Marcellinus and Peter (d. 304), Roman martyrs. The evidence for their cult is early and strong, consisting of feasts in the sacramentaries and calendars, the survival of their tombs, and some verses by Damasus. They are also mentioned in the Roman Canon. Marcellinus was a priest, Peter an exorcist. Their unreliable Acts say that they made converts of the gaoler and his family while they were in prison, that the place of their execution was called the Black Wood, but afterwards the White Wood, that the magistrate who condemned them was called Severus. They were buried in the catacomb of Tiburtius on the Via Lavicana, over which a church was later built. In 827 Pope Gregory IV sent their relics to Einhard, former secretary and biographer of Charlemagne, to enrich his monastery at Seligenstadt; records of the miracles which then took place survive. Feast: 2 June.
Bibliography
Click here for a list of abbreviations used in this bibliography.
- AA.SS. Iun. I (1695), 170–209
- C.M.H., pp. 293–4
- B.L.S., vi. 14; Eng. tr. of the account of the translation by B. Wendell (1926)
