The Apostle Paul wrote to Saint Timothy saying: “Make haste to come before winter. Eubulus and Pudens and Linus and Claudia and all the brethren, salute thee” (2 Tim 4:21). In this final epistle of Saint Paul before his martyrdom, the Apostle includes the names of those prominent in the Roman Church—Linus being one of them. Linus, as you may know, was the second Pope, the one directly following Saint Peter. He’s the Pope that decreed women should wear chapel veils during Mass.

Tradition holds that the Pudens, the man Paul listed along with Linus, volunteered his home to Saint Peter as the first domestic church building of Rome. Pudens’ father was the Roman senator Quintus Cornelius Pudens and his mother was Saint Priscilla—two of the first converts of Saint Peter. The family allowed Saint Peter to use Quintus’ senatorial chair or cathedra for liturgical ceremonies. Hence, Pudens’ home was the first cathedral of Rome. Here Pudens and his daughters Pudentia and Praxedes hosted the Apostles.

This home became known as the ecclesia pudentiana—the Pudentian Church. It is revered as the oldest Catholic church in Rome. From the time of Saint Peter until the conversion of Constantine in A.D. 313, this location was the home and headquarters of the Popes. Eventually, the wooden altar of Saint Peter was removed from the Church of Saint Pudentiana and placed within the high altar at the Basilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome. In order to honor the Pudentian Church, a plank from the wooden altar was enshrined in the altar of Saint Pudentiana. This gesture symbolized that Peter’s altar was originally at this location. Centuries later, when Cardinal Wiseman was titular cardinal of Saint Pudentiana he had the plank examined and found that the wood was identical with that of the wooden altar preserved at the Lateran Church. These historical and archaeological details demonstrate that Linus and Pudens were the most important Christian leaders in Rome at the time.