St. Sixtus II, Pope and Martyr

St. Sixtus became the 25th successor to St. Peter as Pope in 257 A.D. He was beheaded in the catacomb of St. Calixtus during the persecutions of the Emperor Valerian. Valerian believed that since Christians were opposed to the pagan gods, they would incur their wrath and the gods would take out their vengeance on the city of Rome. Accordingly Valerian issued an edict that all bishops, priests and deacons should ‘suffer’, which usually meant by death, and that all Romans from noble families who refused to make sacrifices to pagan gods should loose their estates and be beheaded, and that Christians from lower ranking social classes who refused to give up the practice of their faith should be sent to work in chains on the emperor’s farms. St. Sixtus as the successor to St. Peter was one of the first Christians to suffer martyrdom during this period of the Valerian persecutions.