Saint Sylvester

Hello, it's been a long time since I posted on this blog. Today I'd like to tell you something about Saint Sylvester's Day since in my country we do not celebrate "New Year's Eve" but "Sylvester". Sylvester I was a pope who lived in the 4th century and died on 31 December 335. By a slight chance you may already have heard of him as he was mentioned in the "Donatio Constantini", a forged document from the 8th century which was crucial in a great medieval dispute between pope and emperor. So the Pope died on today's New Year's Eve and shortly after the Church started to commemorate him every 31 December. But why do we celebrate his death day with huge parties? The legend has it that Sybille, an ancient Greek diviner predicted that in the year 1000 an enormous dragon imprisoned by the Pope Sylvester I in the caves of Latran will be freed and it'll be the end of the world. People believed that Sylvester II, a current pope, will be a one who will free the beast. So when the clock struck midnight and the dragon didn't show up, inhabitants of Rome entered in an ecstatic state and started to jubilate. This night, the Pope gave his first apostolic blessing "Urbi et Orbi" ("to the City [of Rome] and to the World").

Saint Sylvester And The Dragon, Agnolo Gaddi (14th century)