1st century
Apostle Linus, Bishop of Rome
One of the Seventy Apostles, mentioned in Paul's Second Epistle to Timothy, who according to tradition was the first bishop of Rome after the Apostles Peter and Paul.
Biography
Linus is mentioned in the Second Epistle to Timothy, where the Apostle Paul names him as a fellow worker in Rome towards the end of his life, and he is counted among the Seventy Apostles.
According to tradition, he succeeded the Apostles Peter and Paul as bishop of Rome — that is, he was the first bishop of the city after them — and led the church there for eleven years and three months with care and courage, until he was martyred by beheading.
The earliest sources, such as Irenaeus and Eusebius, list him as the first successor of Peter in the see of Rome, although today Peter himself is conventionally regarded as the first 'pope'.