Saints Marcellinus and Peter

Marcellinus was a priest and Peter an exorcist in the Church of Rome during the persecution of Emperor Diocletian. Around 304 they were arrested, imprisoned and condemned for their faith. Pope Damasus later wrote that he heard their story as a boy from the very executioner who killed them: the two men were led to a thicket outside the city, made to clear the ground for their own graves and then beheaded, so that no one would know where they lay.

A Christian woman named Lucilla found their bodies and buried them in the catacomb on the Via Labicana. Emperor Constantine later built a basilica beside their tomb, and his mother, Saint Helena, was buried in a mausoleum there. In 827 their relics were taken to Seligenstadt in Germany, where they are still venerated.

Their names are spoken in the First Eucharistic Prayer, the Roman Canon, together with other early martyrs of Rome. Their catacomb on the Via Casilina, famous for its frescoes, can be visited by pilgrims.

In Seligenstadt, Germany, the abbey church built for their relics keeps their memory alive.