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The popes · No. 33 of 267

St Sylvester I

The pope of the age when the persecutions ended. And the legends that grew up around him.

Pope 314 to 35

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An early medieval fresco of a pope in white robes with a halo, holding a book.

An eighth-century fresco: a later artist’s imagining. Sailko, 2016. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0.

Home / The popes / St Sylvester I

Rome, AD 314

A few years earlier Christians were being hunted in Rome.1

Now the emperor Constantine favours the Church, and a priest named Sylvester becomes bishop of the city.1

He reigned through one of the biggest turns in Christian history. Annoyingly, we know very little about him.

01St Sylvester I

A new world

Sylvester’s pontificate fell in the era of Constantine the Great, when the public position of the Church greatly improved.1

In his time the great basilicas of Rome began to rise, among them the Lateran, the cathedral of the popes.1

The Council of Nicaea met in 325 during his reign, and he was represented there by legates.1

Nave, Basilica San Giovanni in Laterano (46276851412)
The nave of the Archbasilica of St John Lateran, the pope’s cathedral as Bishop of Rome. Sonse, 2018. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

02St Sylvester I

Legend and history

Later legends claimed that Sylvester healed and baptized Constantine and received an empire as a gift; the Catholic Encyclopedia calls these accounts entirely legendary.1

That honesty is worth noticing. The Church’s own reference book of 1913 tells you plainly which stories about a saint are not true.

Fifty years later, a pope would ask a brilliant, difficult scholar to fix the Latin Bible.

Notes

  1. Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), “Pope Sylvester I”. New Advent edition. newadvent.org

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: Douay-Rheims, Challoner revision (public domain). Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an error.