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The saints

Sts. Marcellinus and Peter

A priest and an exorcist whose executioner became a Christian.

Feast: 2 June · died 304 · The early Church · Rome

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Medieval manuscript painting of the beheading of Sts. Marcellinus and Peter before a seated ruler.

Frater Rufillus, 1170. Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

Home / The saints / Sts. Marcellinus and Peter

A wood outside Rome, 304

Marcellinus was a priest and Peter an exorcist in Rome during the persecution of Diocletian.1

Pope Damasus said he heard their story as a boy from the executioner himself.1

They were made to dig their own graves in a forest and were beheaded.

Patronage No official patronage we can cite yet. The Church remembers them as martyrs named in the Roman Canon.

01Sts. Marcellinus and Peter

Their names at Mass

Their executioner later became a Christian, and their names are still said in the Roman Canon.1

Live it this week

Pray the Roman Canon slowly

Marcellinus and Peter are named in the First Eucharistic Prayer. Read that prayer at home this week and notice the names; pick one saint you don’t know and look them up.

Notes

How we know · 1 source for this page
  1. Franciscan Media, Saint of the Day: “Saints Marcellinus and Peter”. franciscanmedia.org. franciscanmedia.org

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: World English Bible, Catholic edition (public domain); Verse numbers are modern, with Douay-Rheims numbers in brackets where they differ. Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an errorCorrections.