On this day in the year 257 AD, Pope St. Sixtus II was elected to lead the still-illegal Christian Church, but his timing was anything but impeccable.
While the Church had indeed grown in its two centuries of existence, it was still time and again the target of persecution by Roman emperors for a wide variety of reasons, and our dear pontiff’s elevation to the Bishopric of Rome coincided with one of the most notorious ones.
Valerian had been the emperor in Rome already for four years, but despite never setting foot again in the Eternal City, he sent a letter to the Senate that year instructing Christian clergy to sacrifice to Roman gods, and the following year ordered their execution.
At any rate, St. Sixtus II wouldn’t even last a year in office before receiving the crown of martyrdom.
Valerian’s cruel edict came down at the beginning of August 258, and Sixtus was one of its first victims, being…
