In 258, Emperor Valerian began a fresh round of anti-Christian persecution. Just days after the emperor had published his edict outlawing Christianity, a troop of Roman soldiers raided the catacomb of Praetextatus on the Appian Way, arresting Pope St. Sixtus II who had just finished celebrating Mass. When the soldiers burst in, they found the pope seated on a chair, surrounded by his seven deacons and subdeacons, as he taught the Catholic faith to his congregation. The Romans arrested Sixtus along with the deacons Felicissimus and Agapitus, and the subdeacons Januarius, Magnus, Vincent and Stephen. But for some inexplicable reason they did not take the deacon Lawrence. As the troops led their prisoners away, Lawrence, in tears, clutched at Sixtus' robes and said, "Where are you going, priest, without your deacon? Where are you going, father, without your son?" Sixtus comforted Lawrence, saying that in a few days they would be reunited.