LINUS, ST. POPE

Pontificate: 68 to 79; first successor to Peter (see clement i). All early lists of Roman bishops and the Canon of the Roman Mass agree that Linus was the immediate successor of Peter as head of the Roman Church. Possibly he was Peter's "coadjutor." St. Irenaeus (Adv. Haer. 3.3) identifies him with a disciple of St. Paul (2 Tm 4.21), which is likely. The epistle's unknown author tried to give his work a Pauline pedigree by addressing it to a known Pauline disciple, by setting it in Rome (1:16-7), and by mentioning Prisca and Aquila (4:19). He probably mentioned Linus because he was known to be a Roman associate of Paul. The dates of his episcopacy vary according to Eusebius (67–79), Jerome (Chron. a. Abr., an.70), the Liberian catalogue, and the Liber pontificalis (56–67), the only source to call him a martyr. The Annuario Pontificio of 2001 gives the date of 68 for the beginning of his pontificate. This late date suggests some disorganization in the Roman community following the Neronian persecution of 64 and the deaths of Peter and Paul. Linus's feast follows the tradition of the Liber, which claims that he was a Tuscan and reports that he decreed, at the direction of Peter, and possibly under the inspiration of 1 Cor. 11.1–16, that women must veil their heads in church. Modern excavations under the Vatican do not bear out the account in the Liber of his burial next to Peter.

Feast: Sept. 23.

Bibliography: Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica 3:2, 4, 13, 21; 5:6. Liber pontificalis, ed. l. duchesne (Paris 1886–92, 1958) 1:cii, 2, 52, 121. Acta Sanctorum Sept. 6:539–545. h. leclercq, Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie. ed. f. cabrol, h. leclercq and h. i. marrou (Paris 1907–53) 9.1:1195–98. É. amann, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique. ed. a. vacant et al., (Paris 1903–50) 9.1:772. a. p. frutaz, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiberg 1957–65) 6:1068. j. n. d. kelly, The Oxford Dictionary of Popes (New York 1986). e. ferguson, ed., Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, 2d. ed. (New York 1997) 2:682. j. hoffman, "Linus: erster Bischof von Rom und Heiliger der orthodoxen Kirche" Ostkirchliche Studien (Würzburg 1997) 105–41.

[e. g. weltin]