LINO, 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 See. Traditions dating back to the 3rd century, attested by the Liberian Catalogue and the Liber Pontificalis, and taken up again by modern authors who maintain the collegiality of the episcopate in the early Church, seem to state that L. governed the Roman Church jointly with, and while St Peter was still living. More probable is the contrary opinion, that L. governed after the death of St Peter.
The date of his pontificate is in any case uncertain; according to the testimony of Eusebius he ruled for 12 years, and thus probably from 67 to 79. Eusebius himself, adopting the opinion of St Irenaeus, says that L. is the same person of whom St Paul sent greetings to Timothy (II Tim. 4, 21). According to the Liber Pontificalis, L. was born in Tuscany; he is said to have established, in accordance with the precept of St Paul, that women should always enter church with their heads veiled, and to have died a martyr on 23 September 67. No other trustworthy source knows of the martyrdom of L., nor is his name found in the Hieronymian Martyrology; he does, however, appear in the Canon of the Mass. The acts of the martyrdom of Peter and Paul and the account 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.
Parigi 1867, pp. 539-45; E. Caspar, Geschichte des Papsttums, I, Tubinga 1930, pp. 8 sg., 13 sg.; Martyr. Romanum, p. 412. Agostino Amore