Pope Damasus I

Pope Saint Damasus I
19th-century imagined portrait
Papacy began	1 October 366
Papacy ended	11 December 384
Predecessor	Liberius
Successor	Siricius
Personal details
Birth name	Damasus
Born	c. 305 Rome, Western Roman Empire
Died	11 December 384 Rome, Western Roman Empire
Sainthood
Feast day	11 December
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Patronage	Archaeologists

Papal styles of Pope Damasus I
Reference style	His Holiness
Spoken style	Your Holiness
Religious style	Holy Father
Posthumous style	Saint

Pope St. Damasus I (/ˈdæməsəs/; c. 305 – 11 December 384) was Pope of the Catholic Church from October 366 to his death in 384. He spoke out against major heresies in the church (including Apollinarianism and Macedonianism) and encouraged production of the Vulgate Bible. He has been made a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, and his feast day is December 11.

Pope St. Damasus I was born around 305, around or inside the city of Rome. His life coincided with the rise of Emperor Constantine I and the reunion and re-division of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires, which is associated with the legitimization of Christianity and its later adoption as the official religion of the Roman state in 380.

Following the death of Pope Liberius, he succeeded to the Papacy amidst factional violence. A group of Damasus' supporters, previously loyal to his opponent Felix, attacked and killed rivals loyal to Liberius' deacon Ursinus in a riot that required the intervention of Emperor Valentinian I to quell.