SIXTUS II, POPE, saint. — He was pope from 257 to 258. He is commemorated in the Depositio martyrum on 6 August as buried in the cemetery of Callistus; on the same date and at the same place he is remembered by the Syrian Breviary, the Calendar of Carthage, the Latin Martyrologies, the Sacramentaries, and the Itineraries. His cult was very widespread in antiquity, and his name was inserted into the Roman Canon.
He succeeded Stephen in the pontificate, with whom, according to his legendary Passio, he was imprisoned. During his brief pontificate, the baptismal controversy with St. Cyprian seems to have been quieted, since the Church of Carthage entered him in its liturgical Calendar and Cyprian’s biographer, Pontius, was able to call him good and peace-loving. The mediation of St. Dionysius of Alexandria, who wrote S. three letters, certainly also influenced the settlement of the controversy; in one of them he also denounced to him the incipient heresy of Sabellius (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., VII, 5-9).
S. fell victim to Valerian’s Second Edict of persecution. St. Cyprian (Ep., 80) gives explicit testimony to his martyrdom, stating that he was beheaded together with four deacons, having been surprised while celebrating the liturgy in the cemetery of Callistus. A «cella memoriae» was built at the site of the martyrdom, and Pope Damasus adorned his tomb with a poem. The sources disagree concerning the number and names of the deacons killed with S., but they are not contradictory. To the four mentioned by St. Cyprian, the Liber Pontificalis adds two others, bringing the number to six; in the Depositio Martyrum, on 6 August, Felicissimus and Agapitus are also commemorated, of whom Damasus expressly says that they were S.’s deacons. Moreover, the last deacon of the college, Lawrence, also suffered martyrdom a few days later, so that all seven deacons were massacred. This fact is attested by the Liber Pontificalis, which states that after S.’s death the Roman Church was governed by the college of presbyters and that one of them, Dionysius, rather than a deacon as was customary, was chosen to succeed him.