New Year’s Eve celebrates St. Silvester – the 4th-century pope whose legend shaped ideas of church and state

Cavan W. Concannon, USC Dornsife

On Dec. 31, while many people are preparing for their New Years Eve parties, some Roman Catholic Christians will also mark the feast day for St. Silvester.

Little is known for certain about Silvester’s life, but he lived during a transformational period in the history of Christianity. From 314-335 C.E., Silvester was the bishop of Rome: what we now call the pope, although the role was not so powerful at the time. “Pope” comes from the Greek word for “father,” and was widely used by bishops until the fifth century, when the bishop of Rome began to monopolize the title.

Silvester’s era was one of both turmoil and transition for Christians living in the Roman Empire, as some Christian communities emerged from persecution into a powerful alliance with the Roman state. His story is deeply intertwined with this alliance, which would fundamentally change the trajectory of the movement initiated by the figure of Jesus of Nazareth three centuries earlier. Christianity would now become the faith of kings, states and empires.

A change in fortune

Trustworthy details of Silvester’s life are hard to come by. The “Liber Pontificalis,” a catalog of papal biographies that began to be compiled in the sixth century, tells us that he was from Rome and the son of an otherwise unknown man named Rufinus.

As a young man, Silvester lived through the persecutions initiated under one of the co-emperors at the time, Diocletian, which began in 303 C.E. These persecutions continued for several years after Diocletian stepped down.

Though many people picture early Christians being constantly persecuted by the Roman state, historians doubt these claims. The persecutions that began under Diocletian, however, are an exception. During this period, the state expected Christians to sacrifice to the gods for the well-being of the empire, or face consequences – sometimes violent ones.

According to the Christian theologian Augustine, some Christians later accused Silvester of having “betrayed” his faith during this period. Silvester was accused of turning over Christian sacred books to the Roman authorities and making offerings to the Roman gods.

The persecution came to an end in 313, when the co-emperors Constantine and Licinius signed the Edict of Milan, which granted tolerance to Christianity in the empire. Just a year later, Silvester became the bishop of Rome.

Constantine quickly became a major patron of Christians, though the extent to which he practiced Christianity is debated. With imperial support came a massive Christian building campaign in Rome – so much so that most of Silvester’s biography in the “Liber Pontificalis” consists of lists of all the churches that Constantine gifted to the city.

Christian controversies

Both before and during Silvester’s time as the bishop of Rome, there were many different Christianities in the empire. This diversity was troubling to Constantine, who wanted to promote unity and order in his domain. As such, he began to convene councils of Christian clergy to sort out contentious issues.

In 314, the year that Silvester became bishop, the emperor called the Council of Arles to address a dispute that had arisen among African bishops – what has become known as the Donatist Controversy. At issue was whether a priest who had betrayed his faith during the persecutions retained a valid ordination.

Silvester, though the bishop of an important city, did not attend, but sent representatives in his stead. It may be that, even at this early date, there were already rumors about what Silvester might have done during the persecutions.

[Abridged]