"Memorial of SS. Sixtus II, pope, and companions. Martyrs. While Pope Sixtus was celebrating Mass and explaining divine law to his brothers, some soldiers arrived and immediately arrested and beheaded him, in accordance with the edict of Emperor Valerian, on the sixth day of August. Four deacons were also martyred with him and were buried with the pontiff in Rome, in the Cemetery of St. Callixtus on the Appian Way. On that day, Saints Agapitus and Felicissimus, his deacons, were also martyred in the Cemetery of Pretestato, where they were also buried. (7 August)"