Sts. Peter and Marcellinus, Martyrs

St. Peter
St. Marcellinus


Peter and Marcellinus are two Roman martyrs who suffered under the Diocletian persecution, about the year 303; the first was an exorcist, the second a priest. Their names are mentioned in the Canon of the Mass (Eucharistic Prayer I).

Peter, an exorcist, was cast into prison at Rome, under the emperor Diocletian, by the judge Serenus, for confessing the Christian faith. He there set free Paulina, the daughter of Artemius, the keeper of the prison, from an evil spirit which tormented her. Upon this, Artemius and his wife and all their house, with their neighbors who had run together to see the strange thing, were converted to Jesus Christ. Peter therefore brought them to Marcellinus the priest, who baptized them all. When Serenus heard of it, he called Peter and Marcellinus before him, and sharply rebuked them, adding to his bitter words threats and terrors, unless they would deny Christ. Marcellinus answered him with Christian boldness, whereupon he caused him to be buffeted, separated him from Peter, and shut him up naked, in a prison strewn with broken glass, without either food or light. Peter also he confined. But when both of them were found to increase in faith and courage in their bonds, they were beheaded, unshaken in their testimony, and confessing Jesus Christ gloriously by their blood.

~Excerpted from The Liturgical Year, Abbot Gueranger O.S.B.

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