Lucius of Britain
Encyclopedia
Saint Lucius is a legendary 2nd-century King of the Britons traditionally credited with introducing Christianity
into Britain
. Lucius is first mentioned in a 6th-century version of the Liber Pontificalis
, which says that he sent a letter to Pope Eleuterus
asking to be made a Christian. The story became widespread after it was repeated in the 8th century by Bede
, who added the detail that after Eleuterus granted Lucius' request, the Britons
followed their king in conversion and maintained the Christian faith until the Diocletianic Persecution of 303. Later writers expanded the legend, giving accounts of missionary activity under Lucius and attributing to him the foundation of certain churches.
There is no contemporary evidence for a king of this name, and modern scholars believe that his appearance in the Liber Pontificalis is the result of a scribal error. However, for centuries the story of this "first Christian king" was widely believed, especially in Britain, where it was considered an accurate account of Christianity among the early Britons. During the English Reformation
, the Lucius story was used in polemics by both Catholics and Protestants; Catholics considered it evidence of papal supremacy from a very early date, while Protestants used it to bolster claims of the primacy of a British national church founded by the crown.
created in the 6th century. Why the story appears there has been a matter of debate. In 1868 Arthur West Haddan
and William Stubbs
suggested that it might have been pious fiction
invented to support the efforts of missionaries in Britain in the time of Saint Patrick
and Palladius
. However, modern scholars follow the argument first proposed by Adolf von Harnack
in 1904 that sees the story as a deriving from a scribal error substituting Britanio, referring to Britannia
, for Britio, referring to Birtha
or Britium in what is now Turkey
. In 179 Birtha was ruled by the Christian-friendly Roman client king of Osroene
whose full title was Lucius Aelius Megas Abgar IX
.
The English monk Bede
included the Lucius story in his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
, completed in 731. He may have gotten it from a contemporary who had been to Rome, such as Nothhelm. Bede adds the detail that Lucius' new faith was thereafter adopted by his people, who maintained it until the Diocletianic Persecution. Following Bede, versions of the Lucius story appeared in the 9th-century Historia Brittonum, and in 12th-century works such as William of Malmesbury
's Gesta pontificum Anglorum and the Book of Llandaff
. However, the most influential was that in Geoffrey of Monmouth
's 12th-century chronicle Historia Regum Britanniae
. Geoffrey's narrative emphasizes Lucius' virtues, and gives a detailed, if fanciful, account of the spread of Christianity during his reign. In this version, Lucius is the son of the benevolent King Coilus
and rules in the manner of his father. Hearing of the miracles and good works performed by Christian disciples, he writes to Pope Eleuterus asking to join the flock. Eleuterus sends two missionaries, Fuganus and Duvianus, who baptize the king and establish a successful Christian order throughout Britain. They convert the commoners and flamen
s, turn pagan temples into churches, and establish dioceses and archdioceses where the flamens had previously held power. The pope is pleased with their accomplishments, and Fuganus and Duvianus recruit another wave of missionaries to aid the cause. Lucius responds by granting land and privileges to the Church. He dies without heir in AD 156, thereby weakening Roman influence in Britain.
Later traditions are mostly based on one of these accounts, probably including a medieval inscription at the church of St Peter upon Cornhill
in Cornhill, London in the City of London
. There he is credited with having founded the St Peter's in 179 AD.
Saint Lucius's feast day is on 3 December and he was canonized through the pre-congregational method.
and patron saint of the Grisons (Switzerland
) was also named Lucius, with whom the British Lucius is not to be confused. It is possible, however, that the mentioning of Saint Lucius of Britain in the Liber Pontificalis soon led to a scholarly identification of the otherwise somewhat shapeless patron saint with his more prominent British namesake. His supposed relic
s are still kept in the cathedral
of Chur
, although there is little doubt among scholars that the bishopric was only established some 150 years after its alleged founder was martyred.
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
into Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
. Lucius is first mentioned in a 6th-century version of the Liber Pontificalis
Liber Pontificalis
The Liber Pontificalis is a book of biographies of popes from Saint Peter until the 15th century. The original publication of the Liber Pontificalis stopped with Pope Adrian II or Pope Stephen V , but it was later supplemented in a different style until Pope Eugene IV and then Pope Pius II...
, which says that he sent a letter to Pope Eleuterus
Pope Eleuterus
Pope Saint Eleuterus, or Eleutherius, was Bishop of Rome from about 174 to 189 . He was born in Nicopolis in Epirus. His name is Greek for free....
asking to be made a Christian. The story became widespread after it was repeated in the 8th century by Bede
Bede
Bede , also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede , was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria...
, who added the detail that after Eleuterus granted Lucius' request, the Britons
Britons (historical)
The Britons were the Celtic people culturally dominating Great Britain from the Iron Age through the Early Middle Ages. They spoke the Insular Celtic language known as British or Brythonic...
followed their king in conversion and maintained the Christian faith until the Diocletianic Persecution of 303. Later writers expanded the legend, giving accounts of missionary activity under Lucius and attributing to him the foundation of certain churches.
There is no contemporary evidence for a king of this name, and modern scholars believe that his appearance in the Liber Pontificalis is the result of a scribal error. However, for centuries the story of this "first Christian king" was widely believed, especially in Britain, where it was considered an accurate account of Christianity among the early Britons. During the English Reformation
English Reformation
The English Reformation was the series of events in 16th-century England by which the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church....
, the Lucius story was used in polemics by both Catholics and Protestants; Catholics considered it evidence of papal supremacy from a very early date, while Protestants used it to bolster claims of the primacy of a British national church founded by the crown.
Sources
The first mention of Lucius and his letter to Eleuterus is in the Catalogus Felicianus, a version of the Liber PontificalisLiber Pontificalis
The Liber Pontificalis is a book of biographies of popes from Saint Peter until the 15th century. The original publication of the Liber Pontificalis stopped with Pope Adrian II or Pope Stephen V , but it was later supplemented in a different style until Pope Eugene IV and then Pope Pius II...
created in the 6th century. Why the story appears there has been a matter of debate. In 1868 Arthur West Haddan
Arthur West Haddan
Arthur West Haddan was an English churchman and academic, of High Church Anglican views, now remembered as an ecclesiastical historian, particularly for Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents relating to Great Britain and Ireland, written with William Stubbs.-Life:He was born at Woodford, Essex on...
and William Stubbs
William Stubbs
William Stubbs was an English historian and Bishop of Oxford.The son of William Morley Stubbs, a solicitor, he was born at Knaresborough, Yorkshire, and was educated at Ripon Grammar School and Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated in 1848, obtaining a first-class in classics and a third in...
suggested that it might have been pious fiction
Pious fiction
A pious fiction is a narrative that is presented as true by the author, but is considered by others to be fictional albeit produced with an altruistic motivation. The term is sometimes used pejoratively to suggest that the author of the narrative was deliberately misleading readers for selfish or...
invented to support the efforts of missionaries in Britain in the time of Saint Patrick
Saint Patrick
Saint Patrick was a Romano-Briton and Christian missionary, who is the most generally recognized patron saint of Ireland or the Apostle of Ireland, although Brigid of Kildare and Colmcille are also formally patron saints....
and Palladius
Palladius
Palladius was the first Bishop of the Christians of Ireland, preceding Saint Patrick. The Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion consider Palladius a saint.-Armorica:...
. However, modern scholars follow the argument first proposed by Adolf von Harnack
Adolf von Harnack
Adolf von Harnack , was a German theologian and prominent church historian.He produced many religious publications from 1873-1912....
in 1904 that sees the story as a deriving from a scribal error substituting Britanio, referring to Britannia
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
, for Britio, referring to Birtha
Birtha (Commagene)
Birtha was an ancient town on the east bank of the Euphrates, at the upper part of a reach of that river, which runs nearly north-south, and just below a sharp bend in the stream, where it follows that course after coming from a long reach flowing more from the west. This town has often been...
or Britium in what is now Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
. In 179 Birtha was ruled by the Christian-friendly Roman client king of Osroene
Osroene
Osroene, also spelled Osrohene and Osrhoene and sometimes known by the name of its capital city, Edessa , was a historic Syriac kingdom located in Mesopotamia, which enjoyed semi-autonomy to complete independence from the years of 132 BC to AD 244.It was a Syriac-speaking kingdom.Osroene, or...
whose full title was Lucius Aelius Megas Abgar IX
Abgar IX of Osroene
Lucius Aelius Megas Abgar IX was a Syriac ruler of Osroene from AD 177 to 212.Andrew Louth in his "Who's Who in Eusebius" at the end of G. A. Williamson's translation of Eusebius of Caesarea's Ecclesiastical History gives the dates of Abgar's reign as from 179-214.During the reign of Abgar the...
.
The English monk Bede
Bede
Bede , also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede , was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria...
included the Lucius story in his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
The Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum is a work in Latin by Bede on the history of the Christian Churches in England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the conflict between Roman and Celtic Christianity.It is considered to be one of the most important original references on...
, completed in 731. He may have gotten it from a contemporary who had been to Rome, such as Nothhelm. Bede adds the detail that Lucius' new faith was thereafter adopted by his people, who maintained it until the Diocletianic Persecution. Following Bede, versions of the Lucius story appeared in the 9th-century Historia Brittonum, and in 12th-century works such as William of Malmesbury
William of Malmesbury
William of Malmesbury was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. C. Warren Hollister so ranks him among the most talented generation of writers of history since Bede, "a gifted historical scholar and an omnivorous reader, impressively well versed in the literature of classical,...
's Gesta pontificum Anglorum and the Book of Llandaff
Book of Llandaff
The Book of Llandaff is a 12th century compilation of documents relating to the history of the diocese of Llandaff in Wales...
. However, the most influential was that in Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth was a cleric and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur...
's 12th-century chronicle Historia Regum Britanniae
Historia Regum Britanniae
The Historia Regum Britanniae is a pseudohistorical account of British history, written c. 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It chronicles the lives of the kings of the Britons in a chronological narrative spanning a time of two thousand years, beginning with the Trojans founding the British nation...
. Geoffrey's narrative emphasizes Lucius' virtues, and gives a detailed, if fanciful, account of the spread of Christianity during his reign. In this version, Lucius is the son of the benevolent King Coilus
Coilus
Coilus was a legendary king of the Britons during the time of the Roman occupation of Britain as recounted in Geoffrey of Monmouth's pseudohistorical Historia Regum Britanniae. He was the son of King Marius and ruled following his father's death....
and rules in the manner of his father. Hearing of the miracles and good works performed by Christian disciples, he writes to Pope Eleuterus asking to join the flock. Eleuterus sends two missionaries, Fuganus and Duvianus, who baptize the king and establish a successful Christian order throughout Britain. They convert the commoners and flamen
Flamen
In ancient Roman religion, a flamen was a priest assigned to one of fifteen deities with official cults during the Roman Republic. The most important three were the flamines maiores , who served the three chief Roman gods of the Archaic Triad. The remaining twelve were the flamines minores...
s, turn pagan temples into churches, and establish dioceses and archdioceses where the flamens had previously held power. The pope is pleased with their accomplishments, and Fuganus and Duvianus recruit another wave of missionaries to aid the cause. Lucius responds by granting land and privileges to the Church. He dies without heir in AD 156, thereby weakening Roman influence in Britain.
Later traditions are mostly based on one of these accounts, probably including a medieval inscription at the church of St Peter upon Cornhill
St Peter upon Cornhill
St Peter upon Cornhill is an Anglican church in the City of London, located on the corner of Cornhill and Gracechurch Street. It is currently a satellite church in the parish of St Helen's Bishopsgate, and is used for staff training, bible studies and a youth club.The church was used by the Tank...
in Cornhill, London in the City of London
City of London
The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
. There he is credited with having founded the St Peter's in 179 AD.
Saint Lucius's feast day is on 3 December and he was canonized through the pre-congregational method.
Veneration in Chur
The legendary first bishop of ChurBishop of Chur
The Bishop of Chur is the Ordinary of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Chur, Grisons, Switzerland .-History:...
and patron saint of the Grisons (Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
) was also named Lucius, with whom the British Lucius is not to be confused. It is possible, however, that the mentioning of Saint Lucius of Britain in the Liber Pontificalis soon led to a scholarly identification of the otherwise somewhat shapeless patron saint with his more prominent British namesake. His supposed relic
Relic
In religion, a relic is a part of the body of a saint or a venerated person, or else another type of ancient religious object, carefully preserved for purposes of veneration or as a tangible memorial...
s are still kept in the cathedral
Cathedral
A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...
of Chur
Chur
Chur or Coire is the capital of the Swiss canton of Graubünden and lies in the northern part of the canton.-History:The name "chur" derives perhaps from the Celtic kora or koria, meaning "tribe", or from the Latin curia....
, although there is little doubt among scholars that the bishopric was only established some 150 years after its alleged founder was martyred.