LUCIUS I, POPE, saint. — He succeeded Cornelius in September 253. As soon as he was elected, he was exiled, along with several faithful, by the emperor Gallus; however, he remained in exile for only a short time, since the emperor’s death and the accession of Valerian (October 253) allowed him to return to Rome. He died the following March, after having governed the Church for only eight months (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., VII, 2). He was buried in the Catacomb of Callistus on the Appian Way, in the crypt of the popes, where his funerary slab has been discovered. In the Depositio episcoporum of the Chronographer of 354, he is commemorated on March 5, while his true dies natalis is March 4, as recorded in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum.
St. Cyprian, who wrote him a warm letter to congratulate him on his elevation and on his return from exile, calls him a martyr along with his predecessor Cornelius; however, it seems 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, Lucius dealt with the question of the lapsi, establishing that peace and ecclesiastical communion should be granted to them after a suitable penance. However, no document of this kind has been preserved, and the letter now attributed to Lucius, addressed to the bishops of Gaul and Spain, is certainly spurious.