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1 posted on 12/31/2002 4:50:33 PM PST by Lady In Blue
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To: *Catholic_list; father_elijah; Salvation; nickcarraway; NYer; JMJ333; BlackElk; Siobhan
ping
2 posted on 12/31/2002 4:56:34 PM PST by Lady In Blue
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To: Lady In Blue
Thanks.
3 posted on 12/31/2002 4:58:19 PM PST by Desdemona
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To: Lady In Blue
Thanks, Lady in Blue. I was just going to look up St. Sylvester and post it to the daily readings thread!

Happy New Year!
5 posted on 12/31/2002 6:49:40 PM PST by Salvation
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To: Lady In Blue
Most of his actions involve his relationship with Emperor Constantine. Constantine suffered from leprosy, and after baptism at the hands of Sylvester the emperor was cured. With this miracle wrought at the hands of the Pope, the emperor gave many gifts to the Church including the provinces of Italy that until the 19th century made up the Papal States. Many large Roman buildings were given which became churches. Some consider the account of his baptism a fabrication, but there is no doubt Sylvester had a great effect in the completion of Constantine's conversion, and records that distant are often difficult to uphold or refute.

Not only is the account of his baptism of Constantine a fabrication, nearly the entire story is a fabrication. It isn't necessary to find an "anti" source to debunk this fiction.

Pope St. Sylvester I (314-335)

Date of birth unknown; d. 31 December, 335. According to the "Liber pontificalis" (ed. Duchesne, I, 170) he was the son of a Roman named Rufinus; the legendary "Vita beati Sylvestri" calls his mother Justa. After the death of Miltiades (Melchiades), Sylvester was made Bishop of Rome and occupied this position twenty-one years. This was the era of Constantine the Great, when the public position of the Church so greatly improved, a change which must certainly have been very noticeable at Rome; it is consequently to be regretted that there is so little authoritative information concerning Sylvester's pontificate. At an early date legend brings him into close relationship wtih the first Christian emperor, but in a way that is contrary to historical fact. These legends were introduced especially into the "Vita beati Sylvestri" (Duchesne, loc. cit., Introd., cix sq.) which appeared in the East and has been preserved in Greek, Syriac, and Latin in the "Constitutum Sylvestri"–an apocryphal account of an alleged Roman council which belongs to the Symmachian forgeries and appeared between 501 and 508, and also in the "Donatio Constantini". The accounts given in all these writings concerning the persecution of Sylvester, the healing and baptism of Constantine, the emperor's gift to the pope, the rights granted to the latter, and the council of 275 bishops at Rome, are entirely legendary.

Catholic Encyclopedia

9 posted on 01/01/2003 9:36:14 AM PST by OLD REGGIE
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To: Lady In Blue
Saint Sylvester I, Pope

Saint Sylvester I, Pope
Optional Memorial
December 31st

Pope Saint Sylvester's Miracle
Maso di Banco
about 1340
Fresco
Cappella di Bardi di Vernio, Santa Croce, Florence

 

(+335). Elected pope in 314, St. Sylvester served the church at a time when the Arian heresy and the Donatist schism had provoked great discord. After the peace of Constantine, he contributed greatly to the expansion of the faith throughout the Roman world.

Source: Daily Roman Missal, Edited by Rev. James Socías, Midwest Theological Forum, Chicago, Illinois ©2003

Collect:
Lord,
help and sustain Your people
by the prayers of Pope Sylvester.
Guide us always in this present life
and bring us to the joy that never ends.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Reading: Ezekiel 34:11-16
"For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I Myself will search for My sheep, and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when some of his sheep have been scattered abroad, so will I seek out My sheep; and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. And I will bring them out from the peoples, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the fountains, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture, and upon the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on fat pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. I Myself will be the shepherd of My sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the crippled, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will watch over; I will feed them in justice.

Gospel Reading: Matthew 16:13-19
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, "Who do men say that the Son of man is?" And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."


27 posted on 12/31/2009 8:58:41 AM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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