Lenten Station Church
5th Wednesday in Lent
St. Marcellus
(San Marcello)

Tradition holds that a church was built over the prison of Pope Marcellus I 309 AD. The first historical mention of the existence in Rome of a church called “di Marcello” can be found in the letter dated in December 418 AD. Pope Adrian I, in the 8th century, built a church on the same place, which is currently under the modern church. The church was almost completely destroyed by fire in 1519. The original plan to rebuild the church was designed by Jacopo Sansovino, who fled the city during the Sack and never returned to finish it. (The Sack of 1527 was a traumatic military event that displaced artisans, artists, and humanists of the papal court and city.) The church was eventually rebuilt, but the Tiber flood damaged it again. It was only in 1692–1697 that the church was completed with a facade. Under the main altar, created in 1725, are the relics of several saints, which include those of Pope Marcellus as well as Digna and Emerita. There are several chapels in the church built primarily during the 15th and 16th centuries, each with impressive works of art. In 1369 the church was entrusted to the Order of the Servants of Mary and is still under their auspices today. St Marcellus Exterior Views St Marcellus Interior Views Pope Marcellus I was the bishop of Rome from 308 to his death. Under Maxentius, Marcellus was banished from Rome in 309 due to the disorderly confusion caused by the severity of the penances he had imposed on Christians who had lapsed under the recent persecution. He died the same year. His relics are under the altar of San Marcello al Corso in Rome. His feast day, traditionally celebrated on January 16, is now left to local calendars and is no longer inscribed in the General Roman Calendar. The Miraculous Crucifix has been the object of profound veneration by the faithful of Rome since 1519, when it miraculously remained unharmed in the great fire that destroyed the church. Three years later, in 1522, a serious plague epidemic spread throughout the city. The Cardinal Titular of St Marcellus promoted in that year a solemn penitential procession in which all categories of people participated: clergy, religious, nobles, knights, men, women, old people and children. During that procession, which lasted 16 days, the Crucifix was placed on a carrier and processed through all the different districts of Rome, ending up at St Peter’s Basilica. Shortly after that, the plague ceased to ravage the city. Pope John Paul II embraced that same Crucifix to mark the culmination of the Day of Forgiveness during the Jubilee Year of 2000. Reference: 'San Marcello al Corso' on WikiPedia.org 'The Church of San Marcello al Corso & Miraculous Crucifix' on TheCatholicTravelGuide.com 'Pope Marcellus I' on Wikipedia.org All Photographs are from Commons.WikiMedia.org Pope John Paul II 80th Birthday 1153 (2000)