December 11, 2023 / 12:29 AM
Every December 11 we remember Saint Damasus I, thirty-seventh pope of the Catholic Church. His pontificate lasted 18 years, from October 1, 366 to December 11, 384. He is known for having been an assiduous defender of the Church, particularly of the papal institution.
He was a promoter of the cult of martyrs and the one who introduced the Trinitarian doxology or prayer of “Glory” (“Glory to the Father, to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, now and always forever and ever. Amen” ) in the liturgy.
Pope Saint Damasus was born around the year 304, in Gallaecia (Hispania), Idanha-a-Velha (present-day Portugal). Since he was little he lived in Rome, the city in which he would grow up and where he came to discover his ecclesiastical vocation. He was a deacon and then a priest of the church of San Lorenzo martyr. He served as secretary to two pontiffs, Saint Liberius and Saint Felix.