Feastday: December 31
St. Sylvester was born in Rome and he is the son of Rufinus and Justa. When he is still a Child he earned the strongest sentiments of Christian piety and was put into the hands of Charitius, or Carinus, a priest of an unexceptionable character. Being formed under an excellent priest, he entered among the clergy of Rome and was ordained priest by Pope Marcellinus. His behavior in those turbulent and dangerous times recommended him to the public esteem, and he saw the triumph of the cross by the victory which Constantine gained over Maxentius within sight of the city of Rome, on the 28th of October 312. When Pope Melchiades was almost dying in January of 314, Sylvester was declared pope. During his reign as pope, he experienced many contradictions to the Catholic Church including the heresy of the Quartodecimans. St. Sylvester greatly advanced religion by a punctual discharge of all the duties of his exalted station during the space of twenty-one years and eleven months. He died on the 31st of December 335 and was buried in the cemetery of Priscilla. Pope Sergius II translated his body and deposited it under the altar in a church dedicated to God in his memory. Pope Gregory IX, in 1227, made his festival general in the Latin church. the Greeks keep it on the 10th January.
