Deepertruth: Stand In The Gap With Us And Saint Damasus I

Stand In The Gap With Us And Saint Damasus I 12/11/2023

Pope St. Damasus I was born into a Christian family in Rome. He became a deacon and served at the Basilica of St. Lawrence in Rome where his father served as priest. After the death of Pope Liberius,

The son of a Roman priest, possibly of Spanish extraction, Damasus started as a deacon in his father’s church, and served as a priest in what later became the basilica of San Lorenzo in Rome. He served Pope Liberius (352-366) and followed him into exile.

Damasus was a sixty-year-old deacon when he was elected bishop of Rome in 366. His reign was marked by violenc from the start when another group decided to elect a different pope. Both sides tried to enforce their selections through violence. Though the physical fighting stopped, Damasus had to struggle with these opponents throughout his years as pope.

When Liberius died, Damasus was elected bishop of Rome; but a minority elected and consecrated another deacon, Ursinus, as pope. The controversy between Damasus and the antipope resulted in violent battles in two basilicas, scandalizing the bishops of Italy. At the synod that Damasus called on the occasion of his birthday, he asked them to approve his actions. The bishops’ reply was curt: “We assembled for a birthday, not to condemn a man unheard.”

to gain support, Ursinus made the false accusation that St. Damasus had committed adultery. Supporters of the antipope even managed to get Damasus because of this accusation as late as A.D. 378. He had to clear himself before both a civil court and a Church synod.

To his secretary Saint Jerome, Damasus was “an incomparable person, learned in the Scriptures, a virgin doctor of the virgin Church, who loved chastity and heard its praises with pleasure.”