DAMASUS I., Saint, was pope from 366 to 384. As a deacon he protested against the banishment of Pope Liberius (355), but when the emperor Constantius sent to Rome the anti-pope Felix II., Damasus, with the other clergy, rallied to . his cause. When Liberius returned from exile and Felix was expelled, Damasus again supported Liberius. On the death of Liberius (366) he was nominated successor but the irreconcilables of the party of Liberius set up against him another deacon, Ursinus. A serious conflict ensued which quickly led to rioting. The prefect of Rome recognized the claims of Damasus, and Ursinus and his supporters were expelled. The new pope also secured the sympathy of the people by his zeal in discovering the tombs of martyrs, and in adorning them with precious marbles and monumental inscriptions. The inscriptions he composed himself, in mediocre verse, full of Virgilian reminiscences. In Rome he erected or embellished the church which still bears his name (S. Lorenzo in Damaso).
The West was recovering gradually from the effects of the Arian crisis, and Damasus endeavoured to eliminate from Italy and Illyria the last champions of the council of Rimini. The bish ops of the East, however, under the direction of St. Basil, were involved in a struggle with the emperor Valens, whose policy was favourable to the council of Rimini. Damasus, to whom they ap pealed for help, was unable to be of much service because that episcopal group, viewed askance by St. Athanasius and his suc cessor Peter, was incessantly combated at the papal court by the hatred of Alexandria. The Eastern bishops triumphed in the end under Theodosius, at the council of Constantinople (380, in which the Western church took no part. They were invited to a council at Rome in 382, but few attended.
This council had brought to Rome the learned monk Jerome, for whom Damasus showed great esteem. To him Damasus en trusted the revision of the Latin text of the Bible. A short time before the pope had received a visit from the Priscillianists after their condemnation in Spain and had dismissed them. Damasus died on Dec. 1, 384.
His writings are printed in Migne, Patrol. Lat. XIII. See also Duchesne, Liber Pontificalis I. 212 ; J. Wittig, Papst Damasus I. (Rome, 1902) and Die Friedenspolitik des Papstes Damasus I. (Breslau, 1912) .