(A.D. 253.)
[Usuardus, Ado, Notker, Wandelbert, and Roman Martyrologies.
Authorities:--Eusebius, the letters of S. Cyprian, Anastasius
Bibliothecarius, and a Life by Guaiserius, a monk, (11th cent.)]
Saint Lucius was a Roman by birth, and one of the clergy of that
church under SS. Fabian and Cornelius. This latter having been crowned
with martyrdom, in 252, S. Lucius succeeded him in the pontificate.
The emperor Gallus having renewed the persecution of his predecessor
Decius, at least in Rome, this holy pope was no sooner placed in the
chair of S. Peter, than he was banished, though to what place is
uncertain. "Thus," says S. Dionysius of Alexandria, "did Gallus deprive
himself of the succour of heaven, by expelling those who every day
prayed to God for his peace and prosperity." S. Cyprian wrote to S.
Lucius to congratulate him both on his promotion, and on having had
grace to suffer banishment for Christ. Our saint had been but a short
time in exile when he was recalled, to the great joy of his people,
who went out of Rome in crowds to meet him. S. Cyprian wrote to him a
second letter of congratulation on this occasion. He says, "He had not
lost the dignity of martyrdom because he had the will, as the three
children in the furnace, though preserved by God from death; this
glory added a new dignity to his priesthood; so that he, a bishop,
assisted at God's altar, who could exhort his flock to martyrdom by
his own example as well as by his words. By giving such graces to his
pastors, God showed where his true Church was: for he denied the like
glory of suffering to the Novatian heretics. The enemy of Christ only
attacks the soldiers of Christ: heretics he knows to be already his
own, and passes them by. We supplicate God the Father and His Son, our
Lord, giving thanks and praying together, that He who perfects all may
bring you to the glorious crown of your confession, who, perhaps, has
only recalled you that your glory might not be hidden; for the victim
who owes his brethren an example of virtue and faith, ought to be
sacrificed before their eyes."
Eusebius says that Lucius did not occupy the pontifical throne for
above eight months. He seems to have died on March 4th, under Gallus,
but how we know not. His body was found in the Catacombs, and was laid
in the church of S. Cecilia at Rome, where it is now exposed to the
veneration of the faithful. Considerable portions of the body of S.
Lucius, M., are preserved at Bologna, and a head, purporting to be
that of S. Lucius, was anciently one of the great relics of Roeskilde
Cathedral. But these must be the remains of other saints of the same
name, and it was an error of the clergy of Bologna and of Roeskilde
to assert that these relics belonged to the martyred pope. That such
a mistake may easily have been made is seen from the fact that two
martyrs of the name of Lucius are commemorated on this day, the second
being a companion of Caius the Palatine; and six in January, and as
many in February, not to mention those in the other months. In the
Schleswig Breviary, published in 1512, the feast of S. Lucius, Pope,
M., was observed on account of the presence of the head of a S. Lucius,
M., at Roeskilde, with nine lessons at matins, of which the six first
were taken from the account of the Life and Translation of S. Lucius
the pope, made by pope Paschal in 812.