De sancto Marcello
The Meaning of the Name
The name Marcellus signifies one who overcomes the turbulent and shifting nature of the world.
The name Marcellus is said to mean one who wards off evil from himself, or it is said that Marcellus means one who strikes the seas. And. striking and trampling down worldly adversities. The world is compared to the sea because, as Chrysostom says in his commentary on Matthew, the sea holds a confused sound, constant fear, an image of death, an unwearied struggle of waves, and perpetual inconstancy.
The Humiliation of the Pontiff
Pope Marcellus endures the emperor's cruelty and forced labor before finding his final rest in the Lord.
While Marcellus was serving as the supreme pontiff in Rome, he rebuked Emperor Maximian for his excessive cruelty toward Christians and celebrated Mass in a house belonging to a certain noblewoman that had been consecrated as a church; in his anger, the emperor turned that house into a stable for beasts of burden and assigned Marcellus himself to serve there, tending the animals. After many years in this service, he rested in the Lord around the year 386.
Read the original Latin
Marcellus dictus est quasi arcens malum à se, vel dicitur Marcellus quasi maria percellens i. e. mundanas adversitates percutiens et conculcans. Assimilatur enim mundus mari, quia, sicut dicit Chrysostomus super Matthaeum: in mari est sonus confusus , timor continuus, ymago mortis , undarum contentio infatigabilis , inconstantia jugis.
Marcellus cum Romae summus pontifex esset et Maximianum imperatorem de nimia in Christianos saevitia increparet et in quadam domo cujusdam matronae in ecclesia consecrata missam ageret, iratus imperator domum illam fecit stabulum jumentorum et eundem Marcellum ibidem ad servitium cum custodia animalium deputavit. in quo servitio post multos annos in domino requievit circa annos domini CCCLXXXVI.
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