Pope Eleuterus

Who was Pope Eleuterus?

Pope Eleuterus, also known as Eleutherius, was the Bishop of Rome from c. 174 to his death in 189. The Vatican cites 171 or 177 to 185 or 193. According to the Liber Pontificalis, he was a Greek born in Nicopolis in Epirus, Greece. His contemporary Hegesippus wrote that he was a deacon of the Roman Church under Pope Anicetus, and remained so under Pope Soter, whom he succeeded around 174.

The Liber Pontificalis ascribes to Pope Eleutherius a decree that no kind of food should be despised by Christians. Possibly he did issue such an edict against the Gnostics and Montanists; it is also possible that on his own responsibility the writer of the Liber Pontificalis attributed to this pope a similar decree current about the year 500.