Holy Martyrs Quiricus and His Mother Julitta (+c. 305)

The holy Martyrs Quiricus and Julitta lived in Asia Minor, in the city of Iconium in Lycaonia. Julitta, a descendant of a noble family, was a Christian. She was widowed early and brought up her only son, the infant Quiricus, in piety. When the lawless Emperor Diocletian (284–305) began a persecution of the faithful, Saint Julitta, fearing that she might not endure the torments, left all her wealth, her relatives and friends, and fled with her son and two maidservants first to Seleucia, and then went on to Tarsus. Here the blessed one lived among the common people and the poor. Outwardly she seemed in no way different from them, but, as it seems, “her hour was come”: an evil tongue denounced her to the governor Alexander. Julitta appeared before the tribunal with her three-year-old son in her arms. When the governor asked her name, her family and where she came from, the saint answered boldly: “I am a Christian! This word speaks both of who I am and of my nobility, and my homeland is the heavenly Jerusalem!” At the order of the judge, enraged by her bold answer, her son was torn from Julitta’s arms, and they began to beat her mercilessly with ox sinews. Watching his mother’s torture, Quiricus wept, waved his arms, kicked the tormentors and tried to free himself from them. Charmed by the child’s beauty, Alexander had him brought to him, sat him on his lap and began to caress him, but the child would not be quieted: “I am a Christian too!” the child cried, and in tears strained towards his mother. The judge, terribly enraged, hurled the child to the ground and kicked him. The infant rolled down, striking his head on the edges of the steps, and commended his soul to the Lord.

When Julitta saw her son’s blessed end, she gave thanks to the Lord, while the governor, convinced once more of her steadfastness, ordered the torture to be intensified: they began to tear the martyr with sharp iron instruments and poured molten pitch into her wounds.

“Have pity on thyself, Julitta,” Alexander said to the lamb of Christ, “spare thy youth and offer sacrifice to the gods!”

“I will not bow my neck to dumb and deaf idols; I worship only my Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God!” the blessed one answered.

The powerless governor pronounced the death sentence on Julitta. Before the sentence was carried out, the blessed martyr asked for time to pray; she knelt and cried out to the Saviour: “I thank Thee, O Lord, that Thou hast called my son before me, and in place of the vain earthly life hast given him the eternal Kingdom for his inheritance. Receive now the soul of me also, Thine unworthy handmaid, and make me worthy to enter with the wise virgins into that never-ending marriage feast.”

After these words Julitta was beheaded (+c. 305). Her body, together with the body of Quiricus, was thrown outside the city to be torn by beasts and birds, but her faithful maidservants managed to bury them secretly by night.

The uncovering of the relics of the blessed martyrs took place in the reign of Constantine the Great, Equal to the Apostles (+337, commemorated 21 May). People pray to Quiricus and Julitta for happiness in family life and for the speedy healing of sick children. The hand of Saint Quiricus is kept in Georgia.