Page "Pope Marcellus I" Paragraph 2

According to the Liber Pontificalis, Marcellus divided the territorial administration of the Church into twenty-five districts ( tituli ), appointing over each a presbyter, who saw to the preparation of the catechumens for baptism and directed the performance of public penances.

The presbyter was also made responsible for the burial of the dead and for the celebrations commemorating the deaths of the martyrs.

The pope also had a new burial-place, the Cœmeterium Novellœ on the Via Salaria ( opposite the Catacomb of St. Priscilla ), laid out.

The Liber Pontificalis ( ed.

Duchesne, I, 164 ) says: " Hic fecit cymiterium Novellae via Salaria et XXV titulos in urbe Roma constituit quasi diœcesis propter baptismum et pœnitentiam multorum qui convertebantur ex paganis et propter sepulturas martyrum ".

At the beginning of the 7th century, there were probably twenty-five titular churches in Rome ; even granting that, perhaps, the compiler of the Liber Pontificalis referred this number to the time of Marcellus, there is still a clear historical tradition in support of his declaration that the ecclesiastical administration in Rome was reorganized by this pope after the great persecution.