| SAINTS QUIRICUS AND JULITTA |
| Feast June 16
|
| Martyred
under Diocletian. The names of these two martyrs, who in the early Church
enjoyed a widespread veneration, are found in the "Martyrologium
Hieronymianum" (ed. De Rossi-Duchesne, 79) and also in the calendars and
menologies of the Greek and other Oriental Churches. According to the Acts of
their martyrdom, which appeared later, and a letter of the sixth century,
Julitta fled with her three-months-old child, Quiricus, from Lycaonia, when the
Maximinian persecution broke out there, to Isauria and thence to Tarsus in
Cilicia. She suffered martyrdom in the last-named city after her child had first
been killed before her eyes. The veneration of the two martyrs was common in the
West at an early date, as is proved by the chapel dedicated to them in the
Church of Santa Maria Antiqua at Rome, as well as by testimony from Gaul. Their
relics are said to have been brought to the monastery of Saint-Amand (Elnonense
monasterium) in the Diocese of Tournai. The feast is observed on 16 June; in the
Synaxarium of Constantinople it is set under the date of 15 July.
J.P. Kirsch From the Catholic Encyclopedia, copyright © 1913 by the Encyclopedia Press,
Inc. Electronic version copyright © 1996 by New Advent, Inc. |
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