Lectionary Calendar
Sunday, May 5th, 2024
the <>Sixth Sunday after Easter
Attention!

Bible Dictionaries
Sixtus I., Bishop of Rome

Wace's Dictionary of Early Christian Biography

Search for…
Resource Toolbox
Additional Links

Sixtus I. —so called in the Liberian Catalogue by Optatus (l. 2) and Augustine (Ep. liii.); but Xystus, Xistus , or Xestus , in Catal. Felic. , Irenaeus (adv. Haer. iii. 3), Eusebius ( H. E. iv. 4, 5, and Chron. ), Epiphanius (Haer. 97, 6)—one of the early bps. of Rome, called the 6th after the apostles, and the successor of Alexander. All assign him an episcopate of about 10 years, and place him in the reign of Hadrian. Catal. Liber. dates his episcopate 117–126; Eusebius ( H. E. ) 119–128; his Chronicle 114–124. Lipsius ( Chronol. der röm. Bischöf. ) gives 124–126 as the possible limits for his death. The Felician Catalogue and the Martyrologies represent him as a martyr, and he is commemorated among the apostles and martyrs, after Linus, Cletus, Clemens, in the canon of the mass. But Telesphorus being the first bp. of Rome designated a martyr by Irenaeus, the claim to the title of Sixtus and other early bps. of Rome, to the great majority of whom it has been since assigned, is doubtful.

[J.B—Y.]

Bibliography Information
Wace, Henry. Entry for 'Sixtus I., Bishop of Rome'. A Dictionary of Early Christian Biography. https://www.studylight.org/​dictionaries/​eng/​hwd/​s/sixtus-i-bishop-of-rome.html. 1911.
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile