Linus, Pope Saint

LINUS, Pope Saint. - According to the testimony of all the most ancient and trustworthy sources, he was the first successor of the Apostles on the Roman Chair. Traditions dating back to the 3rd century, attested by the Liberian Catalogue and the Liber Pontificalis, and taken up by modern authors who maintain the collegiality of the episcopate in the early Church, seem to affirm that L. governed the Roman Church together with St. Peter and while he was still alive. More probable is the contrary opinion, that L. governed after the death of St. Peter.

Uncertain in any case is the time of his pontificate; according to the testimony of Eusebius he governed for 12 years, and therefore probably from 67 to 79. The same Eusebius, taking up the opinion of St. Irenaeus, says that L. is the same person to whom St. Paul sent greetings to Timothy (II Tim. 4:21). According to the Liber Pontificalis, L. was born in Tuscany; he would have established, according to the precept of St. Paul, that women should enter church always with their heads veiled, and would have died a martyr on 23 September of the year 67. No other trustworthy source knows of the martyrdom of L., nor is his name found in the Hieronymian Martyrology; it does appear, however, in the canon of the Mass. The acts of the martyrdom of Peter and Paul and the story of Peter's dispute with Simon Magus are attributed to him: these are certainly apocryphal writings. In the Roman Martyrology L. is commemorated on 23 September.

Agostino Amore