St. Sylvester

St. Sylvester I was Bishop of Rome from 314 to 335, one of the longest pontificates of the early Church, spanning almost the whole reign of the emperor Constantine. A Roman by birth, he became pope in January 314, the year after the Edict of Milan granted Christians freedom of worship. His papacy thus presided over a momentous turning point: the Church's emergence from three centuries of persecution into public life. During his pontificate the first great Christian basilicas of Rome rose with imperial support—among them the cathedral of Rome at the Lateran and the original St. Peter's on the Vatican Hill over the apostle's tomb. Sylvester did not attend the two great councils of his era in person: he was represented by legates at the Council of Arles in 314 and at the first ecumenical council, Nicaea, in 325, which confessed the divinity of Christ against the Arian heresy—a definition the Roman Church received and upheld. For a figure who governed the Church in such an age, the reliable historical record of Sylvester himself is surprisingly sparse, and later centuries filled the silence with legend. Medieval accounts credited him with baptizing Constantine and curing him of leprosy, and the forged "Donation of Constantine" claimed the emperor had granted him sweeping temporal powers; these stories are not historical, though they testify to the stature his memory held. Sylvester died on December 31, 335, and was buried in the Catacomb of Priscilla on the Via Salaria; in the eighth century his relics were transferred to the church of San Silvestro in Capite in the heart of Rome, where they remain. Venerated since antiquity—among the first saints honored though not a martyr—he is commemorated on December 31, which is why New Year's Eve is still called "Silvester" in many European countries.