Saint Sixtus I

During his pontificate, t he Gnostic Gnostiques Heretics claiming to possess superior knowledge, opposed by Sixtus I. s caused great harm to the Church and prepared even greater ones for it. These heretics, whose origin dated back to that of Christianity, to Simon M agus himself, cla Simon le Magicien Adversary of the apostles mentioned in the writings attributed to Linus. imed to possess alone the intelligence, the perfect knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. According to them, the revelation contained in the Bible was, moreover, inaccurate and insufficient. According to the morality of these sectarians, the very principle of Redemption consisted in liberation through the satiety of all passions. "Consequently," says Tertullian, "their disorders were not limited to vulgar crimes: they required monstrous crimes. In hatred of the flesh, they sacrificed newborn children, whose limbs they crushed, mixed with spices, and composed a dreadful dish. With the aim of discrediting Christians, they passed themselves off, in the eyes of the pagans, as disciples of Jesus Christ: hence it is that the pagans confused Gnostics and Christians in the same hatred.

This state of affairs, in the first century of the Church, explains to us one of the motives, undoubtedly the most powerful, for which Saint Sixtus renewed the obligation of formal letters, or letters of recommendation, with which the faithful, and even more so the bishops, had to be provided when they moved from one church to another, from one country to another, so that it would be possible for the pastors of the people to distinguish the wolves from the sheep, and not to introduce into the fold the Gnostics, whose presence alone in the Church would have been a subject of reproach.

We also owe to Saint Sixtus several other regulations of ecclesiastical discipline: he forbade anyone from touching the sacred vessels unless they were a minister of the altars; the corporal was not to be made of any material other than linen; finally, the people were to contin Trisagion Liturgical hymn whose use by the people was regulated by Sixtus I. ue the Trisagion begun by the priest. If the pagans have honorably recalled the names of those who increased the pomp of their absurd cult, we, as Christians, must contemplate with respect the holy Pontiffs who have successively, according to the spirit of Christian piety, made the most august of our mysteries more venerable.

Under the pontificate of Saint Sixtus, the persecution slowed down. A proconsul, even more courageous than Pliny, represented to Emperor Hadri l'empereur Adrien Abbot sent to England to restore monastic discipline. an how unjust it was to exercise cruelties without examination and without trial, and out of pure prejudice, against a class whose only fault, in the eyes of reasonable Romans, was found solely in the name of Christian; for these Christians respected the laws of the country, and obeyed the emperor in everything that did not fall under the tribunal of conscience. This proc onsul was Serenius Serenius Granianus Proconsul who pleaded the cause of the Christians before Hadrian. Granianus. One must inscribe in history, in letters of gold, the name of a minister who dared to expose himself to the hatred of the prince to protect two poor unfortunates, truth and justice. The emperor was moved; the luminous apologies pres ented to him saint Quadrat Christian apologist who presented a defense of the faith to the emperor. by S aint Quadratus saint Aristide Christian apologist of the 2nd century. and Saint Aristides finished appeasing him. Hadrian wrote a memorable letter in favor of the Christians, strictly forbade denouncing them, wanted the wicked, convicted of slander in this regard, to be punished, and showed that, if he had not arrived at the point of adoring Jesus, he was then ready to venerate him. However, the persecution did not take long to begin again under this inconsistent prince. Sixtus was its victim, but the only one; new proof that this prince operated good out of fickleness, and evil by natural disposition of character. Toward the end of his life, he himself ordered the most cowardly insults against the worship of the Christians.

Saint Sixtus was buried at the Vatican, not far from Saint Peter's. In 1132, his relics were carried to the cathedral church o f Alat Alatri City where the relics of Saint Sixtus have rested since 1132. ri where they still rest. This city recognizes him, after Saint Paul, as its secondary patron.

In three ordinations performed in the month of December, according to custom, he had created four bishops for various places, eleven priests, and three deacons. He was a man of rare holiness, of great purity of morals, and of extreme liberality toward the poor. Numerous miracles have commended his memory.

Darras, Histoire de l'Église; — Artaud de Montor, Histoire des Papes, etc.