Who was Saint Silvestre, the last “saint” of the year and the first “legal” pope of Christianity

The following year, in 314, a new Pope became the leader of the Church: Silvestre (285-335). The first time, therefore, that Christianity was no longer an underground religion.

However, by then Christianity had had several leaders not recognized by the Roman authorities and dating back to Pedro, the disciple of Jesus considered by the Church as the first pope.

But what about this man?

Little is known and the information is sometimes confused with legends, as is usual in the case of saints and religious personalities.

Born in Rome, Silvestre was pope from January 31, 315 to December 31, 335. During all that time, the emperor was Constantine.

In other words, he was “bishop of Rome in a period of glory for Christianity,” says Mirticeli Medeiros, a researcher on the history of Catholicism at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

As the scholar recalls, Constantine was “the emperor who turned Christianity into a legal religion.”

This situation made Silvestre a “very Roman” pope, explains Filipe Domingues, doctor of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and deputy director of the Lay Center of Rome.

“He was the pope of the era of Constantine, that is, the first pope of a very remarkable Rome, a Christian Rome, where Christians were not persecuted”, index Sundays.

“He was not a Pope who achieved many things because at that time the emperor had great decision-making power,” he adds.

“[Silvestre] he was the pontiff who fought against the first heresies of the Church “, adds Medeiros.

“His memory is also linked to the first basilicas built by Constantine in Rome and to the legend of the famous’Donation of Constantine‘, a false document, attributed to his authorship, which served to justify the lands that were under the dominion of the pope in the Middle Ages and that would have been transmitted by Constantine to Silvestre, “the expert details.

Yes, there was a forged document justifying the possession of Church lands that gave rise to the Vatican – much larger than the area now occupied – as a donation from Constantine to Silvestre.

“When they discovered that it was a medieval invention, in the sixteenth century, it was too late. The pope already had a papal state that seized much of the Italian peninsula,” reports the Vatican.

Thiago Maerki, from the Federal University of Sao Paulo, emphasizes that “we know little about the historical figure of San Silvestre, since, as is usual in the lives of saints until the Middle Ages, events are mixed with legendary elements.”

“We know that he became a Christian during the great persecution of Diocletian [un emperador romano que gobernó del 284 al 305] and that he was pope from 314 to 335 “, he points out.” It is also true that he was absent from important Church councils, such as Arles, in 314, and Nicaea, in 325. “

For the academic, these absences may have occurred because, as these councils were summoned by the Emperor Constantine, “Sylvester perhaps thought that they should be presided over by local bishops, as was customary in the Church at that time.”

This is an important point: as bishops of Rome, the popes of the time were considered the successors of Peter, but they did not have a systematized hierarchical power as in the contemporary Catholic Church.

There is another story linked to Silvestre’s biography, with the outlines of a legend.

“It would have been Silvestre who baptized Emperor Constantine on his deathbed,” says researcher Medeiros.

“But there is controversy over this particular fact. The sources that we have at our disposal disagree on what happened. It is believed that it was, in fact, a propaganda tool to build the image of a good Christian. [el emperador]”, explains Medeiros.

Maerki classifies the episode, in which Sylvester is said to be “responsible for the conversion of Constantine”, as a “traditional legendary narrative”.

“Legend has it that the emperor was taken by leprosy and was instructed by pagan priests to bathe in the blood of innocent children. However, the apostles Peter and Paul [muertos siglos antes] They would have appeared to him in a dream and they recommended that he look for Silvestre so that the saint could show him the way of salvation “, the researcher comments.

“Having done that, he would have received baptism, he would have been cured of leprosy and, later, he would have created laws favorable to the Church, putting an end to the persecution of Christians. This legendary fact contributed to the spread of Silvestre’s memory , his reputation for holiness and his worship throughout history, “says Maerki.

Domingues recalls that “historians tend to say that Constantine’s conversion was much more a political act than a religious act.”

The indisputable fact is that, with the conversion of Constantine, from the heart or simply out of political interest, Rome began to experience a period of tranquility.

“[Entonces, Silvestre] he is the pope who witnessed the end of the persecution of Christians, determined by Constantine with his conversion to Christianity, a period in which peace was established “, contextualizes the researcher and student of the lives of the saints José Luís Lira, founder from the Brazilian Academy of Hagiography and professor at the State University of Vale do Acaraú.

But if both the account of Constantine’s conversion and the handing over of Roman possessions to the Church are legends, Sylvester’s peaceful relationship with the empire is the explanation for many Christian improvements.

“Silvestre was reputed to have been a very good person to normalize the faith of the Church and recover Christianity in a process of pacifying religion in Rome,” says Domingues.

“It may not be true that Constantine ‘gave everything’ to the pope, but it seems that he did give a lot,” he says.

Proof of this is that important churches in Rome had their original seats built at the time.

“In the pontificate of St. Sylvester, the authority of the Church was established and the first official Christian monuments were built, such as the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem and the first basilicas of Rome, St. John Lateran and St. Peter, in addition to the churches of the holy apostles in Constantinople. For his action, for his life and testimony, we can say, he was hailed as a saint, a model for Christians, “says Lira.

“For all this, his pontificate was very important for the Church,” emphasizes Domingues.

The Vaticanist recalls that this importance is present in the Roman imagination, with several works alluding to this religious.

“It is in many mosaics, in much Roman art because it represents precisely this period of conversion, the transition from non-Christian Rome, when Christians were persecuted and the first saints were all martyrs, to a Rome where Christianity was legalized, then institutionalized. “, he points out.

“Before Silvestre, the ‘churches’ did not exist, the Christians prayed in houses, in remote places. It is during this period that they begin to be built,” he emphasizes.

His canonization, that is, the process that recognized him as a saint, was outside the current protocols of the Church, created long after his life.

“In the past, there was no canonization ceremony to recognize someone’s sanctity, but their mortal remains were worshiped by Christians,” Medeiros explains.

“Let’s say that, using a modern term, he was ‘hailed as a saint’, after all, this is how a person became a saint in ancient times: by popular acclaim,” he adds.

Silvestre already appears in the first version of the Roman martyrology, published in 1583, the book in which the names of the saints are inscribed.

In this “list that documented the day of death and the burial place of the first Christians”, says Medeiros, it is attested that “he died on December 31, 335 and, initially, he was buried in the catacombs of Priscilla, in Rome. . “.

“Currently, the bones of the saint are kept in the Church of San Silvestro in Capite, also in Rome,” he explains.

There is not much data on the reason for the recognition of his sanctity, “says Lira.” The rules that made the cause of beatification and canonization more complex, although direct, did not yet exist. “

Remember that the Roman martyrology only records “Saint Sylvester I, pope, who piously led the Church for many years, at the time when Emperor Constantine built the venerable Roman basilicas and the Council of Nicaea acclaimed Christ as the Son of God. That day [31 de diciembre] his body was buried in the Priscilla cemetery. “

Maerki recalls a curiosity: “Saint Sylvester was the first non-martyr saint venerated in the Roman Church,” he emphasizes.

“In the first centuries of the Christian era, being a martyr was a prerogative to be declared a saint.”

The day of San Silvestre is December 31 because that was the date of his death, which makes him the last person in the Roman saint.

But at the time of his death, this date it wasn’t new years eve; December 31 simply became the last day of the Gregorian calendar year, promulgated by Pope Gregory XIII (1502-1585) on February 24, 1582.

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