St. Linus, Pope/Martyr

Today we honor the immediate successor of St. Peter, our first Pope. His name is Linus. He was one of the 70 Disciples of the Lord. ST. Linus was the immediate successor of St. Peter in the see of Rome, as St. Irenæus, Eusebius, St. Epiphanius, St. Optatus, St. Austin, and others assure us. Tertullian says that St. Clement was appointed by St. Peter to be his successor; but either he declined that dignity till St. Linus and St. Cletus had preceded him in it, or he was at first only vicar of St. Peter, to govern under him the Gentile converts, whilst that apostle presided over the whole church, yet so as to be chiefly taken up in instructing the Jewish converts, and in preaching abroad Of course. He was yet another Martyr for the Faith. You know the word martyr means 'witness', right? He was laid right next to St. Peter in the tombs.

  Very appropriate, if you ask me. Now, about him:


Linus was born at Volterra in Tuscany, and was the first to succeed St. Peter in the government of the Church. His Faith and holiness were so great, that he not only could cast out devils, but he even raised the dead to life. He wrote the acts of blessed Peter, and in particular what he had done against Simon Magus, read (Acts 8:9-25). So Simon became a symbol for everything evil. Whenever Gnostic cults arose in the ensuing centuries, the Catholic Church mercilessly crushed them. When the Protestants denounced the sins of that same Church, the worst of those sins, selling salvation for money, was called Simony–the only sin named after a person.

Linus also decreed that no woman should enter a Church with her head uncovered. (On a note, we still see women in this condition even today. It's like they're saying: "I will not serve, and besides, I don't want to mess up my hair." Or something like that, in my opinion.) It is scriptural, by the way. First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians (11:5) Back to Linus. On account of his constancy in confessing the Christian (Catholic) Faith, this Pontiff was beheaded by command of Saturninus, a wicked and ungrateful ex-consul, whose daughter he, Linus, had delivered from the tyranny of the devils. He was buried on the Vatican, near the sepulchre of the Prince of the Apostles, on the ninth of the Kalends of October. He governed the Church eleven years, two months, and twenty-three days. In two ordinations in the month of December he consecrated fifteen bishops and eighteen priests.

SAINT LINUS Pope and Martyr (†67) Saint Linus was converted in Rome in the days when Saint Peter was preaching the Gospel there. This nobleman, originally from the city of Volterra in Tuscany, left his father and renounced his heritage, to practice with greater perfection the doctrine of Our Lord Jesus Christ. He soon gave admirable proofs of his zeal, learning and prudence, and the first Vicar of Christ employed him in preaching and the administration of the Sacraments.  He crossed into Gaul, and became the bishop of the city of Besançon. The number of the faithful increased daily by the conversion of many idolaters. The Saint one day attempted to turn some of those away from the celebration of a festival in honor of their gods, telling them that these idols were but statues without breath or sentiment, and represented only human beings whose vices were public knowledge. He exhorted them to turn to the unique God, Creator of the heavens and the earth, to whom alone man owes the homage of sacrifice. A prodigy followed his words; a column of their temple crumbled and caused the fall of an idol, which broke into a thousand pieces. The worshipers, unmoved by this, drove the Saint out of the city of Besançon, as the city's tradition still attests. He returned to Rome and was there when the prince of the Apostles was martyred. He wrote an account of the double martyrdom of Saints Peter and Paul, and was himself judged worthy to replace the first Vicar of Christ. The register of his reign records the creation of fifteen bishops and eighteen priests. The Roman breviary says that the faith and sanctity of this blessed Pope were so great that he drove the demons from many possessed persons. He had governed the Church for scarcely a year before he, too, shed his blood for his Saviour. His body was buried in the Vatican near that of Saint Peter. It was only in the 17th century that his tomb reappeared, marked Linus, when Pope Urban VIII had the work on the Confession of Saint Peter completed in the Basilica bearing his name.

He truly 'fed the lambs'.