Pope Telesphorus
Template:Epname, Telesphorus
| Saint Telesphorus | |
|---|---|
| 150px | |
| Birth name | Telesphorus |
| Papacy began | 126 |
| Papacy ended | 137 |
| Predecessor | Sixtus I |
| Successor | Hyginus |
| Born | ??? Greece |
| Died | 137 Rome, Italy |
Pope Saint Telesphorus was bishop of Rome from 126 or 127 to 137 or 138, during the reigns of Roman Emperors Hadrian and Antoninus Pius. He was Greek by birth.
Irenaeus of Lyons recognized Telesphorus as a martyr, the first of the Roman bishops whom Irenaeus designates as such after Saint Peter. In the Roman Martyrology his feast is celebrated on January 2. The Greek Church celebrates it on February 22.
The Liber Pontificalis credits him with intiiating the tradition of Christmas Midnight Masses, the celebration of Easter on Sundays, the keeping of a seven-week Lent before Easter, and the singing of the Gloria. However, historians doubt that such attributions are accurate, although there is evidence that he indeed celebrated Easter on Sunday.
Some sources depict Telesphorus as previously being a hermit living on Mount Carmel, and the Carmelites venerate him as a patron saint of the order.
Biography
Telesphorus is traditionally reckoned as being the seventh Roman bishop in succession after Saint Peter. Liber Pontificalis mentions that he had been an anchorite (or hermit) monk prior to assuming office. According to the testimony of Irenæus (Against Heresies III.3.3), he suffered a "glorious" martyrdom. Although all early popes are called martyrs by sources such as the Liber Ponificalis, Telesphorus is the first to whom Ireneaus, writing considerably earlier, gives this title.
Eusebius (Church History iv.7; iv.14) places the beginning of his pontificate in the twelfth year of the reign of Emperor Hadrian (128-129) and gives the date of his death as being in the first year of the reign of Antoninus Pius (138-139).
A fragment of a letter from Irenæus to Pope Victor I during the Easter controversy of the late second century, also preserved by Eusebius, testifies that Telesphorus was one of the Roman bishops who always celebrated Easter on Sunday, rather than on other days of the week depending on the calculation of the Jewish Passover. Unlike Victor, however, Telesphorus remained in communion with those communities that did not follow this custom.
None of the other statements as to liturgical and other decisions instituted by Telesphorus are considered genuine, even by Catholic scholars, as they are based on sources of a later date which display an agenda intended to prove the papacy's authority by exaggerating its legislative role.
In the current Roman Martyrology his feast is listed under January 2. The Greek Orthodox Church celebrates it on February 22. The Telesphorus commemorated on January in the earlier General Roman Calendar (as in 1954) was in fact not the Pope but an otherwise unknown African martyr.
| Roman Catholic Popes | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by: Sixtus I |
Bishop of Rome Pope 125–136 |
Succeeded by: Hyginus |
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Attwater, Donald and Catherine Rachel John. The Penguin Dictionary of Saints. 3rd edition. New York: Penguin Books, 1993. ISBN 0140513124.
- Benedict XVI The Roman Martyrology Gardners Books, 2007. ISBN 9780548133743
- Chapman, John. Studies on the Early Papacy. Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1971. ISBN 9780804611398
- Fortescue, Adrian, and Scott M. P. Reid. The Early Papacy: To the Synod of Chalcedon in 451. Southampton: Saint Austin Press, 1997. ISBN 9781901157604
- Loomis, Louise Ropes. The Book of Popes (Liber Pontificalis), Merchantville, NJ: Evolution Publishing. ISBN 1889758868 (Reprint of the 1916 edition. Stops with Pope Pelagius, 579-590. English translation with scholarly footnotes, and illustrations).
This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.
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