Martyr 4th century

Martyrs Quiricus and Julitta

died c. 304

Also known as Kerykos · Cyricus · Julitta

A Christian widow of Iconium and her son Quiricus, but three years old, who fleeing persecution were seized at Tarsus; when the child cried out that he too was a Christian, both were put to death together.

Feast Day

July 15

Draft

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Commemorated as

The Holy Martyrs Quiricus and Julitta

Come to them for

Children

Life

Quiricus and Julitta were a mother and her young son, martyred together during the persecution under the emperor Diocletian in the early fourth century. By tradition Julitta was a Christian widow of Iconium in the province of Lycaonia in Asia Minor, descended from an illustrious family, who was left to raise her infant son alone. The boy Quiricus was about three years old at the time of their death. The Eastern Church commemorates them together on July 15, and they are venerated as among the youngest of the martyrs.

When the persecution reached Iconium, Julitta is said to have fled with the child and two of her servants, going first toward Seleucia and then to Tarsus in Cilicia, where she was recognized and seized. Brought before the governor, named Alexander in the tradition, she confessed herself a Christian and was subjected to torture. The synaxarion relates that she was beaten, her sides were torn with iron hooks, and hot pitch was poured upon her feet, and that she was finally beheaded with the sword.

The account of the child's death is the defining feature of their veneration. According to tradition, when the small boy was taken up and Julitta interrogated, Quiricus cried out that he too was a Christian and struggled to return to his mother. For this confession the governor cast him down, and the child died, his head broken against the steps of the tribunal. Mother and son were thus put to death together, and the Church honors the three-year-old as a true martyr who confessed Christ with his own words.

Timeline 2 moments Read Hide

early 4th c. Persecution of Diocletian The persecution reaches Iconium, and the widow Julitta flees with her three-year-old son Quiricus and two servants.
c. 304 Martyrdom at Tarsus Mother and child are seized at Tarsus and put to death together before the governor Alexander.

Contributions & Legacy

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Sources and the Acts

The narrative of Quiricus and Julitta is preserved in passion accounts of differing detail, and the variations in the tradition are long-recognized. In the sixth century a set of Acts circulating under their names was listed among apocryphal writings in the Decretum Gelasianum, and modern accounts accordingly relate the more elaborate episodes as tradition rather than documented history. The essential and consistently transmitted facts are the mother-and-son pairing, the child's confession, and their martyrdom under Diocletian.

Despite the questioned Acts, the cult of the two martyrs spread widely in both East and West. By tradition their relics were discovered in the reign of Constantine the Great; in the East the head of Quiricus is venerated at the Monastery of Grigoriou on Mount Athos, with relics of Julitta kept in monasteries of Greece and Cyprus. In the West their veneration became strong in France, traced to Amator (Amador), Bishop of Auxerre, who was said to have brought relics from the East in the fourth century.

Notes

Named mother-and-son pair commemorated as one.

Sources: OCA Synaxarion (oca.org), Lives of the Saints