2007 Archive Edition - See the Archive Notice on the Project Homepage for more information.


The Ecole
Initiative

The Ecole Glossary


Sixtus III

The son of a Roman priest, Sixtus (d. 440) was among the chief priests of Rome when he was elected pope in 432. As a young man, he was suspected of being a Pelagian, or of being sympathetic to Pelagius. He, however, seems to have answered the suspicions, and he may have drafted Celestine I's statement at the Council of Ephesus (431), which refuted Nestorius' claim that Mary was the mother of Jesus but not the mother of Christ. Sixtus, during his papacy, settled a dispute between Cyril of Alexandria and John of Antioch that had arisen at Ephesus. Sixtus himself was involved in a dispute with Patriach Proclus of Constantinople over jurisdiction in Illyricum (the Balkans). In addition to repairing buildings damaged in the 410 sack of Rome, Sixtus founded St. Sebastian, the earliest known monastery in Rome.

Karen Rae Keck


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