St. Damasus I, pope from the fourth century, is most famous for asking St. Jerome to translate the Bible.

Damasus was deacon in Rome and elected pope when he was 60 years old. The election was marked by opposition and even violence–he struggled against rivals for the rest of his pontificate.

He was patron to a brilliant scholar, Jerome, who served as his secretary before Damasus encouraged him to study and revise the old Latin translations of the Bible in use at the time.

Damasus also contributed to the practice of venerating relics. He drained and opened the Christian catacombs and even wrote inscriptions for many of the graves. His own relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica.

As his own death neared, he penned his own epitaph. Popes before him had been buried together in a papal crypt, but he only had an inscription placed there that read, “I, Damasus, wished to be buried here, but I feared to offend the ashes of these holy ones.”

Instead, he was buried with his mother and sister in a small church. This is the epitaph that he wrote for his own grave:

“He who walking on the sea could calm the bitter waves, who gives life to the dying seeds of the earth; He who was able to loose the mortal chains of death, and after three days’ darkness could bring again to the upper world the brother of his sister Martha: He, I believe, will make Damasus rise again from the dust.”

Pope St. Damasus I, you loved God’s Word and trusted in the resurrection, pray for us!