Quiricus and Julitta
| Saints Cyricus and Julitta | |
|---|---|
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| Died | ~304 AD Tarsus, Asia Minor |
| Venerated in | Assyrian Church of the East, Eastern Catholic Churches, Roman Catholic Church, Oriental Orthodox Churches and Eastern Orthodox Church |
| Major shrine | Relics at Nevers, and in the monastery of Saint-Amand, Tournai. |
| Feast |
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| Attributes | From the story involving Charlemagne, Cyricus is depicted as a naked child riding on a wild boar. |
| Patronage | Prayed to for family happiness, and the restoring to health of sick children. |
Cyricus (Aramaic: ܡܪܝ ܩܘܪܝܩܘܣ ܣܗܕܐ Mar Quriaqos Sahada; also Cyriacus, Quiriac, Quiricus, Cyr), and his mother, Julitta (Greek: Ἰουλίττα, Aramaic: ܝܘܠܝܛܐ, Yolitha; also Julietta) are venerated as early Christian martyrs. According to tradition, they were put to death at Tarsus in AD 304.
Some evidence exists for an otherwise unknown child-martyr named Cyricus at Antioch. It is believed that the legends about Saints Cyricus and Julitta refer to him. There are places named after Cyricus in Europe and the Middle East, but without the name Julitta attached. Cyricus is the found in many French toponyms. The cult of these saints was strong in France after Saint Amator, Bishop of Auxerre, brought relics back from Antioch in the 4th century. It is said that Constantine I discovered their relics originally and built a monastery near Constantinople, and a church not far off from Jerusalem. In the 6th century the Acts of Cyricus and Julitta were rejected in a list of apocryphal documents by the Decretum Gelasianum, called as such since the list was erroneously attributed to Pope Saint Gelasius I.
According to pseudo-Gelasius, Julitta and her three-year-old son Cyricus had fled to Tarsus and were identified as Christians. Julitta was tortured and Cyricus, being held by the governor of Tarsus, scratched the governor's face and was killed by being thrown down by some stairs. Julitta did not weep but celebrated the fact that her son had earned the crown of martyrdom. In anger, the governor then decreed that Julitta’s sides should be ripped apart with hooks, and then she was beheaded. Her body, along with that of Cyricus, was flung outside the city, on the heap of bodies belonging to criminals, but the two maids rescued the corpses of the mother and child and buried them in a nearby field.
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