Editing Pope Lucius I

{{Short description|Head of the Catholic Church from 253 to 254}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
| type = Pope
| honorific-prefix = [[Pope Saint]]
| name = Lucius I
| title = [[Bishop of Rome]]
| church = [[Catholic Church]]
| image = Santa Cecilia of Rome (Crypt) - Mosaic of Pope St. Lucius I.JPG
| term_start = 25 June 253
| term_end = 5 March 254
| predecessor = [[Pope Cornelius|Cornelius]]
| successor = [[Pope Stephen I|Stephen I]]
| birth_place = Rome, [[Roman Italy|Italy]], [[Roman Empire]]
| death_date = 	5 March 254
| death_place = Rome, [[Roman Italy|Italy]], [[Roman Empire]]
| parents = Porphyrianus
| other = Lucius
| feast_day = 5 March
| venerated = [[Catholicism]] <br> [[Eastern Orthodoxy]]
| caption = 10th century [[Mosaic]] of Pope Lucius I from the Basilica of [[Santa Cecilia in Trastevere]]
}}
'''Pope Lucius I''' was the [[bishop of Rome]] from 25 June 253 to his death on 5 March 254. He was banished soon after his consecration, but gained permission to return. He was mistakenly classified as a martyr in the persecution by [[Emperor Valerian]], which did not begin until after Lucius' death.

==Life==
Lucius was born in Rome. Nothing is known about his family except his father's name, Porphyrianus. He was elected probably on 25 June 253. His election took place during the persecution which caused the banishment of his predecessor, [[Pope Cornelius|Cornelius]], and he also was banished soon after his consecration, but succeeded in gaining permission to return.<ref name="ce">Kirsch, Johann Peter (1910). "Pope St. Lucius I" in ''The Catholic Encyclopedia''. Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company.</ref>

Lucius is praised in several letters of [[Cyprian]] (see Epist. lxviii. 5) for condemning the [[Novatianism|Novationists]] for their refusal to readmit to communion Christians who repented for having lapsed under persecution.

==Veneration==
Lucius I's [[feast day]] is 5 March, on which date he is commemorated in the [[Roman Martyrology]] in the following terms: "In the cemetery of Callistus on the Via Appia, Rome, burial of Saint Lucius, Pope, successor of Saint Cornelius. For his faith in Christ he suffered exile and acted as an outstanding confessor of the faith, with moderation and prudence, in the difficult times that were his."<ref>Romae via Appia in coemeterio Callisti, depositio sancti Lucii, papae, qui, sancti Cornelii successor, pro Christi fide exsilium passus est et, fidei confessor eximius, in angustiis tempestatibus suis moderatione ac prudentia se gessit [''Martyrologium Romanum'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2001 {{ISBN|978-88-209-7210-3}}), die 5 martii].</ref>

His feast did not appear in the [[Tridentine calendar]] of [[Pope Pius V]]. In 1602, it was inserted under the date of 4 March, into the [[General Roman Calendar]]. With the insertion in 1621 on the same date of the feast of [[Saint Casimir]], the celebration of Pope Lucius was reduced to a commemoration within Saint Casimir's [[Mass (liturgy)|Mass]]. In the [[Mysterii Paschalis|1969 revision]] Pope Lucius's feast was omitted from the General Roman Calendar, partly because of the baselessness of the title of "martyr" with which he had previously been honoured,<ref>Calendarium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 1969), pp. 88 and 118</ref> and was moved in the [[Roman Martyrology]] to the day of his death.

In spite of what is mistakenly stated in the ''[[Liber Pontificalis]]'', he did not in fact suffer martyrdom.<ref>[http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=711 St. Lucius I]; "There are no grounds for counting St Lucius among the martyrs, since he is listed in the ''Depositio Episcoporum''" [''Calendarium Romanum'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1969), p. 118]</ref> The persecution of [[Valerian (emperor)|Valerian]] in which he was said to have been martyred is known to have started later than March 254, when Pope Lucius died.

==Tomb==
Lucius I's tombstone is still extant in the [[catacomb of Callixtus]]. His relics were later brought to the church of [[Santa Cecilia in Trastevere]], along with the relics of [[Saint Cecilia|Cecilia]] and others. His head is preserved in a [[reliquary]] in [[St. Ansgar's Cathedral]] in Copenhagen, Denmark. This relic was brought to [[Roskilde]] around the year 1100, after Lucius had been declared [[patron saint]] of the Danish region [[Zealand]]. According to tradition, there had been [[demon]]s at large at the [[Isefjord]] at Roskilde city,<ref>"When they entered Isefjord from the Kattegat, the ship carrying the priests was attacked by a vile demon that demanded a human sacrifice in order to let them pass", quoted from: https://web.archive.org/web/20150924092105/http://www.roskildekommune.dk/webtop/site.aspx?p=21421</ref> and as they declared that they feared nothing but Lucius' skull, this had to be brought to Denmark, whereupon peace took reign of the [[fjord]] again.<ref>R. Broby-Johansen: ''Det gamle København'' (page 164), edited by Thanning and Appel, Copenhagen 1978, {{ISBN|8741363477}}</ref> After the [[Reformation]], the skull was taken to the exhibition rooms of king [[Frederik III]] in Copenhagen, where it was on exhibit along with the [[petrified]] [[embryo]] a woman had carried inside her for 28 years, as well as other monstrosities the king had collected. The skull remained in Roskilde Cathedral until 1908, when it was moved to Saint Ansgar's Cathedral while the property of Copenhagen's National museum.

Pope Lucius' head is among the few relics to have survived the Reformation in Denmark. However the Norwegian researcher Øystein Morten<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.spartacus.no/index.php?ID=Forfatter&ID2=342|title=Øystein Morten – Spartacus Forlag}}</ref> started wondering if Lucius' skull might have been mixed up with the skull of the Norwegian king [[Sigurd the Crusader]] (1090–1130). This skull had also been kept in the Danish National Museum collection in the 1800s until it was donated to [[Oslo University]] in 1867. Danish experts from the National Museum then studied the skull, using [[carbon dating]] which concluded that the skull belonged to a man who lived between AD 340 and 431, nearly 100 years after the death of Lucius in 254. So the skull in question never belonged to Lucius, who died around AD 254. The results also rule out that it may have belonged to the King Sigurd.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://cphpost.dk/?p=1969 |title=Skull and cross wires |date=15 December 2014 |website=The Copenhagen Post |access-date=21 June 2021}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography|Christianity|History}}
*[[List of Catholic saints]]
*[[List of popes]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
{{Commons category|Lucius I}}
* {{CathEncy|id=09411a|title=Pope St. Lucius I|short=yes}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20170318195803/http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/01_01_0253-0254-_Lucius_I,_Sanctus.html Opera Omnia]

{{S-start}}
{{s-rel|grt}}
{{s-bef|before = [[Pope Cornelius|Cornelius]]}}
{{s-ttl|title = [[Bishop of Rome]]|years=253–254}}
{{s-aft|after = [[Pope Stephen I|Stephen I]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Popes}}
{{Catholic saints}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lucius 01}}
[[Category:254 deaths]]
[[Category:3rd-century archbishops]]
[[Category:3rd-century Christian saints]]
[[Category:3rd-century Romans]]
[[Category:Italian popes]]
[[Category:Papal saints]]
[[Category:Clergy from Rome]]
[[Category:Popes]]
[[Category:Year of birth uncertain]]
[[Category:3rd-century popes]]
[[Category:Danish Roman Catholic saints]]