St. Lucius I

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St. Lucius I

pope

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Died:: March 5, 254

Title / Office:: pope (253-254)

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St. Lucius I (died March 5, 254; feast day March 4) was the pope from June 253 to March 254. Lucius is honoured in Denmark as the patron saint of Copenhagen.

He succeeded St. Cornelius on June 25, 253. He was exiled to Civitavecchia, Italy, by the Roman emperor Gallus but later was allowed to return to Rome by Gallus’s successor, Valerian. According to Bishop St. Cyprian of Carthage, Lucius continued the liberal policy Cornelius had established toward apostates who renounced Christianity because of the persecution of the Roman emperor Decius. Thus, Lucius opposed and condemned the Novatian Schism, a rigorist movement against penitent apostates, inspired by the antipope Novatian. Lucius’s martyrdom in the Valerian persecution is unproven. He was succeeded by St. Stephen I.

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