Lentorama 2025: Perfunctory Popes

Day 9: St. Lucius I

We don't know much about Lucius, other than he served in 253 and 254, and was banished from Rome for part of his papacy due to an ongoing persecution by the Roman emperor Gallus. The assumption is that he was let back in after Valerian succeeded Gallus. 

There is some dispute as to whether or not Lucius was martyred. His death was attributed to a persecution started by Valerian, but Lucius was already dead when the persecution is believed to have started. 

Lucius was one of the popes buried in the tomb of Callixtus, but his relics wound up both in Santa Cecilia in Rome and in a cathedral in Copenhagen (the story goes that his skull drove a group of demons out of Roskilde). But it turns out the skull in question may actually belong to the Norwegian king Sigurd the Crusader. Both skulls were in the Danish national museum for a time, and apparently got swapped out when Lucius' skull was sent back to the cathedral.

Lucius was also made a saint at some point, likely due to his assumed martyrdom, but it's not clear when he was canonized.