St Lucius, King and Confessor

From Fr Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints

WE are informed by Bede, 1 that in the reign of Marcus Antoninus Verus, and Aurelius Commodus, a British king, named Lucius, sent a letter to Pope Eleutherius, entreating, that by his direction he might be made a Christian. This must have happened about the year 182. Lucius must have reigned in some part of Britain which was subject to the Romans, as his name indicates. Tacitus 2 mentions Prasutagus, king of the Iceni, in Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, and Huntingdonshire, who at his death made the Emperor Nero his heir, hoping by that means his people would be secured from injuries; whereas the contrary fell out, for the country was plundered by centurions and slaves. The same historian mentions, 3 that certain cities were given to Codigunus, “according to the ancient and received custom of the Roman people, to make even kings the instruments of the slavery of nations,” as he observes. That Lucius was a Christian king in Britain, is proved by two medals mentioned by Usher, 4 and one by Bouterue. Bede tells us, that by his embassy to Eleutherius he obtained the effect of his pious request; and that the Britons enjoyed the light of faith in peace till the reign of Dioclesian. Lucius therefore was the first Christian king in Europe; it no where appears in what part of Britain he reigned. The records of Glastenbury abbey, quoted by Malmesbury, and others, mentioned by Usher, 5 tell us, that St. Eleutherius sent over to Britain SS. Fugatius and Damianus (rather Dumianus or Duvianus), who baptized King Lucius, and many others, and were buried at Glastenbury. In Somersetshire, in the deanery of Dunstor, there is a parish church which bears the name of St. Deruvian, as Stow testifies. This saint is called by the Welch, Duvian or Dwywan, says Usher. The Christian faith had reached Britain in the times of the apostles. St. Clement I., pope, affirms, that St. Paul preached to the utmost bounds of the West. Gildas says, 6 the first dawn of the evangelical light appeared in this island about the eighth year of Nero. Theodoret names the Britons as a nation in which St. Paul sowed the seeds of faith, and in another place says, that this apostle brought salvation to the islands that lie in the ocean. Three British bishops assisted at the council of Arles, in 314, namely, Eborius of York, Restitutus of London, and Adelfius, who is styled De civitate Coloniæ Londinensium; which Bishop Usher takes to have been Colchester; but many more probably understand by it Lincoln, anciently called Lindum Colonia. Also certain British bishops subscribed the council of Nice against the Arians. The testimonies of St. Justin, 7 St. Irenæus, 8 Tertullian, 9 Eusebius, 10 St. Chrysostom, 11 and Theodoret, 12 demonstrate that Christianity had got footing in Britain very soon after Christ. We cannot, therefore, wonder that a prince should have embraced the faith in this island in the second century: nor do the objections which some have raised, deserve notice. Schelstrate, the learned prefect of the Vatican library, in his dissertation on the patriarchal authority, transcribes the following words from an ancient manuscript history of the kings of England, kept in the Vatican library: “Lucius sent a letter to Pope Eleutherius that he might be made a Christian, and he obtained his request.” The same learned author copies the following testimony from an ancient catalogue of the popes, written in the time of the Emperor Justinian, as we are assured by the title, found in the library of Christina, queen of Sweden: “Eleutherius received a letter from Lucius, king of Britain, who desired to be made a Christian by his command.” 13 1

We are told by most Bavarian and German historians that King Lucius, resigning his kingdom, preached the faith first in Noricum and Vindelicia, principally at Ausburg, and, being banished thence, in Rhœtia, especially at Coire. But Bruschius confesses, that it is uncertain who that Lucius was, who preached the faith in those parts, and founded the church of Coire, where he has been honoured among the first apostles of that church from its infancy. Whilst he preached among the Grisons, storms raised by the infidels obliged him to fly into the desert, and there lie concealed in a place which is called to this day Sanct Lucis Steig, or the Hill of St. Lucius. He afterwards retired into a cavern a mile distant, which retains the name of Sanct Lucis Lochlin. At length he is said to have fallen into the hands of the persecutors, and been condemned to death by the Roman lieutenant of the province, and beheaded in the fortress of Martiola towards the latter end of the second century. There stands an ancient monastery near Coire, which bears the name of St. Lucius, and his feast is kept in that diocess with great solemnity. Portions of his relics are preserved in the church of St. Francis, and in that of the Jesuits at Ausburg. See on the conversion of the British king, Usher, Antiq. Brit. c. 3. Stillingfleet, Orig. c. 11. Selden, Analect. Anglo-Britan. c. 6, t. 2, p. 895. Alford, Annal. Britan. ad an. 182. Baron, ad an. 183. Collier, Hist. Eccl. Brit. t. 1. Tillemont, t. 3, p. 62 and 615. Annotationes in ed. Roman. Anastasij Bibl. t. 1, p. 15, et t. 3, p. 139. Guthrie, Hist. of England, t. 1. On St. Lucius, who is honoured as the first apostle of Noricum, Vindelicia, and Rhœtia, that is, of Bavaria, the Grisons, and part of Austria. See F. Sprecher. Palladis Rhœticæ, l. 2. F. Rader, Bavaria Sancta, t. 1. p. 14, and the Breviary of Coire. 2

Note 1. Hist. l. 1. c. 4. [back]
Note 2. Tacit. Annal. l. 14, c. 31. [back]
Note 3. Vit. Agricolæ, c. 14. [back]
Note 4. Antiq. Britain, c. 3, p. 22. Guthrie, Hist. of England, b. 1. [back]
Note 5. Usher, ib. c. 4, p. 29. Harpsfield, l. 1, c. 3. [back]
Note 6. Gildas, § 6, t. 1. Script. Hist. Brit. ed. Gale, p. 3. [back]
Note 7. S. Justin. Dial. p. 345. [back]
Note 8. S. Iren. l. 1, c. 2. [back]
Note 9. Tertul. 1. cont. Judæos, c. 7. [back]
Note 10. Eus. Hist. l. 2, c. 3. [back]
Note 11. S. Chrys. Hom. 1, De laudibus Pauli, t. 2, p. 477, ed. Montfauc. et Or. Quod Christus sit Deus, t. 1, p. 575. [back]
Note 12. Theodoret, de Curandis Græcor. affect. l. 9, t. 4, p. 610. See also Origen, Hom. 6, in Luc. [back]
Note 13. Some moderns think the British Christian King Lucius only took his prænomen upon receiving the light of faith. The Welch call him Lever Maur, that is, Great Light. As St. Elian, who, about the year 450, founded the church of Llan Elian in Anglesea, is called by them Cunnaid, that is, Brightness. See Rowland’s Mona Antiqua, pp. 143, 156. Some think Lucius was a descendant of Cogidunus, whom Claudius constituted king of the Dobuni, (in Gloucestershire, &c.) Claudia seems to have been the daughter of this Cogidunus, and to have been so called in honour of Claudius. She was married to Pudens, a Roman senator, whilst he was in Britain. Both became Christians at Rome, as appears from St. Paul, an. 66. See Tim. iv. 51, where he sends their greetings to Timothy. She was called Claudia Rufina, and celebrated by Martial, l. 4, Epigr. 13, and l. 11, Epigr. 54. She might prevail with Lucius, perhaps her nephew, to embrace the faith. It is remarkable that the two most celebrated ladies who became Christians at Rome, in the time of the apostles, were both Britons, Claudia and Pomponia Græcina, wife of Aulus Plautius. Carte fancies that Lucius reigned beyond the Picts’ wall, was contemporary to Constantius Chlorus, and the same person with Cenau, son of Coil, whom he supposes to have been father of St. Helen, and king of the Cumbri, extended from Lancashire to Dunbritton on the north side of the Clyde, in Scotland. In this system Lucius was brother-in-law to Constantius, uncle to Constantine the Great, and might build churches, create episcopal sees, and establish Christianity. This conjecture he founds upon these circumstances, that the British and Scottish writers make Lucius the son of Coil; that Coila, now spelt Kyle in Scotland, takes its name from a British prince, and the two British coins of Lucius bear with the word Luc, the figure of the cross, which Spanheim the Younger pretends not to have been stamped upon any coin before Constantine’s victory in 312. (See Fred. Spanheim, t. 3, Miscellan. Append. De Traditis Conversionibus Lucij Regis, Juliæ Mammeæ, et Philippi Imp. Disquisitio Tripartita, p. 390, t. 2, op.) Also Sam. Basnage, (Annal. ad an. 181, n. 3,) and Carte’s Hist. of England, vol. 1, p. 137. But in this system the positive authority of Bede, &c. is set aside, and a complication of conjectures substituted in lieu of historical facts. [back]