Ritratto di it:Papa
Eleuterio nella it:Basilica di San Paolo fuori
la Mura, Roma
Saint Eleuthère
Pape (13 ème) de 175 à
189 (+ 189)
Pape pendant une courte
période de paix au temps de la persécution de l'empereur Commode. D'origine
grecque, il reçut saint Irénée de Lyon qui n'était encore que prêtre pour
aborder avec lui la question de l'hérésie montaniste et la question d'une
hiérarchie charismatique et non pas institutionnelle.
À Rome, en 189, saint
Éleuthère, pape, à qui les illustres martyrs de Lyon, alors détenus en prison,
écrivirent une noble lettre sur le maintien de la paix dans l’Église.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/1222/Saint-Eleuthere.html
Biographies des papes -
Catholic Encyclopedia 1913
St Eleuthère
Pape de 174 à 189.
Le Liber Pontificalis dit qu'il était natif de Nicopolis en Grèce; de
son contemporain Hégésippe nous apprenons qu'il fut diacre de l'Eglise romaine
sous le pape Anicet (154-164), et le demeura bien évidemment sous Saint Soter,
le pape suivant, à qui il succéda vers 174. Tandis que la condition des
chrétiens sous Marc-Aurèle était critique dans de nombreuses parties de
l'Empire, la persécution dans Rome elle-même ne semble pas avoir été violente.
De Rossi, il est vrai, place le martyre de Sainte Cécile vers la fin du règne
de cet empereur; cette date, toutefois, n'est nullement assurée. Durant le
règne de Commode (180-192) les chrétiens purent jouir d'une paix sans partage,
bien que le martyre de saint Appollonius à Rome prît place à cette époque
(180-185). Le mouvement montaniste, qui fut inauguré en Asie Mineure, fit son
chemin jusqu'à Rome et en Gaule dans la seconde moitié du deuxième siècle, plus
particulièrement vers le règne d'Eleuthère; la nature particulière de cette
hérésie rendait difficile depuis le début de prendre contre elle des mesures
décisives. Durant la violente persécution de Lyon en 177, les confesseurs
locaux écrivirent de leur prison, à propos du nouveau mouvement, aux frères
d'Asie et de Phrygie, ainsi qu'au pape Eleuthère; le porteur de leur lettre au
pape était le presbytre Irénée, peu après évêque de Lyon. Il apparaît d'après
les récits d'Eusèbe concernant ces lettres, que les fidèles de Lyon, bien
qu'opposés au mouvement montaniste, plaidèrent pour la tolérance et la
conservation de l'unité ecclésiastique.
Le moment exact où
l'Eglise romaine prit sa position définitive contre le montanisme n'est pas
connu avec certitude. Il semblerait, s'il faut en croire Tertullien (adv.
Praxeam, I) qu'un évêque romain adressa tout d'abord quelques lettres
conciliantes aux montanistes, mais ces lettres, dit Tertullien, furent
rappelées. Il fait probablement référence au pape Eleuthère, qui hésita
longuement mais, après un examen consciencieux et exhaustif de la situation,
est supposé s'être déclaré contre les montanistes. A Rome, les hérétiques
gnostiques et marcionites continuaient à propager leurs faux enseignements.
Le Liber Pontificalis attribue au pape Eleuthère un décret affirmant
qu'aucune sorte de nourriture ne devrait être méprisée par les chrétiens ("Et
hoc iterum firmavit ut nulla esca a Christianis repudiaretur, maxime fidelibus,
quod Deus creavit, quæ tamen rationalis et humana est"). Il est possible
qu'il ait publié un tel décret contre les gnostiques et les montanistes; il est
aussi possible que, de sa propre responsabilité, l'auteur du Liber
Pontificalis attribue à ce pape un décret similaire, connu aux environs de
l'an 500. Le même auteur est responsable d'une curieuse et intéressante
affirmation concernant les premières activités missionnaires de l'Eglise Romaine;
en fait, le Liber Pontificalis ne contient aucune autre affirmation
aussi remarquable. Le pape Eleuthère, dit cet écrivain, reçut de Lucius, roi
britannique, une lettre dans laquelle ce dernier déclarait qu'il voulait être
fait chrétien par sa main ("Hic accepit epistula a Lucio Brittanio rege,
ut Christianus efficerentur per ejus mandatum"). D'où l'auteur du Liber
Pontificalis put tenir cette information, il est impossible de le dire.
Historiquement parlant, le fait est très improbable, et se trouve rejeté par
toutes les critiques récentes.
Comme, à la fin du
deuxième siècle, l'administration romaine n'était pas fermement établie en
Grande-Bretagne, il ne pouvait y avoir dans l'île de vrai roi natif. Que
quelque chef tribal, connu comme roi, ait pu en appeler à l'évêque de Rome pour
l'instruire dans la foi chrétienne, semble encore assez improbable à cette
époque. L'affirmation du Liber Pontificalis, une compilation de
bibliographies papales qui, dans sa forme primitive ne peut être plus ancienne
que le premier quart du sixième siècle, n'est pas une base suffisante de
crédibilité. Par certains, cela est considéré comme une histoire destinée à
démontrer l'origine romaine de l'Eglise britannique, et par conséquent la
sujétion naturelle de cette dernière à Rome. Pour rendre cela plus clair, ils
localisent l'origine de la légende au cours du septième siècle, durant les
dissenssions entre l'Eglise primitive de Grande-Bretagne et l'Eglise
Anglo-Saxonne récemment établie par Rome. Mais pour cette hypothèse il n'existe
aucune preuve. Elle tombe devant le simple fait que la première partie du Liber
Pontificalis fut complétée longtemps avant ces dissenssions, le plus
probablement (Duchesne) par un clerc romain durant le règne du pape Boniface II
(530-532); ou (Waitz et Mommsen) vers le début du septième siècle. De plus,
durant tout le conflit centré sur les coutumes particulières de l'Eglise
Britannique primitive, nulle référence n'est jamais faite à ce supposé roi
Lucius. Saint Bede (673-735) est le premier écrivain Anglais à mentionner
l'histoire de façon répétée ("Hist. Eccl"., I, V; V, 24, De
temporum ratione, ad an. 161) et il la prit non de sources natives mais
du Liber Pontificalis. Harnack suggère une théorie plus plausible (Sitzungsberichte
der Berliner Akademie, 1904, I, 906-916). Dans ce document, il soutient que
dans la source dont le compilateur du Liber Pontificalis tira son
information, le nom n'était pas Britanio, mais Britio. Cela change tout, car ce
nom (Birtha-Britium) est le nom de la forteresse d'Edesse. Ainsi, le roi en
question est Lucius Ælius Septimus Megas Abgar IX d'Edesse, un roi chrétien,
comme chacun sait. La relation originale du Liber Pontificalis, dans cette
hypothèse, n'avait rien à voir avec la Grande-Bretagne. La référence se
rapportait à Abgar IX d'Edesse. Mais le compilateur du Liber Pontificalis,
changea Britio en Brittanio, et de cette façon fit du Syrien Lucius un roi
Britannique.
La Historia
Brittonium, du neuvième siècle, qui voit en Lucius une traduction du nom
celtique Llever Maur ("Grande Lumière"), dit que les
envoyés de Lucius furent Fagan et Wervan, et nous dit qu'avec ce roi tous les
autres rois de l'île (reguli Britanniae) furent baptisés (Hist. Brittonium, xviii).
Les chroniques du treizième siècle ajoutent d'autres détails. Le Liber
Landavensis par exemple, (ed Rees,26,65) rend célèbres les noms d' Elfan
et Medwy, les envoyés de Lucius au pape, et transfère les possessions du roi au
Pays de Galles. Un écho de cette légende se retrouva même en Suisse. Dans une
homélie prêchée à Chur et préservée dans un manuscrit du huitième ou neuvième
siècle, Saint Timothée est représenté comme Apôtre de la Gaule, tandis qu'il
vint en Grande-Bretagne et y baptisa un roi nommé Lucius, qui devint
missionnaire, se rendit en Gaule, et s'installa finalement à Chur, où il prêcha
l'évangile avec grand succès. De cette façon, Lucius, le premier missionnaire
de la région suisse de Chur, fut identifié au roi de Grande-Bretagne allégué
par le Liber Pontificalis. Ce dernier ouvrage fait autorité pour
l'affirmation qu'Eleuthère mourut le 24 mai et fut enterré sur la colline du
Vatican (in Vaticano) près du corps de Saint Pierre. Sa fête est célébrée le 26
mai.
Acta SS., May, III,
363-364; Liber Pontificalis, ed. DUCHESNE, I, 136 et Introduction,
xii-civ; HARNACK, Geschichte der altchristl. Literatur, II, I, 144 sqq.;
IDEM, Der Brief des britischen Königs Lucius an den Papst Elutherus (Sitzungsberichte
der Berliner Akademie, 1904), I, 906-916; LANGEN, Geschichte der römischen
Kirche (Bonn, 1881), I, 157 sqq.; MAYER, Geschichte des Bistums Chur (Stans,
1907), I, 11 sqq.; CABROL, L'Angleterre chrétienne avant les Normands (Paris,
1909), 29-30; DUCHESNE, Eleuthère et le roi breton Lucius, in Revue
Celtique (1883-85), VI, 491-493; ZIMMER, The Celtic Church in Britain and
Scotland, tr. MEYER (Londres, 1902); SMITH AND WACE, Dict. of Christian
Biography, s. v..
J.P. KIRSCH
Tiré de "Catholic
Encyclopedia", copyright © 1913 by the Encyclopedia Press, Inc. Traduction
française : Bertrand Blochet, Février 2000.
Reliquary of the head of Saint Eleutherius, pope, Schatzkammer, Residenz, Munich, Bavaria, Germany.
Saint Eleuthère (175-189)
Il naquit à Épiro.
Pendant son pontificat eurent lieu les persécutions déclenchées par Mar Aurèle
contre les chrétiens.
Á cette même époque fut
martyrisée sainte Cécile.
Saint Eleuthère fut
lui-même martyrisé en 189.
SOURCE : http://eglise.de.dieu.free.fr/liste_des_papes_01.htm
S. Éleuthère (Pape)
26 mai
Saint Éleuthère gourverna l’Église pendant la période qui succéda à la persécution de l’empereur Commode. La Foi fit alors beaucoup de progrès dans le monde entier. Après un pontificat de quinze ans, il mourut en 185 et fut enseveli au Vatican, près du corps de saint Pierre.
On lit au Bréviaire Romain :
Saint Éleuthère, né à
Nicopolis, en Grèce, diacre du pape saint
Anicet, fut placé à la tête de l’Église sous l’empereur Commode. Au
commencement de son pontificat, il reçut des lettres de Lucius, roi des
Bretons, qui lui demandait de le recevoir, lui et les siens, au nombre des
Chrétiens. En conséquence, il envoya en Bretagne Fugatius et Damien, hommes
très savants et très pieux, afin que par leur ministère Lucius et ses sujets
connussent la Foi. Sous ce pontife, saint
Irénée, disciple de saint
Polycarpe, vint à Rome et fut accueilli avec la plus grande bienveillance.
L’Église de Dieu jouissait en ce temps de la paix et du repos, et la Foi se
répandait dans tout l’univers, et surtout à Rome. Saint Éleuthère passa dans
l’exercice du pontificat quinze ans et vingt-trois jours. Il fit trois
ordinations au mois de décembre, dans lesquelles il créa douze prêtres, huit
diacres, et quinze évêques pour divers lieux ; il fut enseveli, au
Vatican, près du corps de saint Pierre.
SOURCE : http://www.cassicia.com/FR/Vie-de-saint-Eleuthere-pape-et-martyr-Fete-le-26-mai-No_250.htm
Église Saint-Éleuthère. Esquelmes. Pecq, Hainaut. Belgique
St Eleuthère, pape et
martyr
Le Liber Pontificalis
donne le 25 mai pour la déposition du pape Éleuthère (175-188) sans le
qualifier de martyr. D’autres calendriers le mentionnent le 26 ou le 27.
Les calendriers du Latran
et du Vatican sont les premiers à l’honorer comme martyr en inscrivant sa date
au 26 mai. Il est inconnu en dehors de l’Italie.
Leçon des Matines avant
1960
Neuvième leçon.
Éleuthère, né à Nicopolis en Grèce, fut d’abord Diacre du Pape Anicet, puis
gouverna l’Église sous l’empire de Commode. Au commencement de son pontificat,
il reçut des lettres de Lucius, roi des Bretons, qui le priait de l’admettre,
ainsi que ses sujets, au nombre des Chrétiens. C’est pourquoi Éleuthère envoya
dans la Grande-Bretagne Fugacius et Damien, personnages doctes et pieux, pour
porter à ce prince et à sa nation, le bienfait de la foi. Irénée, disciple de
Polycarpe, étant venu à Rome fut accueilli par ce Pontife avec bienveillance. A
cette époque l’Église jouissait d’une grande paix et d’un profond repos, et la
foi faisait beaucoup de progrès dans le monde entier, principalement à Rome.
Éleuthère vécut dans le pontificat quinze ans et vingt-trois jours. Il fit au
mois de décembre trois ordinations, dans lesquelles il ordonna douze Prêtres,
huit Diacres et sacra quinze Évêques pour divers lieux. Il fut enseveli dans le
Vatican, près du corps de saint Pierre.
Dom Guéranger, l’Année
Liturgique
La journée est encore
embellie par la mémoire d’un de ces premiers pontifes qui, comme Urbain, ont
été les fondements de la sainte Église à l’âge des tempêtes. Éleuthère monta
sur le Siège Apostolique au milieu de la tourmente excitée par la persécution
de Marc-Aurèle et de Commode. Il vit arriver à Rome la légation que lui
envoyaient les martyrs de l’Église de Lyon, et qui avait à sa tête le grand
Irénée. Cette illustre Église, couronnée à ce moment des palmes les plus
glorieuses, venait les offrir à la nouvelle Rome en qui elle reconnaissait la «
puissante principauté » qu’a célébrée le même saint Irénée, dans ses livres
Contre les Hérésies.
La paix ne tarda pas à
être rendue à l’Église, et le reste du pontificat d’Éleuthère s’écoula dans le
calme et la tranquillité. Au sein de cette paix, avec son nom qui exprime la
Liberté, ce pontife est une image de notre divin ressuscité, dont le Psalmiste
nous dit qu’il est « libre entre les morts [1] ».
L’Église honore saint
Éleuthère comme martyr, avec les autres papes qui ont siégé avant la paix de
Constantin, et qui presque tous ont versé leur sang dans les persécutions des
trois premiers siècles. Associés à toutes les souffrances de l’Église,
gouvernant la chrétienté à travers mille périls, ne goûtant la paix que dans de
rares et courts intervalles, cette suite de trente-trois pontifes a droit
d’être considérée comme une série de martyrs.
Une gloire particulière
pour Éleuthère est d’avoir été l’apôtre de la grande île britannique qui est
devenue plus tard l’Angleterre. Les Romains avaient colonisé dans cette île,
qui n’était plus comme auparavant séparée du reste du monde. La divine
Providence choisit les années de paix du pontificat d’Éleuthère pour agréger à
l’’Église les prémices de la race bretonne. Plus tard, l’île évangélisée ainsi
dès le second siècle par les soins de notre saint pape deviendra l’Ile des
saints, et dans deux jours ses gloires chrétiennes resplendiront une seconde
fois sur le cycle.
Votre nom, ô Éleuthère,
est le nom du chrétien ressuscité avec Jésus-Christ. La Pâque nous a tous
délivrés, tous affranchis, rendus tous libres. Priez donc, afin que nous
conservions toujours cette « glorieuse liberté des enfants de Dieu », que
recommande l’Apôtre [2]. Par elle nous sommes retirés des liens du péché qui
nous livrait à la mort, de la servitude de Satan qui nous entraînait loin de
notre fin, de la tyrannie du monde qui nous égarait par ses maximes charnelles
La vie nouvelle que nous a donnée la Pâque est toute du ciel où le Christ nous
attend dans sa gloire ; nous ne pourrions la perdre que pour être esclaves de
nouveau Saint Pontife, obtenez que la Pâque, à son retour en l’année qui suivra,
nous retrouve dans cette heureuse liberté qui est le fruit de notre délivrance
par le Christ [3].
Il est une autre liberté
que vante le monde, et pour la conquête de laquelle il arme les hommes les uns
contre les autres. Elle consiste à fuir, comme on fuirait un crime, toute
sujétion et toute dépendance, à ne s’incliner devant aucune autorité qu’on ne
l’ait créée soi-même, pour ne durer qu’autant qu’il nous plaira. Délivrez-nous,
saint Pontife, de tout attrait pour cette prétendue liberté si contraire à la
soumission chrétienne, et qui n’est que le triomphe de l’orgueil humain. Dans
sa frénésie, elle verse des torrents de sang ; enivrée de ce qu’elle appelle
fastueusement les droits de l’homme, elle substitue l’égoïsme au devoir. Pour
elle la vérité n’est plus, car elle va jusqu’à reconnaître des droits à
l’erreur ; pour elle le bien n’est plus, car elle a abdiqué tout droit
d’enchaîner le mal : tant elle est devenue esclave du principe sauvage de
l’indépendance. Elle détrône Dieu autant qu’il lui est possible, en refusant de
le reconnaître dans les dépositaires de l’autorité sociale, et jette l’homme
sans défense sous le joug de la force brutale, l’écrasant sous le poids de ce
qu’elle appelle les majorités, et sous la pression monstrueuse des faits accomplis.
Non, telle n’est pas, ô Éleuthère, la liberté à laquelle nous a conviés le
Christ, notre libérateur. « Soyez comme des hommes libres, » nous dit Pierre
votre prédécesseur, « et ne soyez pas de ceux qui, sous un voile trompeur, sont
les sectateurs de la liberté du mal [4]. »
Demeurez toujours, ô
saint Pontife, le père de la société humaine dont vous fûtes le chef ici-bas.
Durant votre règne pacifique, vous avez siégé près des Césars dans la ville aux
sept collines. La pourpre et le diadème étaient portés par d’autres ; mais
votre nom n’était pas ignoré dans le monde.
Tandis que le pouvoir
matériel tenait la hache suspendue sur votre tête, d’innombrables fidèles se
dirigeaient vers Rome pour vénérer la tombe de Pierre et rendre hommage à son
successeur. Vous vîtes arriver un jour l’ambassade d’un roi barbare. Cette
légation ne se dirigeait pas vers le palais des Césars ; elle s’arrêtait à la
porte de votre humble demeure. Un peuple était appelé par la grâce divine à
recevoir la bonne nouvelle, à entrer dans la famille chrétienne. Les destinées
de ce peuple que vous avez évangélisé le premier devaient être grandes dans
l’Église. L’île des Bretons est fille de l’Église Romaine ; et c’est en vain
qu’elle voudrait effacer cette noble origine. Prenez ses maux en pitié, ô vous
qui fûtes son premier apôtre ; aidez les efforts qui sont faits de toutes parts
pour la rendre à l’unité. Souvenez-vous de la foi de Lucius et de son peuple,
et montrez votre paternelle sollicitude en faveur d’un pays que vous avez
enfanté à la foi.
[1] Psalm. LXXXVII, 6.
[2] Rom. VIII, 21.
[3] Gal. IV, 31.
[4] I Petr. II, 16.
Bhx Cardinal
Schuster, Liber Sacramentorum
Le pape Éleuthère succéda
à Soter entre 174 et 189, et Irénée le mentionne dans son troisième livre contre
les hérésies (ch. III), où, établissant la liste des papes, il arrive jusqu’à
lui : Nunc duodecimo loco episcopatum ab Apostolis habet Eleutherius. On a
pensé que cet évêque romain qui, au témoignage de Tertullien, accorda d’abord,
puis retira les lettres de communion à quelques communautés montanistes d’Asie,
était précisément Éleuthère (Advers. Praxeam, ch. Ier). Le Liber Pontificalis
indique sa sépulture à Saint-Pierre, et sa fête en ce jour remonte à la seconde
moitié du moyen âge.
La messe est entièrement
du Commun : Protexisti, si elle tombe durant le temps pascal ; autrement, on
dit la messe Statuit.
La première lecture est
tirée de l’épître de saint Jacques (1, 12-18). L’apôtre de l’espérance y fait
l’éloge de la souffrance chrétienne ; tout en attribuant la cause des épreuves
de la vie à la malice du diable et à la fragilité de notre nature, saint
Jacques déclare cependant que Dieu les fait rentrer elles-mêmes dans le plan
magnifique de notre prédestination, pour augmenter notre mérite et comme gage
de notre béatitude future.
En 177 ou 178, le clergé
et les martyrs de Vienne et de Lyon, emprisonnés par suite de la persécution de
Marc-Aurèle, envoyèrent au pape Éleuthère, par l’intermédiaire du prêtre
Irénée, un écrit rédigé par eux sur l’hérésie montaniste, lui recommandant le
porteur comme zélé pour le Testament du Christ. Le Pontife accueillit avec
déférence l’héritier de la tradition johannique, le disciple de Polycarpe de
Smyrne, et c’est surtout à cette occasion que saint Irénée s’imprégna de cet
esprit d’attachement à l’orthodoxie romaine qui le distingue.
Dom Pius Parsch, le Guide
dans l’année liturgique
Saint Éleuthère gouverna
l’Église de 174-189. Saint Irénée termine par son nom la liste des papes. «
Maintenant Éleuthère est le douzième après les Apôtres qui possède la charge
épiscopale ». Il est enseveli à Saint-Pierre.
SOURCE : http://www.introibo.fr/26-05-St-Eleuthere-pape-et-martyr
_5.JPG)
Fresco of Agios Eleftherios (cretean school). Inside the church Efangelismos tis Theotokou in the district Kokkinia. Sofiko, Corinthia, Greece
Also
known as
Eleuterius
Eleutherius
Eleutheros
Profile
Son of Habundius. Deacon under Pope Anicetus and Pope Saint Soter.
Chosen 13th Pope c.174.
Declared opposition to Gnostics and
the Montanists.
Sent Fugatius and Damjan to convert the
Britons. Abolished some Jewish dietary customs for Christians. Martyr.
Born
at Nicopolis,
Epirus, Greece
Papal Ascension
c.174
buried in
the Vatican near Saint Peter
the Apostle
Additional
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MLA
Citation
“Pope Saint
Eleuterus“. CatholicSaints.Info. 17 November 2023. Web. 25 May 2024.
<https://catholicsaints.info/pope-saint-eleuterus/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/pope-saint-eleuterus/
Church Sant'Eleuterio, Salutio, hamlet of Castel Focognano, Province of Arezzo, Tuscany
Pope St. Eleutherius
(Eleutheros)
Pope (c. 174-189).
The Liber
Pontificalis says that he was a native of Nicopolis, Greece.
From his contemporary Hegesippus we learn that he was a deacon of
the Roman
Church under Pope Anicetus (c. 154-164), and evidently
remained so under St. Soter, the following pope,
whom he succeeded about 174. While the conditionof Christians under Marcus
Aurelius was distressing in various parts of the empire, the persecution in Romeitself
does not seem to have been violent. De
Rossi, it is true, dates the martyrdom of St.
Cecilia towards the end of this emperor's reign; this date,
however, is by no means certain. During the reign of Commodus (180-192)
the Christians enjoyed
a practically unbroken peace, although the martyrdom of
St. Appollonius at Rometook
place at the time (180-185). The Montanist movement,
that originated in Asia
Minor, made its way toRome and Gaul in
the second half of the second century, more particularly about the reign
of Eleutherius; its peculiar nature made it difficult to take
from the outset a decisive stand against it (see MONTANISTS).
During theviolent persecution at Lyons,
in 177, local confessors wrote from their prison concerning
the new movement to the Asiatic and Phrygian brethren,
also to Pope Eleutherius. The bearer of their letter to the pope was
the presbyter Irenæus,
soon afterwards Bishop of Lyons.
It appears from statements of Eusebius concerning
these letters that the faithful of Lyons,
though opposed to the Montanist movement,
advocated forbearance and pleaded for the preservation of ecclesiastical unity.
Just when the Roman
Church took its definite stand against Montanism is
not certainly known. It would seem from Tertullian's account
(Against
Praxeas 1) that a Roman bishop did
at one time address to the Montanistssome
conciliatory letters, but these letters, says Tertullian,
were recalled. He probably refers to Pope Eleutherius, who long hesitated, but,
after a conscientious and thorough study of the situation, is
supposed to have declared against the Montanists.
At Rome heretical Gnostics and Marcionites continued
to propagate their false teachings.
The "Liber
Pontificalis" ascribes to Pope Eleutherius a decree that
no kind of food should be despised by Christians (Et
hoc iterum firmavit ut nulla esca a Christianis repudiaretur, maxime fidelibus,
quod Deus creavit, quæ tamen rationalis et humana est). Possibly he did
issue such an edict against the Gnostics and Montanists;
it is also possible that on his own responsibility the writer of the "Liber
Pontificalis"attributed to this pope a
similar decree current
about the year 500. The same writer is responsible for a curious and
interesting assertion concerning the early missionary activity of
the Roman
Church; indeed, the"Liber
Pontificalis" contains no other statement equally remarkable.
Pope Eleutherius, says this writer, received from Lucius,
a British king, a letter in which the latter declared that by his
behest he wishes to become a Christian (Hic
accepit epistula a Lucio Brittanio rege, ut Christianus
efficerentur per ejus mandatum). Whence the author of the first part of
the "Liber
Pontificalis" drew this information, it is now impossible to say.
Historically speaking, the fact is quite improbable, and is rejected by all
recent critics.
As at the end of the
second century the Roman administration was so securely established
in Britain, there could no longer have been in the island any real native
kings. That some tribal chief, known as king, should have applied to
the Roman bishop for
instruction in the Christian
faith seems improbable enough at that period. The unsupported
assertion of the "Liber
Pontificalis", a compilation of papal biographies
that in its earliest form cannot antedate the first quarter of the sixth
century, is not a sufficient basis for the acceptanceof this statement. By
some it is considered a story intended to demonstrate
the Roman origin of the BritishChurch, and consequently the
latter's natural subjection to Rome.
To make this clearer they locate the origin of the legend in the
course of the seventh century, during the dissensions between the
primitive British Churchand the Anglo-Saxon Church recently
established from Rome.
But for this hypothesis all proof is
lacking. It falls before the simple fact that the first part of the "Liber
Pontificalis" was complied long before these dissensions, most
probably (Duchesne) by a Roman cleric in the reign of Pope
Boniface II (530-532), or (Waitz and Mommsen) early in the seventh
century. Moreover, during the entire conflict that centered around the peculiar
customs of the Early British Church no reference is ever made to
this alleged King Lucius. Saint
Bedeis the first English writer (673-735) to mention the story
repeatedly (Hist. Eccl., I, V; V, 24, De temporum ratione, ad an. 161), and he
took it, not from native sources, but from the "Liber
Pontificalis". Harnack suggests a more plausible theory
(Sitzungsberichte der Berliner Akademie, 1904, I, 906-916). In the document, he
holds, from which the compiler of the "Liber
Pontificalis" drew his information the name found was not Britanio, but Britio.
Now this is the name (Birtha- Britium) of the fortress of Edessa.
The king in question is,
therefore, Lucius Ælius Septimus Megas Abgar IX,
of Edessa,
a Christian king,
as is well known. The original statement of the "Liber
Pontificalis", in this hypothesis, had nothing to do with Britain.
The reference was to Abgar IX of Edessa.
But the compiler of the "Liber
Pontificalis" changed Britio to Brittanio, and in
this way made a British king of the Syrian Lucius.
The ninth-century
"Historia Brittonum" sees in Lucius a translation of
the Celtic name Llever Maur (Great Light), says that
the envoys of Lucius were Fagan and Wervan, and tells
us that with this king all the other island kings (reguli Britanniæ)
were baptized (Hist. Brittonum,
xviii). Thirteenth-century chronicles add other details. The "Liber
Landavensis", for example (ed. Rees, 26, 65),
makes known the names of Elfan and Medwy, the envoys sent
by Lucius to the pope,
and transfers the king's dominions to Wales.
An echo of this legend penetrated even to Switzerland.
In a homily preached
at Chur and
preserved in an eighth- or ninth-century manuscript, St.
Timothy is represented as an apostle of Gaul, whence he
came to Britain and baptized there
a king named Lucius, who became a missionary, went to Gaul,
and finally settled at Chur,
where he preached the gospel with great success. In this
way Lucius, the early missionary of the Swiss district
of Chur,
became identified with the alleged British king of the "Liber
Pontificalis". The latter work is authority for the statement
that Eleutherius died 24 May, and was buried on the Vatican
Hill (in Vaticano) near the body of St. Peter. Hisfeast is
celebrated 26 May.
Sources
Acta SS., May, III,
363-364; Liber Pontificalis, ed. DUCHESNE, I, 136 and Introduction,
xii-civ; HARNACK, Geschichte der altchristl. Literatur, II, I, 144 sqq.;
IDEM, Der Brief des britischen Königs Lucius an den Papst Elutherus (Sitzungsberichte
der Berliner Akademie, 1904), I, 906-916; LANGEN, Geschichte der römischen
Kirche (Bonn, 1881), I, 157 sqq.; MAYER, Geschichte des Bistums Chur (Stans,
1907), I, 11 sqq.; CABROL, L'Angleterre chrétienne avant les Normands (Paris,
1909), 29-30; DUCHESNE, Eleuthère et le roi breton Lucius, in Revue
Celtique (1883-85), VI, 491-493; ZIMMER, The Celtic Church in Britain
and Scotland, tr. MEYER (London, 1902); SMITH AND WACE, Dict. of Christian
Biography, s.v.; see also under Lucius.
Kirsch, Johann
Peter. "Pope St. Eleutherius (Eleutheros)." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 5. New York: Robert Appleton
Company, 1909. 24 Feb. 2016 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05378a.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by WGKofron. With thanks to Fr.
John Hilkert, Akron, Ohio.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. May 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, Censor. Imprimatur. +John
M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2020 by Kevin
Knight. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05378a.htm
Dorfmitte
mit St. Eleutheriuskirche (église Saint-Éleuthère). Lesdain, Ortsteil der
Gemeinde Brunehaut (Belgien, Prov. Hennegau)
May 26
St. Eleutherius, Pope and
Martyr
HE was by birth a
Grecian, and deacon of the church of Rome under Pope Anicetus. He succeeded St.
Soter in the pontificate in 176, and governed the church whilst it was beaten
with violent storms. Montanus, an ambitious vain man of Mœsia on the confines
of Phrygia, sought to raise himself among men by pretending that the Holy Ghost
spoke by his mouth, and published forged revelations. His followers afterwards
advanced that he was himself the Holy Ghost, the Paraclete Spirit sent by
Christ according to his promises to perfect his law. They seem at first only to
have been schismatics and enthusiasts; but soon after added heresy and
blasphemy, calling Montanus the Holy Ghost in the same manner that Christ is
God the Son. They affected an excessive rigour, had many fasts, kept three
Lents in the year, refused the communion and absolution to persons who had
fallen into any sin of impurity, condemned second marriages as adulteries, and
taught that it is unlawful to flee from persecution. Priscilla and Maximilla,
two women of the town of Pepuza in Phrygia, vaunted their pretended prophecies,
and were the oracles of their deluded votaries. The devil uses all sorts of
baits to destroy souls. If many perish by those of pleasure, others fall by
pride, which is gratified by a love of singularity, and by an affected
austerity. Some who braved the racks and gridirons of the persecutors, and
despised the allurements of pleasure, had the misfortune to become the dupes of
this wretched enthusiast, and martyrs of the devil. False prophets wear every
face except that of a sincere and docile humility, though their austerity
towards themselves usually ends in a short time in some shameful libertinism,
when vanity, the main-spring of their passions, is either cloyed or finds
nothing to gratify it. In this we see the false rigorists of our times resemble
those of former ages. Pharisee-like they please themselves, and gratify their
own pride in an affected severity; by it they also seek to establish themselves
in the opinion of others. But humility and obedience are a touchstone which
discovers their spirit. Montanus succeeded to the destruction of many souls who
by pride or the like passions sought the snare; among others the great
Tertullian fell, and not only regarded Montanus as the paraclete, but so much
lost his faith and his reason as to honour the ground on which his two
pretended prophetesses had trod; and to publish in his writings their illusions
and dreams concerning the colour of a human soul, and the like absurdities and
inconsistencies as oracles of the eternal truth. The Montanists of Asia, otherwise
called Cataphyrges and Pepuzenians, sought in the beginning the communion and
approbation of the bishop of Rome, to whom they sent letters and presents. A
certain pope was prevailed upon, by the good accounts he had received of their
severe morals and virtue, to send them letters of communion. But Praxeas, one
who had confessed his faith before the persecutors, arriving at Rome, gave him
such informations concerning the Pepuzenians and their prophecies, showing him
that he could not admit them without condemning the judgment of his
predecessors, that he revoked the letters of peace which he had determined to
send, and refused their presents. This is the account which Tertullian, himself
a Montanist, gives of the matter. 1 Dr. Cave and some others think this pope
was Eleutherius, and that he approved the very doctrine of the Montanists;
which is certainly a mistake. For the pope received from Praxeas only
information as to matters of fact. He was only undeceived by him as to persons
and facts, and this before any sentence was given. Nay, it seems that the
Montanists had not then openly broached their errors in faith, which they for
some time artfully disguised. It seems also, from the circumstances of the
time, that the pope whom Praxeas undeceived was Victor the successor of
Eleutherius, and that Eleutherius himself had before rejected the pretended
prophets.
This good pope had the
affliction to see great havoc made in his flock by the persecution, especially
at Lyons and Vienne, under Marcus Aurelius. But he had, on the other side, the
comfort to find the losses richly repaired by the acquisition of new countries
to the faith. The light of the gospel had, in the very times of the apostles,
crossed the sea into the island of Great Britain; but seems to have been almost
choked by the tares of the reigning superstitions, or oppressed by the tumults
of wars in the reduction of that valiant people under the Roman yoke, till God,
3 who chose poor fishermen to convert the world, here taught a king to esteem it
a greater happiness to become an apostle, and to extend his faith in this
remote corner of the world, than to wear a crown. This was Lucius, a petty king
who reigned in a part of the island. His Roman name shows that he was one of
those kings whom the Romans honoured with that dignity in remote conquered
countries to be their instruments in holding them in subjection. Lucius sent a
solemn embassy to Rome to beg some zealous clergymen of Pope Eleutherius who
might instruct his subjects and celebrate and administer to them the divine
mysteries. Our saint received the message with joy, and sent apostolical men
who preached Christ in this island with such fruit, that the faith in a very
short time passed out of the provinces which obeyed the Romans into those northern
parts which were inaccessible to their eagles, as Tertullian wrote soon after.
4 Fugatius and Damianus are said to have been the two principal of these Roman
missionaries: the old Welsh Chronicle, quoted by Usher, calls them Dwywan and
Fagan. They died in or near the diocess of Landaff; and Harpsfield 5 says,
there stood in Wales a church dedicated to God under their invocation. Stow in
his Annals says that in Somersetshire there remaineth a parish church bearing
the name of St. Deruvion. From this time the faith became very flourishing in
Britain, as is mentioned by Origen, Eusebius, St. Chrysostom, Theodoret,
Gildas, &c. quoted by Usher, Alfred, &c. 6 Florinus, who taught that
God was the author of evil, and Blastus, who pretended that the custom of
celebrating Easter on the fourteenth day of the moon, which was tolerated in
the Orientals, ought to be followed at Rome, were condemned by St. Eleutherius,
who governed the church fifteen years, and died soon after the Emperor Commodus
in 192. He was buried on the Salarian road; but his remains have been
translated to the Vatican church. See St. Irenæus, l. 3, c. 3. Eusebius, l. 4,
c. 22, l. 5, c. 3, 4, 14. Tillemont, t. 3, p. 60.
Note 1. L. contra Prax.
c. 1.
Note 2. See Tillemont,
Ceillier on Victor.
Note 3. See Bede, l. 1,
ch. 4.
Note 4. L. contra Judæos.
Note 5. Hist. l. 1, c. 3.
Note 6. Some late
Protestant writers have endeavoured to persuade us, that the Britons received
the faith from the Orientals, not from Rome. The matter is no otherwise of
importance than as an historical fact. But the testimony of all our ancient
historians and monuments shows, that as the provinces of the West in general
received the faith principally from the preaching of SS. Peter and Paul and
their disciples, so Britain in particular was indebted to the bishops of Rome
on that score, and at first kept the feast of Easter according to the tradition
of that church. The council of Arles, in 314, confirmed the Roman custom of
celebrating Easter; in which synod were present three British bishops, viz.,
those of London, Colchester, and York, witnesses of the practice of this whole
church. The same point of discipline was ordained by the council of Nice in
325, and that same year Constantine reckoned the Britains among those who
agreed with Rome in the keeping of Easter. After this time, whether by
ignorance or by what other means is uncertain, the Britons, Scots, and Irish
admitted an erroneous rule in this point of discipline, by which once in
several years they kept Easter on the same day with the Jews; yet did not fall
in with the Asiatics, who celebrated that feast always with the Jews on the
fourteenth day of the first lunar month, after the vernal equinox, on whatever
day of the week it fell, as Eusebius (b. 5, ch. 22,) and others testify. Those
who did this upon the false and heretical principle, that the Jewish ceremonial
laws bound Christians, and were not abolished when fulfilled by the coming of
Christ, were heretics: the rest on account of their separation from the church,
and obstinately refusing submission to its decrees and censures, were, after the
councils of Arles and Nice, schismatics, and were called Quartodecimans. But
the erroneous practice of the Britons differed widely from this of the
Orientals, as St. Wilfrid demonstrated before Oswi, king of the Northumbrians,
as is related by Bede. (Hist. b. 3, c. 25.) For they celebrated Easter always
on a Sunday, and on that which fell on or after the fourteenth day; whereas
Catholics, with the council of Nice, to recede further from the appearance of
observing the legal rites, never kept it on the fourteenth day; but when that
happened to be a Sunday, deferred the celebration of this festival to the
Sunday following; to which practice the Scots and Britons at length acceded, as
we shall see in the lives of SS. Wilfrid and Cummianus: in the mean time they
lay under no censure, differing from the Quartodecimans, who kept Easter always
with the Jews, on the fourteenth day.
Rev. Alban
Butler (1711–73). Volume V: May. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/5/263.html
St. Eleftherios Greek Orthodox Church at 359 West 24th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, is the second church on this site. The first St. Eleftherios Church was orginally the Twenty-fourth Street Methodist Episcopal Church, which was built in 1860, and taken over by the St. Eleftherios congregation in 1913. That church burnt down in 1973, and was replaced by the current sanctuary in 1976, designed by Stephen Papadatos. The church lies at the edge of the Penn South housing development. (Source: From Abyssinian to Zion (2004))
ST. ELEUTHERIUS
ca. 174 - 189 AD
According to the
"Liber Pontificalis," St. Eleutherius was a Greek from Nicopolis in
Epirus. His father's name was Habundius. He ordered that no food which was fit
for a human being should be despised by Christians. This decree, if authentic,
probably was aimed at the Montanists, a fanatical puritanical sect, or the
Manicheans, who despised meat.
St. Irenaeus, the famous
father of the Church, was sent by St. Pothinus and the clergy of Lyons to
confer with Pope Eleutherius about Montanism. Unfortunately Eusebius, who
narrates the fact, did not preserve the details of this interesting mission.
Montanism was a peculiar exaggeration or parody of Christianity started by a
Phrygian ex-priest of Cybele, Montanus. This man taught that inspiration and
ecstasy rather than the hierarchy should guide the faithful, that martyrdom
should be rashly sought, that marriage was wrong, and that Montanus was, if not
the Holy Ghost himself, the authentic herald of the Holy Ghost. In a modified
form this heresy infiltrated into the West. Since its most common manifestation
was an exaggerated strictness and since at first in the West it did not seek to
break away from the Church, it is not surprising that it took a little time
before it was discovered for the heresy it was. It is not clear whether Pope
St. Eleutherius condemned Montanism at this time.
A very interesting item
in the "Liber Pontificalis" concerns the reception by Pope
Eleutherius of a letter from Lucius, the king of Britain, asking for
instruction in the Christian faith: very interesting but almost certainly
untrue. Britain at this time was a Roman province. It is true that some high
land chief from beyond the wall might call himself king, but it is quite
unlikely that such a remote red-shanks should have written to Rome. The early
British historian Gildas makes not the slightest mention of such an incident.
Most modern scholars agree that the story is apocryphal. An interesting theory
advanced by some modern scholars is that the author of the "Liber
Pontificalis" or a copyist confused Lucius, king of Britain, with Lucius,
king Britium in Mesopotamia.
St. Eleutherius was
buried near St. Peter in the Vatican. He is honored by the Church as a martyr.
SOURCE : http://www.cfpeople.org/books/pope/popep13.htm
The
Lives and Times of the Popes – Saint Eleutherus – A.D. 177
Article
According to several
writers, Saint Eleutherus had the surname of Abondio; he was a Greek, and born
at Nicopolis, now called Prevesa, in Albania. Others, however, say that he was
a Neapolitan, born in Calabria. (It must be remembered that all that part of
Italy was also called Magna Graecia.) At the request of Lucius, king of that
part of England which was subject to the Romans, this pope sent Fugacius and
Damian into that island, to endeavor to convert it to the Catholic faith. It
must be remembered that previous to this many Christians were in England, but
this was the first organized missionary effort.
Marcus Aurelius was
succeeded in the empire by Commodus, and, by a strange but welcome
contradiction, the Church, which had been persecuted during the reign of a good
prince, was left in peace by a monstrous one. Elected A.D. 177, Saint
Eleutherus governed the Church during fifteen years and a few days. In three
ordinations he created sixteen bishops, twelve priests, and eight deacons. He
was buried in the Vatican.
MLA
Citation
Alexis-François Artaud de
Montor. “Saint Eleutherus – A.D. 177”. The
Lives and Times of the Popes, 1911. CatholicSaints.Info.
28 July 2022. Web. 25 May 2024.
<https://catholicsaints.info/the-lives-and-times-of-the-popes-saint-eleutherus-a-d-177/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/the-lives-and-times-of-the-popes-saint-eleutherus-a-d-177/
The
church of Agios Eleftherios in Neos Panteleimon.
Eleutherus (2)
Eleutherus or
Eleutherius, a native of Nicopolis, elected bishop of Rome after the death of
Soter, May 3, 177. He is previously (168) mentioned as a deacon of bishop
Anicetus of Rome. He opposed with much zeal the errors of the Valentinians
during his tenure of office. Two events are reported to have rendered his
pontificate memorable: the glorious death of the martyrs of Lyons and Vienne
(Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. 5:4), and an embassy from Lucius, king of
Great Britain, to demand a missionary to teach the Britons the Christian
religion (Bede, Hist. Eccl. 3:25; Collier, Eccl. Hist. 1:35).
The churches of Lyons and Vienne sent to him the acts of those of their members
who had Just suffered martyrdom. Their messenger was the; presbyter Irenaeus,
subsequently celebrated as one of the pillars of the Church in Gaul. As the
letter of these churches to Eleutheo us warns against the Montanists, some have
inferred, though without being supported by any other proof, that Eleutherus
was an adherent of the Montanist sect. The legend about the embassy of king
Lucius, and the subsequent mission of two Roman missionaries to England, is
doubted by many historians. Eleutherus died A.D. 192. He is commemorated in the
Church of Rome as a saint on the 26th of May. See Mosheim, Comment. 1:273;
Neander, Planting and Training, 2:518; Smith. Religion of
Ancient Britain, pages 121, 122; Herzog, Real-Encykl. in, 753.
(A.J.S.)
McClintock and Strong Biblical
Cyclopedia
SOURCE : https://www.biblicalcyclopedia.com/E/eleutherus-(2).html
Pope Saint Eleutherius
(175-189)
Buried in the Church of
Santa Susanna, he was the twelfth successor of St. Peter. Eleutherius was a
Greek from Nicopolis in Epirus and had served as deacon to Pope Anicetus
(155-166). It was during his papacy that St. Irenaeus of Lyon visited Rome to
discuss the suffering of the Christians of Lyon and to bring a letter critical
of the prophesies of the heresy of Montanism. This movement was derived from a
series of prophesies which announced the end of the world and demanded that
Christians live rigid and severe lives in preparation. Tertullian a prominent
convert from North Africa states that Eleutherius was initially attracted to
Montanism and only later in his papacy did he come to condemn it.
Eleutherius is listed as
a martyr. He died during the reign of the Emperor Commodus (180-192). Commodus
was the son of the emperor Marcus Aurelius. The new emperor was insane and
during his reign Rome became increasingly violent. Fascinated with eastern
mystery religions and violent circus games, a number of Christians, including
Eleutherius perished under his misrule.
The body of Eleutherius
originally rested in the catacombs and then in the small church of San Giovanni
della Pigna, near the Pantheon. In 1591, his body was brought to the Church of
Santa Susanna by Camilla Peretti (the sister of Pope Sixtus V). The great
fresco over his tomb altar by Giovanni Pozzo (1563-1591) shows Eleutherius
being dragged by horses and then burned over a grill while the Emperor Commodus
watched. Pope St. Eleutherius' feast day is May 26th.
SOURCE : http://www.santasusanna.org/ourUniqueHistory/popes.html#Eleutherius
Maestro
di staffolo, sant'eleuterio, 1483, Galleria Farnese, Napoli, Museo di
Capodimonte)
Maestro di Staffolo, Saint Eleuthere, 1483, palais Farnèse.
Sant' Eleuterio Papa
e martire
m. 189
(Papa dal 175 al 189)
Greco. Nato a Nicopoli nell'Epiro, fu papa dal 175 al 189. Dopo il martirio
probabilmente fu sepolto in Vaticano, vicino al corpo di san Pietro. Il
suo pontificato fu segnato da movimenti ereticali che giunsero fino a Roma. Tra
di essi il montanismo, che sosteneva l'imminente fine del mondo accanto a un
forte rigore morale. Eleuterio fu tollerante per evitare una scissione fra
i cristiani. Invece contro i marcioniti, che ammettevano tre principi e
tre battesimi, e gli gnostici emanò un decreto nel quale, tra l'altro, si
autorizzavano i cristiani a cibarsi con qualsiasi alimento e superare così la
distinzione tra cibi puri ed impuri. Sembra inoltre che con un altro suo
decreto ordinò che il giorno di Pasqua si celebrasse di domenica. Il
Martirologio Romano di lui riporta: «A Roma sant'Eleuterio, papa e martire, il
quale convertì alla fede di Cristo molti nobili romani, e mandò nella Gran
Bretagna Damiano e Fugazio, i quali battezzarono il Re Lucio, insieme a sua
moglie e a quasi tutto il popolo». (Avvenire)
Emblema: Palma
Martirologio
Romano: Sempre a Roma, sant’Eleuterio, papa, al quale i celebri martiri di
Lione, a quel tempo detenuti in prigione, scrissero una nobile lettera sul
mantenimento della pace nella Chiesa.
S. Eleuterio, di Nicopoli
(Epiro), martire (?), fu probabilmente sepolto in Vaticano, vicino al corpo di
S.Pietro.
Menzionata unicamente da
fonti agiografiche tarde (sec. VIII), la sua incerta biografia si basa
principalmente sul Liber Pontificalis.
Il suo episcopato fu
segnato da movimenti ereticali che giunsero fino a Roma: il montanismo che
sosteneva l’imminente fine del mondo, l’esagerato rigore di condotta morale e
la prerogativa di profetizzazione. Eleuterio fu tollerante per evitare una
dolorosa scissione fra i cristiani. Invece contro i marcioniti, che ammettevano
tre principi (buono, giusto e cattivo) e tre battesimi, e gli gnostici, seguaci
di Pitagora e Platone, emanò un decreto nel quale, tra l’altro, si
autorizzavano i cristiani a cibarsi con qualsiasi alimento e superare così ogni
eretica distinzione tra cibi puri ed impuri.
Con un altro suo decreto,
si reputa, ordinò che il giorno di Pasqua si celebrasse di domenica.Secondo il
Liber Pontificalis, che non accenna minimamente al suo martirio, fu in rapporto
con Lucio, re dei Britanni.
La sua festa si celebra
il 26 maggio ed è così menzionato nel Martirologio Romano: A Roma
sant’Eleuterio, papa e martire, il quale convertì alla fede di Cristo molti
nobili romani, e mandò nella Gran Bretagna Damiano e Fugazio, i quali
battezzarono il Re Lucio, insieme a sua moglie e a quasi tutto il popolo.
Nell’arte S.Eleuterio
viene raffigurato o con gli abiti pontificali e un libro nella mano sinistra o
con abiti pontificali e una grande tonsura.
Autore: Giovanni Sicari
SOURCE : http://santiebeati.it/dettaglio/89013
Church of Theotokos Gorgoepikoos and Ayios Eleytherios, Athens, Greece.
ELEUTERIO, santo
Enciclopedia dei Papi (2000)
Francesco Scorza
Barcellona
Secondo Egesippo, che afferma di essere giunto a Roma sotto l'episcopato di Aniceto restandovi sino a quello di E. (Eleuther, Eleutherius), questi era stato diacono di Aniceto (citato in Eusebio, Historia ecclesiastica IV, 11, 7; 22, 3), ed E. era ancora vescovo quando Ireneo di Lione concluse la sua lista episcopale romana (Adversus haereses III, 3, 3). Tertulliano in De praescriptione haereticorum 30, 2, considera Valentino e Marcione come contemporanei e membri della Chiesa cattolica "sub episcopatu Eleutheri benedicti", contraddicendo la notizia di Ireneo (Adversus haereses III, 4, 3) che pone la presenza a Roma di Valentino e di Marcione in epoca anteriore, tra l'episcopato di Igino e quello di Aniceto. A. von Harnack aveva proposto di leggere nel testo tertullianeo "Telesfori" anziché "Eleutheri", tenendo conto della fama di martire che aveva Telesforo già nel sec. II, al quale si converrebbe pertanto il titolo di benedictus: ma è probabile che nel sincronismo stabilito da Tertulliano non si debba cercare tanto una precisione cronologica, quanto la prova che i maestri di eresia appaiono tardi rispetto all'inizio delle successioni episcopali. Eusebio afferma che E. succedette a Sotero nel 177 e che il suo episcopato ebbe una durata di quindici anni fino al 193 (Historia ecclesiastica V, prologo, 1; 22; Chronicon, ad aa. 177, 193).
La durata dell'episcopato
di E. è confermata dalle date di accesso e di morte, rispettivamente il 171 e
il 185, riportate nella notizia lacunosa del Catalogo Liberiano: questa datazione
è ripresa nel Liber pontificalis, che citando la sola data del 185 come quella
della morte del pontefice parla di un episcopato di quindici anni, tre mesi e
due giorni. Eusebio ricorda che i futuri martiri di Lione e Vienne, in Gallia,
avevano scritto ai fratelli di Asia e Frigia e ad E. difendendo l'ortodossia di
Montano e dei suoi seguaci Alcibiade e Teodoto che in Frigia avevano iniziato a
diffondere le loro idee sulla profezia (Historia ecclesiastica V, 3, 4). La
notizia è stata messa in relazione con l'affermazione di Tertulliano (Adversus
Praxean I, 5) secondo cui un vescovo di Roma aveva dapprima riconosciuto i
profeti di Frigia, ma poi, ingannato dal patripassiano Prassea, li aveva
condannati, identificando con ciò in E. il vescovo cui allude Tertulliano.
L'opinione che ha maggior
credito è però quella che vede nel vescovo adombrato da Tertulliano piuttosto
Vittore o Zefirino. Gli stessi martiri avevano scritto a E. per raccomandare il
presbitero Ireneo (è probabile che secondo l'uso più antico presbitero sia qui
sinonimo di vescovo), latore della lettera in questione (Eusebio, Historia
ecclesiastica V, 4, 1-2). Secondo P. Nautin la presentazione di Ireneo a E. con
lettere di raccomandazione era dovuta, oltre che alla sua recente elezione, al
fatto che Ireneo doveva recarsi a Roma per sostenere la causa del vescovo
Policrate di Efeso (quello da cui dipendevano le Chiese di Asia e di Frigia)
cui è indirizzata la lettera sui martiri di Lione e di Vienne contro le
critiche di un movimento rigorista rappresentato da alcuni vescovi asiatici che
rimproveravano a Policrate l'uso quartodecimano nella celebrazione della Pasqua
- forse più in relazione al termine del digiuno in qualunque giorno della
settimana cadesse il 14 di nis¯an che non alla data in sé - facendosi
sostenitori anche delle pratiche dell'encratismo e di una disciplina assai
severa a proposito della riconciliazione di chi aveva apostatato durante le
persecuzioni.
Il Liber pontificalis
aggiunge alla cronologia di E. pochi altri dati, alcuni palesemente, altri
verosimilmente destituiti di fondamento storico: E. sarebbe stato greco, della
città di Nicopoli (in Epiro), figlio di Abbondio. Avrebbe ricevuto una lettera
da Lucio, "Brittanio rege", con la richiesta di diventare cristiano,
e avrebbe riconfermato che i cristiani non devono rifiutare nessun cibo,
avrebbe ordinato dodici presbiteri, otto diaconi e quindici vescovi, sarebbe
stato sepolto nel cimitero vaticano il 24 maggio: alla sua morte sarebbe
seguito un periodo di quindici giorni di sede vacante. La notizia sul re
britannico Lucio appare del tutto fantasiosa, a cominciare dal fatto che
all'epoca di E. non esistevano re britannici. Molto ingegnosamente A. von
Harnack vi ha colto il ricordo del re Abgar IX di Edessa (179-216) convertito al
cristianesimo, che aveva assunto in onore dell'imperatore Commodo i nomi di
Lucio Elio. La sua trasformazione in re britannico sarebbe derivata dal
probabile fraintendimento di una corruzione del toponimo "Birtha",
indicante in siriaco la fortezza, se non la città stessa, di Edessa, come
attestato in altri documenti quali il Laterculus Apostolorum in cui l'apostolo
Tommaso, che secondo la più nota tradizione finì i suoi giorni a Edessa, si
dice sepolto "in Britio/Beruto Edessenorum".
La notizia di una
corrispondenza tra il re Lucio ed E. passò attraverso il Chronicon e la
Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum di Beda agli storiografi medievali della
Britannia, arricchendosi fino a tutto il sec. XII di altri particolari relativi
al nome del re (Llever Maur), alla sua sede, ora Glastonbury nel Somerset, ora
presso Cardiff nel Galles, o ad altri personaggi di contorno quali i legati
papali. Si conserva anche la pretesa risposta di E. a Lucio. La norma sulla
liceità di tutti i cibi che si vuole riconfermata da E. ("et iterum
firmavit": la prima redazione ha "constituit") riecheggia varie
espressioni paoline sullo stesso argomento, come Romani 14, Colossesi 2, 16-17,
e in particolare 1 Timoteo 4, 3, che sembra il testo al quale il compilatore si
è ispirato.
Un altro riferimento a E.
si ha in Liber pontificalis, nr. 15, nella notizia su Vittore, quando si
afferma che quest'ultimo stabilì che la Pasqua si celebrasse la domenica, come
E. aveva già fatto. Nella notizia del Liber pontificalis su E. non si legge
nulla di simile, e anche gli storici antichi non ricordano interventi di E. a
proposito della questione sulla Pasqua. Ireneo di Lione, in un frammento della
sua lettera a papa Vittore (citato da Eusebio, Historia ecclesiastica V, 24,
14), menziona i vescovi di Roma da Sisto I ad Aniceto, predecessore di Sotero,
come quelli che mantennero la pace con le Chiese d'Asia anche se queste
celebravano la festa il 14 di nisàn secondo il calendario giudaico: forse a
partire da Sotero i vescovi di Roma tennero nei confronti della questione
pasquale una posizione meno conciliante, che fu radicalizzata da Vittore.
Oltre alla suddetta
lettera di risposta al re Lucio, è attribuita a E. una delle decretali
pseudoisidoriane. La commemorazione di E. compare per la prima volta nel
Martyrologium di Adone alla data del 25 maggio, e di qui è passata al
Martyrologium Romanum, in cui E. figura come martire, alla data del 26 maggio:
essa è stata espunta nel Calendarium Romanum del 1969, perché non è nota la
data della morte, e non si hanno testimonianze che abbia subito il martirio.
fonti e
bibliografia
Ireneo di Lione, Adversus haereses III, 3, 3, a cura di A. Rousseau-L. Doutreleau, Paris 1974 (Sources Chrétiennes, 211), pp. 36-8; Tertulliano, De praescriptione haereticorum 30, 2, a cura di R.F. Refoulé, Turnholti 1954 (Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina, 1-2), p. 210; Id., Adversus Praxean I, 5, a cura di E. Kroymann-E. Evans, ivi 1954 (Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina, 1-
2), p. 1115; Eusebio di Cesarea, Historia ecclesiastica IV, 11, 7; 22, 3; V, prologo, 1; 22; 24, 14, a cura di E. Schwartz, Leipzig 1903 (Die Griechischen Christlichen Schriftsteller. Eusebius Werke, II, 1), pp. 324, 370, 400, 486, 494-96. Id., Chronicon, ad aa. 177, 193, a cura di R. Helm, Berlin 1956 (Die Griechischen Christlichen Schriftsteller. Eusebius Werke, VII), pp. 207, 210; Le Liber pontificalis, a cura di L. Duchesne, I, Paris 1886, pp. LXV, CI-CIV, 58-61, 136-37; Catalogo Liberiano, ibid., pp. 4-5; Beda, Chronicon 337, in M.G.H., Auctores Antiquissimi, XIII, a cura di Th. Mommsen, 1898, p. 28; Id., Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum I, 4; V, 24, 367, a cura di B. Colgrave-R.A.B. Mynors, Oxford 1969, pp. 24, 562; J. Dubois-G. Renaud, Le Martyrologe d'Adon. Ses deux familles. Ses trois recensions. Texte et commentaire, Paris 1984, pp. 168-69; Anonimo, Laterculus Apostolorum, a cura di Th. Schermann, in Prophetarum Vitae fabulosae […], Lipsiae 1907, p. 213; Martyrologium Romanum […] scholiis historicis instructum, in Propylaeum ad Acta Sanctorum Decembris, Bruxellis 1940, pp. 208-10; Calendarium Romanum ex decreto sacrosancti oecumenici concilii Vaticani II instauratum auctoritate Pauli PP. VI promulgatum, In Civitate Vaticana 1969, p. 124.
Fonti agiografiche:
cfr. Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina [...], I, Bruxellis 1898-99, p.
368. La lettera di E. a Lucio è in P.G., V, coll. 1143-44. Decretali
attribuite a E.: cfr. P. Hinschius, Decretales pseudo-Isidorianae et
Capitula Angilramni […], Lipsiae 1863, pp. 125-27.
Studi: Ecclesiastica
Historia [...] per aliquot studiosos et pios viros in urbe Magdeburgica,
Centuria II, Caput X, Basileae 1562, col. 214; C. Baronio, Annales
ecclesiastici, II, Romae 1590, pp. 217-18, 231-32; Acta Sanctorum [...], Maii,
VI, Antverpiae 1688, pp. 363-64 ; [L.-S.] Lenain de Tillemont, Mémoires
pour servir à l'histoire ecclésiastique des six premiers siècles, t. III,
Venise 1732, pp. 60-4, 615-17; L. Duchesne, Éleuthère et le roi
breton Lucius, "Revue Celtique", 6, 1883-85, pp. 491-99; A. von
Harnack, Der Brief des britischen Königs Lucius an den Papst Eleutherus,
"Sitzungsberi-chte der Königlich-Preussischen Akademie der
Wissenschaften", 1904, pp. 909-16; Tertullien, Traité de la
prescription contre les hérétiques, a cura di R.F. Refoulé, Paris 1957 (Sources
Chrétiennes, 46), p. 126 n. 2; P. Nautin, Lettres et écrivains
chrétiens des IIe et IIIe siècles, ivi 1961, pp. 43-9, 61-4; M. Richard, La
question pascale au IIe siècle, "L'Orient Syrien", 6, 1961, pp.
179-212; Chr. Mohrmann, Le conflit pascal au IIe siècle,
"Vigiliae Christianae", 16, 1962, pp. 154-71; P. Lampe, Die
stadtrömischen Christen in den ersten beiden Jahrhunderten, Tübingen 1989², pp.
332-34. A Dictionary of Christian Biography, II, London 1880, s.v., pp.
79-81; III, ivi 1882, s.v. Lucius (16), pp. 754-56; Dictionnaire
de théologie catholique, IV, 2, Paris 1924, s.v., coll. 2319-20; E.C., V,
s.v., col. 226; Catholicisme, IV, Paris 1956, s.v., coll. 1-2; Vies
des Saints et des Bienheureux, V, ivi 1947, s.v., p. 513; Iconographie de
l'art chrétien, III, 1, ivi 1958, s.v., p. 414; B. Cignitti-I.B. Marsali, Eleuterio,
in B.S., IV, coll. 1004-08; B. Botte, Éleuthère, in D.H.G.E.,
XV, coll. 147-48; New Catholic Encyclopaedia, V, Washington 1967, s.v., p.
265; Lexikon der christlichen Ikonographie, VI, Rom 1974, s.v., col.
118; Biographisch-bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon, I, Hamm 1975, s.v.,
col. 1488; Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, III, Freiburg 1995³, s.v.,
col. 586; Il grande libro dei Santi. Dizionario enciclopedico, I,
Cinisello Balsamo 1998, s.v., pp. 579-80.
© Istituto della
Enciclopedia Italiana fondata da Giovanni Treccani - Riproduzione riservata
SOURCE : https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/santo-eleuterio_(Enciclopedia-dei-Papi)/
Papa Eleuterio. Cromolitografia in L. Tripepi, Ritratti e biografie dei romani pontefici: da S. Pietro a Leone 13, Roma, Vaglimigli Davide, 1879.
Den hellige pave
Eleuterius ( -189)
Minnedag: 26.
mai
Den hellige Eleuterius
eller Eleutherus var i følge LP gresk,
fra Nikopolis i Epirus og sønn av en Abundius eller Habundius.
Han skal ha regjert i 15
år og 3 måneder og var den siste på Ireneus av Lyons' paveliste (ca 180). Han
var diakon allerede ca år 160 under pave Anicetus. I hans pontifikat levde
menigheten i ytre fred og sikkerhet, men til gjengjeld begynte på denne tiden
kjetterske bevegelser å få innpass i Roma.
Eleuterius skal ha
fordømt visse jødiske vaner angående ren og uren mat, som fremdeles ble fulgt
av noen kristne, ved å beordre at ingen mat som egnet seg til menneskeføde,
skulle foraktes av de kristne. Dette var sannsynligvis rettet mot montanistene
eller manikeerne, som avviste kjøtt.
I 177/78 fikk Eleuterius
besøk av Ireneus
av Lyon. Han var sendt av St. Pothinus og presteskapet i Lyon, og hadde med
brev fra menigheten der, som da ble utsatt for harde forfølgelser, med deres
syn på montanismen. Pavens holdning til den er uklar, men åpenbart anså han den
ikke som noen stor fare. Montanistene var en kristen, asketisk sekt som
forkynte verdens snarlige undergang. De hadde navn etter grunnleggeren Montanus
(død 178), en frygisk tidligere Kybele-prest, som anså seg å være den
Parakleten, «hjelperen», Den Hellige Ånd (Joh 14,16) som Kristus hadde utlovet.
LP skriver
at en britisk konge ved navn Lucius skrev til pave Eleuterius og ba ham sende
misjonærer for å få en innføring i den kristne tro, og at paven sendte Fugatius
og Damian. Moderne vitenskapsmenn mener at forfatteren av LP eller
en kopist gjør seg skyld i en sammenblanding med Agbar IX, også kalt Lucius,
konge av Britium (Edessa) i Mesopotamia (i dag: Urfa i Tyrkia), som senere ble
omvendt og kan ha skrevet til paven.
Eleuterius er først nevnt
som martyr av Ado av Vienne i 858, og dette kan ikke tillegges særlig vekt. Han
ble gravlagt nær St. Peter i Vatikanet. Hans minnedag 26. mai sto i den
romerske kalenderen til 1969.
Paverekken - Kildehenvisninger -
Kompilasjon og oversettelse: p. Per Einar Odden -
Sist oppdatert: 1998-02-04 21:15
SOURCE : http://www.katolsk.no/biografier/historisk/eleuteri
Voir aussi : http://orthodoxievco.net/ecrits/vies/synaxair/mai/eleuthere.pdf
