The Head of Pope St. Sylvester I

The relic of the head of Pope St. Sylvester I is to be found in a cabinet in the sacristy of San Silvestro in Capite in a silver reliquary. Previously it was on display in the church itself, but was stolen at one point and so for reasons of security this unfortunately can no longer be done. It is placed in the church each year for the veneration of the faithful on December 31st, the Feast of St. Sylvester. Interestingly, quite a number of Orthodox Christians, particularly from Romania, come regularly to venerate it in the sacristy.

History

The body of Pope St. Sylvester I was transferred from the catacomb of Priscilla to San Silvestro in Capite on July 19th, 761, and that of Pope St. Stephen I transferred from the catacomb of Callixtus on August 17th of the same year, along with the relics of other Popes and martyrs. The bodies of the aforementioned two popes were placed in an oratory  (oraculum) in the enclosed part of the monastery, while the other relics were placed under the present church, outside the enclosed area of the monastery. 

The head of St. Sylvester seems to have been transferred from the oratory to the main church by around the year 1130. In 1596, when the church was renewed by Pope Clement VIII, the body of St. Sylvester was found under the main altar and put back there along with the relics of the holy popes Stephen and Denis and other saints. On this occasion, the head of Saint Sylvester was separately preserved and placed in a silver reliquary made especially for it. That reliquary was stolen by Napoleonic troops during their occupation of Rome, although the relic itself was preserved. When it was considered safe to do so, the nuns had a new reliquary made for the head, and when Pope Pius VII returned to Rome after his imprisonment by Napoleon (July 1809 - March 1814), he repaid to the nuns what they had spent on it, thus showing his particular good will towards the church which carries the name of his predecessor. This is the reliquary preserved in the sacristy.