page_title: Marcellinus and Peter
section_title: Veneration
hierarchical_section_title: Marcellinus and Peter / Veneration
context_page_description: Saints Marcellinus and Peter are venerated within the Christian churches as martyrs who were beheaded. Hagiographies place them in 4th century Rome. They are generally represented as men in middle age, with tonsures and palms of martyrdom; sometimes they hold a crown each.
context_section_description: Pope Damasus, who opened their catacombs, also remarks that he wrote a Latin epitaph with the details of their death with which he adorned their tomb.
  The martyrs were venerated by the early Christian Church.  Their sepulcher is mentioned in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, which includes the information that Marcellinus was a priest and that Peter was an exorcist.  In the Martyrologium, their feast day is given as 2 June and their sepulcher is described as being located ad duas lauros ("at the two laurel trees") at the third mile of the Via Labicana.  From the 7th century onwards, their sepulcher became a site of pilgrimage, and their feast day is recorded in local liturgies and hagiographies.  According to the Liber Pontificalis, Constantine the Great built a basilica in their honor, since a structure built by Damasus had been destroyed by the Goths. 
  The names of Sts. Marcellinus and Peter appeared in the Ambrosian liturgy.
  Their names are mentioned in the Roman Canon. In 1253 Pope Alexander IV translated their relics to an ancient church (its presence was first mentioned in 595 AD) near the present-day Via Merulana that was named after them: Santi Marcellino e Pietro.
  Relics associated with Marcellinus and Peter were translated to Seligenstadt in Germany in the 9th century.  They were sent by Pope Gregory IV to Einhard, secretary to Charlemagne. Einhard translated the relics to Strasburg, and then to Michlenstad (Michelstadt); and afterwards to Malinheim or Mulinheim (later called Seligenstadt).  In 829, Einhard built a church in honor of Marcellinus and Peter, and became its first abbot. Sigebert, Aimoin, and Rabanus Maurus all mention this translation. 
  A slightly different account states that Einhard had built a basilica at Michelstadt in 827 and then sent a servant, Ratleic, to Rome with an end to find relics for the new building. Once in Rome, Ratleic, with the help of a Roman deacon with a reputation as a relics-swindler and thief named Deusdona, robbed a catacomb of the bones of Marcellinus and Peter and had them translated to Michelstadt. Once there, the relics made it known they were unhappy with their new tomb and thus had to be moved again to Mulinheim (now Seligenstadt). Once established there, they proved to be miracle workers.  Agostino Amore believes that the entire translation was fraudulent, due to Deusdona's reputation.
  Cremona Cathedral in Italy also claims to have relics, inside a sarcophagus in one of its transepts.
caption: Wall painting (4th century) from the catacomb of Marcellinus and Peter on the Via Labicana, showing Christ between Peter and Paul, and below them the martyrs Gorgonius, Peter, Marcellinus, and Tiburtius
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