Sixtus II and his companions suffered during the persecution of Emperor Valerian. Sixtus was ordained bishop of Rome in secret in 257. The following year, while celebrating the sacred liturgy in the cemetery of St Callistus, he was arrested by soldiers carrying out the edict of Valerian. He was beheaded almost immediately in the cemetery of Praetextatus. According to tradition, six of his seven deacons were also killed on the same day, the seventh (St Lawrence) being martyred a few days later. He was buried in the same cemetery. Sixtus is included in the Roman Canon. – CTS New Daily Roman Missal 2012, p 2886; Christian Prayer 1990, p 1194
Cajetan or Gaetano was born in Vicenza Italy in 1480. He studied law at Padua. He gave up a promising legal career in order to be ordained priest in 1516. He co-founded the Congregation of Clerks Regular (Theatines) which did much to promote the reform of the clergy, and he had such zeal in seeking people’s salvation that he was called the ‘Hunter of Souls.’ He extended his congregation into the district of Venice and into the kingdom of Naples. He died at Naples in 1547. – CTS New Daily Roman Missal 2012, p 2889; Christian Prayer 1990, p 1195