Profile
Nothing of Marcellus’ life before the papacy has survived the centuries. He was Pope at the end of the persecutions of Diocletian; the persecutions had so disrupted the Church that there had been a gap of over a year with no Pope.
Marcellus faced reconstituting the clergy which had been decimated and whose remnant had practiced their vocation covertly and with the expectation of martyrdom. He worked to recover and welcome back those who had denied the faith to keep from being murdered.
When a group of people apostatized before and during a period of persecution refused to do penance in order to return to the Church (they were known as the Lapsi), Marcellus refused to allow their return to the Church. This group had some political pull, and some caused such civil disruption that Emperor Maxentius exiled the Pope in order to settle the matter. Legend says that Marcellus was forced to work as a stable slave as punishment, but this appears to be fiction.
Marcellus was considered a martyr as he died of the terrible conditions he suffered in exile.
Papal Ascension
- May-June 308
Died
- 309
- initially buried in the cemetery of Saint Priscilla in Rome, Italy
- relics later translated to beneath the altar of San Marcello al Corso church in Rome where they remain today
Canonized
- Pre-Congregation
Patronage
- horses
- stablemen
- in Italy
Anversa degli Abruzzi
Montemarzo di Asti
Representation
- pope with a donkey or horse nearby
- pope standing in a stable
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Marcellus_I#/media/File:Roma-sanmarcelloalcorso2.jpg
Pope Saint Marcellus I
