Quick thread on the saints mentioned in the Mass before the Consecration. We will see what Fr. Nicholas Gihr has to say about them (1/8):

The first name mentioned is, of course, Our Lady, and she is followed by the twelve names of the twelve Apostles. In the interests of brevity, what Fr. Gihr has to say about these incredible figures will be left out of this thread. Read it in the book when it’s released.

The names that come afterward, however, interest us here: Sts. Linus, Cletus, Clement, Sixtus, Cornelius, Cyprian, Lawrence, Chrysogonus, John and Paul, Cosmas and Damian. Five popes, a bishop, a deacon, and five laypersons.

First are Sts. Linus, Cletus, and Clement, the first three popes in succession of Peter. Of these men, little is written; you can imagine the tumult of the earliest Church history that marked the transition from the Apostolic age into the period of the early Fathers.

Next is Sixtus. Fr. Gihr mentions that the Mass leaves unclear as to which Sixtus is being referred to, as the first seems intuitive given the pattern of succession, but the second was known for being heavily venerated even in the early Church: