Marcellinus and Peter, Saints, Martyrs

MARCELLINO e PIETRO, santi, martiri. - Killed in Rome in 303 during the persecution of Diocletian. In the Martyrologium geronimiano they are commemorated on June 2 as buried in the cemetery ad duas lauros on the Via Labicana, where all the Itinerari of the 7th century record them. The Gelasian and

The crypt where they were buried was rediscovered in 1897. Over it and in their honor Constantine built a basilica. Brief accounts of their martyrdom are reported in the poem written by Pope Damasus, who had learned them from the executioner's own mouth. The two martyrs, after having prepared the grave with their own hands by order of the tyrant, were beheaded and buried in a wood so that no one would know the site. Later the matron Lucilla, warned in a dream, perhaps by the martyrs themselves, brought the sacred remains to the cemetery of the Via Labicana. In the 6th century the tomb was devastated by the Goths, who also broke the poem; Pope Vigilio oversaw its restoration and inserted the names of the martyrs into the Canon of the Mass.

The Passio, written around the 6th century, probably on the occasion of the restorations by Vigilio, is a free and legendary paraphrase of the Damasian poem.