Quriaqos and Julietta
| Saint Quriaqos and Saint Julietta | |
|---|---|
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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 | June 16, July 15 (Eastern Orthodox Church) |
| Attributes | From the story involving Charlemagne, Quriaqos 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. |
Julietta or Julitta (Greek: Ἰουλίττα, Aramaic: ܝܘܠܝܛܐ Yolitha) and her son Quriaqos (Aramaic: ܡܪܝ ܩܘܪܝܩܘܣ ܣܗܕܐ Mar Quriaqos Sahada) were martyred in AD 304 in Tarsus according to Christian tradition.
Some evidence exists for an otherwise unknown child-martyr named Quriaqos at Antioch. It is believed that the legends about Saints Quiricus and Julietta refer to him. There are places named after Quriaqos in Europe and the Middle East, but without the name Julietta 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 Quriaqos 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 Church tradition, Julietta and her three-year-old son Quriaqos had fled to Tarsus and were identified as Christians. Julietta was tortured and Quiraqos, being held by the governor of Tarsus, scratched the governor's face and was killed by being thrown down by some stairs. Julietta did not weep but celebrated the fact that her son had earned the crown of martyrdom. In anger, the governor then decreed that Julietta’s sides should be ripped apart with hooks, and then she was beheaded. Her body, along with that of Quriaqos, 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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