The Ante-Nicene Church · AD 180–313
Marcellus I of Rome
d. c. 309 · Bishop of Rome · Rome
The Ante-Nicene Church
Who Marcellus I of Rome was
Bishop of Rome after the four-year vacancy that followed the Great Persecution’s outbreak — elected to rebuild a church torn between the lapsed who wanted easy restoration and the confessors who wanted rigor. Damasus’s verse epitaph over his grave tells the story: “because he told the lapsed to weep for their crimes, he was to all a bitter enemy,” and the riots his discipline provoked moved the tyrant Maxentius to banish him. He died in exile within about a year; the church counted him a confessor.
Also listed in the bishops of Rome.
Common questions
When did Marcellus I die?
Marcellus I of Rome is dated d. c. 309 in the archive, which places Marcellus I in the Ante-Nicene Church (AD 180–313). The dating is traditional and approximate; the archive marks it as uncertain rather than fixing a year the sources do not give.
Which early sources mention Marcellus I?
Marcellus I of Rome is named in 2 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from The chronographer of 354 and Damasus I of Rome. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Where was Marcellus I from?
The archive associates Marcellus I of Rome with Rome.
Who were Marcellus I’s contemporaries?
The archive links Marcellus I of Rome to 4 other figures, including Marcellinus of Rome, Miltiades (Melchiades) of Rome, Damasus I of Rome and Emperor Maxentius. Each connection is drawn from a source that places them together, not from inference.
Primary-source mentions (2)
Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Liberian Catalogue (Chronography of 354)
c. AD 354Damasus, Epigram on Marcellus
c. AD 375The true-speaking ruler, because he told the lapsed to weep for their crimes, was to all the fallen a bitter enemy; hence rage and hatred, discord, sedition, slaughter — and he was driven from his native shore by a tyrant’s cruelty.Damasus I of Rome · source text
Connected in the archive
People
Events in this lifetime
- AD 250 · The Decian persecution, AD 250
- AD 251 · The Novatianist schism, AD 251
- AD 257 · The Valerian persecution, AD 257
- AD 260 · Gallienus’ edict of toleration, AD 260
- AD 268 · Antioch deposes Paul of Samosata, AD 268
- AD 272 · Aurelian awards the Antioch church, AD 272
- AD 301 · Hripsime and her company, AD 301
- AD 303 · The Great Persecution begins, AD 303
- AD 303 · The search of the church at Cirta, AD 303
- AD 306 · The Council of Elvira, AD 306
Place
Places served
The one place the sources put Marcellus I.
- 1Rome