Saint Marcellinus of Ancona

We know little about Saint Marcellinus, bishop of Ancona, and that little comes from an authoritative voice: Pope Gregory the Great, who wrote down what people in Ancona used to tell. He lived in the sixth century and was bishop of his city. Only one story has come down through the centuries, and it’s the kind you remember: Ancona was burning, and Marcellinus saved the city from the fire. It’s the episode he is remembered for, and it’s so well known that it was even painted in the Gallery of Maps, in the Vatican — a city in flames and its bishop in the middle. Whether it happened exactly like that, no one can say. But the scene says something precise about the job people expected from a bishop back then: not standing behind an altar, but physically putting himself in front of the people when trouble came. In those centuries bishops negotiated with armies, ransomed prisoners, organized bread. They were the last authority left standing when everything else was collapsing. Today his remains rest in Ancona, in the crypt of the Protectors in the Cathedral of San Ciriaco — the one that gathers the city’s patron saints — inside a jasper urn donated by Pope Benedict XIV. If your name is Marcellino or Marcello, today is your name day: a name that sounds old in just the right way. A man and a fire: however it went, it’s an image you don’t forget.