Identity and Sources
These martyrs are an obscure pair for whom little biographical detail survives. The Orthodox Church in America synaxarion for March 1 records them as Martyrs Marcellus and Anthony of Syria, noting only that they were thrown into a fire and received the crowns of martyrdom; it supplies no further details about their lives, their persecutor, or the period in which they suffered.
The name Marcellus appears in other March 1 commemorations that should not be conflated with this Syrian pair. Some calendars list martyrs named Marcellus and Anthony (or Antonius) among groups suffering elsewhere — for example a group at Perge in Pamphylia put to death by the sword, dated to the mid-third-century persecution under the Emperor Decius, and another group in Palestine. These differ from the Syrian pair in location and manner of death and may represent distinct commemorations; the Syrian account of two martyrs by fire is the one preserved for these saints.