It is remarkable to discover the suffering and agonizing that lies in the background of the comforts we take for granted as Christians, from the massacre of the innocents in the shadow of Christmas, to the enslavement and exile that made St. Patrick\u2019s Day possible.<\/p>\n
In the same way, as St. Elizabeth Ann Seton sat beside the deathbed of her husband reading to him from the King James Bible the comforts the couple found were born from the pain and sufferings of another Christian centuries before: St. Damasus.<\/p>\n
But many of us don\u2019t know the story of this early pope to whom we each owe so much.<\/strong><\/p>\n St. Damasus was pope for 18 years and died shortly before turning 80, on December 11, 384. His remarkable papacy is responsible for much that we consider fundamental supports to our faith \u2014 starting with the Bible.<\/p>\n In the 300s, there were many copies of the Gospels and letters of St. Paul circulating, as well as Old Testament books \u2014 but the Bible as we know it didn\u2019t yet exist. There was no single volume collecting all the books in one place. Scripture consisted of various Greek manuscripts and some local Latin translations. Errors would inevitably creep in.<\/p>\n So Pope Damasus turned to the man who had been his secretary earlier in his ecclesial career, St. Jerome, and commissioned a single Latin translation of the biblical canon \u2013 the books considered divinely inspired \u2013 based on the most authentic manuscripts then available.<\/p>\n This project, begun in 382, became the Latin Vulgate, the basis for the Gutenberg Bible, the King James Bible and the translation that the Council of Trent made the standard churchwide.<\/p>\n St. Jerome gave Damasus much of the credit, calling him \u201can incomparable person, learned in the Scriptures, a virgin doctor of the virgin Church, who loved chastity and heard its praises with pleasure.\u201d<\/p>\n But in addition to the Bible, Damasus was a pioneer in celebrating both marriage and martyrdom.<\/strong><\/p>\n The first written description of a Christian nuptial blessing dates from Damasus\u2019s papacy. Christians had a robust understanding of marriage and a special commitment to monogamy, but the Church had not developed a Church wedding distinct from the state\u2019s celebration of the sacrament.<\/p>\n Damasus also deepened and elevated the Christian devotion to martyrs, by adorning their catacomb tombs with sacred verse \u2014 original poetry, written by him.<\/p>\n His poetry drew attention to the fact that it is Christ who we honor at our altars built on the martyrs, and he often praised the real presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.<\/p>\n It is from a Damasus poem that we have the story of St. Tarcisius, who was taking the Blessed Sacrament on a sick call when he was confronted on the Appian Way by pagans who demanded to know what he was carrying. He protected the Blessed Sacrament with his life, refusing to give it up as they beat him to death.<\/p>\n In fact, we hear from St. Damasus in the Liturgy of the Eucharist to this day: the 4th century martyrs St. Marcellinus and St. Peter are mentioned in the First Eucharistic Prayer because Damasus elevated their status by writing an epitaph on their graves.<\/p>\n Damasus is also the pope who made Latin the official language of the Church. He was a refined poet who wrote classical meter with allusions to high Roman poetry such as the Aeneid<\/em>. But he also found the sweetness in the Latin language.<\/p>\n His first Latin verses were outpourings of his heart, verses placed on his family\u2019s tombs.<\/strong><\/p>\n Damasus\u2019s father, Antonius, was a priest from Spain in the days before mandatory celibacy in the West, but he died when Damasus was in his teens. His sister dedicated herself to a life of virginity but died at age 20. Only his mother lived a long life, dying when she was nearly 100 years old.<\/p>\n The family saw to it that Damasus was educated in Rome, which was undergoing enormous change. The dates of his education put him in the city at the time of Constantine\u2019s celebrated entry in 312 after triumphing in the civil war, defeating Maxentius at Milvian Bridge and claiming his place as emperor of Rome.<\/p>\n Damasus would have seen where that triumph led: Constantine\u2019s Edict of Milan permanently established religious toleration for Christianity within the Roman Empire. But it was also a time of doctrinal conflict in the Church, when St. Athanasius\u2019 defense of the divinity of Christ defeated the heretical ideas of Arius at the Council of Nicaea.<\/p>\n Damasus would uphold the Nicene doctrine. As a deacon he sided with Pope Liberius when Constantine\u2019s successor, Constantius II, arrested him for refusing to budge on his defense of the Council. When Deacon Damasus became Pope Damasus in 366, he thanked the divine Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n And all of that lay in the background when Elizabeth Seton read the Psalms to her husband as he lay dying. <\/strong><\/p>\n Ironically, it was just days after Damasus\u2019 feast day that Elizabeth comforted her husband with the King James Bible on his deathbed. The Protestant couple were in Italy, seeking relief from tuberculosis.<\/p>\n On Dec. 13, 1803, Elizabeth wrote to a friend: \u201cToday read him several passages in Isaiah which he enjoyed so much that he was carried for a while beyond his troubles. Indeed, our reading is an unfailing comfort. William feels like a person brought to the light.\u201d<\/p>\n In the days before his death he found in the scriptures that St. Jerome translated 1500 years before \u201cthe fountain of Eternal Life.\u201d<\/p>\n Not long after, on Christmas Eve, she recorded some of Williams last words: \u201cHow I wish we could have the sacrament!\u201d he said, longing to unite with his Divine savior. She did the best she could. \u201cPutting a little wine in a glass I said different portions of Psalms,\u201d she wrote. But it was only after his death that she could herself receive Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.<\/p>\n Every part of that moving deathbed scene was touched by the work of St. Damasus.<\/strong><\/p>\n St. Damasus pioneered Christian marriage, which brought Elizabeth and her husband together in an intimate bond to the end of life. He commissioned the Bible that brought them comfort, and he defended and celebrated the Blessed Sacrament that they longed for. She would go on to consecrate herself to chastity, as Damasus had, and become a religious foundress in the Roman Catholic Church.<\/p>\n St. Damasus and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, pray for us as we seek the comfort you found in Jesus Christ, true God and true man, who we meet in Scripture and the sacraments.<\/p>\n TOM HOOPES<\/strong>,\u00a0autor m\u00e1s reciente de El Rosario de San Juan Pablo II, es escritor residente en el Benedictine College de Kansas, donde imparte clases. Es anfitri\u00f3n de La extraordinaria Stor<\/a>y podcast sobre la vida de Cristo. Su libro Lo que dijo realmente el Papa Francisco<\/a> ya est\u00e1 disponible en Audible<\/a>. Antiguo reportero en la zona de Washington, D.C., fue secretario de prensa del Presidente del Comit\u00e9 de Medios y Arbitrios de la C\u00e1mara de Representantes de los Estados Unidos y pas\u00f3 10 a\u00f1os como editor del peri\u00f3dico National Catholic Register y de la revista Faith & Family. Su trabajo aparece con frecuencia en el Register, Aleteia y Catholic Digest. Vive en Atchison, Kansas, con su esposa, April, y tiene nueve hijos.<\/em><\/p>\n