QUIRICUS and JULITTA, saints, martyrs — Sienese fresco of the martyrdom of SS. Q. and J. in the church of S. Maria Antiqua (741–52) — Rome.
Mantua, G
QUIRICUS and JULITTA, saints, martyrs — Sienese fresco of the martyrdom of SS. Q. and J. in the church of S. Maria Antiqua (741–32) — Rome.
With this family and with other princely houses he maintained relations, and everywhere he diffused the fragrance of his virginal grace. He was in contact with Bl. Matthew Carreri, with St. Angela Merici and Bl. Osanna Andreasi, and acted as teacher and counsellor to persons of every rank. Returning to Soncino, he founded a women’s monastery dedicated to St. Paul and St. Catherine, which Julius II approved in 1512. Benedict XIV in 1740 confirmed its cult and the title of Blessed.
QUIRICUS and JULITTA, saints, martyrs. — The information concerning them is rather obscure.
In the Martyrologium Hieronymianum they are commemorated on 16 June as martyrs of Antioch, together with 404 others; in the Synaxarium 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 (PG 31, 237–41) mentions a J. martyred at Caesarea in Cappadocia, but makes no reference whatever to Q. Their cult, especially that of Q. alone, was very widespread in antiquity both in the East and in the West. Their Passio was likewise widely circulated and translated into various languages, but even then it was considered apocryphal and suspect, though it was not proscribed by the so-called Gelasian Decree until later. The version known today, which differs from the primitive one, is a worthless little romance stuffed with the usual incredible commonplaces, discourses and astonishing miracles, aggravated by the fact that they are attributed to a child of only three years, namely Q.