medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Marcellus (d. ca. 393?) was bishop of Apamea, the capital of the province of Syria secunda, in the late fourth century. According to the fifth-century church historians Theodoret of Cyrus (or Cyrrhus; _Historia ecclesiastica_ 5. 21) and Sozomen (_Historia ecclesiastica_ 7. 15), he vigorously enforced Theodosius' edict calling for the closing of pagan temples. Theodoret reports that at Apamea's temple of Zeus Marcellus encountered demonic resistance but overcame it, driving off the demon with holy water and the sign of the cross.
After not only closing but also destroying the pagan temples in the city itself Marcellus continued his campaign in the surrounding countryside. He was martyred at a place called Aulon by locals unreconciled to his intended demolition of a temple there. According to Sozomen, Marcellus, foreseeing possible resistance, had brought soldiers and gladiators to the scene to repel or subdue those who might attack his workmen; he himself remained at some distance behind, out of bowshot. Being virtually immobile due to gout, he was easy prey for the pagans who seized him and who then burned him alive. Marcellus' Passiones (BHG 1026-1027b) add the detail that he came from Cyprus.
If Sozomen's account is accurate, Marcellus of Apamea joins the recently celebrated Rainerius of Cagli and of Split (4. August) as proof that imprudence leading to one's death when conducting a campaign against predictably hostile people defending what they consider their own turf is no bar to ongoing ecclesiastical veneration as an heroic Christian martyr. In the originally tenth-century Synaxary of Constantinople Marcellus has the second entry under 14. August and supplementary entries under 25. and 26. February. Modern Byzantine-rite churches celebrate him on this day or on 25. February. Today (14. August) is Marcellus of Apamea's day of commemoration in the Roman Martyrology.
Marcellus of Apamea as depicted (lower register, third from left) by Michael Astrapas and Eutychios in a February calendar composition in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1313 and 1318; conservation work in 1968) in the church of St. George in Staro Nagoričane in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/z38vlbf
The saints in this register are those of 25. February; starting from the left they are Tarasius of Constantinople, Alexander of Drizipara, Marcellus of Apamea, and Theodore the Fool.
Best,
John Dillon
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