Martinianus, a martyr at Rome

Martinianus (1), legendary martyr with PROCESSUS at Rome. According to the Acts of LINUS, these were the two soldiers into whose charge Peter had been given. They were converted by him in prison, and for their baptism, Peter, by making the sign of the cross, caused a fountain, still shewn in the Mamertine prison, miraculously to spring from the rock. After their baptism the two soldiers give Peter as much liberty as he desires, and when news comes that the prefect Agrippa is about to put him to death, earnestly urge him to withdraw. Peter at first complies, but returns to custody in consequence of the well-known vision Domine quo vadis. According to a notice in Praedestinatus (Haer. 86), which has the air of being more historical than most of the stories of that author, their cult was already in vogue in the reign of the pretender Maximus, i.e. before the end of the 4th cent. According to this story, Montanists got temporary possession of their relics and claimed them as belonging to their sect. Lipsius conjectures that their cult began in the episcopate of Damasus, when great exertions were made to revive the memory of the saints of the Roman church. To this period may be referred the Acts of Processus and Martinianus (Bolland. AA. SS. July i. 303). They are clearly later than Constantine, containing mention of offices which did not exist till his time. They are evidently based on the 702Acts of Linus, but the story receives considerable ornament. Their commemoration is fixed for July 2 in the Sacramentary of Gregory the Great (vol. ii. 114), who also mentions a church dedicated to them, and tells of a miraculous appearance of them (Hom. in Evang. ii. 32, vol. i. 1586). On the whole subject, see Lipsius (Petrus-Sage, pp. 137 seq.).

[G S.]