MARCELLUS I, POPE, saint. — Of Roman origin, he succeeded Marcellinus in the Roman See after several years of vacancy, first due to the persecution of Diocletian and then to political instability. His pontificate should be placed between 303 and 308 or 309; however, it is best not to be too precise about the chronology.
It is probable that M. was already the leading presbyter during the vacancy. The *Liber Pontificalis*, I, p. 164, presents M. as the reorganizer of the Roman Church after the devastation of the persecution, attributing to him the division of the city into 25 titles, the preparation of catechumens for Baptism and of the fallen faithful for Penance, and the care of the martyrs' tombs and, in general, of Christian cemeteries. The persecution of Diocletian, like that of Decius before it, had produced a large number of *lapsi*. When M., conscious of his duty, wished to impose penance upon them, the laxist party, led—as the Damasian epigram attests (A. Ferrua, op. cit. in bibliography, no. 40, p. 181)—by one who had apostatized during the time of peace, provoked serious disturbances within the Christian community. The emperor Maxentius, seeing in this a danger to public order, exiled M., where he died. His body was brought back to Rome and buried in the cemetery of Priscilla.
The *Liber Pontificalis* attributes to M. the foundation of the cemetery of Novella on the Via Salaria. It is highly probable that he also founded the *Titulus Marcelli*, after which a legend arose, recorded in the *Passio Marcelli* (*Acta SS. Ianuarii*, II, pp. 3-14) and in the *Liber Pontificalis*, I, p. 164, according to which Maxentius transformed the church into a stable and condemned M. to serve as a stableman, dying in that service from exhaustion. The *Martyrology* and the *Roman Breviary* commemorate him on January 16.
This is what the sources report regarding M. It is not out of place, however, to ask: is M.'s pontificate certain? The question has been examined by Mommsen, who studied the chronological data provided by the *Catalogus Liberianus* and the *Index* which underlies the various papal catalogs of the 5th–7th centuries. The *Liberianus*, followed by the *Liber Pontificalis*, places Marcellinus and M. in succession and records a vacancy of 7 years, 3 months, and 25 days between them, which would place the beginning of M.'s pontificate on December 31. The *Index*, however, has only one pope, who in the 5th catalog is called Marcellinus, and in the others M. This and other facts suggest the suppression of M.'s pontificate. This conclusion seems confirmed by the following observations: the *Depositio episcoporum*, Eusebius' *Chronicon*, that of St. Jerome, the Chronicle of Otto of Milevi, and some later Eastern historians mention only the name of Marcellinus; St. Augustine, along with some Eastern historians, mentions only that of M. Moreover, the various documents speak of only one tomb, that of Marcellinus or M., in the cemetery of Priscilla; the *Liber Pontificalis* is the exception, speaking of two tombs, both in Priscilla. Finally, the liturgical documents know only one feast. All the documents, therefore, except the *Liberianus* and the *Liber Pontificalis*, which depends on it, attest to only one pontificate. Now, there can be no doubt about the pontificate of Marcellinus, which began well eight years before the persecution. It would therefore be M.'s pontificate that should be deleted. Does this also deny the existence of M.? No. He may have been the founder of the cemetery of Novella and of the *Titulus Marcelli*, and he may also have held directive functions during the interregnum, and as such may have taken some initiative regarding the penance of the *lapsi*. Since his functions lasted several years, he may have been regarded by some as a true pope. Nor should it be surprising that the two names were confused in the documents, since a similar confusion is noted for many other names with identical or similar sounds. All this, therefore, seems to suggest the suppression of M.'s pontificate.