Saint Damasus of Spain

Ursinus, or Ursic Ursin, ou Ursicin Antipope and rival of Damasus, responsible for disturbances in Rome. inus, a deacon and a turbulent man who coveted this high dignity, could not bear that another had been preferred over him. Thus, having assembled some factious clerics, he had himself elected antipope and tried to maintain by violence a rank that the right of a canonical election did not give him. In this tumult, many people were killed, and in a single day as many as one hundred and thirty-seven bodies were found lying in the square, without Saint Damasus having contributed to it in any way, for he was of a very gentle spirit and would rather have renounced the sovereign Pontificate than to maintain it by force of ar ms. The Emperor Valent L'empereur Valentinien Roman emperor marking the temporal context of the episcopate. inian, convinced of his rightful claim, sent Praetextatus to Rome to drive out Ursicinus and his adherents, and to maintain him in the peaceful possession of his see. This peace did not last long; Ursicinus was given permission to return to the city, and, his malice not diminishing with time, he had a soul dark enough to have the holy Pontiff accused of adultery. Concordius and Callistus, deacons, were the instruments of his calumny. They opened their mouths against the Lord's anointed and imputed this crime to him to make him appear unworthy of the sovereign prelacy he occupied. Damasus was not troubled by this imposture; he assembled a synod of forty-four bishops in Rome, where he justified himself so perfectly that his accusers were excommunicated and driven from the city, and it was decreed that, thereafter, those who unjustly accused someone would be subject to the law of retaliation.

The schismatics did not cease to persecute him throughout the remainder of his Pontificate; but their obstacles did not prevent him from worthily discharging his office and perpetually combating the heretics. For this purpose, he convened various councils in the same city: one in 369, where he had the decrees of the false Council of Rimini condemned and Auxentius, Bishop of Milan, a grea Auxence, évêque de Milan Bishop of Milan and partisan of Arianism deposed by Damasus. t abettor of Arianism, deposed; who, nevertheless, always maintained his see through the favor of the Emperor Valentinian the Elder, whose mind he had managed to win over through flattery; another, in 373, against a great number of heresies that were infecting the East; especially against that of Apollinaris, which contained an infinity of extravagances, among others, that Jesus Christ had no soul or at least no intellect, but that the Word, united to this body, took the place of these essential parts of man; that his flesh came from heaven and had only passed through the womb of Mary as through a canal; the third, in 382, to remedy the schism that had long afflicted the Church of Antioch.

Furthermore, he had one held at Aquileia, in 381, where, in a single session, which lasted from one hour after noon until seven o'clock in the evening, Palladius and Secundianus, bishops of Illyria, were convicted of heresy, confounded in the discussion, and condemned as guilty of the blasphemies of Arius. He also sent to Constantinople the famous Saint Zenobius, later Bishop of Florence, to console the faithful cruelly persecuted by the Emperor Valens, who had declared himself for Arianism. Finally, it was by his authority that in the same year 381 and in the same city, the se cond general council of the Church second concile général de l'Église Ecumenical council of 381 confirming the orthodox faith. was held, composed of one hundred and fifty bishops of the East, where Arius and Macedonius were condemned, and where the orthodox faith, which the cruelty of this prince seemed to have extinguished and reduced to the tomb, was happily resurrected. Damasus confirmed and received it, in what concerned doctrine, as one of the rules of the faith: which gave it the name and the force of an ecumenical council, although in fact the bishops of the West were not there, and only a rather small number of those of the Greek Church were present.

In addition to the care and diligence that this generous Pontiff brought to banishing heresies from the entire earth, he also studied how to cut away the abuses that had crept into the Church. Among the epistles attributed to him in the collection of councils, there is one to the bishops of Africa, where, after having established the primacy of the Holy See, he makes very wise constitutions, mainly concerning the accusations of clerics and bishops, some of which have been inserted into the body of canon law. There is another to the bishops of Numidia, where he condemns the usurpation of the chorepiscopi, who, being only simple priests and not having received episcopal consecration, did not cease to attribute to themselves the right to ordain priests and ministers, to bless nuns, to consecrate churches, to make the holy Chrism, to confer confirmation, and to publicly reconcile penitents: which belongs only to true bishops.

Moreover, he regulated the psalmody and had the psalms of David sung in the West, according to the correction of the Septuagint, which Saint Jerome had made by his order. He also introduced the custom of saying Alleluia in the church outside of Eastertide, whereas previously it was only said in Rome during that time of extraordinary rejoicing. He built two churches in the city: one of Saint Lawrence, near the Theatre of Pompey, the other on the Via Ardeatina. He adorned the place where the blessed apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul had long rested, which was called the Platonie. He found several holy bodies and had them placed in honorable tombs, around which he had verses engraved that made mention of their triumphs. He also had a magnificent baptistery built, of which the poet Prudentius gives a rich description in the eighth of his hymns.

In five ordinations that he celebrated, according to custom, in the month of December, he created thirty-one priests, two deacons, and sixty-two bishops. Finally, after having holily governed the Church in the midst of so many tribulations for eighteen years, two months, and ten days, he was called to heaven to receive the reward for his labors on December 4, 384. God rendered him illustrious through several miracles; for at his invocation, the sick were healed and those possessed by demons were delivered. During his life, he had also restored sight to a blind man who had lost it thirteen years prior. The Fathers of the Church gave him great praise. Saint Ambrose says that he was elected by a stroke f rom heaven. saint Jérôme Father of the Church and author of the original biography of Saint Asella. Saint Jerome testifies that he had remained a virgin; which shows even more the malice of the schismatics, who did not fear to accuse him of adultery. Theodoret assures that he had earned the name of an admirable man. Finally, the same Saint Jerome, who had served as his secretary, includes him among the ecclesiastical writers.

His body was first deposited near the tomb of his mother and sister, in the basilica he had erected on the Via Ardeatina. Later, around the time of Adrian I (772-795), his relics were transferred to that of San Lorenzo in Damaso, inside the city Saint-Laurent in Damaso Basilica built by Damasus where his relics rest. . They still rest there today under the high altar, with the exception of the head of the blessed Pope, which is kept at Saint Peter's in Rome.

Saint Damasus is represented: 1° holding a writing on which these words can be read: Gloria Patri et Filio, etc., because he established in the Church the custom of ending all psalms with this doxology; 2° having near him a church portal, which he points to as if to take possession of it, or to indicate that he is its founder.