Marinus the Persian

Holy Martyr Marinus the Persian came from Persia to Rome in the time of the emperor Claudius II (268-270), with his wife, Martha, and his sons, Audifax and Abachum, to venerate the tombs of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul. In the year 269 he and his sons were beheaded by the emperor's order, and Martha was drowned in the river.

At that time a fierce persecution struck the Church of Rome. Marinus and his family began to serve the Christians in prison and to bury the bodies of the slain martyrs. In one prison they came upon a prisoner, Quirinus, and tended him with love, as one who had borne many torments for Christ. The persecution seized more and more people. The two hundred and sixty Christians sent to dig earth by the Salarian road, among them the tribune Blastus, were shot with arrows. Learning of it, Marinus and his family, with the presbyter John, carried the bodies by night to the catacombs and buried them. Returning to Quirinus, they no longer found him, for he had been killed the day before and his body thrown into the Tiber. Marinus, Martha and their sons took him out of the river and buried him. The Christians who served in secret, headed by Bishop Callistus, received them and hid them from the persecutors.

As a crown of their works of mercy, the holy family was granted a martyr's death. The pagans beheaded the confessor Valentine, the presbyter, and the official Asterius, whom Valentine had brought to Christianity; with them were arrested and tormented the Persian ascetics who lived with them.

The relics of the martyrs are in Rome, in the church of Saint John the Hut-⁠dweller, and those of Saint Valentine in the church of the holy Martyr Paraskeva. They are commemorated on 19 July, in the new style.