Sylvester was a Roman by birth, and his father's name was Rufinus.  He was brought up from a very early age under a Priest named Cyrinus, of whose teaching and example he was a diligent learner.  During the fury of the persecutions, Sylvester hid himself upon Mount Soracte.  In his thirtieth year he was ordained Priest of the Holy Roman Church by Pope Marcellinus.  In the discharge of his duties he became a model for all the clergy, and, after the death of Melchiades, he succeeded him on the Papal throne, during the reign of Constantine, who had already by public decree proclaimed peace to the Church of Christ.  Hardly had he undertaken the government of the Church when he betook himself to stir up the Emperor to protect and propagate the religion of Christ.  Constantine was fresh from his victory over his enemy Maxentius, on the Eve whereof the sign of the Cross had been revealed to him limned in light upon the sky; and there was an old story in the Church of Rome that it was Sylvester who caused him to recognise the images of the Apostles, administered to him holy Baptism, and cleansed him from the leprosy of misbelief.

The godly Emperor had already granted to Christ's faithful people permission to build public churches, and by the advice of Sylvester he himself set them the example.  He built many Basilicas, and magnificently adorned them with holy images, and gifted them with gifts and endowments.  Among these there were, besides others, the Church of Christ the Saviour, hard by the Lateran Palace; that of St. Peter, upon the Vatican Mount; that of St. Paul, upon the Ostian Way; that of St. Lawrence in Agro Verano; that of the Holy Cross in Atro Sessoriano; that of St. Peter and St. Marcellinus, upon the Labican Way; and that of St. Agnes, upon the Nomentan Way.  Under this Pope was held the first Council of Nice, presided over by the Papal Legates, and in the Presence of Constantine, and three hundred and eighteen Bishops, where the holy and Catholick Faith was declared, and Arius and his followers condemned; which Council was finally confirmed by the Pope, at the request of all the assembled Fathers, in a synod held at Rome, where Arius was again condemned.  This Pope issued many useful ordinances for the Church of God.  He reserved to Bishops the right of consecrating the Holy Chrism; ordered Priests to anoint with Chrism the heads of the newly baptized; settled the offíciating dress of Deacons as a dalmatic and linen maniple; and forbade the consecration of the Sacrament of the Altar on anything but a linen corporal.

This Sylvester is likewise said to have ordained that all persons taking Holy Orders should remain a while in each grade  before being promoted to a higher; that laymen should not go to law against the clergy; and that the clergy themselves were not to plead before civil tribunals.  He decreed that the first and seventh days of the week should be called respectively the Lord's Day and the Sabbath, and the others, Second Day, Third Day, and so on.  In this he confirmed the use of the word Feria for the weekdays, the which use had already begun in the Church.  This word signifieth an holiday, and pointeth to the duty of the clergy ever to lay aside all worldly labour, and leave themselves free to do continually the work of the Lord.  The heavenly wisdom with which he ruled the Church of God, was joined in him to a singular holiness of life, and an inexhaustible tenderness towards the poor; in which matter he ordained that the wealthy clergy should each relieve a certain number of needy persons; and he also made arrangements for supplying the consecrated virgins with the necessaries of life.  He lived as Pope twenty-one years, ten months and one day, and was buried in the cemetery of Priscilla on the Salarian Way.  He held seven ordinations in the month of December, and made forty-two priests, twenty-five deacons, and sixty-five bishops of various sees.

When the cruel edicts of Diocletian and Maximin Hercules were published against the Christians in the year 303, it required more than ordinary force in the bishops and clergy, to encourage the people to undergo martyrdom rather than apostatize. All were forbidden even to draw water or grind wheat, if they would not first incense idols placed for that purpose in the markets and on street corners.

Saint Sabinus, Bishop of Spoleto, with Marcellus and Exuperantius, his deacons, and several other members of his clergy who were worthy of their sacred mandate, were apprehended in Assisi for revolt and thrown into prison by Venustianus, Governor of Etruria and Umbria. He summoned them before him a few days later and required that they adore his idol of Jupiter, richly adorned with gold. The holy bishop took up the idol and threw it down, breaking it in pieces. The prefect, furious, had his hands cut off and his deacons tortured on the rack and burnt with torches until they expired.

Saint Sabinus was put back into prison for a time. He was aided there by a Christian widow of rank, who brought her blind nephew to him there to be cured. Fifteen prisoners who witnessed this splendid miracle were converted to the Faith. The prefect left the bishop in peace for a month, because he himself was suffering from a painful eye ailment. He heard of the miracle and came to the bishop in prison with his wife and two sons, to ask him for help in his affliction. Saint Sabinus answered that if Venustianus would believe in Jesus Christ and be baptized with his wife and children, he would obtain that grace for him. The officer consented, they were baptized, and he threw into the river the pieces of his broken statue. Soon all the new converts gave their lives for having confessed the Gospel, sentenced by Lucius, whom Maximus Hercules sent to Spoleto after hearing of their decision, to judge and condemn them.

As for Saint Sabinus, he was beaten so cruelly that on December 7, 303, he expired under the blows. The charitable widow, Serena, after seeing to his honorable burial near the city, was also crowned with martyrdom. A basilica was later built at the site of the bishop's tomb, and a number of monasteries in Italy were consecrated under his illustrious name.

On December 29, the Catholic Church remembers St. Thomas Becket, the other Thomas who was martyred for the Catholic Faith in England by a king named Henry over matters of Church governance.

Thomas was born in London on the 21st of December in either 1117 or 1118 to Gilbert Becket and Matilda Roheise. His parents were buried in Old St. Paul's Cathedral. When Thomas was 10 he learned to read at the Merton Priory in England and then traveled to the Mainland for further studies of canon and civil law in Paris, Bologna, and Auxerre.

After his studies were concluded he returned to England around 1141 where he gained the attention of Theobold, Archbishop of Canterbury, who sent him on several missions to Rome and ordained him a deacon in 1154. Soon after this, he was named Archdeacon of Canterbury. About this same time King Stephen died, leaving Henry the II as the new king. At Archbishop Theobold's urging, King Henry named Thomas the Lord High Chancellor of England. Thomas and King Henry were close friends and both spent a good deal of time “living it up.”

Thomas was so zealous in carrying out his duties as chancellor that many of the English clergy distrusted him.

When Archbishop Theobold died in 1161, King Henry thought that naming Thomas the new Archbishop of Canterbury would solidify his position as sole head of England; something that had long been opposed by Archbishop Theobold.

Thomas warned the King that if he were to become the Archbishop, he would fulfill his duty as zealously for the Church as he had as chancellor for England. The King insisted, even obtaining a dispensation from the Pope for Thomas to hold both positions. In 1162 Thomas was named Archbishop of Canterbury and immediately the conflicts that he had warned King Henry about began.

He resigned as Chancellor, excommunicated one of the nobles, and successfully opposed a new land tax by the king. Within two years, Thomas fled to France in exile after more fighting with the king over the Constitutions of Clarendon which were an attempt by the king to define clearly the various spheres of authority between church and state.

King Louis VII of France welcomed Thomas and let him stay at the Cistercian Abbey of Pontigny for two years until threats by King Henry forced him to move. During this time, Thomas was in constant contact with Pope Alexander III who sympathized but wanted to try a more diplomatic approach to resolving the crisis than Thomas wanted.

In 1166 the pope granted Thomas permission to take what measures he saw fit to try to bring the matter to a close. Thomas immediately excommunicated several of the king's councilors. In 1167 the pope appointed arbiters to try to resolve the authority disputes peacefully, but Thomas refused to compromise. In 1169 Thomas excommunicated two bishops loyal to King Henry. In 1170 King Henry had himself crowned king by the Archbishop of York and the pope threatened to excommunicate all of Britain unless the king agreed to work out a compromise with Thomas.

Thomas returned to England in November of 1170 and immediately declared the Constitutions of Clarendon null and void. Henry, in a rage, said “Who will rid me of this troublesome priest?” or similar words. Four of his knights, Reginald Fitzurse, Hugh de Moreville, William de Tracy, and Richard le Breton, took this as a clear command from the king and murdered Thomas during vespers in Canterbury Cathedral on December 29, 1170.

Thomas Becket was canonized in 1173. On July 12, 1174, in an attempt to calm a revolt, King Henry II did public penance at Thomas' tomb.

In 1538, three years after having St. Thomas More beheaded for opposing the rule of the Catholic Church by the king, King Henry VIII had the shrine of St. Thomas Becket destroyed in an act of vengeance. He also had Thomas' relics destroyed and any mention of his name obliterated.

The Lesson is taken from a Sermon by St. Augustine the Bishop


Dearly beloved, today we keep the birth of these children, who, as we are informed by the Gospel were put to death by cruel King Herod.  Therefore let earth rejoice with exceeding joy, for she is the fruitful mother of this great host of heavenly soldiers.  The favour of vile Herod could never have done such service to these blessed ones as hath his hatred.  For the Church testifieth by this holy solemnity, that whereas iniquity did specially abound against these little Saints, so much the more were heavenly blessings poured out upon them.

Blessed art thou, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah, which hath suffered the cruelty of King Herod in the slaughter of thy children.  For thou wast found worthy to offer to God, and that all at one time, an entire white-robed army of guileless Martyrs.  Surely we do well to keep this day whereon they were borne from earth into heaven, which is so much more blessed to them than the day that brought them out of their mother's womb.  Scarcely had they entered on the life that now is, than they obtained that glorious life which is to come.

We esteem as precious the death of those Martyrs who have deserved praise for the confession which they made during their lifetime; but these little Martyrs delight us by their death-time alone.  Scarcely had life dawned upon them, when the very destruction which brought it to a close became for them the beginning of glory.  They, whom the wickedness of Herod tore from their mothers' breasts, are rightly called the Flowers of the Martyrs.  Hardly had these early buds of the Church pushed above the ground in the winter of unbelief, than the frost of persecution destroyed them.

The Lesson is taken from the Book on Ecclesiastical writers, written by St. Jerome the Priest

The Apostle John, whom Jesus loved, was a son of Zebedee, and the brother of that James the Apostle who was beheaded by Herod soon after our Lord suffered.  He was the last of the Evangelists to write his Gospel, which he published at the request of the Bishops of Asia against Cerinthus and other heretics, and particularly against the then spreading doctrine of the Ebionites, who asserted that Christ had had no existence before Mary.  It was therefore needful for the Evangelist to declare his eternal and divine generation.

In the fourteenth year of Domitian, whilst this same was stirring up the second persecution after that of Nero, John was exiled to the Island of Patmos where he wrote his Apocalypse, whereon commentaries have been composed by Justin Martyr and Irenaeus.  When Domitian was killed, the Senate annulled all his acts on account of their excessive severity, and the Apostle returned to Ephesus during the reign of Nerva.  There he remained until the time of Trajan, and founded and governed all the churches of Asia.  There also in an extreme old age, he died, in the sixty-eighth year after the Lord's passion, and was buried near the same city of Ephesus.

At that time: Jesus saith unto Peter: Follow me.  Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following.

Sermon by St. Augustine the Bishop


The Church knoweth of two different lives which God hath revealed and blessed.  One is the life of faith, the other the life of knowledge.  One is the life of this pilgrimage, the other the life of the eternal mansions.  One is the life of labour, the other the life of rest.  In one we are on the journey, in the other we are in our own home.  One continueth the toil of action, the other continueth in the recompense of contemplation.  The one escheweth evil and doeth good; the other hath no evil to eschew, but rather an exceeding good to enjoy.  The one striveth with the enemy, the other hath no enemies, and reigneth.

The one succoureth the needy; the other is where there be none to succour.  The one must needs forgive trespasses that its own may be forgiven; the other neither hath trespasses to forgive nor to be forgiven.  The one is straitened by adversity lest it be swollen in the pride of its good things; the other is enlarged by grace so that it may embrace the Highest Good, wherein it hath no temptation to pride.

Wherefore the one is good but still sorrowful; the other is better and blissful.  And of these two lives there are types, of the one in the Apostle Peter, of the other in the Apostle John.  The one laboureth here even unto the end, and findeth its end hereafter.  The other stretcheth out into the hereafter, and in eternity findeth no end.  Wherefore is it said unto the one: Follow me.  But of the other: If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.  What is the meaning of these words?  Who can know?  As far as I can understand them, it is this: Follow thou me, O Peter, by the imitation of my example in the bearing of earthly sorrow; do thou, O John, tarry patiently till I come for thee again, bringing the everlasting reward.

Sermon by St. Fulgentius the Bishop

Yesterday we were celebrating the Birth in time of our eternal King.  Today we celebrate the triumphant suffering of one of his soldiers.  Yesterday our King, clothed in the robe of our flesh, was pleased to come forth from his royal palace of the Virgin's womb to visit the world.  Today his soldier, laying aside the tabernacle of the body, entereth in triumph into the palace of heaven.  The One, preserving unchanged that majesty of the Godhead which he had before the world was, girded himself with the lowliness of our flesh in the form of a servant, and entered the battlefield of this world.  The other, putting off the corruptible garment of our flesh, entered into the heavenly mansion, there to reign for ever.  The One cometh down, and is veiled in the flesh of his human birth.  The other goeth up, and is robed with a glory which is red with the blood of his temporal death.

The One cometh down amid the jubilation of Angels.  The other goeth up amid the stoning of Jewry.  Yesterday the holy Angels rejoiced in the song: Glory to God in the highest.  Today they rejoice in the welcome whereby they do receive Stephen into their company.  Yesterday the Lord came forth from the Virgin's womb.  Today his soldier is delivered from the prison of the body.  Yesterday Christ was for our sakes wrapped in swaddling bands.  Today he girdeth Stephen with a robe of immortality.  Yesterday the new-born Christ lay in a narrow manger.  Today Stephen entereth victorious into the boundless heavens.  The Lord came down, one and alone, that he might raise many up.  Our King descended to our low estate that he might set his soldiers, such as Stephen, in high places.

Now let us consider, brethren, by what arms Stephen conquered the hatred and persecution of Jewry in such wise as to win so blessed a triumph.  Verily he had no arms or armour other than charity.  Love it was that armed him in that struggle, and strengthened him to conquer on all sides, and brought him to the crown whereof his name is a prophecy.  The love of God strengthened him against the hatred of Jewry.  The love of his neighbour made him pray even for his murderers.  Through love he rebuked them, in their perversities that they might be corrected.  Through love he prayed for them that stoned him that they might not be punished.  By the might of his charity he overcame Saul, his cruel persecutor, and earned, as a comrade in heaven, the very man who had done him to death upon earth.

The Lesson is taken from a Sermon by St. Leo the Pope

Dearly beloved: Unto us is born this day a Saviour.  Therefore let us rejoice.  Sadness should find no place amongst those who keep the Birthday of Life.  For as of this day Life came unto us dying creatures, to take away the sting of death, and to bring the bright promise of joy eternal.  And no one is excluded from sharing in this our gladness.  For all mankind hath one and the same cause thereof, to wit, that our Lord, the Destroyer of sin and death, because he findeth no one free from condemnation, is come to set everyone free.  Rejoice, O saint, for thou drawest nearer thy crown!  Rejoice, O sinner, for thy Saviour offereth thee pardon!  Rejoice, O Jew, for Messiah is come.  Rejoice, O Gentile, for God calleth thee to life!  Now is come the fullness of time, fixed by the unsearchable counsel of God, when the Son of God took upon him the nature of man, that he might reconcile it to its Maker.  Now is come the time when the devil, the inventor of death, is met and beaten in that very flesh which hath been the field of his victory.

When the Almighty Lord entered this field of battle against the devil, he did so in great and wondrous fairness.  For against our cruel enemy he opposed not the armament of his uncreate Majesty, but the lowliness of our flesh.  He brought against him the very shape and the very nature of our mortality, with this difference only, that he was without sin.  For his birth is not like that of the ordinary run of men, of whom there is the saying: No one is clean from stain, not even the day-old babe.  In this birth alone no desires of the flesh had place.  In this birth alone no consequence of sin had part.  A Virgin of the kingly lineage of David was chosen to be the Mother who grew heavy with the sacred Child.  She was chosen to conceive this divine and human offspring in her body because already she had conceived him in her soul.  And that the unwonted events ordained by the counsel of God might cause her no alarm, she was taught them beforehand when the Angel announced that what was to be wrought in her was of the Holy Ghost, and that to become the Mother of God was not to forego her virgin modesty.

Wherefore, dearly beloved, let us give thanks to God the Father, through his Son, in the Holy Ghost: who for his great love, wherewith he loved us, hath had mercy on us; and even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, that in him we might be a new creature, and a new workmanship.  Let us then put off the old man with his deeds.  And, having obtained a share in the Son-ship of Christ, let us renounce the deeds of the flesh.  Acknowledge, O Christian, thine own dignity, who hast been made partaker of the divine nature, and change not back my misdoing into thy former baseness.  Bethink thee whose Body it is whereof thou art made a member, and who is its Head.  Be mindful that he hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us into God's light and God's kingdom.

At that time: There went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.

Sermon of St. Gregory Pope

By God's mercy we are to say three Masses today.  Hence there is not much time left for preaching on this passage of the Gospel.  Nonetheless the Feast of the Lord's Birthday constraineth me to speak a few words.  I will begin at once by asking why this numbering for taxation took place at the Lord's Birth, and why all the world was enrolled?  Was it not to make us mindful that one had now appeared in the flesh who would enroll his elect in the book of life?  And note, on the other hand, how the Prophet saith of the reprobate: Let them be wiped out of the book of the living, and not be written among the righteous.  Note also that the Lord was born in Bethlehem, which same signifieth the House of Bread, and thus was meetly the birthplace of him who hath said: I am the Living Bread which came down from heaven.  The place, then, where our Lord was born was already called the House of Bread because therein was he to appear who would feed the souls of the the faithful unto life eternal.  Not in his Mother's house was he born, but away from home.  And this should make us mindful that our mortality, in which he was born, was not the home of him who is begotten of the Father before all worlds.

Beautiful Roman noblewoman. Sister of Saint Anatolia. The two sisters were set for arranged marriages to noble Roman pagans, and were hesitant. Victoria argued that it would be all right as the patriarchs in the Old Testament had been married; but Anatolia cited other examples to prove that for the holiest lives, they should devote themselves to God and stay single. Victoria was convinced, sold her jewelry, gave the money to the poor, and refused to go through with the wedding to a fellow named Eugenius.

The two suitors insisted on the weddings, and the sisters refused. The young men denouced the women as Christians, but obtained authority to imprison them their estates, in hopes of breaking their faith and changing their minds. The women converted their servants and guards sent to watch them. Anatolia’s suitor, Titus Aurelius, soon gave up, and handed her back to the authorities. Eugenius stayed at it for years, alternating between good and harsh treatment of Victoria, but eventually even he gave up, and returned her to the authorities. She was martyred by order of Julian, prefect of the Capitol and count of the temples. Died stabbed through the heart in 250 by the executioner Liliarcus at Tabulana, Italy.

Legend says her murderer was immediately struck with leprosy, and died six days later, eaten by worms

The Apostle Thomas, called Didymus, or the Twin, was a Galilean.  After the descent of the Holy Ghost, he went into many provinces to preach Christ's Gospel.  He gave knowledge of the rules of Christian faith and life to the Parthians, Medes, Persians, Hyrcanians, and Bactrians.  He went last to the East Indies.  Here he provoked the anger of one of the idolatrous kings, because the holiness of his life and teaching, and the number of his miracles, drew many after him, and brought them to the love of Christ Jesus.  He was therefore condemned, and slain with lances.  He crowned the dignity of the Apostleship with the glory of martyrdom, on the Coromandel coast, not far from Madras.

The Lesson is taken from a Sermon
by St. Gregory the Pope

It is written: By his Spirit the Lord hath garnished the heavens.  Now the garniture of the heavens are the godly powers of preachers, and this garniture, what it is, Paul teacheth us thus:  To one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues; but all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.

So much power then as have preachers, so much garniture have the heavens.  Wherefore again it is written:  By the word of the Lord were the heavens made.  For the Word of the Lord is the Son of the Father.  But, to the end that all the Holy Trinity may be made manifest as the Maker of the heavens (that is, of the Apostles), it is straightway added touching God the Holy Ghost: and all the host of them by the Breath of his mouth.  Therefore the might of the same heavens is the might of the Spirit, for they had not braved the powers of this world, unless the strength of the Holy Ghost had comforted them.  For we know what manner of men the Teachers of the Holy Church were before the coming of this Spirit: and since he came we see in whose strength they are made strong.

St. Gregory of Tours (Glor. Mart.), before 590, reports that Theodore, a pilgrim who had gone to Gaul, told him that in that part of India where the corpus (bones) of Thomas the Apostle had first rested (Mylapur on the east or the Coromandel Coast of India) there stood a monastery and a church of striking dimensions and elaboratedly adorned, adding: "After a long interval of time these remains had been removed thence to the city of Edessa." The location of the first tomb of the Apostle in India is proof both of his martyrdom and of its Apostolate in India. The evidence of Theodore is that of an eyewitness who had visited both tombs — the first in India, while the second was at Edessa. The primitive Christians, therefore, found on both coasts, east and west, witness to and locate the tomb at Mylapur, "St. Thomas", a little to the south of Madras; no other place in India lays any claim to possess the tomb, nor does any other country. On these facts is based their claim to be known as St. Thomas Christians.