Damasus I 305 – 11 December 384) was the bishop of Rome from October 366 to his death. He presided over the Council of Rome of 382 that determined the canon or official list of sacred scripture. He spoke out against major heresies in the church (including Apollinarianism and Macedonianism) and encouraged the production of the Vulgate Bible with his support for Jerome. He helped reconcile the relations between the Church of Rome and the Church of Antioch and encouraged the veneration of martyrs.
Following the death of Pope Liberius on 24 September 366, Damasus succeeded to the Papacy amidst factional violence. The deacons and laity supported Liberius’ deacon Ursinus. The upper-class former partisans of Felix, who had ruled during Liberius’ exile, supported the election of Damasus.
One of the important works of Pope Damasus was to preside in the Council of Rome of 382 that determined the canon or official list of Sacred Scripture. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, states: A council probably held at Rome in 382 under Damasus gave a complete list of the canonical books of both the Old Testament and the New Testament (also known as the ‘Gelasian Decree’ because it was reproduced by Gelasius in 495), which is identical with the list given at Trent.
Damasus was pope for eighteen years and two months. He was buried beside his mother and sister in a “funerary basilica … somewhere between the Via Appia and Via Ardeatina”, the exact location of which is lost.