View source for Pope Damasus I

==Papacy==
Damasus faced accusations of murder and adultery<ref>M. Walsh, ''Butler's Lives of the Saints'' (HarperCollins Publishers: New York, 1991), 413.</ref> in his early years as pope. The accuracy of these claims has come into question, with some suggesting that the accusations were motivated by the conflict with the supporters of [[Arianism]].

Damasus I was active in defending the [[Catholic Church]] against the threat of [[Schism (religion)|schism]]s. In two Roman synods (368 and 369) he condemned [[Apollinarianism]] and [[Pneumatomachi|Macedonianism]], and sent legates to the [[First Council of Constantinople]] that was convoked in 381 to address these [[Christian heresy|heresies]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.ewtn.com/library/COUNCILS/CONSTAN1.HTM |title=St Damasus I Constantinople-1 |access-date=20 January 2017 |archive-date=19 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161219035703/https://www.ewtn.com/library/COUNCILS/CONSTAN1.HTM |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Council of Rome of 382 and the Biblical canon===
One of the important works of Pope Damasus was to preside in the [[Council of Rome (382)|Council of Rome]] of 382,{{sfn|Lampe|2015|p=304-305}} which determined the canon or official list of Sacred Scripture.{{sfn|Celenza|2021|p=41}} The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church states:
A council probably held at Rome in 382 under Damasus gave a complete list of the canonical books of both the Old Testament and the New Testament (also known as the '[[Gelasian Decree]]' because it was reproduced by Gelasius in 495), which is identical with the list given at Trent.{{sfn|Cross|Livingstone|2005|p=282}} American Catholic priest and historian [[William Jurgens]] stated: "The first part of this decree has long been known as the Decree of Damasus, and concerns the Holy Spirit and the seven-fold gifts. The second part of the decree is more familiarly known as the opening part of the Gelasian Decree, regarding the canon of Scripture: {{lang|la|De libris recipiendis vel non-recipiendis.}} It is now commonly held that the part of the Gelasian Decree dealing with the accepted canon of Scripture is an authentic work of the Council of Rome of 382 A.D. and that Gelasius edited it again at the end of the fifth century, adding to it the catalog of the rejected books, the apocrypha. It is now almost universally accepted that these parts one and two of the Decree of Damasus are authentic parts of the Acts of the Council of Rome of 382 A.D."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Jurgens|first1=William|title=The Faith of the Early Fathers: Pre-Nicene and Nicene Eras|year=1970 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l62q-d4Wi20C|page=404|publisher=Liturgical Press |isbn=9780814604328 }} Accessed 24 Mar. 2022.</ref>

===Jerome, the Vulgate and the Canon===
[[File:Hieronymus presents Vulgata.jpg|thumb|left|Jerome presents the Vulgate to Pope Damasus; miniature from the {{circa|1150}} Gospel Book of [[Lund Cathedral]] (Cod. Ups. 83)]]
Pope Damasus appointed [[Jerome|Jerome of Stridon]] as his confidential secretary. Invited to Rome originally to a synod of 382 convened to end the [[Schism (religion)|schism]] of [[Antioch]], he made himself indispensable to the pope and took a prominent place in his councils. Jerome spent three years (382–385) in Rome in close intercourse with Pope Damasus and the leading Christians. Writing in 409, Jerome remarked: "A great many years ago when I was helping Damasus, bishop of Rome with his ecclesiastical correspondence, and writing his answers to the questions referred to him by the councils of the east and west..."<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.ccel.org/fathers/NPNF2-06/letters/lette123.htm| title = ''Epistle'' cxx.10}}</ref>

In order to put an end to the marked divergences in the western texts of that period, Damasus encouraged the highly respected scholar Jerome to revise the available [[Vetus Latina|Old Latin]] versions of the [[Bible]] into a more accurate [[Latin]] based on the Greek [[New Testament]] and the [[Septuagint]], resulting in the [[Vulgate]]. According to Protestant biblical scholar, [[F.F. Bruce]], the commissioning of the Vulgate was a key moment in fixing the biblical canon in the [[Western Christianity|West]].<ref>{{cite book|url=http://media.sabda.org/alkitab-2/PDF%20Books/00059%20Bruce%20The%20Canon%20of%20Scripture.pdf|title=The Canon of Scripture|last=Bruce|first=F. F.|publisher=[[InterVarsity Press]]|year=1988|page=225|author-link=F. F. Bruce}}</ref> Nonetheless,  as the ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' states:

{{Blockquote|In the Latin Church, all through the [[Middle Ages]] we find evidence of hesitation about the character of the deuterocanonicals. There is a current friendly to them, another one distinctly unfavourable to their authority and sacredness, while wavering between the two are a number of writers whose veneration for these books is tempered by some perplexity as to their exact standing, and among those we note St. Thomas Aquinas. Few are found to unequivocally acknowledge their canonicity.  
The prevailing attitude of Western medieval authors is substantially that of the Greek Fathers. The chief cause of this phenomenon in the West is to be sought in the influence, direct and indirect, of St. Jerome's depreciating Prologus.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Knight|first1=Kevin|title=. Canon of the Old Testament|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03267a.htm|website=New Advent|publisher=The Catholic Encyclopedia|access-date=26 November 2015}}</ref>}}

Significant scholarly doubts and disagreements about the nature of the Apocrypha continued for centuries and even into Trent,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Jedin|first1=Hubert|title=Papal Legate At The Council Of Trent|date=1947|publisher=B. Herder Book Co|location=St Louis|pages=270–271}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Wicks|first1=Jared|title=Cajetan Responds: A Reader in Reformation Controversy|date=1978|publisher=The Catholic University Press of America|location=Washington}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Metzger|first1=Bruce|title=An Introduction to the Apocrypha|date=1957|publisher=Oxford|location=New York|page=180}}</ref>  which provided the first infallible definition of the Catholic canon in 1546.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Catholic Encyclopedia|title=Canon of the Old Testament|date=1908|publisher=Robert Appleton Company|location=New York}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=H. Tavard|first1=George|title=Holy Writ or Holy Church|date=1959|publisher=Burns & Oates|location=London|pages=16–17}}</ref>

Jerome devoted a very brief notice to Damasus in his ''[[De Viris Illustribus (Jerome)|De Viris Illustribus]]'', written after Damasus' death: "he had a fine talent for making verses and published many brief works in heroic metre. He died in the reign of the emperor [[Theodosius I|Theodosius]] at the age of almost eighty".<ref>''De Viris Illustribus'', ch. 103</ref> Damasus may be the author of the anonymous ''[[Carmen contra paganos]]'' (song against the pagans).<ref name=ODB>{{ODB|authorlink=Barry Baldwin|first=Barry|last=Baldwin|title=Carmen Contra Paganos}}</ref>

====Letter of Jerome to Damasus====
{{further|Letter of Jerome to Pope Damasus}}
The letters from Jerome to Damasus are examples of the primacy of the See of Peter:
{{blockquote|Yet, though your greatness terrifies me, your kindness attracts me. From the priest I demand the safe-keeping of the victim, from the shepherd the protection due to the sheep. Away with all that is overweening; let the state of Roman majesty withdraw. My words are spoken to the successor of the fisherman, to the disciple of the cross. As I follow no leader save Christ, so I communicate with none but your blessedness, that is, with the chair of Peter. For this, I know, is the rock on which the church is built! This is the house where alone the paschal lamb can be rightly eaten. This is the ark of Noah, and he who is not found in it shall perish when the flood prevails. But since, by reason of my sins, I have betaken myself to this desert which lies between Syria and the uncivilized waste, I cannot, owing to the great distance between us, always ask of your sanctity the holy thing of the Lord. Consequently, I here follow the Egyptian confessors who share your faith, and anchor my frail craft under the shadow of their great argosies. I know nothing of Vitalis; I reject Meletius; I have nothing to do with Paulinus. He that gathers not with you scatters; he that is not of Christ is of Antichrist.<ref>Letter of Jerome to Pope Damasus, 376, 2.</ref>}}

===Relations with the Eastern Church===

The Eastern Church, in the person of [[Basil of Caesarea]], earnestly sought the aid and encouragement of Damasus against an apparently triumphant [[Arianism]]. Damasus, however, harbored some degree of suspicion against the great [[Cappadocia]]n [[Doctor of the Church]]. In the matter of the [[Meletius of Antioch|Meletian Schism]] at Antioch, Damasus – together with [[Athanasius of Alexandria]], and his successor, [[Peter II of Alexandria]] – sympathized with the party of [[Paulinus, Bishop of Antioch|Paulinus]] as more sincerely representative of Nicene orthodoxy. On the death of [[Meletius of Antioch|Meletius]] he sought to secure the succession for Paulinus and to exclude [[Flavian I of Antioch|Flavian]].<ref>[[Socrates of Constantinople|Socrates]], ''Historia Ecclesiastica'' 5.15</ref> During his papacy, Peter II of Alexandria sought refuge in [[Rome]] from the persecuting Arians. He was received by Damasus, who supported him against the Arians.<ref name="ce"/>

Damasus supported the appeal of the Christian senators to Emperor [[Gratian]] for the removal of the altar of Victory from the Senate House,<ref>Ambrose, ''Epistles'' xvii, n. 10</ref> and lived to welcome the famous edict of [[Theodosius I]], "De fide Catholica" (27 February 380),<ref>''[[Codex Theodosianus]]'' XVI, 1, 2</ref> which proclaimed as the religion of the Roman State that doctrine which [[Saint Peter|Peter]] had preached to the Romans.<ref name="ce">[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04613a.htm Shahan, Thomas. "Pope St. Damasus I." The Catholic Encyclopedia] Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 29 Sept. 2017</ref>
[[File:Epigramme Damase Agnès.jpg|thumb|Facsimile of a Damasan inscription by the late 4th-century lapicide Philocalus in the [[Catacombs of Saint Agnes]] beneath the Constantinian basilica of [[Sant'Agnese fuori le mura|Sant'Agnese ''fuori le Mura'']]]]

===Devotion to the martyrs===
Damasus also did much to encourage the veneration of the [[Christian martyrs]],<ref>M. Walsh, ''Butler's Lives'', 414.</ref> restoring and creating access to their tombs in the [[Catacombs of Rome]] and elsewhere, and setting up tablets with verse inscriptions composed by himself, several of which survive or are recorded in his ''Epigrammata''.<ref>[http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/04z/z_0366-0383__SS_Damasus_I__Epigrammata__LT.pdf.html ''Epigrammata'' texts in Latin]; Grig, 213, 215</ref>

Damasus rebuilt or repaired his father's church, named for [[Saint Lawrence|Laurence]], known as [[San Lorenzo fuori le Mura]] ("St Lawrence outside the walls"), which by the 7th century was a station on the itineraries of the graves of the Roman martyrs. Damasus' regard for the Roman martyr is attested also by the tradition according to which the Pope built a church devoted to Laurence in his own house, [[San Lorenzo in Damaso]].

Damasus was pope for eighteen years and two months. His feast day is 11 December.  He was buried beside his mother and sister in a "funerary basilica ... somewhere between the [[Via Appia]] and [[Via Ardeatina]]", the exact location of which is lost.<ref>Grig, 213 note 50</ref>

Since 2011, this saint has given its name to the [[San Damaso Ecclesiastical University]], a Catholic center of higher education belonging to the Archbishopric of Madrid, in Spain, where theology, Canon Law, Religious Sciences, Christian and Classical Literature, and Philosophy can be studied.