Saint Sixtus I

Sixtus I was the seventh bishop of Rome, and he led the Church from roughly 117 to 126. Roughly, because with the popes of that century all the dates are like that: the Liberian Catalogue says from the consulship of Niger and Apronianus to that of Verus and Ambibulus, the Liber Pontificalis speaks of ten years, two months and one day, and Eusebius of Caesarea gives two different periods in two different books. On one thing, though, they all agree: about ten years. He was Roman, the son of a certain Pastor, from the Via Lata district — near today’s Via del Corso. He was elected, the Catalogue says, by the votes of all the clergy of Rome, and his pontificate fell under the emperor Hadrian. His name has its own story, too. In Latin it was written Xystus, probably of Greek origin, and later it was confused with Sistus, “the sixth”: which came in handy, since he really was Peter’s sixth successor. That confusion gave rise to the numbering of the popes named Sixtus that runs all the way to the sixteenth century. Few certain facts about him remain, along with some rules the Liber Pontificalis attributes to him, on the sacred vessels and on singing the Sanctus during Mass. If your name is Sisto, today is your name day.