CYRICUS AND JULITTA, Saints, Martyrs. - The information concerning them is rather obscure.

In the Hieronymian Martyrology they are commemorated on 16 June as martyrs of Antioch, together with 404 others; in the Synaxarion of Constantinople, in the Calendar of Naples and in the Roman Martyrology, however, they are remembered on 15 July and as martyrs of Tarsus in Cilicia. A homily of St. Basil moreover (PG 31, 237-41) recalls a G. martyr of Caesarea in Cappadocia, but without any mention of Q. Their cult, especially that of Q. alone, was very widespread in antiquity both in the East and in the West. Their Passio too was widely circulated and translated into various languages, but even then it was considered apocryphal and suspect since it was proscribed by the so-called Gelasian Decree. The version known today, different from the original, is a silly little romance stuffed with the usual unbelievable commonplaces, with speeches and astonishing miracles, and with the aggravating circumstance of being attributed to a child of only three years, which Q. would have been.

Bibliography6 works

BIBL.: Acta SS. Junii, IV, Paris 1867; pp. 13-30; Synax. Constantinopol., p. 821; H. Delehaye, Les origines du culte des martyrs, 2nd ed., Brussels 1933, p. 167 ff.; Martyr. Hieronymianum, p. 321; Martyr. Romanum, p. 240.

Agostino Amore

@incollection{ec10_quirico_e_giulitta_santi_marti, author = {Amore, Agostino}, title = {Quirico e Giulitta, santi, martiri}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {X}, pages = {430}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/quirico-e-giulitta-santi-martiri} }

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Cyricus and Julitta, Saints, Martyrs

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