Sylvester was born of a noble family in Osimo, Italy, in the year 1177.  He studied law at Bologna and Padua but then switched to the study of theology and Scripture.  He was ordained and became a canon at Osimo until he berated his bishop for his neglect in certain discharges of his office. Sylvester resigned his canonry in 1227, when he was fifty, and became a hermit near Osimo and then at Grotta Fucile. Directed by a vision of St. Benedict, he organized the disciples he had attracted into a monastery at Monte Fano near Fabriano in 1231, and founded the Silvestrine Benedictines, know as the Blue Benedictines from the color of their habit.  This congregation was approved by Pope Innocent IV in 1247, and Sylvester ruled it for thirty-six years until his death. By that time, there were eleven monasteries under his rule. He was canonized in 1598 by Pope Clement VIII.

Other Saints We Remember Today

St. Elizabeth of Hungary (1231), Widow

St. Pontian (236), Pope, Martyr