Saints Marcellinus and Peter, who were immensely revered after their grave was found and their executioner was converted, were two fourth-century martyrs who are commemorated by the Catholic Church on June 2. The two martyrs' lives and deaths are believed to have taken place under the rule of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, although little is known about their personal histories.

In 302, the emperor abandoned his tolerant position and embarked on a campaign to expel the Church from the empire. In addition to ordering the incarceration and torture of clergy and laypeople, Diocletian and his assistant also ordered the burning of Catholic Churches and its holy writings. The intention was to compel Christians to accept Roman paganism, which included worshiping the emperor as a deity.

A Roman exorcist named Peter was imprisoned for his faith during the height of this persecution, around the year 303. Tradition says that while he was imprisoned, Peter's prayers delivered Paulina, the prison warden Artemius' daughter, from the grip of the devil.

Paulina, Artemius, his wife, and the entire household are claimed to have converted as a result of this instance of Christ's authority over demons, and they were all baptized by the Roman priest Marcellinus.

Following this, a judge determined to carry out the emperor's order against the Church summoned Marcellinus and Peter before him. When Marcellinus bravely professed his belief in Christ, he was beaten, stripped of his clothes, denied food and put in a dank dungeon filled with shattered glass.

Peter was also brought back to his cell. However, neither man would reject Jesus, and they both chose death over adhering to the cult of pagan worship.

To stop the devout from congregating in prayer and devotion at the location of the two men's burial, it was planned that their executions would take place in secret. The two men were forced to clean a thicket of briars and thorns by their executioner, which they did gladly while joyfully accepting their fate.

Both men were executed in the woods, and their heads were buried in the clearing they had created. For a while, the whereabouts of the saints' bodies were unclear, but then a devout woman by the name of Lucilla had a revelation telling her where the priest and exorcist lay.

The bodies of the two saints were found, and Lucilla, with the aid of another woman, Firmina, arranged for their re-entombment in the Roman Catacombs. The Roman Canon, the most traditional Eucharistic prayer of the Western Church, includes the names of Sts. Marcellinus and Peter among its saints.

The two martyrs' tombs were marked with an epitaph written by Pope St. Damasus I, who throughout his life had a strong devotion to the Church's saints. He said that the executioner himself, who later turned around and joined the Catholic Church, was the source of his information.

Other Saints of the Day
Saint Ada
Saint Blandina
Saint Erasmus
Saint John de Ortega
Saint Nicholas Peregrinus