Telesphorus

Telesphorus

pope, is said to have been of Grecian family, and to have occupied the see of Rome from A.D. 128 to 139. Our knowledge of him is altogether legendary. An interpolated passage in the Chronicon of Eusebius and a discourse smuggled into the works of Ambrose make the statement that Telesphorus had made the regulations of fasting more strict, that he had extended the fast before Easter to cover seven weeks, and that he directed three masses to be said and the Gloria in Excelsis to be sung in the night before Christmas. He is reputed to have energetically contended against the heretical teachings of Marcion and Valentine, and to have died a martyr's death. See Herzog, Real-Encyklop. s.v.; comp. Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. G neral, s.v.