Church documents in Latin rather than Greek. He is most famous for decreeing that Easter be universally celebrated on a Sunday, a practice already common in the West, but not so in the East. Pope Saint Victor I was the 14th Pope and leader of the Church. He was a Berber who held the papal throne for more than a decade and known for excommunicating a Christian writer and coming from Africa. He was the first ever African Pope. His Feast day is July 28.
— Pope St. Miltiades (also called St. Melchiades) (311-314): St. Miltiades was one of the Church’s black popes and occupied the papacy from 311 to 314, serving four years, seven months and eight days. Miltiades decreed that none of the faithful should fast on Sunday or on the fifth day of the week, because this was the custom of the pagans. While residing in Rome, he found a Persian based religion call Manicheanism. He further decreed that consecrated offerings should be sent throughout the churches from the Pope’s consecration. This was called leaven. It was St. Miltiades who led the Church to final victory over the Roman Empire. St. Miltiades was buried on the famous Appian Way.
He was pope when Constantine the Great defeated his enemies and assumed control over Rome, paving the way to the end of persecution of Christians. Constantine gave the pope the Lateran palace (now known as the Papal Archbasilica of St. John Lateran), which became the papal residence and seat of Christian governance. He was the last pope to be buried in a catacomb. His Feast day is Dec. 10.
— St. Gelasius – Bishop of Rome and third African Pope (492 – 496)
St. Gelasius I was Bishop of Rome, the third African Pope and descendant of an African family. He was born in Rome and served as Archdeacon to Felix III before he was elected Pope in 492. St. Gelasius was on good terms with Theodoric, however, he had difficulties with the emperor of the East, Anastasius, because of Henoticon, the monothelitic teachings of which the Pope opposed.
St. Gelasius also opposed the celebration of the pagan feast, Lupercalia. The first Pope to be called the Vicar of Christ, St. Gelasius proposed that spiritual and temporal powers are separate trusts from God. However, the spiritual is superior to the temporal. Although the Gelasian Decrees and the Gelasian Sacramentary bear his name, modern scholars believe St. Gelasius was not connected to them. He died in 496 and was buried in St. Peter’s. Modern scholars do not know where his body lies in the church. Feast day March 1.