MARCELLO of TANGIER, saint, martyr. — Centurion of the Trajan Legion, beheaded at Tingis (Tangier) in Mauretania on 30 October 298 because, disgusted by the conduct of his pagan fellow soldiers, he had thrown down the military standards and proclaimed himself a Christian. His martyrdom is therefore to be assigned to the military persecution of the Diocletian period, provoked by Galerius.
The Passio (BHL, 5253) reproduces the Latin text composed by an editor who had official records of the trial in his hands and who was an eyewitness to the event. It was first published by T. Ruinart. Feast day: 30 October.
BIBL.: Acta SS. Octobris, XIII, Paris 1883, pp. 274–84; H. Delchaye, Les Actes de st Marcel le Centurion, in Analecta Boll., 41 (1923), pp. 257–78; Martyr. Romanum, pp. 484–85. Benedetto Pesci