Editing Pope Marcellus I (section)

==Veneration==
His feast day was 16 January,<ref name=EB1911/> according to the ''Depositio episcoporum'' of the [[Chronography of 354]] and every other Roman authority. Nevertheless, it is not known whether this is the date of his death or that of the burial of his remains, after these had been brought back from the unknown place to which he had been exiled. He was buried in the catacomb of St. Priscilla where his grave is mentioned by the itineraries to the graves of the Roman martyrs as existing in the basilica of St. Silvester (De Rossi, ''Roma sotterranea'', I, 176).<ref name="Catholic"/>

A 5th-century "Passio Marcelli", which is included in the legendary account of the martyrdom of [[Cyriacus]] (cf. Acta Sanct., Jan., II, 10–14) and is followed by the ''Liber Pontificalis'', gives a different account of the end of Marcellus. According to this version, the pope was required by Maxentius, who was enraged at his reorganization of the church, to lay aside his episcopal dignity and make an offering to the gods. On his refusal, he was condemned to work as a slave at a station on the public highway (catabulum).  At the end of nine months he was set free by the clergy; but a matron named Lucina having had her house on the Via Lata consecrated by him as "titulus Marcelli" he was again condemned to the work of attending to the horses brought into the station, in which menial occupation he died.<ref name="Catholic"/>

All this is probably legendary; the reference to the restoration of ecclesiastical activity by Marcellus alone has a historical basis. The tradition related in the verses of Damasus seems much more worthy of belief. The feast of Saint Marcellus, whose name is to this day borne by the church at Rome mentioned in the above legend, is still celebrated on 16 January. 

[[Theodor Mommsen]] theorizes that Marcellus was not really a bishop, but a simple Roman presbyter to whom was committed the ecclesiastical administration during the latter part of the period of vacancy of the papal chair. According to this view, 16 January was really the date of Marcellus' death, the next occupant of the chair being Eusebius (Neues Archiv, 1896, XXI, 350–3). The ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' dismisses this hypothesis as unsupported.<ref name="Catholic"/>