June 2 - St. Marcellinus

JUNE 2

ST. MARCELLINUS

St. Marcellinus was mentioned in the First Eucharistic Prayer of the Mass. He was widely honored and prayed to by the early Christians. The feast of St. Marcellinus was included in the Roman calendar of saints by Pope Vigilius in 555.


Marcellinus was a priest and he was brave in the practice of his Christian faith. He served the Christian community with great self-sacrifice. During the persecution of Diocletian, many Christians were killed. St. Marcellinus was among them. They were beheaded. It seems that before they died, however, they were forced to dig their own graves. They were taken to a hidden location to perform their difficult task. It was a forest called the Silva Nigra.


Some time later, their graves were discovered in that remote spot. Their executioner eventually repented of the killings and became a Christian. He led devout Christians to the remains, which were then buried in the catacomb of St. Tiberius.


Pope Gregory IV sent the relics to Frankfurt, Germany, in 827. He believed that the relics of St. Marcellinus and other Christian martyrs would bring blessings to the Church in that nation.