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<img height='275' src='http://vaticanstamps.org/VPS/images/296/749.jpg'> 
Sepulchre of Marcellinus and Peter Scott 749 (1984)</center>
 
June 2 marks the feast day of Saints Marcellinus and Peter, two martyrs venerated within Christian churches. Hagiographies (written lives of the saints) place them in Rome in the early 4th century, specifically at the time of the persecutions of Diocletian. They are generally represented as men in middle age and carrying palm branches (symbolic of martyrdom).
 
Very little is known about the actual lives of these two men, although Marcellinus is identified as a priest, and Peter as an exorcist. Both died by beheading in 304 AD during the Diocletianic Persecution, the last and most severe period of Christian persecution during the era of the Roman Empire. It was reported that they were forced to dig their own graves in an obscure area so other Christians would not have a chance to find and venerate their bodies. By one account, a roman matron named of Lucilla had their bodies moved to Via Casilina, at the site called “Ad Duas Lauros”, a Christian cemetery. The site became known as the Catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter.
 
Pope Damasus I claimed to have been told the story of the deaths of these two martyrs by their executioner. The pope is credited with preserving and restoring the catacombs of the martyrs and spreading their veneration. Within the catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter, a fourth-century wall painting depicts Christ between the apostles Peter and Paul, and below them the martyrs Gorgonius, Peter, Marcellinus, and Tiburtius (shown below). Pope Damasus also wrote a Latin epitaph with the details of their death with which he adorned their tomb. They are also venerated with the Apostles and Martyrs in the Intercessions of the Catholic Eucharistic Prayer I.
 
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<img height='350' src='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/ChristPeterPaul.jpg'> 
Wall Painting, Catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter 
From Wikimedia Commons, in the Public Domain</center>
 
Three stamps issued in 1984 (Scott 749-751) honor the 16th centenary of the death of Saint Pope Damasus. The stamps focus on the work of the pope to venerate, preserve and eulogize the memories of numerous martyrs, including Saints Marcellinus and Peter. Scott 749 (shown above) commemorates the reconstruction of the sepulchre of these two saints and martyrs.
 
REFERENCES: 
<li>Wikipedia, <a href = 'https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcellinus_and_Peter'>Marcellinus and Peter</a> 
<li>Wikimedia, <a href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catacombs_of_Marcellinus_and_Peter'>Catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter</a> 
<li>Catacombe D'Italia, <a href='http://www.catacombeditalia.va/content/archeologiasacra/en/catacombs/by-provinces/rome/catacomb-of-sts-marcellinus-peter.html'>Catacomb of Saints Marcellinus and Peter</a> 
<li>UFN, November 27, 1984, <a href = 'https://vaticanstamps.org/UFN/images/1984-2-07-1.jpg'>Sixteenth Centenary of Death of Pope Saint Damasus</a> 
<li>Vatican Philatelic Society website, www.vaticanstamps.org, Stamp Database Search

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