Saint Sylvester I, Pope

Sylvester was bishop of Rome from 314 to 335, in the first decades after Emperor Constantine ended the persecutions. In his time the Lateran basilica and the first basilica of St Peter on the Vatican Hill were built, both by the emperor. He did not attend the Council of Nicaea in 325 but sent two priests to represent him. Later legends, written down in the 5th century, made him the man who cured Constantine of leprosy and baptized him; in fact Constantine was baptized on his deathbed in 337 by Eusebius of Nicomedia. A document claiming that Constantine had given the pope rule over the West, the Donation of Constantine, was shown in 1440 by Lorenzo Valla to be a forgery of the 8th century. Sylvester died on 31 December 335.