Sts. Quiricus and Julitta

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