St. Eleutherius the Abbot

St. Eleutherius the Abbot (died c. 585) was the superior of the monastery of St. Mark near Spoleto in Umbria, central Italy, in the sixth century. He is known chiefly through the Dialogues of Pope St. Gregory the Great, who had personally known him at Rome, where Eleutherius spent his last years at Gregory's own monastery of St. Andrew and where he died.

Gregory praised him as a man of great simplicity of heart, humility, and compunction, whose fervent prayers were credited with miracles — including the deliverance of a boy tormented by an evil spirit and, in one memorable account, the restoration of a dead child to life. Gregory also related, with characteristic candor, how Eleutherius once learned humility when his confidence in his own prayers faltered, teaching that God's favor rests on the humble. He is honored as a saint on the strength of this trustworthy early testimony.