Sts. Marcellinus & Peter

A priest and an exorcist of the Roman church beheaded under Diocletian in a remote forest, so that no one might find their bodies. Their executioner, moved by their joy, became a Christian himself and revealed the place. Their names are remembered in the Roman Canon of the Mass.

Marcellinus served as a priest in Rome during the Great Persecution, and Peter as an exorcist — one of the minor orders charged with praying over catechumens and the possessed. Together they are said to have converted their jailer and his family while awaiting execution, baptizing them in the prison itself.

Emperor Constantine built a basilica over their tomb on the Via Labicana, and their catacomb became one of the most venerated in Rome. Their inclusion in the Canon of the Mass — the most ancient and solemn of the Church's Eucharistic Prayers — ensured that their witness would be invoked at every altar for centuries to come.