Feast Day
2 saints in our library are celebrated on August 6.
215 — 258
Pope from August 257, Sixtus II was arrested by Roman soldiers while celebrating the Eucharist in the Catacomb of Callixtus and beheaded on August 6, 258, during the Valerian persecution. Six deacons died with him that day; his seventh deacon, Lawrence, was martyred four days later. His name has been recited in the Roman Canon of the Mass since antiquity.
450 — 523
Pope Hormisdas served as Bishop of Rome from 514 to 523 and ended the Acacian Schism — a 35-year rupture between Rome and Constantinople that began in 484. Through persistent diplomacy and the doctrinal 'Formula of Hormisdas,' he secured the Eastern Church's formal acceptance of the Council of Chalcedon and the primacy of the See of Rome. His son Silverius later became pope.