Pope Marcellinus was the
bishop of Rome
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
from 30 June 296 to his death in 304. A historical accusation was levelled at him by some sources to the effect that he might have renounced
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
during Emperor
Diocletian
Diocletian (; la, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, grc, Διοκλητιανός, Diokletianós; c. 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed ''Iovius'', was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Gaius Valerius Diocles ...
's
persecution of Christians
The persecution of Christians can be historically traced from the first century of the Christian era to the present day. Christian missionaries and converts to Christianity have both been targeted for persecution, sometimes to the point of b ...
before repenting afterwards, which would explain why he is omitted from lists of martyrs. The accusation is rejected, among others, by
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Af ...
. He is today venerated as a saint in the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
and in the
Serbian Orthodox Church
The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, Christian churches.
The majori ...
.
Pontificate
According to the ''
Liberian Catalogue
{{Short description, 4th-century list of Christian popes
The ''Liberian Catalogue'' ( la, Catalogus Liberianus) is a list of the bishops of Rome from Peter to Liberius (died 366). For each bishop, the list gives the lengths of his episcopate, the ...
'', Marcellinus was a Roman, the son of Projectus. He succeeded
Caius as
bishop of Rome
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
on 30 June 296.
Marcellinus' pontificate began at a time when
Diocletian
Diocletian (; la, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, grc, Διοκλητιανός, Diokletianós; c. 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed ''Iovius'', was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Gaius Valerius Diocles ...
was
Roman emperor, but had not yet started to
persecute the Christians, and their membership grew.
Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman people, Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caes ...
Galerius
Gaius Galerius Valerius Maximianus (; 258 – May 311) was Roman emperor from 305 to 311. During his reign he campaigned, aided by Diocletian, against the Sasanian Empire, sacking their capital Ctesiphon in 299. He also campaigned across the D ...
led the
pagan
Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. ...
movement against Christianity and aroused Diocletian against Christians in 302; first, Christian soldiers had to leave the army, later the Church's property was confiscated and their books destroyed. After two fires in Diocletian's palace, he took harder measures; Christians had to apostatize or be sentenced to death.
Marcellinus is not mentioned in the ''
Martyrologium hieronymianum
The ''Martyrologium Hieronymianum'' (meaning "martyrology of Jerome") or ''Martyrologium sancti Hieronymi'' (meaning "martyrology of Saint Jerome") is an ancient martyrology or list of Christian martyrs in calendar order, one of the most used a ...
'', or in the ''Depositio episcoporum'', or in the ''Depositio martyrum''. The ''
Liber Pontificalis
The ''Liber Pontificalis'' (Latin for 'pontifical book' or ''Book of the Popes'') is a book of biographies of popes from Saint Peter until the 15th century. The original publication of the ''Liber Pontificalis'' stopped with Pope Adrian II (867 ...
'', based on the lost ''Acts of St Marcellinus'', relates that during
Diocletian
Diocletian (; la, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, grc, Διοκλητιανός, Diokletianós; c. 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed ''Iovius'', was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Gaius Valerius Diocles ...
’s persecution, Marcellinus offered incense to
idol
Idol or Idols may refer to:
Religion and philosophy
* Cult image, a neutral term for a man-made object that is worshipped or venerated for the deity, spirit or demon that it embodies or represents
* Murti, a point of focus for devotion or medit ...
s, but that, repenting shortly afterwards, he re-confessed the faith of Christ and suffered
martyr
A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...
dom with several companions. Other documents speak of his defection, and it is probably this lapse that explains the silence of the ancient liturgical calendars. In the beginning of the 5th century,
Petilianus
Petilianus was an eminent Donatist of the 5th century Roman North Africa, who is known to history through the letters he wrote to the Catholic Bishop Augustine of Hippo and discourses in Augustine's replies.
Although most of what we know of him co ...
, the
Donatist
Donatism was a Christian sect leading to a schism in the Church, in the region of the Church of Carthage, from the fourth to the sixth centuries. Donatists argued that Christian clergy must be faultless for their ministry to be effective and t ...
bishop of
Cirta
Cirta, also known by various other names in antiquity, was the ancient Berber and Roman settlement which later became Constantine, Algeria.
Cirta was the capital city of the Berber kingdom of Numidia; its strategically important port city w ...
, says that Marcellinus and his priests had given up the holy books to the pagans during the persecution and offered incense to false gods.
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Af ...
denied the affair.
[Kirsch, Johann Peter. "Pope Saint Marcellinus." The Catholic Encyclopedia](_blank)
Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 28 September 2017[ The records of the pseudo-Council of Sinuessa, which were fabricated at the beginning of the 6th century, state that Marcellinus after his fall presented himself before a council, which refused to try him on the ground that ''prima sedes a nemine iudicatur'' ("The first See is judged by none").][
According to the ''Liber Pontificalis'', Marcellinus was buried on 26 April 304 in the cemetery of ]Priscilla
Priscilla is an English female given name adopted from Latin ''Prisca'', derived from ''priscus''. One suggestion is that it is intended to bestow long life on the bearer.
The name first appears in the New Testament of Christianity variously as ...
, on the Via Salaria
The Via Salaria was an ancient Roman road in Italy.
It eventually ran from Rome (from Porta Salaria of the Aurelian Walls) to ''Castrum Truentinum'' (Porto d'Ascoli) on the Adriatic coast, a distance of 242 km. The road also passed throug ...
, 25 days after his martyrdom; the Liberian Catalogue gives as the date 25 October. The fact of the martyrdom, too, is not established with certainty. After a considerable interregnum, he was succeeded by Marcellus, with whom he has sometimes been confused.
Veneration
Marcellinus was mentioned in the General Roman Calendar
The General Roman Calendar is the liturgical calendar that indicates the dates of celebrations of saints and mysteries of the Lord (Jesus Christ) in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, wherever this liturgical rite is in use. These celebra ...
, into which a feast day
The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...
in his honour jointly with that of Saint Cletus
Pope Anacletus (died ), also known as Cletus, was the bishop of Rome, following Saint Peter, Peter and Pope Linus, Linus. Anacletus served between and his death, . Cletus was a Roman who, during his tenure as pope, ordained a number of priests a ...
on 26 April was inserted in the thirteenth century.[Calendarium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 1969), p.121] Because of the uncertainties regarding both, this joint feast was removed from that calendar in 1969.[ Saint Cletus is still listed in the Roman Martyrology under 26 April date; but Saint Marcellinus is no longer mentioned in that professedly incomplete list of recognized saints. Pope Marcellinus, along with Pope Marcellus, is commemorated in the Serbian Prologue of Ohrid on 7 June according to the ]Julian Calendar
The Julian calendar, proposed by Roman consul Julius Caesar in 46 BC, was a reform of the Roman calendar. It took effect on , by edict. It was designed with the aid of Greek mathematicians and astronomers such as Sosigenes of Alexandr ...
.[http://www.stnicholasredbank.com/june1-8.htm ]
See also
*List of Catholic saints
This is an incomplete list of people and angels whom the Catholic Church has canonized as saints. According to Catholic theology, all saints enjoy the beatific vision. Many of the saints listed here are to be found in the General Roman Calend ...
*List of popes
This chronological list of popes corresponds to that given in the ''Annuario Pontificio'' under the heading "I Sommi Pontefici Romani" (The Roman Supreme Pontiffs), excluding those that are explicitly indicated as antipopes. Published every ye ...
Notes
External links
Colonnade Statue in St Peter's Square
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marcellinus
3rd-century births
304 deaths
3rd-century archbishops
3rd-century Romans
4th-century Christian saints
4th-century Romans
Italian popes
Papal saints
Clergy from Rome
Popes
Year of birth unknown
3rd-century popes
4th-century popes
Diocletianic Persecution