Marcellus I

Who they were

After Diocletian's persecution a new bishop of Rome was elected only in 308: Marcellus. He found the Church in confusion, its meeting-places and burial grounds confiscated, and bitterly divided by the many who had lapsed in persecution and now, led by an apostate, demanded readmission without penance.

He reorganised the Church in Rome into twenty-five districts, each under a priest who prepared converts for baptism, directed public penance and cared for the burial of the dead and the memory of the martyrs, and laid out a new cemetery on the Via Salaria. His work was soon disrupted by the controversy over the lapsed, and he died in 309.

The miracles

There was never a formal cause: Marcellus has been honoured as a saint since the fourth century.

Why that counted as sanctity

Marcellus rebuilt the Church of Rome after persecution and held firm on the need for penance.