Marcellinus and Peter

Marcellinus and Peter were a priest and an exorcist of the Church of Rome, put to death as martyrs in the persecution of Diocletian, in the year 304. They have been venerated from antiquity throughout Christendom and are remembered on 2 June.

According to the Passio written by Pope Damasus (366 to 384), the two were led to a place called Silva Nigra, later Silva Candida, on the Via Cornelia, and beheaded because they would not renounce their faith. Their bodies were gathered by a noblewoman, Lucilla, and buried in the catacombs Ad Duas Lauros, beside the Via Labicana, called today the catacombs of Saints Marcellinus and Peter, at Torpignattara.

Pope Siricius raised a basilica at the site of the tomb; it is now called the Basilica of Saints Marcellinus and Peter. Pope Gregory IV is said to have sent their relics to the Frankish lands, whence Einhard, adviser of Charlemagne, brought them to the abbey of Seligenstadt, near Mainz, in Hesse. A different tradition places the relics in the cathedral of Cremona. The two saints were very dear to the first Christian centuries, and their names appear in eucharistic prayers already in the sixth century.