Lucius I, Pope, Saint

LUCIUS I, Pope, Saint. - He succeeded Cornelius in September 253. As soon as he was elected, he was exiled, together with several of the faithful, by the emperor Gallus; he remained in exile, however, only a short time, since, upon the death of the Emperor and the elevation of Valerian (Oct. 253), he was able to return to Rome. He died in the following March, after having governed the Church for only 8 months (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., VII, 2). He was buried in the cemetery of Callistus on the Appian Way, in the crypt of the popes, where the sepulchral slab has been found. In the Depositio episcoporum of the chronographer of 354 he is commemorated on 5 March, while the true dies natalis is the 4th, recorded by the Hieronymian Martyrology.

St. Cyprian, who wrote him a warm letter to congratulate him on his elevation and on his return from exile, calls him a martyr together with his predecessor Cornelius; it seems, however, that the Roman Church did not recognize him as such, since his name does not appear in the Depositio martyrum. According to the testimony of St. Cyprian himself, L. dealt with the question of the lapsi, establishing that peace and ecclesiastical communion should be granted to them after adequate penance. No document of this kind, however, has been preserved, and the letter that is today attributed to L., addressed to the bishops of Gaul and Spain, is certainly apocryphal.

Agostino Amore