MARCELLUS I, POPE, ST.

Pontificate: 306? to January 16, 309?. Marcellus is not mentioned in the Church history of Eusebius, and it is possible that the similarity of his name with his predecessor's caused confusion. His ascension occurred two years after his predecessor's death. This delay resulted from the disorder caused by pagan persecution and by the civil war among Roman generals to become emperor. It seems that Marcellus governed the Christian community during the strife and was eventually chosen bishop. According to the Liber pontificalis Marcellus reorganized the Church of Rome into twenty-five parishes, founded a new cemetery, ordained twenty-five priests, and consecrated twenty-one bishops. According to the verse epitaph composed by Pope damasus i, his authority was challenged by a faction under Heraclius when Marcellus imposed a penance on the lapsi or apostates of the persecutions. Because of the public disorder resulting from this dissension, the Emperor Maxentius exiled Marcellus from the city as a disturber of the peace, and he died

shortly afterward. His body was returned to Rome for burial in the cemetery of Priscilla. A fifth-century Passio Marcelli and the Liber pontificalis contain the legend that Maxentius turned the title church (titulus ) of Marcellus into a stable, and that the Pope died there as a result of his labors as a stable boy.

Feast: January 16.

Bibliography: Liber pontificalis, ed. l. duchesne (Paris 1886–92, 1958) 1:LXXIII–LXXIV, LXXIX, CCXLIX, XCIX–C, 72–75, 164–166. Acta Sanctorum Jan. 2:3–14. a. ferrua, ed., Epigrammata Damasiana (Rome 1942). e. h. rÖottges, "Marcellinus-Marcellus," Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie 78 (1956) 385–420. h. leclercq, Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie. ed. f. cabrol, h. leclercq and h. i. marrou (Paris 1907–53) 10.2:1753–60. g. schwaiger, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiberg 1957–65) 7:3. j. n.d. kelly Oxford Dictionary of Popes (New York 1986), 25–26.

[e. g. weltin]