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Telesphorus of Rome

Episkopos · Apostolic Succession

Irenaeus lists Telesphorus after Sixtus and says he suffered a glorious martyrdom.

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Irenaeus's list places Telesphorus after Sixtus and describes his martyrdom; this English edition spells the name “Telephorus.”

Alexander followed Evaristus; then, sixth from the apostles, Sixtus was appointed; after him, Telephorus, who was gloriously martyred; then Hyginus; after him, Pius; then after him, Anicetus. Soter having succeeded Anicetus, Eleutherius does now, in the twelfth place from the apostles, hold the inheritance of the episcopate.

— Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies (Book 3, Chapter 3, Section 3), trans. Alexander Roberts and William Rambaut

Passage context and translation

The list follows Irenaeus's statement that Evaristus succeeded Clement. It is a late second-century office sequence used to argue for public teaching, not a record naming each ordaining bishop.

Before the excerpt

To this Clement there succeeded Evaristus.

After the excerpt

In this order, and by this succession, the ecclesiastical tradition from the apostles ... have come down to us.

Roberts and Rambaut translation in Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1; excerpt from III.3.3. The edition spells Telesphorus as 'Telephorus' in this sentence.

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