SOTER, POPE, saint. — He succeeded Anicetus, and his pontificate is to be placed approximately between 166 and 175.
According to Eusebius (Hist. eccl., V, 19), he was elected in 168–69 and governed for 8 years; according to the Catalogus Liberianus, however, he was pope from 162 to 170. He is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on 22 April as a martyr, but there is no evidence of this status of his, which was unknown to the ancient Roman liturgical tradition; he was first inserted into the martyrology by Ado.
A native of Fondi, he was the son of a certain Concordius. Nothing is known of his activity; s. Dionysius of Corinth recounts the spirit of charity that he displayed in assisting the faithful who, because of the persecutions, were forced to live in exile or were condemned to the mines. He was buried in the Vatican.