Editing Pope Sixtus II (section)

==Life==
According to the ''[[Liber Pontificalis]]'', he was a [[Greeks|Greek]],<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Smith|first1=William|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LTb6zWm5PMcC|title=Encyclopaedic Dictionary Of Christian Antiquities (in 9 Volumes)|last2=Cheetham|first2=Samuel|date=2005|publisher=Concept Publishing Company|isbn=978-81-7268-111-1|pages=936}}</ref> born in [[Greece]], and was formerly a [[philosopher]].<ref>''The Book of Pontiffs (Liber Pontificalis)'', translated with introduction by Raymond Davies (Liverpool: University Press, 1989), p. 10</ref> However, this is uncertain, and is disputed by modern Western historians arguing that the authors of ''Liber Pontificalis'' confused him with the contemporary author Xystus, who was a Greek student of [[Pythagoreanism]].<ref name="cathenc"/>

Sixtus II restored the relations with the African and Eastern churches, which had been broken off by his predecessor over the question of [[Christian heresy|heretical]] [[baptism]] raised by the heresy [[Novatianism]].
[[File:Legendari di sancti istoriado uulgar, 1497 – (santo Sisto papa) - BEIC IE4411203.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|The Martyrdom of Sixtus II in the ''[[Golden Legend]]'' (1497)]]

In the persecutions under the [[Emperor Valerian]] in 258, numerous bishops, priests, and deacons were put to death. Pope Sixtus II was one of the first victims of this persecution, being [[Decapitation|beheaded]] on 6 August. He was martyred along with six deacons: Januarius, Vincentius, Magnus, Stephanus, [[Felicissimus and Agapitus]].<ref name="cathenc" /> Lawrence of Rome, his best-known deacon, suffered martyrdom on 10 August, four days after his bishop.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-sixtus-ii-and-companions/| title = Miller, OFM, Don. "Saint Sixtus II and Companions", Franciscan Media| access-date = 2017-09-28| archive-date = 2017-09-29| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170929091244/https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-sixtus-ii-and-companions/| url-status = dead}}</ref>

Sixtus is thought by some to be the author of the [[pseudo-Cyprian]]ic writing ''Ad Novatianum'', though this view has not found general acceptance. Another composition written at Rome, between 253 and 258, is generally agreed to be his.