Sylvestre Ier

Sylvestre Ier (or Woodland ) was pope of 314 with 335, during the reign of the emperor Constantin I {{er}}, which founded the tolerance of the Christianisme within the Roman Empire. It is one of the first Saint S canonized without to have undergone the Martyr E.

Festival: December 31st.

History

Its authority was eclipsed by that of Constantin, and it did not assist with the Synode of Arles (314) nor with the council of Nicée (325), convened by the emperor. Nevertheless, with or without him, it is under its pontificate that the authority of the Church was established and that the first Christian monuments were built: the church of the the Holy Sepulchre to Jerusalem, basilicas of Saint-Jean-of-Lateran and Saint-Pierre to Rome, churches of the Saint-Apostles and Holy-Sophie to Constantinople.

The Christian historians of the Roman epoch (Eusèbe de Césarée and Lactance) allot the conversion of Constantin to a vision which it would have had right before the Bataille of the bridge Milvius, where it triumphed over Maxence (312). But the medieval tradition, conveyed in particular by the Golden Legend , gives another interpretation of it: the emperor was covered with a incurable Lèpre, and it is when Sylvestre had it baptized by immersion in a swimming pool which he was cured of his leprosy and understood that it had to defend the Christian faith. This episode is also told in the Donation of Constantin, text appeared at the 9th century and granting to the Sylvestre pope the capacity on the Occident. The character apocryphal book and without value of this text is established and admitted by the Church.

One also allotted to Sylvestre other miracles, for example to have ressuscity a Taureau and overcame a dragon.

Bonds

List of the saints of the '' gilded Légende ''

Random links: