Saint Damasus was born in Rome at the start of the fourth century. His father, who had been widowed, entered Holy Orders and served as the parish priest of the Church of Saint Laurence.
Damasus was serving as archdeacon of the Roman Church in the year 355 when the Pope, Saint Liberius, was exiled to Berda. He followed the Pope into exile but later returned to Rome. When Saint Liberius died in 366, Damasus, then sixty two years old, was chosen to succeed him.
However, a man named Ursinus, moved by jealousy and ambition, declared himself pope and stirred a violent uprising in Rome in which 137 people were killed. Saint Damasus refused to defend himself with force. Instead, Emperor Valentinian intervened and expelled the usurper from Rome for a period. Ursinus later returned and, together with several supporters, attempted to ruin the holy Pope by accusing him of adultery.
Saint Damasus responded in a manner worthy of the spiritual father of the faithful. He convened a synod of forty four bishops, where he defended himself so clearly that his accusers were excommunicated and sent into exile.
Once the schism was resolved, Saint Damasus turned his focus to confronting Arianism in the West and Apollinarianism in the East. He called several councils to address these teachings. In 381 he sent Saint Zenobius, later bishop of Florence, to Constantinople to console the faithful who were suffering under the persecution of Emperor Valens. He asked Saint Jerome to prepare an accurate Latin translation of the Scriptures, which became known as the Vulgate, and he instructed that the Psalms be sung according to this new text.
Saint Damasus also rebuilt and beautified the Church of Saint Laurence, which still bears his name, and he undertook major work at the Vatican by draining the overflowing springs that were affecting the tombs of many holy persons. He honored the martyrs by adorning their resting places with inscriptions in verse.
Theodoret praised Saint Damasus as the leader of the great Latin teachers of divine grace. The Council of Chalcedon called him the honor and glory of Rome. After guiding the Church for eighteen years and two months, he died on December 10, 384, at nearly eighty years of age.
In the eighth century, most of his relics were placed in the Church of Saint Laurence in Damaso, while his head was kept in Saint Peter’s Basilica. He also presided over the Council of Rome in 382, which confirmed the official list of the books of Sacred Scripture.
During his pontificate, Saint Damasus firmly opposed the major heresies of his time, supported the creation of the Vulgate Bible, worked to restore unity between the Church of Rome and the Church of Antioch, and encouraged devotion to the martyrs.