Saint Damasus was 60 years old and a deacon when he was elected Pope during a troubled but pivotal period of the Church. The Arian heresy was raging, an antipope was trying to usurp him yet he zealously defended and served the Church. He commissioned St. Jerome to translate Scriptures into Latin, changed the liturgical language of the Church from Greek to Latin, restoring and creating access to the catacombs, drained the swamps of Rome, and encouraged veneration of the martyrs.
