Episode 737: Sts. Marcellinus, Peter & Erasmus

Very little is known about the actual lives of these two men. Later hagiography suggests that Marcellinus, a priest, and Peter, an exorcist, died in the year 304, during the Diocletianic Persecution. Pope Damasus I claimed that he heard the story of these two martyrs from their executioner who went on to become a Christian. Damasus states that they were killed at an out-of-the-way spot by the magistrate Severus or Serenus, so that other Christians would not have a chance to bury and venerate their bodies. The two saints happily cleared the spot chosen for their death: a thicket overgrown with thorns, brambles, and briers three miles from Rome. They were beheaded and buried in that spot.

Two women, Lucilla and Firmina, assisted by divine revelation, found the bodies, however, and had them properly buried. They buried their bodies near the body of St. Tiburtius on the Via Labicana in what became known as the Catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter. Alban Butler writes that "it was thought at one time that forty-four other martyrs died with Marcellinus and Peter, but this is due to a misreading of the Hieronymianum."

Around the 6th century, a passio connected the martyrdom of Marcellinus and Peter with that of the jailer Artemius, who was converted to Christianity by Marcellinus. Artemius' wife Secunda (or Candida) and daughter Paulina were also converted. Artemius was beheaded; Secunda and Paulina were buried alive under a pile of stones. The passio states that they were killed at the 12th milestone on the Via Aurelia in a place called Silva Candida ("Whitewood", also called Silva Nigra, "Blackwood", or at Lorium). Their executioner, Dorotheus, was said to have been converted by Pope Julius I.