BACKGROUND

The greatest attribute of God is His Mercy. The Infinite and all encompassing Mercy of God is what gives a Christian Hope and Courage to "take up his cross and follow Him".

Without His Mercy we would be hopelessly lost. Our Lord Jesus Christ made it quite clear [Luke 18: 26-27] when answering those who asked Him: "Then, who can be saved?" His Glorious response was:


Unfortunately, just like the Temple Masters of His time, the leaders of organized religion today are more interested in preserving their very human institutions than Glorifying God and drawing His children to Him. Nonetheless, God will prevail.


INTRODUCTION

We want to present, and propose as the Patron Saint of the true Christian remnant, St. Marcellinus, Pope and Martyr.

Of course, the questions that such proposal would generate would probably be:


Who was Marcellinus?

According to the Roman Catholic published version:

St. Marcellinus: 296-304 A.D. Born in Rome. Elected June 30, 296 - died a martyr October 25, 304.

During his period the persecutions of Diocletian reached their peak. Churches were destroyed and holy books burned. St. Lucy, St. Agnes, St. Bibiana, St. Sebastian and St. Lucian were among the many martyrs of that period. Marcellinus feared the profanation of the catacombs and filled them with earth to avoid this from happening.

Before dying, he threatened to excommunicate whoever was going to bury his body and, for this reason, he remained above ground for about 40 days until St. Peter appeared to Marcellus, his successor, and ordered him to bury the pontiff. Marcellinus is buried in the roman Church of the SS. Apostoli. His pontificate lasted 8 years and 4 months.

All of that is true, except it has been taken out of context to protect the image and credibility of the Church.

This brings us to the next question....

What was so special about Marcellinus? Why he felt unworthy of being buried.

What made him very special was being another living example of the Hope that Divine Mercy guarantees us; a message delivered when we know the full story. [1]

Marcellinus was the predecessor of Pope Marcellus. When Emperor Diocletian summoned him and threatened him with torture, Marcellinus offered sacrifice to the idols for which the emperor presented him with a precious garment.
But Marcellinus bitterly repented and began to lament day and night because of his denial of Christ as Peter the Apostle once did. At that time, an assembly of bishops was held in Campania. The pope dressed in sackcloth poured ashes over his head and entered the assembly and, before all, confessed his sin begging them (the bishops) to judge him. The fathers said that he should judge himself.

Then Marcellinus said: "I deprive myself of my priestly rank, for which I am not worthy, and even more, do not allow my body to be buried after death but let it be thrown to the dogs!" Having said this, he pronounced a curse on the one who would dare bury him.

After that, Marcellinus went to the Emperor Diocletian, threw down the precious garment before him and confessed his faith in Jesus Christ and scorned the idols. The enraged emperor ordered Marcellinus to be tortured and afterwards they killed him outside the city together with three good men: Claudius, Cyrinus and Antoninus. The bodies of these three men were buried immediately but the body of Marcellinus lay there for thirty-six days. Then, St. Peter appeared to the new pope Marcellus and ordered that the body of Marcellinus be buried saying: "He who humbles himself shall be exalted."


DETAILS

The above is not some half baked story concocted by some Roman Catholic hating satanic sect; although Augustine [0] allegedly called it a calumny, thus, depriving sinners of a shining example of the Redemptive Power of God as manifested through His Divine Mercy.

The truth of the story is confirmed in ways that only God would think of... by those who would be construed as enemies of Rome - the Orthodox Church.

First of all, St. Marcellinus is greatly honored by the Orthodox Church as Pope and Martyr. The above quotation comes from a standard Eastern Orthodox (Serbian) liturgical work.[1]

They would not have any reason to honor a Western Pope as a Saint and Martyr and could have very well taken the opportunity to mock Rome's claim to infallibility. After all, centuries later certain Western Popes were behind the sacking and pillaging of Constantinople - the "Rome" of the Eastern Empire and Eastern Church - murdering thousands upon thousands of Orthodox Catholics allegedly for the "Glory of God".

In another Eastern Orthodox source book [2] we read:


Once again, another text of the Eastern Orthodox Church glorifies a Roman Pope while the Roman Church is obviously ashamed of him by hiding the full story.

Secondly, going to the opposite extreme of the spectrum - from a liberal source [3] it is confirmed that:


St. Augustine called this information calumnious, but it is a fact that the Liber Pontificalis itself reports that Marcellinus did make sacrifice to the pagan gods, even though he repented a few days later and was beheaded by Diocletian's order on 25 October 304.

Sadly, his name is missing from many lists of pontiffs in antiquity, and this leads one to think that his image was tainted. Yet his sepulcher in the cemetery of Priscilla, considerably more modest than those of the papal crypt in the catacombs of St. Calixtus, was much venerated for many centuries."

Somewhere along history, probably as the result of his modest tomb being the object of veneration for many centuries, the Vatican "reinstated" Marcellinus; they then granted him the title of Saint and Martyr. The true history was Hollywoodized and the Christian faith became more impoverished. The Church Administrators continued to attempt to appear "holier than thou," something that has come to a head with the ridiculous claim of "blanket infallibility" for any successor of Peter.
The successors of the same man to whom Jesus said:



CONCLUSION

Peter, having been a living witness to the Ministry of Jesus Christ denied Him three times to save himself. Why is it then so shameful to talk about the very human lapse of poor Marcellinus? We cannot think of a more painful situation than poor Peter and Mercillinus found themselves in when they acknowledged to themselves that they have denied our Lord and Master Jesus Christ. May God help us from ever doing so because, fallen as we are, we all could just do the same unless sustained by a Special Grace from God - a Grace which we should now, shamelessly, beg of Him.

Obviously we heard about Peter's betrayal because the corruption of the Vatican was not complete enough that they would change the Holy Scriptures to cover that lapse in Peter's faith, too. (However, as a result of conveniently careless translations, this has been done since then.)

Therefore we want to now, Trumpet in hand, proclaim from the highest points of earth that dear Marcellinus should be the standard bearer for us sinners and a living remembrance of our weaknesses and the Glorious Mercy of God - the "Life-Saver" of humanity!