Feastday: December 11
Birth: 305
Death: 384
St. Damasus Pope and Confessor December 11 A.D. 384 Pope Damasus is said in the Pontifical to have been a Spaniard; which may be true of his extraction; but Tillemont and Merenda show that he seems to have been born at Rome. His father, whose name was Antony, either after the death of his wife, or by her free consent, engaged himself in the ecclesiastical state, and was successively reader, deacon, and priest of title or parish church of St. Laurence in Rome. Damasus served in the sacred ministry in the same church, and always lived in a perfect state of continence, as St. Jerome assures us. When Liberius was banished by Constantius to Beroea, in 355, he was archdeacon of the Roman church, and attended him into exile, but immediately returned to Rome. Liberius at length was prevailed upon to sign a confession of faith in which the word consubstantial was omitted. After his return from banishment, he constantly held communion with St. Athanasius, as is clear from that holy man's letter to the bishops of Egypt, in 360. He condemned and annulled the decrees of the council of Rimini, by a letter which he wrote to those bishops, mentioned by Siricius. Liberius, after this, lay hid some time in the vaults of the cemeteries, for fear of the persecutors, as we learn from Sozomen, Prosper, in his chronicle, Lucifer of Cagliari, and Anastasius, in the life of pope Julius. Thus he repaired the fault which he had committed by his subscription. All this time Damasus had a great share in the government of the church, and doubtless animated the zeal of the pope. Liberius died on the 24th of September, 366, and Damasus, who was then sixty years old, was chosen bishop of Rome, and ordained in the basilic of Lucina, otherwise called St. Laurence's, which title he bore before his pontificate. Soon after, Ursinus, called by some moderns Ursicmus, who could not bear that St. Damasus should be preferred before him, got together a crowd of disorderly and seditious people in the church of Sicin, commonly called the Liberian basine, now St. Mary Major, and persuaded Paul bishop of Tibur, now Tivoli, a dull ignorant man, to ordain him bishop of Rome, contrary to the ancient canons, which require three bishops for the ordination Or a bishop; and to the ancient custom of the Roman church whose bishop was to be consecrated by the bishop of Ostia, as Baronius and Tillemont observe. Juventius, prefect of Rome, banished Ursinus, and some others of his party. Seven priests who adhered to him were seized to be carried into exile; but were rescued by their partisans, and carried to the Liberian basilic. The people that sided with Damasus came together with swords and clubs, besieged the basilic to deliver these men up to the prefect, and a fight ensued, in which one hundred and thirty-seven persons were killed, as Ammianus Marcellinus and St. Austin relate. In September the following year, 367, the emperor Valentinian allowed Ursinus to return to Rome; but, on account of new tumults, in November banished him again with seven accomplices, into Gaul. The schismatics still kept possession of a church, probably that of St. Agnes without the walls, and held assemblies in the cemeteries. But Valentinian sent an order for that church to be put into the hands of Damasus; and Maximin, a magistrate of the city, a man naturally inclined to cruelty, put several schismatics to the torture. Rufin clears Damasus of any way concurring to, or approving of such barbarous proceedings, and the schismatics fell into the snare they had laid for trim, by which it seems that they demanded an inquiry to be made by the rack, which turned to their own confusion and chastisement. It appears by certain verses of pope Damasus that he had made a vow to God in honor of certain martyrs, to engage their intercession for the conversion of some of the clergy who continued obstinate in the schism; and that these clergymen being converted to the unity of the church, in gratitude, adorned at their own expense the tombs of these martyrs. By the same poem we learn, that the warmest abettors of the cause of Ursinus, after some time sincerely submitted to Damasus. His election was both anterior in time and in all its circumstances regular; and was declared such by a great council held at Aquileia in 381, composed of the most holy and eminent bishops of the western church; and by a council at Rome in 378, in both which the acts of violence are imputed to the fury of Ursinus. St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, St. Austin, Rufin, and others, bear testimony to the demeanor, and to the due election of Damasus. Ammianus Marcellinus, the famous pagan historian of those times, says, that the chariots, rich clothes, and splendid feasting of the bishops of Rome, whose tables surpassed those of kings, were a tempting object to ambition; and wishes they would imitate the plainness of some prelates in the provinces. Herein, at least with regard to the table, there is doubtless a great deal of exaggeration and spleen; though sometimes extraordinary entertainments were probably given by the church. However, some appearance of pomp and state was certainly then made, since, as St. Jerome reports, Praetextatus, an eminent pagan senator who was afterwards prefect of Rome, said to pope Damasus, "Make me bishop of Rome, and I will be a Christian tomorrow." Power alone is a snare to ambitious and worldly men; and a danger inseparable from exalted stations; yet all such things are rather an object of dread to those clergymen whose hearts are disengaged from the world; and riches in their hands are only the patrimony of Christ, instruments of charity. The reflection, however, of this heathen shows how necessary Christian modesty is to recommend the spins of the gospel. Damasus certainly deserved not to fall under his censure. For St. Jerome, the great admirer of this holy pope, severely m weighs against the luxury and state which some ecclesiastics at Rome affected," which he would never have done if it had been a satire on his patron, at least he was too sincere to have continued his admirer. More over, in 370, Valentinian, to repress the scandalous conduct of ecclesiastics, who persuaded persons to bequeath estates or legacies to the church in prejudice of their heirs, addressed a law to Damasus, forbidding the clergy or monks to frequent the houses of orphans and widows, or to receive from them any gift, legacy, or feoffment in trust. This edict pope Damasus caused to be read in all the churches of Rome, and he was very severe in putting the same in execution, so as to give great offense to some unworthy persons who, on that account, went over to the schismatics, but some time after returned to their duty. Baronius thinks this law was enacted at the request of the pope, because it was addressed to him. At least it was certainly approved by him, and was not less agreeable to him than just in itself. It appears by St. Damasus's fifteenth poem, that having escaped all dangers and persecutions, in thanksgiving he made a pilgrimage to St. Felix's shrine at Nola, and there hung up this votive poem, and performed his devotions. Arianism reigned in the East under the protection of Valens, though vigorously opposed by many pillars of orthodoxy, as St. Athanasius, St. Basil, &c. In the West it was confined to Milan and Pannonia. Utterly to extirpate it in that part of the world, pope Damasus, in a council at Rome in 368, condemned Ursacius and Valens, famous Arian bishops in Pannonia; and in another in 370, Auxentius of Milan. The schism of Antioch fixed the attention of the whole church. Meletius had beer ordained upon the expulsion of St. Eustathius, whom the Arians had banished; Paulinus was acknowledged by the zealous Catholics, called, Eustathians, because, during the life of St. Eustathius, they would admit no other bishop. St. Basil, and other Orientals, being well informed of the orthodox faith of St. Meletius, adhered to him; but Damasus, with the western prelates, held communion with Paulinus, suspecting the orthodoxy of Meletius on account of the doubtful principles of some of those by whom he was advanced to the see. Not with standing this disagreement, these prelates were careful to preserve the peace of Christ with one another. The heresy of Apollinarius or Apollinaris caused a greater breach. Apollinarius, the father, taught grammar first at Berytus, afterwards at Laodicea in Syria, where he married, and had a son of the same name, who was brought up to learning, had a good genius well improved by studies, and taught rhetoric in the same town; and both embracing an ecclesiastical state, the father was priest, and the son reader in that church at the same time. The younger of these was chosen bishop of Laodicea in 362. When Julian the Apostate forbade Christians to read the classics, the two Apollinariuses composed very beautiful hymns in all sorts of verse on the sacred history and other pious subjects; which are lost, except a paraphrase on the psalms in hexameter verse. In these poems they began to scatter the poison of certain errors, which were condemned by St. Athanasius, in his council at Alexandria in 360, but the author was not then known. St. Athanasius wrote against these without naming the author, in 362 In the council which Damasus held at Rome in 374, the same conduct was observed. But the obstinacy of the bishop Apollinarius appearing incurable, from that time his name was no longer spared: it was anathematized first by pope Damasus at Rome The heresiarch lived to a great age, and died in his impiety. His capital errors consisted in this, that he said Christ had not assumed a human understanding, (soul,) but only the flesh, that is, the body and a sensitive soul, such as beasts have; and that the divine person was to him instead of a soul or human understanding; for which he insisted upon those words, the Word was made flesh; and he pretended that the human soul being the fountain of sin, it was not fitting that Christ should assume it In this erroneous system it followed that Christ was not made man, having only taken upon him a body, the least part of human nature. Apollinarius also taught, that the body of Christ came from heaven, was impassible, and descended into the womb of the Virgin Mary, was not born or formed of her; also, that Christ only suffered and died in appearance." He likewise revived the Millenarian heresy, and advanced certain errors about the Trinity. His followers chose Vitalis, one of his disciples, bishop of their sect at Antioch, and called Timothy, another of his disciples, patriarch of Alexandria. The decrees of pope Damasus against this heresiarch were received in a council held at Alexandria, in another at Antioch, and in the general council at Constantinople in 381. Illyricum in that age comprised all Greece and several other provinces near the Danube. The emperor Gratian, in favor of Theodosius, yielded up Eastern Illyricum, that is, Greece and Dacia, to the Eastern empire: the popes maintained that this country still belonged to the Western patriarchate, and reserved to themselves the confirmation of its bishops and other patriarchal rights. St. Damasus appointed St. Ascholius, bishop of Thessalonica, (who frequently preserved Macedon from the Goths with no other arms but his prayers,) his vicar over those churches: and in a letter to him, which is yet extant, gave him strict charge to be watchful that nothing should be done in the church of Constantinople prejudicial to the faith, or against the canons: and he condemned the illegal intrusion of Maximus the Cynic into that important see. When Nectarius was chosen archbishop of Constantinople, Theodosius sent deputies to Rome, to entreat pope Damasus to confirm his election. When St. Jerome accompanied St. Epiphanius and St. Paulinus of Antioch to Rome, Damasus detained him till his death, three years after, near his person, employing him in quality of secretary, to write his letters, and answer consultations. This pope, who was himself a very learned man, and well skilled in the holy scriptures, encouraged St. Jerome in his studies. That severe and holy doctor calls him "an excellent man;" and in another place, "an incomparable person, learned in the scriptures, a virgin doctor of the virgin church, who loved chastity, and heard its eulogiums with pleasure. Theodoret calls him the celebrated Damasus," and places him at the head of the famous doctors of divine grace in the Latin church. The oriental bishops in 431, profess that they follow the holy example of Damasus, Basil, Athanasius, Ambrose, and others who have been eminent for their learning. The general council of Chalcedon styles Damasus, for his piety, the honor and glory of Rome." Theodoret says, "He was illustrious by his holy life, and ready to preach, and to do all of the apostolic doctrine." This pope rebuilt, or at least repaired, the church of St. Laurence neat Pompey's theater, where he had officiated after his father, and which to this day is called from St. Laurence, in Damaso. He beautified it with paintings of sacred history, which were remaining four hundred years afterwards." He presented it with a paten of silver weighing fifteen pounds, a wrought vessel of ten pounds weight, five silver chalices weighing three pounds each, five silver sconces to hold wax lights, of eight pounds each, and candlesticks of brass, of sixteen pounds weight. He also settled upon it several houses that were near the church, and a piece of land. St. Damasus likewise drained all the springs of the Vatican which ran over the bodies that were buried there, and he decorated the sepulchers of a great number of martyrs in the cemeteries, and adorned them with epitaphs in verse, of which a collection of almost forty is extant. Some of these belong not to him; those which are his work, are distinguished by a peculiar elegance and elevation, and justify the commendation which St. Jerome gives to his poetical genius. In the few letters of this pope which we have in the editions of the councils, out of the great number which he wrote, it appears that he was a man of genius and taste, and wrote with elegance. The ancients particularly commend his constancy in maintaining the purity of our holy faith, the innocence of his manners, his Christian humility, his compassion for the poor, his piety in adorning holy places, especially the tombs of the martyrs, and his singular learning. Having sat eighteen years and two months, he died on the 10th of December in 384, being near fourscore years of age. A pontifical kept in the Vatican library, quoted by Merenda, says, that the saint burning with an ardent desire to be dissolved, and be with Christ, he was seized with a fever, and having received the body and blood of the Lord, lifting up his eyes and hands to heaven, he expired in devout prayer. His intercession is particularly implored in Italy by persons that are sick of fevers." He was buried near his mother and sister, in an oratory which he had built and adorned at the catacombs near the Ardeatin Way, between that road and the cemetery of Calixtus or Praetextatus. Marangonus describes his sepulcher and those of his mother and sister, as they were discovered in the year 1736. Learning, the great accomplishment and improvement of the human mind, is often made its bane. This sometimes happens by the choice which a man makes of his studies, and much oftener by the manner in which he pursues them. As to the choice, there is no sloth more trifling or vain than the studies of some learned men; to whom we may apply what Plato said to the charioteer, whose dexterity in the circus struck the spectators with astonishment. But the philosopher declared he deserved to be publicly chastised for the loss of so much time as was necessary for him to have attained that dexterity in so trifling; useless an exercise. A perfect knowledge of our own, and some foreign and learned languages, is a necessary instrument, and a key to much useful knowledge, but of little use if it be not directed to higher purposes. Holy David, St. Ambrose, St. Damasus Prudentius, St. Paulinus, and many others consecrated poetry to the divine praises. The belles letters in all their branches, give an elegance to a man's mind and thoughts, and help us to communicate with dignity our most useful knowledge to others. But if made an employment of life, especially when the proper studies or occupations of a state ought to have banished them, they become a pernicious idleness, and so much entertain the heart as to ruin devotion and the taste of duties. and to occupy our reason in trifles. They are particularly condemned by the fathers and councils, in clergymen, as trespassing upon their obligations and destructive of the spirit of their profession. Logic gives a justness and clearness to our thoughts teaches accurate reasoning, and exceedingly improves the judgment and other faculties of the mind. Yet, if its rules are made too prolix or spun into refined subtilties, they puzzle and confound the understanding. The same is to be said of metaphysics, which ought properly to be called the generals of science: a just acquaintance with which is, above all other studies and accomplishments, the means of improving the mind to the highest perfection, especially its ruling faculty, the judgment, and fitting it for success and accuracy in all other sciences and arts. The principles of Aristotlei in logic and metaphysics are solid, exact, complete, and far preferable to all others; but the exposition must be concise, methodical, profound, infinitely accurate, clear, elegant, or free from a Gothic dress, which disfigures the best attainments, and is the characteristic of barbarism. Skill in useless knotty problems or questions which some start, is compared by an elegant writer to a passion for breaking hard stones with a man's teeth, merely to show their goodness. All studies, he they ever so methodically conducted and regulated, must, in imitation of the saints, be directed to a holy end and serious purpose, and sanctified by a life of prayer. If fondness for any science degenerates into passion, it becomes a dangerous and vicious branch of curiosity, drains the heart, hinders holy meditation and prayer, captivates the soul, and produces all the disorders of inordinate passions.
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Damasus I (/ˈdæməsəs/; c. 305 – 11 December 384) was the bishop of Rome from October 366 to his death. He presided over the Council of Rome of 382 that determined the canon or official list of sacred scripture. He spoke out against major heresies in the church (including Apollinarianism and Macedonianism) and encouraged production of the Vulgate Bible with his support for Jerome. He helped reconcile the relations between the Church of Rome and the Church of Antioch, and encouraged the veneration of martyrs.
As well as various prose letters and other pieces Damasus was the author of Latin verse. Alan Cameron describes his epitaph for a young girl called Projecta (of great interest to scholars as the Projecta Casket in the British Museum may have been made for her) as "a tissue of tags and clichés shakily strung together and barely squeezed into the meter". Damasus has been described as "the first society Pope", and was possibly a member of a group of Spanish Christians, largely related to each other, who were close to the Spaniard Theodosius I.
A number of images of "DAMAS" in gold glass cups probably represent him and seem to be the first contemporary images of a pope to survive, though there is no real attempt at a likeness. "Damas" appears with other figures, including a Florus who may be Projecta's father. It has been suggested that Damasus or another of the group commissioned and distributed these to friends or supporters, as part of a programme "insistently inserting his episcopal presence in the Christian landscape".
He is recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church; his feast day is 11 December. In the Eastern Orthodox Church his feast day is 13 November.
Background
His life coincided with the rise of Emperor Constantine I and the reunion and re-division of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires, which is associated with the legitimization of Christianity and its later adoption as the official religion of the Roman state in 380.
The reign of Gratian, which coincided with Damasus' papacy, forms an important epoch in ecclesiastical history, since during that period (359–383), Catholic Christianity for the first time became dominant throughout the empire. Under the influence of Ambrose, Gratian refused to wear the insignia of the pontifex maximus as unbefitting a Christian, removed the Altar of Victory from the Senate at Rome, despite protests from the pagan members of the Senate. Emperor Gratian also forbade legacies of real property to the Vestals and abolished other privileges belonging to them and to the pontiffs.
Early life
Pope Damasus I was born in Rome around 305. Damasus' parents were Antonius, who became a priest at the Church of St. Lawrence (San Lorenzo) in Rome, and his wife Laurentia. Both parents originally come from the region of Lusitania. Damasus began his ecclesiastical career as a deacon in his father's church, where he went on to serve as a priest. This later became the basilica of Saint Lawrence outside the Walls in Rome.
During Damasus' early years, Constantine I rose to rule the Western Roman Empire. As emperor, he issued the Edict of Milan (313), which granted religious freedom to Christians in all parts of the Roman Empire. A crisis precipitated by the rejection of religious freedom by Licinius, Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, in favor of paganism resulted in a civil war in 324 that placed Constantine firmly in control of a reunited Empire. This led to the establishment of Christian religious supremacy in Constantinople and gradually led to a See in that city which sought to rival the authority of the Roman See. Damasus was most likely in his twenties at the time.
When Pope Liberius was banished by Emperor Constantius II to Berea in 354, Damasus was archdeacon of the Roman church and followed Liberius into exile, though he immediately returned to Rome. During the period before Liberius' return, Damasus had a great share in the government of the church.
Succession crisis
In the early Church, bishops were customarily elected by the clergy and the people of the diocese. While this simple method worked well in a small community of Christians unified by persecution, as the congregation grew in size, the acclamation of a new bishop was fraught with division, and rival claimants and a certain class hostility between patrician and plebeian candidates unsettled some episcopal elections. At the same time, 4th-century emperors expected each new pope-elect to be presented to them for approval, which sometimes led to state domination of the Church's internal affairs.
Following the death of Pope Liberius on 24 September 366, Damasus succeeded to the Papacy amidst factional violence. The deacons and laity, supported Liberius' deacon Ursinus. The upper-class former partisans of Felix, who had ruled during Liberius' exile, supported the election of Damasus.
The two were elected simultaneously (Damasus' election was held in San Lorenzo in Lucina). J. N. D. Kelly states that Damasus hired a gang of thugs that stormed the Julian Basilica, carrying out a three-day massacre of the Ursinians. Thomas Shahan says details of this scandalous conflict are related in the highly prejudiced "Libellus precum ad Imperatores" (P.L., XIII, 83-107), a petition to the civil authority on the part of Faustinus and Marcellinus, two anti-Damasan presbyters. Such was the violence and bloodshed that the two prefects of the city were called in to restore order, and after a first setback, when they were driven to the suburbs and a massacre of 137 was perpetrated in the basilica of Sicininus (the modern Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore), the prefects banished Ursinus to Gaul. Both Cynthia White and Edward Gibbon have suggested a quid pro quo between the prefect Praetextatus and Damasus to secure his election and exile Urbanus, in return for Damasus's support of Praetextatus's power in Pagan circles. There was further violence when he returned, which continued after Ursinus was exiled again.
Another ancient narrative of events, the "Gesta" (dated to 368 A.D.), provides more detail. It describes Ursinus as being the valid successor to Liberius, and Damasus as following a heretical interloper, Felix. This account also records that an armed force instigated by Damasus broke into the Basilica of Julius and a three-day slaughtering of those assembled there took place. After gaining control of the Lateran basilica Damasus was then ordained as bishop in the cathedral of Rome. However, Damasus was accused of bribing the urban officials of Rome to have Ursinus and chief supporters exiled, including some presbyters. As a result of this attempt, some of the (apparently quite numerous) supporters of Ursinus interrupted this process and rescued the presbyters, taking them to the Basilica of Liberius (identified as the "basilica of Sicinnius"), the apparent headquarters of the Ursinian sect. Damasus then responded by ordering an attack against the Liberian basilica, resulting in another massacre: "They broke down the doors and set fire underneath it, then rushed in...and killed a hundred and sixty of the people inside, both men and women." Damasus next sent a final assault against some Ursinian supporters who had fled to the cemetery of Saint Agnes, slaying many.
Church historians such as Jerome and Rufinus, championed Damasus. At a synod in 378, Ursinus was condemned and Damasus exonerated and declared the true pope. The former antipope continued to intrigue against Damasus for the next few years and unsuccessfully attempted to revive his claim on Damasus's death. Ursinus was among the Arian party in Milan, according to Ambrose.
Papacy
Damasus faced accusations of murder and adultery in his early years as pope. Edward Gibbon writes, "The enemies of Damasus styled him Auriscalpius Matronarum, the ladies' ear-scratcher." The neutrality of these claims has come into question with some suggesting that the accusations were motivated by the schismatic conflict with the supporters of Arianism.
Damasus I was active in defending the Catholic Church against the threat of schisms. In two Roman synods (368 and 369) he condemned Apollinarianism and Macedonianism, and sent legates to the First Council of Constantinople that was convoked in 381 to address these heresies.
Council of Rome of 382 and the Biblical canon
One of the important works of Pope Damasus was to preside in the Council of Rome of 382 that determined the canon or official list of Sacred Scripture. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, states: A council probably held at Rome in 382 under Damasus gave a complete list of the canonical books of both the Old Testament and the New Testament (also known as the 'Gelasian Decree' because it was reproduced by Gelasius in 495), which is identical with the list given at Trent. American Catholic priest and historian William Jurgens stated: "The first part of this decree has long been known as the Decree of Damasus, and concerns the Holy Spirit and the seven-fold gifts. The second part of the decree is more familiarly known as the opening part of the Gelasian Decree, in regard to the canon of Scripture: De libris recipiendis vel non-recipiendis. It is now commonly held that the part of the Gelasian Decree dealing with the accepted canon of Scripture is an authentic work of the Council of Rome of 382 A.D. and that Gelasius edited it again at the end of the fifth century, adding to it the catalog of the rejected books, the apocrypha. It is now almost universally accepted that these parts one and two of the Decree of Damasus are authentic parts of the Acts of the Council of Rome of 382 A.D." (Jurgens, Faith of the Early Fathers)
Jerome, the Vulgate and the Canon
Pope Damasus appointed Jerome as his confidential secretary. Invited to Rome originally to a synod of 382 convened to end the schism of Antioch, he made himself indispensable to the pope, and took a prominent place in his councils. Jerome spent three years (382–385) in Rome in close intercourse with Pope Damasus and the leading Christians. Writing in 409, Jerome remarked, "A great many years ago when I was helping Damasus, bishop of Rome with his ecclesiastical correspondence, and writing his answers to the questions referred to him by the councils of the east and west..."
In order to put an end to the marked divergences in the western texts of that period, Damasus encouraged the highly respected scholar Jerome to revise the available Old Latin versions of the Bible into a more accurate Latin on the basis of the Greek New Testament and the Septuagint, resulting in the Vulgate. According to Protestant biblical scholar, F.F. Bruce, the commissioning of the Vulgate was a key moment in fixing the biblical canon in the West.
Jerome devoted a very brief notice to Damasus in his De Viris Illustribus, written after Damasus' death: "he had a fine talent for making verses and published many brief works in heroic metre. He died in the reign of the emperor Theodosius at the age of almost eighty". Damasus may be the author of the anonymous Carmen contra paganos (song against the pagans).
Letter of Jerome to Damasus
Further information: Letter of Jerome to Pope DamasusThe letters from Jerome to Damasus are examples of the primacy of the See of Peter:
Yet, though your greatness terrifies me, your kindness attracts me. From the priest I demand the safe-keeping of the victim, from the shepherd the protection due to the sheep. Away with all that is overweening; let the state of Roman majesty withdraw. My words are spoken to the successor of the fisherman, to the disciple of the cross. As I follow no leader save Christ, so I communicate with none but your blessedness, that is with the chair of Peter. For this, I know, is the rock on which the church is built! This is the house where alone the paschal lamb can be rightly eaten. This is the ark of Noah, and he who is not found in it shall perish when the flood prevails. But since by reason of my sins I have betaken myself to this desert which lies between Syria and the uncivilized waste, I cannot, owing to the great distance between us, always ask of your sanctity the holy thing of the Lord. Consequently I here follow the Egyptian confessors who share your faith, and anchor my frail craft under the shadow of their great argosies. I know nothing of Vitalis; I reject Meletius; I have nothing to do with Paulinus. He that gathers not with you scatters; he that is not of Christ is of Antichrist.
Relations with the Eastern Church
The Eastern Church, in the person of Basil of Caesarea, earnestly sought the aid and encouragement of Damasus against an apparently triumphant Arianism. Damasus, however, harbored some degree of suspicion against the great Cappadocian Doctor of the Church. In the matter of the Meletian Schism at Antioch, Damasus – together with Athanasius of Alexandria, and his successor, Peter II of Alexandria – sympathized with the party of Paulinus as more sincerely representative of Nicene orthodoxy. On the death of Meletius he sought to secure the succession for Paulinus and to exclude Flavian. During his papacy, Peter II of Alexandria sought refuge in Rome from the persecuting Arians. He was received by Damasus, who supported him against the Arians.
Damasus supported the appeal of the Christian senators to Emperor Gratian for the removal of the altar of Victory from the Senate House, and lived to welcome the famous edict of Theodosius I, "De fide Catholica" (27 February 380), which proclaimed as the religion of the Roman State that doctrine which Peter had preached to the Romans and of which Damasus was head.
Facsimile of a Damasan inscription by the late 4th-century lapicide Philocalus in the Catacombs of Saint Agnes beneath the Constantinian basilica of Sant'Agnese fuori le Mura
Devotion to the martyrs
Damasus also did much to encourage the veneration of the Christian martyrs, restoring and creating access to their tombs in the Catacombs of Rome and elsewhere, and setting up tablets with verse inscriptions composed by himself, several of which survive or are recorded in his Epigrammata.
Damasus rebuilt or repaired his father's church named for Laurence, known as San Lorenzo fuori le Mura ("St Lawrence outside the walls"), which by the 7th century was a station on the itineraries of the graves of the Roman martyrs. Damasus' regard for the Roman martyr is attested also by the tradition according to which the Pope built a church devoted to Laurence in his own house, San Lorenzo in Damaso.
Damasus was pope for eighteen years and two months. His feast day is 11 December. He was buried beside his mother and sister in a "funerary basilica ... somewhere between the Via Appia and Via Ardeatina", the exact location of which is lost.
