(A.D. 269.)
[Roman Martyrology. Another S. Quirinus on March 30th, and another on
June 4th. The Quirinus on this day, March 25th, is mentioned in the
Acts of SS. Maris, Martha, Andifax, and Habakkuk (Jan. 19th), which
are genuine. All other accounts of Quirinus are fabulous.]
Quirinus is said, but the statement is palpably false, to have been the
son of the emperor Philip, and to have been converted by his Christian
mother, Severa. Putting this idle fable aside, we know of Quirinus
only that he was executed with the sword in prison in 269, and the
body was thrown into the Tiber, but was recovered by a priest named
Pastor, who buried it in the Pontiani cemetery, whence it was removed
in the pontificate of pope S. Zacharias (March 15th), and it found a
shrine and resting-place eventually in the monastery of Tengern-see,
in Bavaria. A spring of naphtha rising there goes by the name of
Quirinus-oil.
The S. Quirinus of Rome commemorated on March 30th, according to
the Roman Martyrology, is supposed to have been a military tribune,
chiefly from the fact that he has been represented in armour seated on
horseback. He is the patron Saint of Cologne, Correggio, and Neuss.
This S. Quirinus is often represented with a falcon, which circumstance
has been said to indicate his high birth, and has also led to his being
reputed to have been of the Imperial family, and so being identified
with the S. Quirinus commemorated on March 25th. The real reason for
the falcon's presence seems, however, to lie in the story related of
his martyrdom (see page 504).
[Illustration: MEMORIAL OF THE CRUCIFIXION. After a Picture by Roger
Van der Weyden, in the Museum at Madrid. March 25.]