Hieromartyr Marcellus, Pope of Rome

Life

In the time of Maximian he was condemned to tend cattle at a certain designated place. In order to please Diocletian, who had taken him as co-emperor, Maximian began to build baths in Rome, the so-called Thermae, and drove Christians to this labor as once Pharaoh drove the Jews in Egypt. Many Christians suffered at that time. Among them suffered also the deacon Cyriacus, who had great power over demons and who healed the demoniac daughter of Diocletian, Artemia, and the daughter of the Persian king, Jobia, and baptized them both. At that time Artemia also suffered, and the deacon Sisinius, Smaragdus and Largius, companions of Cyriacus, and the deacon Apronianus, and two newly baptized Roman soldiers Papius and Maurus, and the elder Saturninus and Crescentian, and the blessed virgins Priscilla and Lucina, who from their wealth built tombs for the slain Christian martyrs. Saint Marcellus, the pope, tended cattle for a long time, and finally from hunger, humiliation, and the oppression of soldiers, he breathed his last and surrendered his soul to God.