ST LUCIUS, KING AND CONFESSOR - 3 DECEMBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN DECEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 3rd of December

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

 ST LUCIUS, KING AND CONFESSOR

We are informed by Bede, 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.

HE MUST HAVE REIGNED IN A ROMAN PART OF BRITAIN

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 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, 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, 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 Diocletian. 

THE FIRST CHRISTIAN KING IN EUROPE

Lucius therefore was the first Christian king in Europe; nowhere it appears in what part of Britain he reigned. 

The records of Glastonbury Abbey, quoted by Malmesbury, and others, mentioned by Usher, tell us, that St Eleutherius sent over to Britain SS. Fugatius and Damianus (rather Dumianus or Duvianus), who baptised King Lucius, and many others, and were buried at Glastonbury. 

THE RECORDS OF GLASTONBURY

In Somersetshire, in the deanery of Dunstor, there is a parish church which bears the name of St Deruvian. This saint is called by the Welsh, Duvian or Dwywan. 

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, 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 Coloniae Londinensium; which Bishop Usher takes to have been Colchester; but many more probably understand by it Lincoln, anciently called Lindum Colonia. 

CHRISTIANITY HAD GOT FOOTING IN BRITAIN VERY SOON AFTER CHRIST

Also certain British bishops subscribed the council of Nice against the Arians. The testimonies of St Justin, St Irenaeus, Tertullian, Eusebius, St Chrysostom, and Theodoret, 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. 

LUCIUS REQUESTED TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN

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." 

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)