⛪ Saint Marcellinus and Saint Peter - Martyrs

⛪ Saint of the Day: June 2

Saint Marcellinus and Saint Peter were martyrs who lived during the 4th century AD in Rome, during a period of intense persecution of Christians under the Roman Emperor Diocletian. Here's a more detailed account of their lives and martyrdom:

1. Marcellinus: Little is known about Saint Marcellinus's early life, but he was ordained as a priest in Rome. He was known for his piety, dedication to prayer, and commitment to the Christian faith. Marcellinus served the Christian community in Rome, ministering to the spiritual needs of the faithful and administering the sacraments.

2. Peter: Saint Peter, often referred to as Saint Peter the Exorcist or Saint Peter of Rome, served alongside Marcellinus, possibly as an exorcist or an assistant in the ministry. Like Marcellinus, Peter was deeply devoted to his Christian faith and was committed to serving the Church and its members.

3. Persecution under Diocletian: In the early 4th century AD, Emperor Diocletian initiated one of the most severe persecutions of Christians in Roman history. Christians were subjected to arrest, torture, and execution if they refused to renounce their faith and offer sacrifices to the Roman gods. Marcellinus and Peter were among those targeted for their refusal to abandon Christianity.

4. Arrest and Torture: Marcellinus and Peter were arrested for their Christian beliefs and were brought before Roman authorities to face charges of refusing to worship the Roman gods. Despite facing threats, torture, and pressure to renounce their faith, Marcellinus and Peter remained steadfast in their commitment to Christ.

5. Martyrdom: Despite enduring severe torture, including being beaten, scourged, and imprisoned, Marcellinus and Peter refused to renounce their Christian faith. As a result, they were sentenced to death by beheading. Tradition holds that they were executed outside the city of Rome, near the Catacombs of Saint Tiburtius, on June 2nd, 304 AD.

6. Veneration: Following their martyrdom, Marcellinus and Peter were venerated as saints by the early Christian community in Rome. Their graves became places of pilgrimage and devotion for Christians seeking to honor their memory and seek their intercession. Their feast day is celebrated on June 2nd in the Roman Catholic Church.

The martyrdom of Saint Marcellinus and Saint Peter stands as a powerful testimony to their unwavering faith, courage, and commitment to Christ in the face of persecution. They are revered as examples of Christian virtue and steadfastness, inspiring believers to remain faithful to their beliefs even in the most challenging circumstances.

Marcellinus was a priest, and Peter an exorcist, both of the clergy of Rome, and eminent for their zeal and piety. In the persecution of Dioclesian, about the year 304, they were condemned to die for their faith: and by a secret order of the judge, the executioner led them into a forest, that the holy men being executed privately, no Christians might be acquainted with the place of their sepulchre. When he had brought them into a thicket overgrown with thorns and briers, three miles from Rome, he declared to them his sanguinary commission. The saints cheerfully fell to work themselves, grubbed up the brambles, and cleared a spot fit for their sepulchre. After they were beheaded, their bodies were buried in the same place. Some time after, Lucilla, a pious lady, being informed by revelation, and assisted by another devout lady named Firmina, took up their bodies, and honourably interred them near that of Saint Tiburtius on the Lavican road in the Catacombs. Pope Damasus assures us, that, when a child, he learned all these particulars from the mouth of the executioner himself, and he has inserted them in a Latin epitaph with which he adorned their tomb. Anastasius the librarian testifies, from ancient registers, that Constantine the Great built here a church in honour of these martyrs, in which he caused his mother Saint Helena to be buried under a porphyry tomb, on the Lavican road, three miles from Rome, and that he gave to this church a paten weighing thirty-five pounds, of pure gold, with many other rich presents; which are also mentioned by Bede, Ado, and Sigebert. The porphyry mausoleum of Saint Helena is still shown among other antiquities near the Lateran basilica. Honorius I, and Adrian I, repaired this church and cemetery of Saint Tiburtius, and Saints Marcellinus and Peter, as Anastasius mentions. Not long after the bodies of Saints Marcellinus and Peter were translated into Germany on the following occasion: Eginhard, a German, the favourite secretary of Charlemagne, and his wife Emma, by mutual consent, made a vow of perpetual continency; and becoming a monk, was chosen abbot of Fontenelle, and, in 819, abbot of Ghent. Emma died in 836, to his great affliction, as appears from the letters of Lupus, abbot of Ferrieres, to him. This great man, in 827, sent his secretary to Rome, to procure from Pope Gregory IV, some relics of martyrs to enrich the monasteries which he had founded or repaired. The pope sent him the bodies of Saints Marcellinus and Peter, which Eginhard translated to Strasburg. But soon after he deposited them first at Michlenstad; and afterwards at Malinheim, since called Selgenstad, three leagues from Francfort, and two from Achaffenburgh; where, in 829, he built to their honour a church and monastery, of which he died the first abbot. Besides the life of Charlemagne, and the annals of France, during the reigns of Pepin, Charlemagne, and Lewis Debonnaire, he wrote four books in prose, and one in verse, on the translation of Saints Marcellinus and Peter. This translation is also mentioned by Sigebert, Aymoinus, Rabanus Maurus, etc. Pope Gregory the Great preached his twenty homilies on the gospels in the church of Saints Marcellinus and Peter at Rome; as appears from some of them, and from the testimony of John the Deacon.

Source : Butler’s Lives of the Saints by Father Alban Butler.

St. Peter was an exorcist, which is one of the minor orders by which the Church gives-power and authority to cast out evil spirits. The many miracles he wrought by this means, actuated the heathens to accuse him before the governor, Serenus, who had him so cruelly scourged, that his whole body seemed to be but one great wound. After this they dragged him to a dark dungeon, and loaded him with heavy chains, in order that he might thus pine away in a slow martyrdom. Artemius, the jailor, had an only daughter, named Pauline, who was most miserably tormented by the devil, to the great grief of her father. One day, Peter perceived the man's sadness, and asked him the cause. Having been informed of it, Peter said: “If you have no other grief, you can easily be helped.” “How can this be done?” asked Artemius; “who is the man able to cure my daughter?” “I,” replied Peter, “I can, by the omnipotence of the true God whom I worship.”

Artemius laughed in derision, and said: “If this be true, you must be a fool, that you do not use the power of God to free yourself from your fetters and escape from the prison.” Peter answered: “I love my chains and prison too dearly, to pray to God to set me free. If you, however, promise to believe in Christ, the Son of the living God, I assure you that He will soon free me from my fetters and my prison.” “Very well,” said Artemius, more in mockery than in earnest, “if you free yourself this night and come to visit me, I will believe.” After this he went away; but first had Peter more strongly chained, and also doubled the guards. Peter, nevertheless, promised to visit him; and he kept his promise.

Artemius, meanwhile, told his wife, Candida, all that had taken place, and while he was yet laughing at Peter's presumption, behold! the holy confessor of Christ entered the room, in a white garment, with a cross in his hand. This evident miracle frightened Artemius and his wife to such a degree, that they knew not what to say. Having somewhat recovered, they fell at his feet and cried, while tears streamed from their eyes: ” Truly, there is no God but the God of the Christians! “Upon this, Pauline came into the room, and also threw herself at the feet of the Saint, when a new miracle took place. The evil spirit of which she was possessed, unable to endure the presence of St. Peter, left her immediately, crying loudly: “The power of Christ in you compels me to leave the place where I have dwelt.”

These miracles could not remain concealed. All the domestics of the house, all the neighbors, and relatives came in haste, and when they had heard what had happened, they all desired to be baptized. St. Peter, rejoiced at the conversion of so many souls, called the holy priest Marcellinus to instruct and baptize the proselytes. Artemius, meanwhile, went back to the dungeon and liberated not only all the imprisoned Christians, but offered freedom to all the other prisoners who promised to become Christians. Serenus, the governor, was fortunately just then dangerously sick, so that St. Marcellinus and St. Peter had time to baptize and instruct all those who wished to embrace Christianity, and also to prepare them for the martyrdom which doubtless awaited them.

No sooner had Serenus recovered than he ordered Artemius to send all the prisoners to him. Artemius went to him and related all that had happened, confessing at the same time that he and his whole household had embraced the Christian faith in consequence of the great miracles which they had beheld with their own eyes. Serenus, beside himself with rage, ordered Artemius to be beaten with clubs so terribly, that he would most certainly have expired, had not God, by a new miracle, preserved his life. After this he summoned Marcellinus and Peter and menaced them with the most cruel tortures should they refuse immediately to sacrifice to the idols. Seeing their fearless constancy, he ordered Peter to be thrown into a dungeon and stretched upon the rack; and Marcellinus to be scourged and then placed naked and tightly bound upon pieces of glass, so that he would be unable to move. God, however, sent an angel in the middle of the night, who took the chains from Marcellinus, healed his wounds, led him into the dungeon of St. Peter and freed him also from his fetters. The two Saints then went together to the house where the newly baptized Christians were assembled at prayer. When Serenus, on the following day, was informed of these events, all his rage fell upon Artemius and his wife, whom he sentenced to be buried alive. Whilst these martyrs were led to the place of execution, Saints Peter and Marcellinus encouraged them to constancy in their martyrdom, which they joyfully and faithfully endured. Marcellinus and Peter were again seized on this occasion, and after having been tortured, were beheaded by order of the prefect, in the year 304.

Their relics were transported from Rome to Germany in the reign of Louis the Pious. They are at present honored in the famous abbey of Seligenstadt. 

Source : by Fr. Francis Xavier Weninger, 1877

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