August 6th, 258.
August 6, 258 is the date on which Pope Sixtus II is said to have been beheaded by soldiers sent to the cemetery of Prætextatus, on the Appian Way, Rome, to apprehend Sixtus and his four deacons (one of them, St. Laurence). His execution was part of the persecution of Christians under Emperor Valerian. Valerian had issued an edict against Christians assembling in cemeteries, that also ordered them to participate in the cults of the Roman gods, and then he had issued another edict ordering the execution of Christian priests. The execution of Sixtus II is described in a letter of Cyprian, who was shortly therafter also executed.
Pope Sixtus II had helped reconcile the churches of Rome with those of North Africa and Asia Minor over the issue of re-baptizing of heretics.
(Sixtus II is ordering the deacon Laurence)