Saint Sylvester, Abbot
S. Silvestri Abbatis
Saint Sylvester Gozzolini, abbot, forsook the world to live in solitude and penance, and became the founder of the Sylvestrine congregation of Benedictine monks.
Saint Sylvester Gozzolini was born at Osimo, in the March of Ancona in Italy, in the year 1177. He studied law and Sacred Scripture, and for a time held a place among the clergy of his native city. According to the tradition long honoured in his Order, he was moved to abandon the world after looking upon the body of a once-handsome nobleman in the open grave, and pondering the vanity of all earthly things; reflecting that what that man had been, he too would one day become, he resolved to give himself wholly to God.
The hermit and founder
Withdrawing into solitude, Sylvester embraced a life of prayer, penance, and poverty. As others were drawn to share his manner of life, he established a community and, about the year 1231, founded at Monte Fano a congregation of monks who followed the Rule of Saint Benedict in a strict and eremitical spirit. This became the Sylvestrine Benedictine congregation, which spread and endured. Sylvester governed his monks with gentleness and wisdom, himself giving the example of humility and the love of the hidden life.
Death and veneration
Saint Sylvester lived to a great age and died at Monte Fano on the twenty-sixth of November in 1267. He was honoured as a saint by long veneration, and his cult was confirmed for the universal Church. In him the faithful are given the example of one who, weighing the brevity of this life and the certainty of death, chose the better part, and spent his years in the service of God and in the guidance of souls who sought perfection under the Benedictine rule.
The Collect
O most merciful God, who, when blessed Sylvester the Abbot was devoutly meditating upon the vanity of this world at an open grave, didst vouchsafe to call him to the desert and to adorn him with the merits of an eminent life: humbly we beseech Thee, that, despising earthly things after his example, we may enjoy Thy presence for evermore. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end.
Clementissime Deus, qui sanctum Silvestrum Abbatem, saeculi huius vanitatem in aperto tumulo pie meditantem, ad eremum vocare, et praeclarae vitae meritis decorare dignatus es: te suppliciter exoramus; ut, eius exemplo terrena despicientes, tui consortio perfruamur. Per Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum, Filium tuum: qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum.
Patronage
He is venerated as the founder of the Sylvestrine Benedictine congregation, which keeps his memory with special honour.
In the Modern Calendar
In the modern calendar this feast is no longer kept on the universal calendar, though it is observed by the Benedictine and Sylvestrine families.
Common Questions
When is the feast of Saint Sylvester the Abbot?
His feast is kept on 26 November in the calendar of the 1962 Roman Missal, as a Third Class feast.
Who was Saint Sylvester the Abbot?
He was Saint Sylvester Gozzolini (1177–1267), an Italian who left the world for a life of solitude and penance and founded the Sylvestrine congregation of Benedictine monks at Monte Fano.
Is he the same as Pope Saint Sylvester?
No. This Saint Sylvester is the abbot and founder honoured on 26 November. Pope Saint Sylvester I, who reigned in the time of Constantine, is a different saint, kept on 31 December.
See where this feast falls in the Church’s year on the liturgical calendar, or find a Traditional Latin Mass near you.
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