EUTICHIANO, POPE, saint. - The anonymous author of the Liber Pontificalis calls him a Tuscan, son of a certain Marino. It is not possible to establish exactly the chronological limits of his pontificate (275–83?), which must nevertheless be placed during the forty years preceding the persecution of Diocletian, that is, in a period of peace; hence the report that he buried a great number of martyrs must be regarded as suspect.
A decree is attributed to him by which he ordered that only beans and grapes should be placed upon the altar to be blessed; but this report seems to be connected with the heresy of the Manicheans, who maintained that legumes and the wine from which they abstained even during Mass proceeded from the principle of evil.
The documents relating to the pontificate of E., if there were any, must have perished in the persecution of Diocletian. He was buried in the cemetery of Callisto, where De Rossi found his epitaph, but his martyrdom is not proved. His feast is celebrated on 8 Dec.