The Persecution of Valerian
The Emperor Valerian, who earlier in his reign had been comparatively tolerant of Christians, issued two persecutory edicts. The first required Christians to take part in pagan worship and forbade assemblies in cemeteries. The second, issued in early August 258, ordered that bishops, priests, and deacons be summarily executed. Saint Cyprian of Carthage, writing within a month of Sixtus II's death, documented the severity of the persecution, recording that 'the prefects of the City were daily urging the persecution' and confiscating the property of the condemned.
On August 6, 258, Sixtus II gathered his congregation at the cemetery of Praetextatus on the left side of the Appian Way, opposite the cemetery of Saint Callistus. While he was addressing his flock from his chair, soldiers arrived and arrested him. It is uncertain whether he was beheaded immediately or tried before execution; he was among the first to suffer in the renewed persecution. Four other deacons — Januarius, Vincentius, Magnus, and Stephanus — were apprehended and executed with him, and the deacons Felicissimus and Agapitus also suffered martyrdom the same day.
The Companions
Felicissimus and Agapitus were among the six deacons serving Pope Sixtus II, and were martyred on or about August 6, 258, the same day as the pope. They were interred at the Catacombs of Praetextatus along the Via Appia, where they became particularly venerated. In 833 Pope Gregory IV commissioned a substantial mosaic at San Marco Evangelista al Campidoglio featuring these saints; the work may have commemorated the recent transfer of their relics to a Bavarian monastery.
Romanus, by tradition a soldier, was converted to Christianity by the example of the deacon Laurence of Rome and, according to tradition, was baptized by Laurence while imprisoned. After his baptism Romanus served as an ostiary (doorkeeper) in Rome before he too was martyred for his faith around 258. His relics are kept in two Roman churches, San Lorenzo fuori le Mura and Santa Caterina dei Funari.
Relics & Shrines
The remains of Sixtus II were transferred to the cemetery of Saint Callistus, where Pope Damasus (366–384) placed an inscription on his tomb commemorating his pastoral leadership and martyrdom. His bloodstained execution chair was enshrined behind the tomb. An oratory, the Oratorium Xysti, was erected at the cemetery of Praetextatus on the site of his execution and drew pilgrims through the seventh and eighth centuries. Sixtus II is named in the Roman Canon of the Mass.
Felicissimus and Agapitus were buried at the Catacombs of Praetextatus, and Romanus's relics rest at San Lorenzo fuori le Mura and Santa Caterina dei Funari in Rome.
Veneration & Attribution
The feast of Saint Sixtus II and his companion deacons is kept on August 6 in the Roman tradition; in the calendar reforms of 1969 the memorial of Sixtus and his companions was moved to August 7. In some Eastern traditions the commemoration falls on August 10, alongside Saint Laurence. Romanus is commemorated on August 9.
Sixtus II was at one time credited as author of the 'Sentences of Xystus,' a collection that was originally Pythagorean and later Christianized; scholarly consensus rejects this attribution.
