Hieromartyr Marcellinus, Pope of Rome, and the Martyrs Claudius, Cyrinus and Antoninus (+304)

The Hieromartyr Marcellinus, Pope of Rome, and with him the holy Martyrs Claudius, Cyrinus and Antoninus. In the time of the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian (284–305) Saint Marcellinus was Pope of Rome. The God-hating emperors cruelly persecuted the Christians: in one month up to seventeen thousand people suffered. Pope Marcellinus too was seized. For fear of torture he burned incense and offered sacrifice to the idols. After this the emperor received him as a friend and clothed him in costly garments. Marcellinus’s conscience tormented him: by word he had called his flock to endure torments for Christ, while by deed he had shown an example of faintheartedness.

At that time a council of 180 bishops and presbyters was being held in the city of Sinuessa (Campania). Clothed in sackcloth, with ashes on his head, Pope Marcellinus appeared at a session of the council and asked to be judged. The fathers of the council said to him: “Judge thyself. The words that came out of thy mouth defiled thee, and may words spoken by the same lips cleanse thee. The Apostle Peter too fell away from Christ out of fear, but washed with tears of repentance he again became pleasing to the Lord.”

Then Marcellinus laid this punishment on himself: “Let me, unworthy, be cut off from the grace of the priesthood; after my death let my body not be buried; throw it to the dogs to be torn apart. Accursed be he who shall wish to bury it!”

Returning to Rome, Marcellinus appeared before the emperor, threw at his feet the garments he had given him, and told him that he bitterly repented of falling away from Christ. The enraged emperor ordered the saint to be cruelly tortured and then put to death.

Weakened by his torments, the hierarch cried out with fervent prayers to the Lord who receives the repentant, and then obediently bowed his neck to the sword. With him Claudius, Cyrinus and Antoninus met a martyr’s end (+304).

Saint Marcellinus’s body lay outside for thirty-six days with no one to care for it. The holy Apostle Peter appeared to the newly elected Pope Marcellus and said to him: “Why dost thou not bury the body of Marcellinus?” “I fear his curse!” Saint Marcellus answered. The Apostle Peter ordered the newly elected pope to bury the saint with honour.

Pope Marcellus buried the holy relics of Marcellinus with honour in the tomb which Priscilla, a noble Roman woman, had prepared for burying the holy martyrs, near the Via Salaria.