De sancto Quirico et Julita ejus matre
The Virtue of the Child
The names of Quiricus and Julita are interpreted through their virtues, highlighting how grace empowered the young child.
Quiricus, seeking the bow, or from 'chisil' which means strength, and 'cus' meaning black—as if strong through virtue and black through humility—or from 'quiris'. Which is a spear, or from 'quiriles' which is called a seat; for he himself was a bow, that is, curved in his humility, black in his being despised, a spear in the defeat of the enemy, and a seat of God through God's dwelling. In him, grace supplied what his age denied. Julita, helping through her life, because she lived a spiritual life and through it benefited many.
The Martyrdom of Mother and Son
Julita and her young son Quiricus endure severe persecution and torture for their confession of faith in Christ.
Quiricus was the son of Julita, a most illustrious matron of Iconium, who, wishing to avoid persecution, came to Tarsus in Cilicia with her child Quiricus, who was three years old; yet she was presented to the governor Alexander while carrying the boy in her arms, which, when her two maids saw, they fled and abandoned her immediately. The governor, therefore, took the boy into his arms and ordered the mother, who refused to sacrifice, to be scourged with raw leather thongs. The boy, however, seeing his mother being scourged, wept bitterly and let out lamentable cries. But the governor, placing the boy Quiricus in his arms and on his knees, tried to soothe him with kisses and other flatteries; the infant, however, looking toward his mother, abhorred the governor's kisses and, turning his head away with indignation, clawed at his face with his nails and gave out cries in harmony with his mother, as if to say: 'I, too, am a Christian.' At last, after struggling for a long time, he bit the governor on the shoulder; the governor, enraged and stung by the pain, threw the boy down from the high place by the steps, so that his tender brain struck the tribunal, but Julita, seeing that her son had gone ahead to the kingdom, joyfully gave thanks to God. Then Julita was ordered to be flayed, doused in boiling pitch, and finally beheaded; however, it is found in a certain legend that Quiricus, holding the tyrant’s coaxing in as little regard as his threats, confessed that he was a Christian—a child who, according to the time, was speechless, yet the Holy Spirit spoke within him. When the governor asked him who had taught him, he said, “Governor, I marvel at your foolishness, that you see my tiny age—not yet three years old in the circle of time—and ask who taught me divine wisdom.” As he was being beaten, he kept crying out, “I am a Christian,” and every time he cried this out, he received strength amidst the torments.
Rest and Revelation
After their death, the remains of the martyrs are preserved by divine intervention and later revealed to the Church.
The governor, however, had the mother and child torn limb from limb and ordered their remains to be scattered so they would not be buried by Christians. Yet they were gathered by an angel and buried by Christians at night. Their bodies were revealed during the time of Constantine the Great, when peace had been restored to the Church, by one of the maidservants who was still alive, and they are held in great devotion by all the people. They suffered, however, around the year of our Lord 230. This happened during the reign of Emperor Alexander.
Read the original Latin
Quirieus quaerens arcum, vel a chisil, quod est fortitudo, et cus niger, quasi fortis per virtutem et niger per humiliationeym, vel a quiris,. quod est hasta, vel a quiriles, quod dicitur sedile, Ipse enim arcus fuit, id est, curvus in sui humiliatione, in topmentorum passione, niger in sui despectione, hasta in inimici debellatione, Dei sedile ex Dei habitatione. Haec enim in eo gratia supplevit, quae aetas negavit. Julita juvans vita, quia vita spirituali vixit et per hanc multis profuit. — l Quiricus fuit filius Julitae illustrissimae matronae Yconii, quae persecutionem declinare volens in Tarsum Ciliciae cum puero suo Quirico, qui erat trium annorum, venit, sed tamen Alexandro praesidi praesentatur in ulnis suis puerum gestans, quod duae famulae suae videntes fugerunt et eam protinus reliquerunt. Praeses igitur puerum in ulnis suis suscepit et matrem sacrificare nolentem crudis nervis flagellari praecepit. Puer autem matrem flagellari conspiciens amare flebat et lamentabiles voces dabat. At praeses puerum Qniricum in ulnas et super genua ponens eum osculis et aliis blanditiis demulcebat, infans autem ad matrem respiciens praesidis oscula abhorrebat et caput cum indignatione avertens vultum ejus ungulis laniabat et matri consonas voces dabat, quasi diceret: et ego christianus sum.
Tandem diu reluctans praesidem in scapulis momordit; tunc praeses indignatus, dolore cruciatus puerum ab alto per gradus praecipitavit, ita ut tribunali tenellum cerebrum adhaereret, Julitd vero filium ad regnum praecessisse videns laeta gratias Deo reddidit. Tunc Julita jussa est excoriari et bullienti pice perfundi et demum capite truncari, In quadam autem legenda invenitur, quod Quiricus tyrannum blandientem aeque ut minantem parvi pendens christianum se esse confitebatur, secundum quidem tempus elinguis infantulus, sed in eo loquebatur spiritus sanctus. Quem cum praeses interrogare, quis eum docuisset, ait: tuam, praeses, miror insipientiam, qui meam tantillam cernens aetatulam necdum temporis circulo triennem percontaris, quis me divinam docuerit sapientiam. Qui cum caederetur, clamabat : christianus sum, et quotiehs hoc clamabat, totiens vires inter tormenta recipiebat. Praeses autem matrem cum puero membratim scindi fecit et eorum membra ne a christianis sepelirentur, dispergi mandavit. Sed tamen ab angelo sunt collecta et nocte a christianis sepulta. Horum corpora tempore Constantini magni, cum pax es et reddita ecclesiae, ab una de ancillis, quae adhuc supererat, revelantur et in devotione magna ab omni populo habentur. Passi autem sunt circa annos domini ducentesimo XXX.
sub Alexandro imperatore.
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