Libère ( Liberius ) is bishop of Rome (Pape) of 352 to its death in 366. It succeeds Jules {{Ier}} and was elected the May 17th 352. It is the first to indicate Rome like the apostolic seat . The Virgin Mary appears to him in a dream in the night of the 4 and the August 5th, requiring of him to build a vault. The same night, according to the ecclesiastical History, there is a miraculous snowfall on the seven hills of Rome. It completes the construction of the Holy-Marie-Major Basilique later two years.

It fights without success the Arianisme of the emperor Constance, and this last exiles it from 355 to 358 in Beroia in Thrace. It must negotiate its return to Rome and share the administration of the Church with the antipape Felix {{II}}. But the people of Rome take part for Libère quickly and drive out Felix.

With its death in 366, its throne is claimed by Damase {{Ier}} and Ursin.

According to the tradition, it would be Libère which, in 354, fixes the day of the birth of Christ at the December 25th.

Release and the arianism

The pontificate of Releases is during one time during which the dogma of the Catholic church as fixed by the Concile of Nicée is strongly disputed by holding of the Arianisme. The emperor Constance II supports the latter and exiles the patriarch of Alexandria Athanase of Alexandria, vigorous defender of the council of Nicée. Constancy obtains with the councils of Arles and Milan the support of the majority of the Western bishops. Some however are indignant some. It is the case of the Libère pope who Constance made exile.

Constancy raises this measurement later three years, and Releases cost in Rome. The controversy relates to the reasons which justified the reversal of Constancy.

Many old and modern historians claim that Libère would have signed one of the formulas of Sirmium, condemning Saint-Athanase and partly giving satisfaction to the ariens. They consider that Libère acted by weakness and not by conviction. This thesis which rests on the contemporary writings, in particular those of Saint-Anathase himself, is that of Gibbon.

For the opposite thesis, Constance would have released the pope under the pressure of the Roman people. About the controversy on the “fall” of Releases, which would have signed a doubtful profession of faith, one can consult the Revue historical questions as well as the Petits Bollandistes , whose text is available in pdf on this site. In his templs, the Darras Abbot has pleads in the same direction, on the alleged fall of the Pope Releases.

Another argument in favor of the holiness of the Libère pope is the judgment of the pope Benoît XV: “And these Pontiffs, who will dare to say that they failed, even on a point, with the mission, that they held of Christ, of confirming their brothers? Far from there; to remain faithful to this duty, the ones take without weakening the way of the exile, such them Libère, Silvère, Martin; others courageously take in hand the cause of the orthodoxe faith and its defenders who had called some with the Pope, and avenge the memory for those even after their death. ” (Benoit XV, Encyclical Principi Apostolorum , October 5th, 1920).

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