During the height of the Afghan and Iraq wars, at the time that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld were at the helm, the United States engaged in hiring private contractors (mercenaries) to take captured enemy combatants, whisk them to unknown places and subject them to unspeakable tortures–purportedly to gain intelligence.

This chapter in our history came to light because of people who ferreted out the truth, who asked questions, who insisted on following up trails, who presented FOIA requests, who refused to allow governmental stonewalling efforts to stop their investigations. Even so, we still don’t know the full extent of what was done to whom, where, and, even why. We don’t know how much of our own money was spent to pay these private contractors and who grew rich through this out-of-sight kidnapping and torture. But we know it happened. See, for example this New Yorker article, “Outsourcing Torture: The Secret History of America’s ‘Extraordinary Rendition’ Program.”

Back in the year 304, Marcellinus and Peter were Christian priests in Rome. They were condemned during one of the waves of Christian persecutions, and:

by a secret order of the judge, the executioner led them into a forest, that the holy men were executed privately, no Christians might be acquainted with the place of their sepulchre [burial]. . . . After they were beheaded, their bodies were buried in the same place.

It was only because two women with a nose for news–Lucilla and Fermina–who had no known specific, personal relationship with Marcellinus and Peter went in search of their bodies that the story of these saints’ fate came to be known. Lucilla stated that it came to her by “revelation” to seek out this truth, and it is worth noting that she did not say revelation from whom (God or another)–thereby protecting her sources like any good investigative journalist would today. Receiving news (revelation), Lucilla turned to the also-fearless Fermina for assistance in tracking down what happened to these two priests who had been rendered by secret from their homes and who were executed.

Although Marecllinus and Peter are celebrated on the Saints’ Calendar because they were, in fact, executed as a result of their unwavering commitment to the Christian faith, it is Lucilla and Fermina that we have to thank for even knowing what happened.