Sixtus I

Biography

He succeeded Evaristo who perhaps ruled the Church from 108 and a few years later. He was the son of two shepherds, originally from the VII area of ​​the city called Via Lata, near the current Via del Corso, where there is still an avenue with this name. In reality his name was "Xystus", a name probably of Greek origin, which is later confused with Sixtus, since in reality he will be the seventh Pope, that is, the sixth after Peter.

Certainly some very important cult norms are attributed to him. It is Sixtus, for example, who decides that during the consecration no one other than the ministers of worship may touch the sacred chalice and the paten; He also introduces into the mass, after the Preface, the recitation of the "Saint" jointly between the priest and the assembly and, apparently, also the final formula of the "Ite missa est", although this is not historically proven.

He regulated some rites of the mass, and ordered that sacred vestments be touched only by priests. The following are attributed to him: the introduction of the triple chant of the Sanctus in the mass; two apocryphal letters dealing with the doctrine of the Trinity and the Primacy of the Church of Rome. Some divergences with the Church of Asia would date back to him. After his martyrdom he was buried next to St. Peter by the will of Pascual I.

After a thousand years, the Alife counts of Benevento requested his body. Innocent II (164) granted it. It is said that during the trip the mule carrying the urn, upon arriving near Alatri, did not want to continue. The residents of this town received the sacred remains and deposited them in the Acropolis, and they remain there until today.