SIXTUS II, POPE, ST.

Pontificate: Aug. 30, 257 to Aug. 6, 258; martyr. Sixtus succeeded Stephen I during the first phase of the Valerian

persecution (257). While Sixtus was conducting services in the cemetery of Praetextatus, Roman troops came to arrest him. Realizing that if he tried to escape, there would be a general massacre as the troops came after him, this true pastor identified himself to the troops. He and four deacons, Januarius, Vincent, Magnus, and Stephen, were seized and beheaded; two other deacons, Felicissimus and Agapetus, were also probably martyred the same day, and St. Lawrence four days later. Sixtus was buried in the cemetery of Callistus, and 100 years later Pope damasus (366–384) composed his epitaph from which Prudentius erroneously concluded that Sixtus had been crucified.

During his reign Sixtus dealt with the controversy over the validity of baptism by heretics. He supported the view of his predecessor that baptism by heretics was valid, but apparently influenced by Dionysius of Alexandria, he adopted a tolerant policy toward the divergent rebaptism policies of the Eastern Churches. He also sent envoys to Cyprian of Carthage, Stephen I's adversary in this problem. The claim that Sixtus wrote the treatise Ad Novatianum cannot be established. He is thought by some to have been the composer or at least the editor of the Pythagorean Sentences of sextus translated by rufinus of aquileia, but this attribution is doubtful. Sixtus is commemorated in the Canon of the Mass.

Feast: Aug. 6.

Bibliography: eusebius, Ecclesiastical History. 7.5, 9, 27. É. amann, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, ed. a. vacant et al., (Paris 1903—50) 14.2:2194–96, e. kotting, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiberg 1957–65) 9:809. e. ferguson, ed., Encyclopedia of Early Christianity (New York 1997) 2.1065. j. n. d. kelly Oxford Dictionary of Popes (New York 1986) 21–22. f. scorza bracellona, Lexikon des Mittelalters, 7 (München-Zürich 1994–1995).

[e. g. weltin]