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Marcellus and Anthony

The Holy Martyrs Marcellus and Anthony

Martyr

Commemorated 1 March — Martyrdom by fire

Marcellus and Anthony were two early martyrs commemorated on March 1, of whom the synaxarion preserves only that, having confessed Christ, they were cast into the fire and perished in the flames — shining, in the words of the notice, brighter than gold tried in the furnace. Nothing further of their place or age is securely transmitted; the Church keeps their memory among the martyrs of the day.

The two martyrs Marcellus and Anthony (Antony, Antoninus) are known only from the brief notice of the Synaxarion for March 1, which records their end without their history: committed to the fire for the confession of Christ, they endured the flames and gave up their souls, and were counted worthy of the martyr's crown. The synaxarion's image — that they shone in the fire "brighter than gold in the crucible" — is the whole of what the tradition hands down of their contest. Neither their city nor the emperor of their persecution is named in the surviving record, and no Acts of their martyrdom survive; theirs is one of the many honest short memories of the calendar, a name and a manner of death held in the Church's remembrance.

Feast and commemoration

Marcellus and Anthony are commemorated on March 1 (church date; New Calendar civil March 1; Old Calendar civil March 14), among the martyrs who share the day with Eudocia of Heliopolis. Their feast falls within Great Lent, and their memory is kept with the Triodion of the day.

Hymns

Troparion — Tone 4

Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received crowns of incorruption from Thee our God; for possessing Thy strength, they cast down the tyrants and shattered the powerless boldness of the demons. At their supplications, O Christ God, save our souls.

Original translation from the Greek

Iconography

The two are depicted, as martyrs by fire, standing amid flames, holding the cross of martyrdom. No storable icon proper to them has been identified; a suitable public-domain image is wanting.

Disputed questions

  • The martyrs of March 1, and a conflation. The classical Synaxarion of Constantinople distinguishes on this day two separate pairs of martyrs: Marcellus and Anthony, put to death by fire, and — commemorated separately — Nestor and Tribimius (Trivimius), martyrs of Perge in Pamphylia under Decius, put to death by the sword. Some later calendars, including the OCA's, gather all four into a single company "of Perge"; the older books keep them as two distinct martyrdoms, which this entry follows. (Nestor and Tribimius are treated among the pending entries of the day, pending resolution of their relation to the hieromartyr Nestor of Magydos, also of Pamphylia under Decius, kept February 28.)
  • Not to be confused with the venerable Marcellus of the Akoimetoi, the abbot of the Sleepless Ones, nor with the several other saints named Marcellus and Anthony in the calendar; these are the two martyrs by fire of March 1.

Sources

  1. Synaxarion of Constantinople and the Greek Menaion, March 1 (consulted via oca.org, March 1, and azbyka.ru for the Old-Calendar civil March 14) — the commemoration of Marcellus and Anthony, martyrs by fire, and the distinct pair Nestor and Tribimius of Perge.
  2. Orthodox Church in America, Lives of the Saints, March 1 (consulted live) — the notice that they were "thrown into a fire, where they shone forth brighter than gold in a crucible."