Saint Damasus served as bishop of Rome for 18 years as Pope Damasus I (366-384). He had to endure significant controversy early in his pontifical reign when a factional group of bishops insisted that their chosen claimant, Ursinus, was the true pope. Both sides resorted to violence before the issue was decided in favor of Damasus. He went on to make the unification of the Church a central focus of his papacy and fervently fought to counter any division caused by the many heretical teachings of his time.

While he was pope, Christianity was declared the official religion of the Roman Empire and Rome’s authority in the Church was decided by a synod that Damasus called in 382. This synod established Rome as the direct descendant of the Church founded by the apostle Saint Peter, the apostolic see, and put an end to confusion stemming from Constantinople, which some were already calling ‘The New Rome’.

To further unify the Church, Damasus introduced Latin as the principle liturgical language and commissioned his secretary, Saint Jerome, to compile and revise the various translations of the Bible into one official translation to be used by the entire Church: The Latin Vulgate. This successfully preserved the original Scriptures by making them more accessible to the average Christian.

A writer and poet himself, Saint Damasus lives on in history through his many epigrams and verse inscriptions that can be found on the Roman catacombs that he restored during his papacy. Saint Jerome described his friend, Pope Damasus, as being “an incomparable person, learned in the Scriptures, a virgin doctor of the virgin Church, who loved chastity and heard its praises with pleasure.”