasus, exiled Ursinus to Cologne and Isaac to Spain. Damas then presented the matter to the church council so that everyone could be convinced of his innocence.

In Rome, however, his life was made miserable by many different sects, including the Valentinians, Marcionites, Montanists, and Sabellians; the Novatians had a bishop in Rome, and the Donatists had their own community. Apart from the sectarian groups, the Roman prefect Vettius Agorius Praetextatus attempted to revitalize the dwindling pagan religion. Outside Rome, there were also quite a few government-appointed Arian bishops in the Church, whose removal was problematic. The situation was attributed to the previously reigning Julian the Apostate, who, by declaring to the sectarians that there would be no religious freedom in his empire and that everyone could freely profess their faith, hoped that the freedom given to the sects would kill Christianity. At that time, God was calling strong personalities to Christianity, including Ambrose, who was celebrated four days ago and proclaimed, “Where Peter is, there is the Church, and where the Church is, there is life.” The Pope also had some support from Jerome (d. 30 9), who wrote to him from Antioch, where at that time there were three bishops of different schools: Paulinus, Vitalis, and Meletius. He confirmed Damasus’s loyalty, saying that all who are with the See of Peter are with him, as Peter is the rock of Christ’s promise. He wrote: “I do not know Vitalis, I despise Meletius, and I have nothing with Paulinus; whoever does not gather with you scatters, that is, whoever is not of Christ is of the antichrist.” Damasus later entrusted him with revising the Old Latin translation of the Bible and preparing the text under the name Vulgate.

Emperor Theodosius, fed up with Christian abuses, issued an order from Thessalonica on February 27, 380, that all subjects in his empire should profess the faith as defined by the Council of Nicaea, as taught by the Roman bishop Damasus. The following year, a church council was convened in Constantinople, at which this confession of faith was reaffirmed and is still recited in the Holy Mass today as the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed.

The Council of Constantinople also approved several laws concerning church discipline, which Pope Damasus did not approve. Among them was the bishop of Constantinople, who sought precedence as the “bishop of New Rome.”

Another significant step of Damasus concerns the synod of 382, ​​which the learned Saint Jerome also attended. It defined Catholic teaching on the Holy Spirit and his gifts and declared which books of the Bible should be recognized as canonical. This is because much religious literature was circulated that had to be labeled as unreliable: forged gospels, false apostolic letters, and religious novels that spread heresies. Gnostics were especially active in this area, and therefore a precise definition and naming of the books of Holy Scripture was needed from the very beginning.

From the council, Pope Damasus kept Jerome as his secretary, in addition to the work he had given him in preparing the Bible, because Jerome, among other things, was fluent in several languages and knew essential figures in the world. Jerome became very popular at first, but then many resented his more direct nature and saw him as a harsh ascetic, protected by Damasus.

This pope had another friend in the letter engraver Dionysius Philokalus, whom he also employed frequently. Damas, as a worshiper of the holy martyrs, discovered and lovingly restored their graves, composed verses on them, which Philokalus engraved on marble slabs. In this way, he contributed to the reliable preservation of more than 50 names. He had the corridors in the catacombs widened and stairs built. If necessary, he also had the Vatican cemetery drained to prevent water from destroying the graves. Christian archaeologists are especially grateful to him for all this.

He built a new church of St. Lawrence and, next to it, established the first rooms for the church archive. Another basilica he built was on the Adreatina road, where his 92-year-old mother and sister Irene were buried, and finally Pope Damasus himself, who died at about 80 years of age on 11 December 384. Although he lived in such storms, he was called the Pope of Peace because he sought peace with God by avoiding sin and striving for holiness. His heart was full of love, with which he sought peace with his neighbors, and he also sought peace within himself by exercising patience and tempering his nature. Jerome called him a virgin teacher in a virgin church.

In 1880, his grave was discovered, and his remains were later transferred to the Basilica of St. Lawrence.

RESOLUTION, PRAYER

The purity of life and the pursuit of peace should also belong in my life. In meditation, I will strive to understand the meaning of purity and peace, and I will make a necessary decision that will serve as my resolution, to which I will pay special attention.

Through the intercession of the holy Pope Damasus, powerful generator of the martyrs and promoter of their glory, teach us, O God, to esteem and follow those who bear effective witness to their faith. We ask this through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, world without end.