During his pontificate he introduced the Latin language into the liturgy, promoted the cult of the martyrs and the visit of the catacombs
by Talia Casu
Nin the presentations of the ancient Christian cemeteries, published by The Holy Crusade Since January 2024, we have often referred to Pope Damasus I (305-384) and now with him we wish to conclude the series of articles dedicated to the Roman catacombs.
The biographical information preceding his pontificate is scarce and contradictory, starting from his place of birth: according to Liber Pontificalis (which collects the biographies of the popes from Saint Peter to Pius II, pope from 1458 to 1464) Damasus was of Spanish origin, but a large amount of documentation indicates Rome as his birthplace. From an inscription composed by Damasus himself we have information about his ecclesiastical career in Rome: first notary, then reader, deacon and bishop.
During his pontificate he found himself facing very serious conflicts, caused by his antagonist Ursinus in the succession to Pope Liberius (352-366),
as reported by the historian Ammianus Marcellinus, in which it even came to a violent clash. Other tensions were generated by the presence in Rome of some heretical sects. Difficulties aside, the pontificate of Pope Damasus, from 366 to 384, was of great importance for the development of the Church: on his initiative the transition from Greek to Latin as the liturgical language of the Roman Church was made and for this reason he entrusted Saint Jerome with the task of revising the Latin version of the Bible.
On a pastoral level, the most relevant aspect is the strong impulse he gave to the promotion and diffusion of the cult of the martyrs, so much so that at the end of his pontificate Rome was surrounded by a real "crown" of martyr cult centers, where crowds of pilgrims flocked.
The cult of the martyrs was widespread since the second half of the 2nd century, but the desire to strengthen this devotion consolidated in the Christian community especially in the following century. With Pope Damasus, the martyr cult experienced strong growth and better organization, with the search for the tombs of the martyrs and their monumentalization, with the creation of preferential routes to favor the growing number of faithful.
Testimony of Damasus' work are his epigrams: engraved on marble slabs by his collaborator Furio Dionisio Filocalo, the most authoritative calligrapher of the time, they are recognized as a "perennial liturgy". In the verses of the poems, in the essential and effective images used by Damasus, the sincerity of his feelings shines through, but also the purpose attributed to these literary compositions: to keep alive the example of the martyrs and to accompany the faithful, with a simple and suggestive cult, to the rediscovery of the faith of the first hour. The sacred solemnity of the verses of Latin literature, which in the past had celebrated the origins and splendors of the empire, was taken up by Damasus to celebrate the deeds of the heroes of faith, to the point of formulating the concept of "Roman Christianity": in practice a Christian who had suffered martyrdom in Rome acquired Roman citizenship, became roman civilians. The concept is clearly expressed in the epitaph dedicated to the apostles Peter and Paul in the cemetery of San Sebastiano: «These apostles were sent by the East, we willingly recognize it; but by virtue of martyrdom, following Christ towards the stars, they arrived in the celestial regions and in the kingdom of the just. Rome had the privilege of claiming them as its citizens» (Carmina Damasi.
Regarding liturgical celebrations, the sources on the subject are scarce and quite generic, but there is no doubt that, in addition to the singing of psalms and prayers, the recurrence of the martyr's memory had its culmination in the Eucharistic celebration, during which his intercession for the living and the dead was invoked. With the end of the persecutions, the celebrations became particularly solemn and Damasus encouraged the participation of many faithful with the enlargement of the crypts and the construction of the basilicas.
The spectacle offered by the Christian crowds in Rome, especially on the occasion of the feast of Peter and Paul, particularly touched Saint Jerome, who notes the epochal transition and expresses a comparison between the pagan Urbe and Christian Rome: «Rust and dust now cover the golden Capitoline Hill and the temples are adorned only with spider webs; the city is no longer what it once was and the people no longer frequent the crumbling temples, but now run to the tombs of the martyrs».