[1] Damasus states that they were killed at an out-of-the-way spot by the magistrate Severus or Serenus,[2] so that other Christians would not have a chance to bury and venerate their bodies.

The two saints happily cleared the spot chosen for their death: a thicket overgrown with thorns, brambles, and briers three miles from Rome.

Alban Butler writes that "it was thought at one time that forty-four other martyrs died with Marcellinus and Peter, but this is due to a misreading of the Hieronymianum.

[1] Pope Damasus, who opened their catacombs,[2] also remarks that he wrote a Latin epitaph with the details of their death with which he adorned their tomb.

[5] In the Martyrologium, their feast day is given as 2 June and their sepulcher is described as being located ad duas lauros ("at the two laurel trees") at the third mile of the Via Labicana.

[1] From the 7th century onwards, their sepulcher became a site of pilgrimage, and their feast day is recorded in local liturgies and hagiographies.

[5] In 1253 Pope Alexander IV translated their relics to an ancient church (its presence was first mentioned in 595 AD) near the present-day Via Merulana that was named after them: Santi Marcellino e Pietro.

A slightly different account states that Einhard had built a basilica at Michelstadt in 827 and then sent a servant, Ratleic, to Rome with an end to find relics for the new building.

Once in Rome, Ratleic, with the help of a Roman deacon with a reputation as a relics-swindler and thief[1] named Deusdona, robbed a catacomb of the bones of Marcellinus and Peter and had them translated to Michelstadt.