ST LINUS, POPE - 23 SEPTEMBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 23rd of September

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

ST LINUS, POPE 

⬅️ Saintly Popes - Index

​Linus, Pope (about A.D. 64 or 67-76 or 79). All the ancient records of the Roman bishops which have been handed down to us by St Irenaeus, Julius Africanus, St Hippolytus, Eusebius, also the Liberian catalogue of 354, place the name of Linus directly after that of the Prince of the Apostles, St Peter. 

These records are traced back to a list of the Roman bishops which existed in the time of Pope Eleutherus (about 174-189), when Irenaeus wrote his book "Adversus haereses". This author claims that Pope Linus is the Linus mentioned by St Paul in his 2 Timothy 4:21. The passage by Irenaeus reads: "After the Holy Apostles (Peter and Paul) had founded and set the Church in order (in Rome) they gave over the exercise of the episcopal office to Linus. The same Linus is mentioned by St Paul in his Epistle to Timothy. His successor was Anacletus". 

Linus's term of office, according to the papal lists ​handed down to us, lasted only twelve years. The Liberian Catalogue shows that it lasted twelve years, four months, and twelve days. 

The "Liber Pontificalis" asserts that Linus's home was in Tuscany, and that his father's name was Herculanus; but we cannot discover the origin of this assertion. The statement made in the same source, that Linus suffered martyrdom, cannot be proved and is improbable. For between Nero and Domitian there is no mention of any persecution of the Roman Church; and Irenaeus from among the early Roman bishops designates only Telesphorus as a glorious martyr.

The feast of St Linus is now celebrated on September 23. This is also the date given in the "Liber Pontificalis". An epistle on the martyrdom of the Apostles St Peter and Paul was at a later period attributed to St Linus, and supposedly was sent by him to the Eastern Churches. It is apocryphal and of later date than the history of the martyrdom of the two Apostles, by some attributed to Marcellus, which is also apocryphal. 

(Excerpts from Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)

➡️ Saint Linus' entry in the Roman Martyrology