CAPG's Blog 

St. Telephorus

O Eternal Shepherd, who appointed blessed Telesphorus shepherd of the whole Church, let the prayers of this martyr and supreme pontiff move You to look with favor upon Your flock and to keep it under Your continual protection. 

As a Greek by birth, though some authors say that he was born in Terra Nova, in Calabria. It is by some affirmed that his father was an Anchorite, and that Telesphorus himself was Roman by birth. Some say that by his decrees he confirmed the observance of Lent; and others affirm that the quadragesimal Fast came down by tradition, as stated by Saint Ignatius, Saint Jerome, and Theophilus. This holy pope suffered martyrdom, A. D. 139.

In his four ordinations, Telesphorus created thirteen bishops, fifteen priests, and eight deacons. Some pious Christians removed his body after execution, and placed it near that of Saint Peter, in the Vatican.

It is said that this pope ordered that all priests should celebrate three Masses on Christmas day. But Novaes considers that this statement rests only upon an apochryphal Decretal (vol. i., p. 44). However, this observance was followed under Saint Gregory the Great.

Saint Telesphorus presided over the Holy See during eleven years, eight months, and eighteen days.

Source:The Lives and Times of the Roman Pontifs, from St. Peter to Pius Ix, Volume 1, Issue 2, Artaud de Montor D. & J. Sadlier, 1869

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 PONTIFICATE OF ST. TELESPHORUS (A. D. 128–138).

1. St. TELESPHORUS succeeded St. Sixtus I. Before his elevation he had led the life of the anchorites, as we learn from the Liber Pontificalis, ex Anachoreta. To preside over the Christian assemblies in the catacombs; to ordain priests (* These ordinations were usually held about Christmas, mense decembri. The Church, from the earliest period, observed the practice of reserving fixed epochs for these important coremonies, which perpetuate the priesthood in the world.) and consecrate bishops, to take the place of those who had suffered from the sword of persecution; to confirm in faith and patience the churches shaken by the fury of tyrants; to regulate the order of the sacred ceremonies, and the forms of prayers or hymns that accompanied them; to place the ecclesiastical hierarchy on solid foundations; to watch over the maintenance of the holy doctrines and traditions; finally, to close a life of privations and pious toil by the torments of martyrdom ;—such were the glorious privileges of the earliest Roman Pontiffs.


1/. The Apostolic institution of Lent was maintained and confirmed by St. Telesphorus, who ordained a fast of seven weeks before Easter.
2/ The custom of celebrating Mass only at the hour of tierce-nine o'clock in the morning-was also maintained by this pope, who allowed no exception but on the feast of the Nativity, when it was celebrated in the night.
3/ He was the first who introduced into the liturgy the Gloria in Excelsis.

2. While Adrian visited the various provinces of his empire, he left behind him, together with shameful monuments of his passions, useful amelioration, and durable reforms. Athens was especially the object of his care; he did much for its embellishment, and gave it his name—the City of Adrian. During one of his visits there, St. Quadratus, whom Eusebius represents as a disciple of the Apostles, a man of brilliant genius and of apostolic zeal, availed himself of the occasion to address to him an apology, or defense, on behalf of the Christians, A.D. 126. This work, the first of its kind, was still extant in the time of St. Jerome, who mentions it with high eulogium. Only a fragment remains to us, on the reality of the miracles of Jesus Christ, as distinguished from the enchantments and transient impressions of magic. “The miracles of the Savior,” said the holy apologist, “ were always visible, because they were always true. Those whom He cured, those whom He recalled from death to life, were seen, not only at the moment of their cure, or of their resurrection, but long afterwards; not only during the lifetime of the Savior, but many years after He had ascended to heaven; some of them, indeed, are still living.'Aristides, a Christian philosopher of Athens, about the same time, presented another apology to Adrian, in which he relies on the testimony of the ancient philosophers to prove the sublimity of the Catholic faith. This work is also lost to us. The emperor, touched by these just representations, seems to have adopted sentiments more favorable to the Christian religion.

3.But that which chiefly contributed to put an end to the persecution was the letter which, nearly at the same time, Serenius Granianus, proconsul of Asia, addressed to Adrian on the subject of the cruelties practiced by the multitude upon the Christians. It was a custom at the public festivals, that the people of Rome, or of the provinces present, should have liberty to ask of the prince or proconsuls any thing which their passions, excited by the bloody spectacle, could suggest. “ The Christians to the lions” was the cry in every amphitheater, and without interrogatory, or process of law, or any valid judgment, Christians, by thousands, were cast to the wild beasts. Serenius, in his letter to the emperor, did not hesitate to pronounce upon these proceedings as monstrous iniquities. To sacrifice to the clamor of the populace a multitude of victims of every age and rank, of both sexes, when they were not even accused of any judicial crime, seemed to him a barbarism unworthy of Rome and of Adrian.

4. The reply of the emperor was not addressed to Serenius Granianus, who, in the interval, had probably relinquished the government of Asia, but to his successor, Minucius Fundanus. It is thus recorded by Eusebius : “I have received the letter addressed to me by the illustrious Serenius Granianus, your predecessor. The affair appears to merit serious attention, in order to protect these men (the Christians) from similar vexations, and that pretenses may be withdrawn from informers for future calumnies. If the inhabitants of any district have charges to make against the Christians, which they are able in person to sustain before your tribunal, let them have recourse to this judicial mode; but they must not be permitted to pursue them with foolish or tumultuous clamor. Reason demands that if there be any ground of accusation, you should have cognizance of it. If they are convicted of actions contrary to the laws, decide the case according to the gravity of the crime. If, on the contrary, the accusation proves to be calumnious, let the informer suffer merited punishment.”

This re-script was sent to other governors of provinces, and the fury of persecution was relaxed, though not entirely extinguished; for, on the one hand, the passions of the populace, and, on the other, the hatred of the proconsuls for the very name of Christian, together with the progressive decline of respect and obedience towards the central authority, continued still to leave multitudes of Christians a prey to the blind passions of the populace, or to judges misguided by their prejudices.

5. The Jews, always conquered, and always rebellious, availed themselves of the absence of the emperor in distant provinces to attempt a new insurrection. They were embittered against the sovereignty of Adrian by a double motive. This prince, who had undertaken to raise all the cities of his vast empire from their ruins, had sent a pagan colony to rebuild and inhabit Jerusalem. He also changed the name of the ancient City of David to that of Ælia Capitolina. The Jews could not endure without indignation the presence of these idolaters, who raised altars to false gods in the very places where the God of Abraham had been so long invoked by their fathers. Another measure, too, had outraged their devoted attachment to the law of Moses. Adrian had prohibited, under pain of death, the circumcision of their infants. This was to take away the seal of their covenant with God—the sacred sign which distinguished them from the pagans. A sullen discontent soon became apparent among them. They assembled in the vast subterranean cavities near their cities, and secretly organized a revolt. A cunning impostor contrived to turn these hostile inclinations to the profit of his own ambition. He was Barchocebas, or the Son of the Star. He announced himself as the envoy of God, to deliver the Jewish people from the oppression of their enemies. The star of Jacob, predicted by Balaam, was the sign of his advent; he was the Messiah promised by the prophets, and expected by the patriarchs. The rabbi Akiba placed the resources of his science and influence at the service of the false prophet, and Barchocebas was hailed as the Savior of Jerusalem. He soon found him. self at the head of a multitude of partisans, and the first use he made of his power was to persecute with the greatest cruelty the Christians who refused to abjure their faith in Jesus Christ, and to enter into the league which he formed against the Roman domination. The tortures to which he condemned these victims surpassed in barbarity and cruelty all that pagan rage had hitherto invented. Meanwhile he extended his intrigues throughout the East among the Jews, and sought for the enemies of the empire in all directions. In the neighboring tribes he found a multitude greedy for pillage, ready to swell the number of his troops. The Romans, at first, despised this insurrectionist movement in a nation which they had so often conquered, and its importance was only discovered when the extent of its ramifications became apparent. The governor of Judea, Tinnius Rufus, began by sending to execution a crowd of persons, without distinction of age or sex. This act of cruel severity served only to excite the insurgents to greater fury. Their revolt at once, in every point in Syria, alarmed the governor, who called on the emperor for re-enforcement. Adrian summoned from Great Britain Julius Severus, reputed to be the greatest general of his time, and dispatched him to the aid of Tinnius Rufus. Seeing the numbers of his enemies, Severus avoided a general attack, preferring a slower mode of warfare to the dangers of an uncertain combat. He therefore attacked them separately, to force them into narrower limits, and to cut off their supplies. His skillful manæuvres were completely successful. Within two years he captured, in succession, every fortified place in Judea, and destroyed more than six hundred thousand Jews, without including those who perished by famine, fire, or want. An immense multitude were sold in the markets of Terebinth and Gaza. Such as were not sold in those cities were transported into Egypt. This frightful disaster surpassed those which Nabuchodonosor and Titus had inflicted upon Judea. Barchocebas lost his life at the siege of Bether, where the rebels had fixed the center of their operations. Jerusalem no longer preserved any traces of her past glories. The stones which had served in the erection of the temple, were now employed to build a theater. Over one of the gates was placed a marble hog, to the Jews the most impure of animals. A statue of Jupiter was set upon the Holy Sepulcher; and one of Venus was raised upon Calvary. A sacred wood for pagan sacrifices was planted at Bethlehem The consecration to Adonis of the grotto where Jesus was born, profaned this holy place. The dispersed Israelite were prohibited from entering Jerusalem-neither were they allowed to approach it-however strong might be their love of Sion. They were obliged to purchase at a great price the per mission, on one day of the year, to bathe with their tears the places upon which, in other times, their religion had shed such splendor. St. Jerome, who, in his time, was a witness of this lugubrious ceremony, says: “After having purchased the blood of the Savior, they purchase their own tears; they pay a ransom for the privilege of weeping. What a dismal spectacle, on the anniversary of the day when Jerusalem was taken and destroyed by the Romans,'to see the approach, in mournful attire, of a multitude of people—of women and men, bending under the weight of years, and covered with rags, whose bearing attests the anger of the Lord, in the exhaustion of their bodies, and in their torn garments !"

This catastrophe was advantageous, however, to the Christian Church in Jerusalem, which hitherto had been governed by bishops converted from Judaism, and was consequently attached to the observances of the Mosaic law. A residence in this city being now permitted only to the Gentiles, the Church was recruited chiefly by her conquests among them. Besides, in the utter dispersion of a people condemned by God, this last tempest gave a new force to the proofs of Christianity, which, according to the prophets, was to succeed Judaism, and rise on its ruins, A. D. 134.

6. Far from confessing their offenses in the presence of these terrible judgments of Heaven, the Jewish doctors sought more diligently, than ever to blind themselves, and to lead their unhappy compatriots into the same errors. From hatred to Christianity, and in order to weaken the proofs of the divinity of Jesus Christ, which is made so evident in the prophecies, they began the composition of the Talmud, or doctrine, an enormous compilation of their oral traditions. This work is divided into two parts; the Mischna, or law, which is the text, and the Ghemur, or complement, which is a commentary on the other. The entire collection forins twelve volumes in folio. Among its fables and puerile inventions there is a hatred of the name of Christian, which is not even dissembled. This book is perhaps the greatest obstacle to the conversion of the Jews.

7. At this epoch, a work of another class, but with the same object, was undertaken by an apostate Christian. Aquila, a native of Sinope, in Pontus, was first a pagan. The miracles which he saw performed among the Christians converted him, and he was baptized; but his attachment to astrology, which, in spite of the counsels of the bishops, he refused to abandon, caused his excommunication, and he was excluded from the Church. To avenge this injury, he was circumcised, and openly embraced Judaism. Carrying his hatred still further, he applied himself to the study of the Hebrew tongue; and after acquiring a thorough knowledge of it, he commenced a new Greek version of the Scriptures, to correct that of the Septuagint. He endeavored especially to make it literal, and succeeded so well that even St. Jerome pronounces his translation very exact. But the same Father reproaches him for having designedly weakened the passages which serve to establish the divinity of Jesus Christ.

8. All these desperate efforts to hinder the progressive advancement of the Catholic Church ended by imparting to it new strength. The dispersed Jews carried everywhere the testimony of the victory of Christianity, and the heretics, in yielding to the disorders of an infamous life, condemned themselves; in fine, the emperors achieved the ruin of their own authority by the excesses of every description to which they abandoned themselves. Adrian expired A. D. 138. Towards the close of his life, this prince became melancholy and cruel. He condemned to death his brother-in-law Servienus, and Fuercus, his grand-nephew. He was suspected of poisoning his wife Sabina, whom he afterwards placed among the divinities of the empire. He complained that he, who at his will had sent so many to execution, could not die himself. Finally he expired, suffocated by an excess in eating, cursing the physicians, and jesting upon his soul. Antoninus Pius, his adopted son, a prince worthy of the surname which his virtues and his gratitude towards his benefactor had gained for him, succeeded to the throne. His fine qualities endeared him to the Romans and made him venerable to strangers, even to the barbarian sovereigns, who chose him more than once for arbiter in their disputes.

9. The same year Pope St. Telesphorus ended his Apostolic career by a glorious martyrdom. He had governed the Church ten years. St. Hyginus, converted from philosophism-ex philosopho—was his successor.

Source: A General History of the Catholic Church: From the Commencement of the Christian Era Until the Present Time, Volume 1, Abbe Joseph Épiphane Darras 1866

RESISTANCE AND OBEDIENCE TO GRACE. St. Gregory the Great had three aunts on the father's side,-Thrasilla, Emiliana, and Gordiana. All three made a vow of chastity, and devoted themselves to an ascetic life in the house of their father, the senator Gordian. Thrasilla and Emiliana having renounced the world on the same day, gave themselves up, with mutual zeal, to the practice of perfection, and made great progress in the spiritual life. Gordiana allowed the fervour of her piety gradually to tone down. Her sisters, by force of entreaties, and by lavish marks of affection towards her, were instrumental in leading her to fresh renewals of zeal; but her love of the world ended by detaching her wholly from a devout life, and inducing her to relinquish the practices of piety. Nothing further is known of her after-life. Thrasilla was first called to her reward, after having been favoured with a vision of the Pope St. Felix, her uncle, who addressed her thus:Come! I will accompany you to the abode of glory." Shortly after, she herself appeared to Emiliana, inviting her to celebrate with her, in Heaven, the feast of the Epiphany. Emiliana, in effect, died the following day, the 5th of January, on the eve of that great festival.

MORAL REFLECTION.-Let us often keep in mind the words of our Saviour, "No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will sustain the one and despise the other."-(Matt. vi. 24.)

GOOD EXAMPLE. -St. Titus, the disciple of St. Paul, and one of the first-fruits of the great Apostle's victories, accompanied him through his evangelical wanderings, sharing with him his toils and perils. He was present with him at the first General Council, held in Jerusalem in the fifty-first year of the Christian era, and followed his master to Ephesus, whence the Apostle sent him to Corinth, towards the end of the year 56, to appease the discord and the troubles which afflicted the bosom of the infant Church. From Corinth St. Titus went to rejoin St. Paul at Troad, a town in Macedonia; he accompanied St. Paul to Rome, returning with him, subsequently, to the East. Then it was, in the year 63, that the great Apostle placed him as bishop, in Crete. Titus did not, however, remain constantly there; for we find him, later on, at Nicopolis and in Dalmatia, ever intent upon spreading a knowledge of the Gospel. It is, however, believed that he returned to his diocese after the martyrdom of St. Paul, remained there for the rest of his days, and died at a very advanced age.

MORAL REFLECTION. -If it be not vouchsafed to us to fashion our lives on the apostolic model of St. Titus, let us at least endeavour to reduce to practice the counsel given him by the great Apostle: "In all things show yourself an example of good works; in doctrine, in integrity, in gravity."-(Titus ii. 7.) Pictorial half hours with the saints by Abbe Auguste François Lecanu

Le Brun: Sainte Geneviève

"IN RETURN FOR EVIL, DO GOOD. -Genevieve was born about 422, at a village in the environs of Paris, called Nanterre. St. Germain, bishop of Auxerre, passing near the spot while Genevieve was as yet a child, discerning her in the midst of the pressing crowd, asked her whether she desired to dedicate herself to God's service, and with his own hands invested her with the insignia of the religious life. The youthful virgin made such rapid progress in piety, that the inhabitants of the country grew accustomed to regard her as a saint. But later on, their homage was converted into scoffing, and they treated her most evident virtues as hypocrisy. St. Germain once more came to her aid, and publicly demonstrated the reality of her virtues. At a subsequent period, Genevieve herself afforded the highest proofs thereof by twice saving Paris: on the first occasion by her prayers, when Attila, king of the Huns, at the head of an armed host, was threatening its destruction, and again, by providing the citizens with food, when Merovée, king of the Francs, was besieging it. Genevieve died in 512, and is invoked by Paris as its patron saint.

MORAL REFLECTION. -Never to allow oneself to be discouraged by the ingratitude and injustice of men; persecution is the crucible wherein the gold of virtue is refined. "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution."-(2 Tim. iii. 12.)"  Pictorial half hours with the saints By Abbe Auguste François Lecanu 1865

"ST. SYLVESTER was bishop of Rome: pray for his present successor, that inheriting his virtues, he may with a like fidelity take care of his flock.

It was in his time that the Church, after three hundred years of persecution, was restored to peace, by the command of the Emperor Constantine the Great; who destroyed the temples of the idols, ordered churches to be everywhere built to the living God. Pray for the peace of the Church, and the propagation of its faith among heathens and unbelievers; that idolatry being destroyed, the name of God may be sanctified in all nations of the earth.

"St. Sabinus was bishop of Spoletum, and in the persecution of Maximian was seized by Venustianus, president of the city, and for breaking an image of Jupiter, which he was commanded to adore, had his hands immediately cut off, and then was cast into prison, where he was supported by the charity of a pious widow. His two deacons, Marcellus and Exuperantius, were scourged, beaten with clubs, and torn with iron nails or broad tenter hooks, under which torments they both expired. Venustianus, being afterwards miraculously healed of a violent distemper in his eyes, by the holy bishop, became a Christian; and being baptized with his wife and children, they were soon after put to death by the emperor's order, and Sabinus beaten with staves till he expired.

Thus are you encouraged to suffer in the service of your God. If you have not the persecutor to threaten you with the sword, you have an enemy at least, who offers you idols to adore. He offers many; and while you express your abhorrence against some, is there not any one to which you are more favourable? To adore only one, is enough to be an idolater. What if it be company, drink, or money? What if a sensual friend, the courted world, or our own admired self? There may be idolatry enough in any one of these; and it is too likely to be so with you, if, like this prelate, you do not violence to the idol, or to yourself, if not by breaking, at least by separation. See what it cost him: think not of escaping, if you expect to do so without pain or trouble: you will never be a conqueror, if you are afraid of hurting yourself. How powerfully do the martyrs cry out to us by their example, exhorting us to despise a false and wicked world! A soul can find no rest in creatures. How long then shall we suffer ourselves to be seduced by them? Let the light of heaven, and the truths of the gospel shine upon us, and the illusions of the world and our senses will disappear." The Catholic Year by Rev. Fr. John Gother

"St. Thomas was archbishop of Canterbury. Pray for all bishops of Christ's Church, that they may have a true zeal and piety answerable to their charge.

He was forced into banishment, where he lived a great example of all virtue. Neither could the sufferings of his relations, or any considerations of flesh and blood, move him to yield in the least point of his duty for their relief. Pray that you may make the like good use of all kinds of suffering. Pray for constancy in all your duties, and that no human respects may ever prevail on you to do an injury to your conscience.

As a good shepherd, St. Thomas gave his life for his sheep, being barbarously murdered in his own cathedral at vespers. Pray that all prelates and pastors may largely partake of this apostolic spirit, in giving their study and care, their labours and whole lives for their flock: that living in a perpetual renunciation of private interest, satisfaction, and ease, for the good of their flock, they may be thus prepared for the same to surrender their lives.

These were the first victims of Jesus Christ. Offer yourself a sacrifice to Him, who was born to become a sacrifice for you. If your life be not in danger from the cruelty of enemies, be your own spiritual executioner, by dying to all that is contrary to the law of God. Thus will you become the victim of Christ; and this you are to pray for this day.

In these Holy Innocents, you see the fury of their enemies become the means of making them eternally happy. Pray that you may make this good use of whatever you suffer and remember that suffering, joined with innocence, is the way of the Gospel and of Christ, and such as leads to glory.

These children were cut off in the state of innocence. A day proper for all parents to pray for their children, that God would preserve them in their innocence, and rather take them out of this world, in that state of security, than permit them to grow up, if He foresees that they will take to evil ways, and be rebels against Him.

In these first victims of Christ, who were murdered by Herod, the Church honours persecuted and oppressed innocence, gives thanks for their glory, and teaches all the faithful that whatever malice God permits the wicked to exercise against the just, it is for the good of those who suffer it. So that to wonder at the sufferings of the innocent, is the effect of very weak reasoning, such as does not understand the conduct of Almighty God. For very often there is no other reason why He permits them to suffer than because they are innocent. This consideration ought to moderate in Christians all excesses of grief and disquiet, when they are under any kind of affliction. For as the malice of persecutors has been the advantage of the martyrs, who, if they had suffered less, would have been less glorious; so every occasion of trouble, if submitted to with patience, may be as the seed of glory. It may not be the scourge of anger, but the mercy of a loving father, designing by such steps to exercise and perfect His children, for obtaining an eternal rest. This is a lesson which these suffering innocents give to all Christians; and an encouragement to wait with patience under all the appointments of God, in hopes of the recompense which he has promised.

Last Supper, Juan de Juanes 

"Saint John having been the most beloved disciple of Jesus, and having loved to repose on the bosom of his divine Master; we may well study on this his festival, how to regulate our love of creatures, so that we may never be separated by them from the love of our Creator and Redeemer. Though we have permitted us in this life, the use of creatures; though they are allowed in their due degree and the being pleased with them cannot be separated from that use which is permitted; yet to love them is dangerous, and exposes the soul to the hazard of resting on them instead of on Christ. It is, therefore, a nice point to use and enjoy creatures and the goods of this life, and yet not to love them; at least, not so as to prejudice that love and rest which we ought to have in Christ. Yet thus it ought to be, because we are not to transgress the eternal decrees of God; who having given all creatures for our use and convenience, allows us not to give our hearts to them, but has reserved these for himself.

There is no less difficulty on the other side, as to things that displease us. For though we are here in this life exposed to variety of necessities; though we see ourselves destitute of all human comfort; though we suffer loss of goods and friends; though we see the world armed against us; though there be a succession of evils attending our whole lives; yet it is not allowed us, under the oppression of the most weighty afflictions, to lose our comfort and rest in Christ, but in His breast we are ever to repose. Those are the conditions for obtaining the love of Jesus, hard enough to our corrupt nature, and yet not to be dispensed with.