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Pope St. Sylvester the First

Bishop of Rome, 314 – 335

In this chair

Pope of Constantine’s peace. The Church came up from the catacombs. Later legend tied him to the Donation of Constantine, which is a medieval forgery; the historical Sylvester received a Church that could suddenly build basilicas.

Signs of this pontificate

Wonders this archive keeps that belong to the years he sat, or that he himself stood before.

RelicLong veneration

The True Cross

Jerusalem, then the whole ChurchTradition: 326

St. Helena, mother of Constantine, is said to have found the wood of the Cross on Golgotha. Fragments were scattered across Christendom. The Church honors the Cross as instrument of salvation; the Church does not carbon-date every splinter.

Return to the rail — scroll left for Peter.