Eleutherius

Pope Eleutherius was bishop of Rome from about 174 to 189. He is honoured as a saint of the undivided Church and commemorated on 26 May; very little is known of his life.

According to the Book of the Popes (Liber Pontificalis) he was a Greek, born at Nicopolis in Epirus; his name means "free" in Greek. The historian Hegesippus writes that he was a deacon of the Church of Rome under Bishop Anicetus and then under Soter, whom he succeeded. The years of his ministry are dated variously: 174 to 189, 171 to 185, or 177 to 193.

His ministry fell in the years of the disturbances over Montanism. Saint Irenaeus, later bishop of Lyons, came to Rome around 177 to urge him to speak against the movement, without immediate result; at the same time Emperor Marcus Aurelius had ordered the killing of Christians at Lyons and Vienne. Some conciliatory letters to the Montanists were sent by a bishop of Rome, perhaps he, but they were withdrawn, according to Tertullian.

The Book of the Popes also credits him with a ruling that no food should be refused by Christians, and with receiving a letter from "Lucius, King of Britain", who wished to become Christian. Scholars regard these reports as later additions; the legend may come from confusing a Lucius of the Britons with Lucius, the Christian king of Edessa in Syria.

According to the Book of the Popes he died on 24 May 189 and was buried on Vatican Hill near Saint Peter. His body was later moved to San Giovanni della Pigna, and in 1591 to Santa Susanna.