(A.D. 139.)
[Mentioned originally in the Carmelite Breviary. This Pope was
inserted in the Roman Breviary by Clement VIII. He is commemorated
by the Greeks on Feb. 22.]
Saint Telesphorus was by birth a Greek, and was the seventh Bishop of
Rome. Towards the end of the year 128, he succeeded S. Sixtus I., and
sat eleven years on the throne of S. Peter, and saw the havoc which the
persecution of Hadrian wrought in the Church. "He ended his life by an
illustrious martyrdom," says Eusebius.[30]