(A.D. 130.)
[Usuardus, Ado, Notker, and Roman Martyrology. Authority:--Mention in
the Acts of S. Alexander, pope (May 3rd), but these are not altogether
trustworthy.]
Quirinus the Tribune was converted and baptized by pope S. Alexander
I., and was condemned to have his tongue, hands, and feet cut off.
According to the popular legend, which is often represented in art, his
tongue was offered to a falcon, but the bird refused to eat it: the
Acts say nothing of it. The hands and feet were in like manner cast
to dogs, and popular tradition adds that they refused to devour them.
Afterwards he was drawn by oxen to the place of final execution, where
his head was struck off.
Relics at Neuss, in the archdiocese of Cologne, and anciently in the
church of S. Madeleine at Troyes, in France, also in the church of S.
Pantaleon, in Cologne, where is a portion of the skull, in that of
S. Gereon, and that of the Jesuits in the same city; at Silburg, at
Zulpich, at Louvain, Tongres, Florieffe, at Bologna, and in the church
of S. Balbina in Rome.