Editing Pope Telesphorus (section)

==Biography==
Telesphorus was of [[Greeks|Greek]] ancestry and born in [[Thurii]] (today [[Terranova da Sibari]],<ref>[http://www.cristoraul.com/ENGLISH/History-of-the-Popes/Second-Century/4-Telesphorus-Hyginius-Pius_i.html SAINT TELESPHORUS (119-127). SAINT HYGINUS (127-139). SAINT PIUS I (139-142)<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140402041822/http://www.cristoraul.com/ENGLISH/History-of-the-Popes/Second-Century/4-Telesphorus-Hyginius-Pius_i.html |date=2 April 2014 }}</ref><ref>[http://thepopepodcast.blogspot.com.au/2008/06/pope-telesphorus.html The Pope Podcast: Pope Telesphorus<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130801044907/http://thepopepodcast.blogspot.com.au/2008/06/pope-telesphorus.html |date=1 August 2013 }}</ref> [[Calabria]]), [[Roman Italy|Italy]].
The ''[[Liber Pontificalis]]'' mentions that he had been an [[anchorite]] (or [[hermit]]) [[monk]] prior to assuming office.

Eusebius (''Church History'' iv.7; iv.14) places the beginning of his pontificate in the twelfth year of the reign of Emperor Hadrian (128–129) and gives the date of his death as being in the first year of the reign of Antoninus Pius (138–139).<ref name=Kirsch/>

As the capital of the empire was a place that allowed a wide spread of ideas, many heretics moved to Rome during his pontificate. During this period, the main heretical doctrine was [[Gnosticism]], which Telesphorus vigorously fought because he believed it could steer religion towards a mysticism far removed from reality. The main exponent of this doctrine was the philosopher [[Valentinus (Gnostic)|Valentinus]], who at this time moved from Egypt to Rome and also managed to have a large number of followers in the capital of the empire for more than twenty years. 

A fragment of a letter from Irenæus to Pope Victor I during the Easter controversy in the late 2nd century, also preserved by Eusebius, testifies that Telesphorus was one of the Roman bishops who always celebrated Easter on Sunday, rather than on other days of the week according to the calculation of the Jewish Passover. Unlike Victor, however, Telesphorus remained in communion with those communities that did not follow this custom.<ref name=Kirsch/>

The tradition of [[Midnight Mass|Christmas Midnight Masses]], the celebration of [[Easter]] on Sundays, the keeping of a seven-week [[Lent]] before Easter and the singing of the [[Gloria in Excelsis Deo|Gloria]] are usually attributed to his pontificate, however, historian [[Johann Peter Kirsch]] says that "[n]one of the statements in the "Liber pontificalis" and other authorities of a later date as to liturgical and other decisions of this pope are genuine."<ref name=Kirsch/> 

According to the testimony of [[Irenaeus]] (''[[Against Heresies (Irenaeus)|Against Heresies]]'' III.3.3), he suffered martyrdom.<ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Telesphorus}}</ref> Although most early popes are called martyrs by sources such as the ''Liber Pontificalis'' (dating to the 3rd century at earliest), Telesphorus is the first to whom Irenaeus, writing considerably earlier (c. 180 AD), gives this title, thus making his martyrdom the earliest attested martyrdom of a pope after Peter. He was buried in the [[Vatican Necropolis]], next to his predecessors. 

In [[Roman Martyrology]], his feast is celebrated on 2 January; the Eastern churches celebrate it on 22 February.