Early Life and Conversion

Saint Sylvester was born in Como, Italy, around 1177 to a noble family. His father, Gislerius, was an expert in civil law and sent young Sylvester to study in Bologna and Padua. However, Sylvester found that civil law did not inflame his heart. Driven by a thirst for God, he abandoned law to study Sacred Theology instead. ​When Sylvester returned home, his father was so furious that his son had abandoned a legal career for the Holy Scriptures that he refused to speak to Sylvester for ten entire years. Sylvester bore this harsh treatment with immense patience, focusing purely on pleasing the Eternal Father. 

Sylvester was appointed a Canon at the Cathedral Church of Osimo, where his zealous preaching made him beloved by the people. Fearless in his faith, he openly corrected his local Bishop, Sinibald, who was living a sinful life. Filled with envy and hatred because the people preferred Sylvester’s preaching to his own, the Bishop plotted to strip Sylvester of his position. 

​The definitive moment of Sylvester’s conversion came during a funeral service at the cathedral. Looking into an open tomb, he saw the horribly decaying corpse of a relative who had once been exceptionally handsome. Shaken to his core, Sylvester shook and told himself: ​*"I am what he was. What he is I shall be!"* ​Realizing the vanity and brevity of worldly glory, Sylvester returned to his room, heard the call of Christ to take up his cross, and resolved to escape into the wilderness. That very night, the heavy door of his room opened miraculously without making a single sound, allowing him to escape secretly into the night with a priest companion named Andrew.