Pope Saint Siricius (384-399)

The first great decretalist pope

One word often sums up Siricius: decretal. A decretal is a pontifical reply that settles a question of discipline, liturgy or ecclesiastical law with normative force. The Catholic Encyclopedia stresses that the letter to Himerius is the oldest fully preserved pontifical decretal, even though Siricius himself recalls that earlier popes, notably Liberius, had already sent decrees to the provinces.^[7]

This gives Siricius a pivotal place. Before him, Roman primacy is already visible in appeals, synods, the witness of the Fathers and the memory of Peter. With him, it appears in a more stable form: a provincial bishop writes to Rome; Rome answers point by point; the answer is sent beyond its immediate recipient; bishops must conform to it.

The successor of Damasus, not his erasure

Siricius inherits the legacy of an immense pope. Damasus defended Nicaea, encouraged Jerome, restored the catacombs, organised the memory of the martyrs and formulated more strongly the dignity of the Roman see.^[8] Siricius must not be read as a mere epilogue. He turns part of that heritage into ordinary government.

Damasus gave Rome a doctrinal and biblical voice; Siricius gives Rome a disciplinary, canonical and pastoral voice. The two dimensions are not opposed. A Church that confesses the faith of Nicaea must also know whom to baptise, when to admit to penance, how to ordain, how to correct clerics and how to protect the faithful against doctrines that dissolve Christian asceticism.

A pope useful against two caricatures

Siricius is useful against two opposite caricatures. The first imagines a primitive papacy that was purely honorary, merely presiding symbolically without legislating. The decretal of 385 shows on the contrary a Roman authority that knows itself responsible beyond Rome. The second caricature imagines a Roman discipline that was arbitrary, invented late out of taste for power. The text shows instead a logic of order: decisions are justified by Scripture, the canons, received tradition and pastoral charge.

This is not yet the medieval papacy. Siricius does not govern the West with the administrative instruments of an Innocent III or a Gregory IX. But he belongs to the moment when the Roman office takes on a lasting juridical form.

Table of witnesses

This hierarchy avoids two errors. Siricius must not be reduced to the Liber Pontificalis, some of whose notices may project later debates. But this Roman memory must not be ignored either: it shows how tradition remembered Siricius as a pope of government, discipline and unity.^[9] An example of this caution: the Liber credits Siricius with expelling the Manicheans from Rome together with a very harsh discipline of reconciliation, but Loomis and Duchesne judge such a campaign extremely doubtful in that form, Augustine saying nothing of it.^[10]

The dates of the pontificate

The Holy See's official entry gives the beginning of the pontificate as 15, 22 or 29 December 384 and its end as 26 November 399.^[11] The Catholic Encyclopedia places his election in December 384, after the death of Damasus, and his consecration probably on 17 December.^[12]

This small December uncertainty is normal for the early centuries. The essential is clear: Siricius immediately succeeds Damasus at the end of 384, governs for about fifteen years, and dies on 26 November 399.

Roman service before the election

The Catholic Encyclopedia reports, from his tomb inscription, that Siricius served the Roman Church very early: lector, then deacon under the pontificate of Liberius (352-366).^[13] He therefore did not arrive at the Roman see as an unknown propelled by a faction. He had belonged to the clergy of Rome for decades.

This detail matters. Siricius lived through the Arian crisis, the exile of Liberius, the troubled pontificate of Damasus, the public rise of the Church under Theodosius. His way of governing comes from a long institutional memory: he knows what a vague discipline can cost the Church.

After the violence of 366

The election of Damasus in 366 had been marked by the rivalry of Ursinus and by grave Roman violence.^[14] Siricius, by contrast, was elected in a much more peaceful climate. The Catholic Encyclopedia speaks of a unanimous election and notes that, despite the survival of Ursinus and his claims, no major crisis occurred.^[15]

This contrast matters. The pontificate of Siricius shows that the wound of 366 did not prevent Rome from recovering an orderly succession. A papacy that had begun the previous pontificate in tumult now passes to a more regular government.

Imperial support

The same source reports that an imperial letter addressed to Pinianus, dated 24 February 385 (Milan), recognises the election and praises the new pope's piety.^[16] The old article speaks of Valentinian III, but the chronological context obviously points to Valentinian II: Valentinian III was not born until 419. This kind of correction is a reminder that a secondary source, even a Catholic and useful one, must be read with attention.

Imperial recognition does not found the authority of Siricius. It only guarantees that there will not be, as in 366, a prolonged public conflict over the Roman see.

A recognised legitimacy

The result is simple: Siricius can govern immediately. As early as February 385, he answers Himerius of Tarragona. It is almost a programme for the pontificate: barely elected, he exercises Roman responsibility beyond Italy.

A letter addressed to Damasus, received by Siricius

Himerius, bishop of Tarragona, had sent Damasus a list of disciplinary questions. The letter arrives just as Damasus is dead and Siricius occupies his see. Siricius therefore answers in the name of Roman continuity: he inherits the works and concerns of the one he succeeds.^[17]

The situation is very concrete. Christian Spain asks questions about divergent practices: should converted Arians be rebaptised? may one baptise on any feast? how are penitents to be received? what is to be done with certain irregular clerics? what continence should be asked of sacred ministers?

The tone of Roman authority

The force of the text comes from its introduction. Siricius does not present himself as an outside consultant, but as the one upon whom falls a greater zeal for the Christian religion, because he bears with Peter the burdens of the Church.^[18]

"We bear the burdens of all who labour, and more still: the blessed apostle Peter bears them in Us, he who, as We confidently believe, protects and keeps Us in all things as the heir of his ministry." — Saint Siricius, Directa ad decessorem, introduction, §1^[19]

This sentence is pivotal in the history of primacy. Siricius does not merely say that Rome possesses a respectable tradition; he links his ministry to Peter. The pontifical charge is understood as an inherited service, protected and kept by the apostle.

A text sent beyond Tarragona

At the end of the decretal, Siricius asks Himerius to spread the decisions not only in his own province, but also to Carthage, Baetica, Lusitania and Galicia.^[20] The letter thus becomes a text of enlarged regional government.

The formula is strong: no priest of the Lord has the liberty to ignore the statutes of the Apostolic See and the canons. This is not optional spiritual advice. Siricius closes the door to future excuses: once the instruction is known, bishops and clerics must act.

The great themes of the decretal

The decretal is therefore not only a text on priestly celibacy. It is a small pastoral code for a Western Church emerging from the crises of the 4th century and needing to stabilise its usages.

Do not rebaptise converted Arians

The first answer concerns baptised Arians who return to the Catholic faith. Siricius refuses their rebaptism: he invokes the Apostle, the canons and the general decrees of Liberius after the council of Rimini.^[21]

This decision is theologically important. Heresy wounds the faith, but baptism conferred with the Christian form is not treated as null to be repeated. The Church reconciles by the invocation of the Spirit and the imposition of hands. Siricius thus protects both Catholic truth against Arianism and the oneness of baptism against repetition.

The seasons for baptism

Siricius criticises the confusion of those who baptise indiscriminately on every feast. Latin discipline favours the great baptismal seasons of Easter and Pentecost, while leaving room for necessity.^[22]

The point may seem technical. It is not. For the ancient Church, baptism is not a private act detached from the liturgical year. It brings one into the death and resurrection of Christ; it therefore has a pedagogy, a season, a solemnity. Siricius defends the coherence between sacrament and celebrated mystery.

Penance: neither laxity nor despair

The decretal also treats of penance. The 4th century still knows a demanding public discipline for grave faults. Siricius stands within this logic: sin must be corrected, trivialisation refused, but the door of salvation must not be closed to the one who returns seriously.^[23]

This line is typically Catholic. Mercy is not indifference to evil; discipline is not refusal to heal. The Church is maternal enough to raise up, holy enough not to call good what destroys the soul.

What Siricius asks

The most famous passage concerns bishops, priests and deacons. Siricius asks that from ordination the ministers of the altar keep their hearts and bodies in sobriety and chastity, so as to please God in the sacrifices they offer daily.^[24]

"from the day of our ordination we consecrate our hearts and bodies to sobriety and chastity, so that we may please the Lord our God in the sacrifices we offer daily" — Saint Siricius, Directa ad decessorem, ch. VII, §10^[25]

The notions must be carefully distinguished. Siricius does not speak first of celibacy in the modern sense, that is, of forbidding the ordination of married men. In the 4th century, many clerics could have been married before their ordination. The precise point is continence after ordination: the conjugal abstinence asked of major clerics.

The theological logic

Siricius attaches this requirement to the service of the altar, to liturgical prayer and to apostolic example. The argument is not that marriage would be impure. It is that sacred ministry engages body and soul in a particular availability. The Ignispedia article on priestly celibacy treats the question at greater length and shows how Elvira, Siricius and Carthage form an ancient dossier still debated in historiography.^[26]

The nuance is essential. Marriage is good, sanctified by Christ; yet consecrated virginity and continence have their own eschatological value. Siricius belongs to a Church that still thinks these realities within a very strong sacrificial and liturgical horizon.

Carthage 390: Africa takes up the formula

A few years after Siricius, the council of Carthage of 390 takes up a formula become famous: one must keep what the apostles taught and what antiquity observed.^[27] This parallel matters. It shows that Rome is not alone in formulating the apostolic origin of clerical continence; Latin Africa expresses it too.

Reception, however, would remain long and difficult. Western councils would often repeat the same discipline, a sign that it was not always observed. Siricius is therefore a normative landmark, not proof of uniform and immediate application.

Eighty bishops at Rome

On 6 January 386, a Roman synod gathers about eighty bishops. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, it reaffirms in nine canons several disciplinary laws: consecration of bishops, continence, ordinations and neighbouring points.^[28]

This synod extends the decretal to Himerius. Siricius does not govern only by isolated letters. He inscribes his decisions in a Roman synodal dynamic, then communicates them to other Churches, notably in Africa.

The consecration of bishops

Britannica summarises one of the strong points attributed to Siricius: no bishop is to be consecrated without the knowledge of the Apostolic See.^[29] The exact formulation and its practical scope must be read in the context of the 4th century, but the idea is clear: the episcopate cannot constitute itself in closed local networks without relation to Roman communion.

This requirement protects unity. The Arian and schismatic crises had shown that a badly elected, badly consecrated bishop, or one backed by a faction, could durably tear a local Church.

Discipline and communion

With Siricius, law is not abstract. It serves communion. Baptism must not be repeated arbitrarily; penitents must be treated according to a rule; clerics must be ordained with discernment; bishops must remain in a visible communion.

The lesson is current: a Church without discipline is not more evangelical; it simply becomes more dependent on local habits, social pressures and strong personalities.

The objection of Jovinian

Around 390-392, Siricius has to deal with the case of Jovinian, a monk turned critic of traditional Christian asceticism. Jovinian seems to have affirmed, among other things, that the merit of virgins, widows and baptised married persons did not really differ, and that ascetic practices such as fasting conferred no spiritual superiority.^[30][31]

The problem must be stated honestly. The Church does not condemn Jovinian because he would defend the goodness of marriage: the goodness of marriage is Catholic. She condemns him because he levels the states of life to the point of emptying consecrated virginity, continence and asceticism of their evangelical meaning.

The Roman decision

Siricius gathers his clergy and condemns Jovinian together with eight companions: Auxentius, Genialis, Germinator, Felix, Martianus, Januarius, Ingeniosus, and an eighth name which the Roman letter transmits as Prontinus while the reply of the synod of Milan gives Plotinus, the form judged probably the true one by editors.^[32]

The letter sent to Milan presents the danger as a doctrinal contagion under religious appearance. Its tone is harsh, sometimes marked by the ascetic polemic of the time. This dossier must be read in its context: the Latin West vigorously defends consecrated virginity, and Jerome would write against Jovinian shortly afterwards with still greater verbal violence.^[33]

Ambrose receives the decision

The reply of Milan is precious because it shows Siricius in relation with Saint Ambrose. The Milanese synod writes to the pope that it recognises in his letter the vigilance of the good shepherd and announces that it has condemned the same men in conformity with the Roman judgment.^[34]

"Those whom you condemned [...] have also been condemned by us, in accord with your judgment." — Synod of Milan to Siricius, letter 42 of Saint Ambrose (translation)^[35]

The episode shows a concrete ecclesial functioning: Rome judges; Milan examines, answers, confirms and applies. This is neither mechanical centralism nor separate autonomy. It is doctrinal communion in act.

Marriage honoured, virginity preferred

The synod of Milan also answers one of the central confusions: honouring marriage does not imply denying the superior value of consecrated virginity. The letter affirms that marriage is sanctified by Christ, while defending an excellence proper to virginity.^[36]

This distinction remains Catholic. Marriage is a sacrament; virginity for the Kingdom is an eschatological sign. To oppose them would be false; to confuse them would be impoverishing.

The schism of Antioch

The pontificate of Siricius also touches the East. The situation at Antioch remains marked by the Meletian schism: several rival episcopal lines claim legitimacy. After the death of Paulinus in 388, his partisans elect Evagrius, while the partisans of Meletius support Flavian.^[37]

The Catholic Encyclopedia reports that after the death of Evagrius, and thanks to the mediation of Saint John Chrysostom and Theophilus of Alexandria, an embassy led by Acacius of Beroea comes to Rome to obtain that Siricius recognise Flavian and readmit him to communion.^[38]

A papacy concerned with the East

Britannica notes that Siricius believed himself entitled to intervene also in the affairs of the Eastern Church, notably at Antioch and, in 394, in an arbitration over the bishopric of Bosra (Bostra) in Arabia.^[39] The formula must be understood precisely. Siricius does not possess a direct administration of all the Eastern Churches; but Rome is already a point of reference in conflicts of communion.

This dimension completes the Hispanic dossier. Siricius is not only the pope of the Western provinces. He belongs to a Church in which Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, Milan and the great Eastern sees remain bound by appeals, embassies and mutual recognitions.

The realism of limits

One must not overinterpret. The East does not function as a Roman province. Mediations are slow, personal, diplomatic, often dependent on Ambrose, Theophilus, Chrysostom and local balances. But the very fact that an embassy seeks out Rome says something about the place of the apostolic see.

The Theodosian basilica

At Rome, the name of Siricius is linked to the great basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls. The old Constantinian basilica having become too small, Emperor Theodosius launches a monumental five-nave reconstruction. The Catholic Encyclopedia indicates that Siricius dedicates it in 390.^[40]

Britannica adds that a surviving column of the basilica still commemorates this dedication.^[41] The Ignispedia article on Saint Paul Outside the Walls takes up this dossier: the Theodosian edifice, completed afterwards, would give the memory of Paul an almost imperial monumental scale.^[42]

A pope between catacombs and basilicas

Siricius is buried in the cemetery of Priscilla on the Via Salaria, according to the tradition reported by the Liber Pontificalis and the Catholic Encyclopedia.^[43][44] He therefore belongs to a generation of transition: popes now govern a visible Church, endowed with grandiose basilicas, but their memory remains rooted in the Christian cemeteries.

This double anchoring is theologically beautiful. Saint Paul Outside the Walls shows the Church in the open; Priscilla recalls that she comes from the martyrs, the tombs, hidden fidelity.

An inscription that corrects the dryness of the notices

The ancient notices on Siricius are sometimes dry: dates, ordinations, regulations, burial. But his funerary inscription, known through the epigraphic tradition, recalls that he had served the Roman Church long before governing it.^[45]

Siricius is therefore not only a jurist. He is a Roman cleric of long fidelity: lector, deacon, bishop, then saint honoured on 26 November.

Paulinus of Nola: a cold reception

Two contemporaries left unfavourable remarks on Siricius. Paulinus of Nola, during his stay at Rome in 395, complains of a distant attitude on the pope's part. The Catholic Encyclopedia explains this reserve by irregularities connected with the election and consecration of Paulinus.^[46]

The point is useful: a saint can be hurt by a pope, and a pope can have disciplinary reasons for remaining cautious. The history of the Church is not a gallery of relations always easy.

Jerome: the Rufinus dossier

Jerome reproaches Siricius with a lack of judgment in the affair of Rufinus of Aquileia, to whom the pope had given a letter of communion when he left Rome in 398.^[47] Jerome, engaged in the Origenist polemics, judges this gesture severely.

The Catholic Encyclopedia qualifies his judgment: Jerome often goes beyond the limits of polemical moderation. This does not make Siricius infallible in every practical assessment; it only forbids reducing his pontificate to a Jeromian jibe.

Reading the criticisms without losing proportion

These criticisms are precious because they humanise Siricius. He is not an abstract figure. He governs, decides, displeases, perhaps hesitates, trusts some, irritates others.

But the whole of his works contradicts the image of a pope merely proud or clumsy. His decretals, his synods, his cooperation with Ambrose, his role in Eastern affairs and the dedication of Saint Paul's show a consistent government.

Death and burial

Siricius dies on 26 November 399.^[48][49] The Liber Pontificalis gives a different burial date, 22 February, which the Catholic Encyclopedia judges incorrect for his death.^[50][51]

He is buried in the cemetery of Priscilla, on the Via Salaria, in the basilica of Sylvester according to Loomis's notes on the Liber Pontificalis. His feast is celebrated on 26 November; his name was inserted into the Roman Martyrology by Benedict XIV.^[52]

What he bequeaths to Innocent I and Leo the Great

After Siricius come Anastasius I (399-401), then Innocent I (401-417). Innocent would strongly develop pontifical correspondence and the idea of recourse to Rome. Leo the Great, later, would give Roman primacy a fuller theological and political formulation.

Siricius thus stands between Damasus and Leo: after the great 4th-century Roman affirmation, before the 5th-century Leonine synthesis. His role is to make Roman government more ordinary, more written, more transmissible.

The synthesis formula

Saint Siricius is the pope who transfers part of Roman authority into the lasting form of the decretal. His pontificate shows a Catholic Church that believes at once in the grace of the sacraments, the value of asceticism, the communion of bishops and the responsibility of the See of Peter. He is not the most famous of the ancient popes; he is one of those through whom the papacy becomes legible as pastoral government of the Church.

The surest facts

The four heritages

1. Canonical heritage: the pontifical decretal as a form of government.
2. Sacramental heritage: oneness of baptism, disciplined penance, controlled ordination.
3. Ascetic heritage: defence of clerical continence and consecrated virginity without contempt for marriage.
4. Roman heritage: Saint Paul Outside the Walls, Priscilla, and the papacy between public basilica and memory of the martyrs.

• Pope Saint Damasus I (366-384) — predecessor of Siricius, pope of Jerome, of Nicaea and of the martyrs.
• Pope Liberius (352-366) — pope of the Arian crisis, mentioned by Siricius in the Directa.
• What to think of priestly celibacy? — for the Elvira, Siricius, Carthage dossier and Latin discipline.
• The basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls — Theodosian basilica dedicated by Siricius around 390.
• Pope Saint Sylvester I (314-335) — pope of Christian visibility after Constantine.
• Saint Ambrose of Milan — Siricius's interlocutor in the condemnation of Jovinian.