He
built two Basilicas: one dedicated to Saint Laurence near Pompey’s
theatre, and this he endowed with magnificent presents, with houses
and with lands: the other, on the Via Ardeatina, at the Catacombs.
The bodies of Saints Peter and Paul lay for some time in a place
richly adorned with marbles. This place he dedicated, and composed
for it several inscriptions in beautiful verses. He also wrote on
Virginity, both in prose and verse, and several other poems.
He
established the law of retaliation for cases of false accusation. He
decreed that, as was the custom in many places, the Psalms should be
sung in all churches in alternate choirs, day and night, and that at
the end of each Psalm, there should be added: “Glory be to the
Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.” It was by his order
that Saint Jerome translated the New Testament from the Greek text.
He governed the Church 17 years, 2 months and 25 days, and five times
during this period, he gave Ordinations in the month of December to
31 Priests, 11 Deacons and 62 Bishops.
Conspicuous
for his virtue, learning and prudence, and having lived little short
of 80 years, he slept in the Lord during the reign of Theodosius the
Great in 384 AD. He was buried in the Basilica which he had built on
the Via Ardeatina, where also lay his mother and sister. His relics
were afterwards translated to the Church of Saint Laurence, called
after him, Saint Laurence’s
in Damaso.
Dom
Prosper Guéranger:
This great Pontiff comes before us in the Liturgical Year, not to bring us tidings of Peace, as Saint Melchiades did, but as one of the most illustrious defenders of the great Mystery of the Incarnation. He defends the faith of the Universal Church in the divinity of the Word by condemning, as his predecessor Liberius had done, the acts and the authors of the celebrated Council of Rimini. With his sovereign authority he bears witness to the teaching of the Church regarding the Humanity of Jesus Christ, and condemned the heretic Apollinaris who taught that Jesus Christ had only assumed the flesh and not the soul of man. He commissioned Saint Jerome to make a new translation of the New Testament from the Greek, for the use of the Church of Rome, here again, giving a further proof of the faith and love which he bore to the Incarnate Word. Let us honour this great Pontiff whom the Council of Chalcedon calls the ornament and support of Rome by his piety. Saint Jerome, too, who looked on Saint Damasus as his friend and patron, calls him a man of the greatest worth, a man whose equal could not be found, well versed in the holy Scriptures and a virgin Doctor of the virgin Church.
*****
Holy Pontiff Damasus! during your life on Earth, you were the Light which guided the children of the Church, for you taught them the mystery of the Incarnation and guarded them against those perfidious doctrines with which Hell ever strives to corrupt that glorious Symbol of our faith which tells us of God’s infinite mercy towards us, and of the sublime dignity of man thus mercifully redeemed. Seated on the Chair of Peter, you confirmed your brethren and your faith failed not, for Jesus had prayed to His Father for you. We rejoice at the infinite recompense with which this divine Prince of Pastors has rewarded the unsullied purity of your faith, you virgin Doctor of the virgin Church! O that we could have a ray of that light which now enables you to see Jesus in His glory! Pray for us that we may have light to see Him, and know Him, and love Him under the humble guise in which He is so soon to appear to us. Obtain for us the science of the sacred Scriptures in which you were so great a Master, and docility to the teachings of the Bishop of Rome to whom, in the person of Saint Peter, Christ has said: “Launch out into the deep!”
Obtain also for all Christians, you the successor of this Prince of the Apostles, that they be animated with those sentiments which Saint Jerome thus describes in one of his letters addressed to you: “It is the Chair of Peter that I will consult, for from it do I derive that faith which is the food of my soul. I will search for this precious pearl, heeding not the vast expanse of sea and land which I must pass over. Where the body is, there will the eagles be gathered together. It is now in the West that the Sun of justice rises. I ask the Victim of salvation from the Priest, and from the Shepherd the protection of the sheep. On that rock I know the Church is built. He that eats the Lamb in any house but this, is profane. He that is not in Noah’s Ark, will perish in the waters of the deluge. I know not Vitalis, I reject Meletius, I pass by Paulinus. He that gathers not with you, Damasus, scatters: for he that is not of Christ, is of Anti-Christ.”
Also
on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:
At Rome, St. Thrason, who was arrested by order of
Maximian for devoting his wealth to the support of the Christians who
laboured in the baths and at other public works, or were confined in
prison. He was crowned with martyrdom with two others, Pontian and
Praetextatus.
At Amiens, the holy martyrs Victoricus and
Fuscian, under the same emperor. By order of the governor
Rictiovarus, they had iron pins driven into their ears and nostrils,
heated nails into their temples, and arrows into their whole bodies.
Being beheaded with St. Gentian, their host, they went to Our Lord.
In Persia, St. Barsabas, martyr.
In Spain, St. Eutychius, martyr.
At Piacenza, St. Sabinus, a bishop renowned for
miracles.
At Constantinople, St. Daniel the Stylite.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs,
confessors and virgins.
Thanks
be to God.
