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The following is adapted from the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church
SIRICIUS, Saint (c.334–99), Bishop of Rome from 384. His pontificate is of importance as marking a new stage in the development of Papal authority. His epistle to Himerius, Bishop of Tarragona (385), advocating a relatively lenient treatment of public penitents, is the first of the Papal decretals. He held a synod at Rome in 386 which passed nine canons on matters of ecclesiastical discipline that were sent to the African Church. He also took active steps towards preventing the Church in E. Illyria from becoming subject to the jurisdiction of Constantinople. In 390 he dedicated the new basilica of Saint Paul on the Ostian Way, and in 392 condemned Jovinian. Feast day, 26 Nov.
Letters ed. P. Coustant, OSB, Epistolae Romanorum Pontificum, 1 (Paris, 1721), cols. 623–700; repr. in J. P. Migne, PL 13. 1131–96. Jaffé, 1, pp. 40–2. LP (Duehesne), 1, pp. 216 f. (Eng. tr. [1989], P. 30). J Janini, SAINT Siricio y las cuatro temporal: Una investigatión sobre las fuentes de la espiritualidad seglar y del Sacramentario Leoniano, (Valencia, 1958). C. Pietri, Roma Christiana: Recherches sur l’Église de Rome … de Miltiade à Sixte III (Bibliothéque des Ecoles Franc̃aises d’Athènes et de Rome, 224; 1976), pp. 888–909. J. N. D. Kelly, Oxford Dictionary of Popes (1986), pp. 35 f., s.v.; E. Cavalcanti in Enciclopedia dei Papi, 1 (2000), pp. 375–81; P. T. Camelot, OP, in NCE (2nd edn.), 13 (2003), pp. 166 f.
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From the epistle (1) "Directa ad decessorem" to Himerius, Bishop of Terracina, Feb. 10, 385 181 Dz 87 |
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. . . TO your inquiry we do not deny a legal reply, because we, upon whom greater zeal for the Christian religion is incumbent than upon the whole body, out of consideration for our office do not have the liberty to dissimulate, nor to remain silent. We carry the weight of all who are burdened; nay rather the blessed apostle Peter bears these in us, who, as we trust, protects us in all matters of his administration, and guards his heirs. |
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| Explicuimus, ut arbitror, frater charissime, universa quae digesta sunt in querelam, et ad singulas causas, de quibus per filium nostrum Bassianum presbyterum ad Romanam Ecclesiam, ut pote ad caput tui corporis, retulisti, sufficientia, quantum opinor, responsa reddidimus: | |
| Now we encourage your fraternal spirit to observe the canons and to hold firm to the established decretals steadfastly, so that you make known to all our fellow bishops, and not only those situated in your region, what we wrote back in response to your questions. But these things which were set forth by us in salubrious fashion should even be sent by escort of your letter to all the Carthaginians, Baeticians, Lusitanians, and Gallicians (Latin), and those who border you in neighboring provinces on either side. | nunc fraternitatis tuae animum ad servandos canones et tenenda decretalia constituta magis ac magis incitamus. Ut haec quae ad tua consulta rescripsimus, in omnium coepiscoporum nostrorum perferri facias notionem, et non solum eorum qui in tua sunt dioecesi constituti, sed etiam ad universos Carthaginienses ac Baeticos, Lusitanos atque Gallicos, vel eos qui vicinis tibi collimitant hinc inde provinciis haec quae a nobis sunt salubri ordinatione disposita, sub litterarum tuarum prosecutione mittantur. |
| And although there is freedom for no priest of the Lord to be ignorant of the statutes (statuta) of the apostolic see and the venerable definitions and decisions of the canons (canones), | Et quanquam statuta sedis apostolicae, vel canonum venerabilia definita nulli sacerdotum Domini ignorare sit liberum, |
| it can, nevertheless, be helpful, and because of the antiquity of your see, beloved, exceedingly glorious for you, if those things of a general sort which were written to you by name are brought to the attention of all our brothers through your cooperative solicitude, so that the things which were salubriously established by us, not haphazardly, but prudently, with very great care and deliberation, might remain inviolate, and that in the future access to all excuses should be blocked, which according to us cannot be available now to anyone. | ut illius tamen et pro antiquitate sacerdotii tui dilectioni tuae esse admodum poterit gloriosum, si ea quae ad te speciali nomine generaliter scripta sunt, per unanimitatis tuae sollicitudinem in universorum fratrum nostrorum notitiam perferantur, quatenus et quae a nobis non inconsulte, sed provide sub nimia cautela et deliberatione sunt et salubriter constituta, intemerata permaneant, et omnibus in posterum excusationibus aditus, qui jam nulli apud nos patere poterit, obstruatur. |
| Issued on February 11, in the consulship of those most distinguished men Arcadius and Bauto. | Data III idus Februarii, Arcadio et Bauto vv. cc. conss. (An. Christi 385.) |
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