Saint Quirinus of Neuss
Encyclopedia
Saint Quirinus of Neuss , sometimes called Quirinus of Rome (which is the name shared by another martyr) is venerated as a martyr
and saint
of the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox
churches. His cult
was centered at Neuss
in Germany
, though he was a Roman martyr
.
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia
, a Roman martyr named Quirinus was buried in the Catacomb of Prætextatus on the Via Appia. The Martyrologium Hieronymianum
(ed. De Rossi-Duchesne, 52) mentions Quirinus' name and place of burial. The Itineraries to the graves of the Roman martyrs (Giovanni Battista De Rossi
, "Roma sotterranea", I, 180-1) also mention these two pieces of information.
The Martyrologium Hieronymianum assigns him under the feast day
of April 30, the date that appears in the catalogue of Roman martyrs of the 4th century.
and Balbina
, where it is said he was a tribune
(Dufourcq, loc. cit., 175). He is said to have been decapitated
in 116. Legends make him a Roman tribune who was ordered with executing Alexander, Eventius, and Theodolus, who had been arrested by order of Trajan
. Quirinus converted to Christianity
, however, after witnessing miracles performed by these three saints, and he was baptized along with his daughter Balbina. He was then martyred on March 30 by being decapitated and was then buried catacomb of Prætextatus on the Via Appia.
took the name from these Acts and put it in his Martyrology under date of March 30, on which day it is now also found in the Roman Martyrology (Quentin, "Les martyrologes historiques", 490). For April 30, the Roman Martyrology states: “Item Romae in coemetério Praetextáti via Appia, sancti Quirini mártyris, qui tribúnus confessiónem fídei martyrio coronávit.”
According to a document from Cologne
dating from 1485, Quirinus' body was donated in 1050 by Pope Leo IX
to an abbess of Neuss named Gepa (who is called a sister of the pope). In this way the relic
s came to the Romanesque
Church of St. Quirinus at Neuss (Quirinus-Münster) which still exists. A statue of Quirinus sits atop the church (which Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte attempted to plunder during the Napoleonic Wars
).
Inhabitants of that city invoked him for aid during Siege of Neuss
by Charles the Bold that occurred in 1474-5. His cult spread to Cologne, Alsace
, Scandinavia
, western Germany
, the Netherlands, and Italy
, where he became the patron saint
of Correggio
. Numerous wells and springs were dedicated to him, and he was invoked against the bubonic plague
, smallpox
, and gout
; he was also considered a patron saint of animals. Pilgrims to Neuss sought the Quirinuswasser (Quirinus water) from the Quirinusbrunnen (Quirinus spring or pump-room).
A farmers' saying
associated with Quirinus' feast day of March 30 was "Wie der Quirin, so der Sommer" (“As St. Quirinus’ Day goes, so will the summer”).
Quirinus, along with Hubertus
, Cornelius and Anthony
, was venerated as one of the Four Holy Marshals
(Vier Marschälle Gottes) in the Rhineland
. Portraits of Quirinus and of St. Valentine appear at the top of the recto
of the Nuremberg Chronicles (Folio CXXII [Geneva]).
Martyr
A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
and saint
Saint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
of the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...
churches. His cult
Cult (religious practice)
In traditional usage, the cult of a religion, quite apart from its sacred writings , its theology or myths, or the personal faith of its believers, is the totality of external religious practice and observance, the neglect of which is the definition of impiety. Cult in this primary sense is...
was centered at Neuss
Neuss
Neuss is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the west bank of the Rhine opposite Düsseldorf. Neuss is the largest city within the Rhein-Kreis Neuss district and owes its prosperity to its location at the crossing of historic and modern trade routes. It is primarily known...
in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, though he was a Roman martyr
Persecution of early Christians in the Roman Empire
The Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire is the religious persecution of Christians as a consequence of professing their faith. It began during the Ministry of Jesus and continued intermittently over a period of about three centuries until the time of Constantine when Christianity was...
.
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia
Catholic Encyclopedia
The Catholic Encyclopedia, also referred to as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia and the Original Catholic Encyclopedia, is an English-language encyclopedia published in the United States. The first volume appeared in March 1907 and the last three volumes appeared in 1912, followed by a master index...
, a Roman martyr named Quirinus was buried in the Catacomb of Prætextatus on the Via Appia. The Martyrologium Hieronymianum
Martyrologium Hieronymianum
The Martyrologium Hieronymianum was a medieval list of martyrs, one of the most used and influential of the Middle Ages...
(ed. De Rossi-Duchesne, 52) mentions Quirinus' name and place of burial. The Itineraries to the graves of the Roman martyrs (Giovanni Battista De Rossi
Giovanni Battista de Rossi
Giovanni Battista de Rossi was an Italian archaeologist, famous outside his field for his rediscovery of early Christian catacombs.-Life and works:He was born in Rome...
, "Roma sotterranea", I, 180-1) also mention these two pieces of information.
The Martyrologium Hieronymianum assigns him under the feast day
Calendar of saints
The calendar of saints is a traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the feast day of said saint...
of April 30, the date that appears in the catalogue of Roman martyrs of the 4th century.
Legend
Quirinus is introduced into the legendary Acts of Sts. AlexanderPope Alexander I
Pope Saint Alexander I was Bishop of Rome from about 106 to 115. The Holy See's Annuario Pontificio identifies him as a Roman who reigned from 108 or 109 to 116 or 119...
and Balbina
Balbina
Memorials of St. Balbina are to be found at Rome in three different spots which are connected with the early Christian antiquities of that city. In the purely legendary account of the martyrdom of St. Alexander mention is made of a tribune Quirinus who died a martyr and was buried in the catacomb...
, where it is said he was a tribune
Tribune
Tribune was a title shared by elected officials in the Roman Republic. Tribunes had the power to convene the Plebeian Council and to act as its president, which also gave them the right to propose legislation before it. They were sacrosanct, in the sense that any assault on their person was...
(Dufourcq, loc. cit., 175). He is said to have been decapitated
Decapitation
Decapitation is the separation of the head from the body. Beheading typically refers to the act of intentional decapitation, e.g., as a means of murder or execution; it may be accomplished, for example, with an axe, sword, knife, wire, or by other more sophisticated means such as a guillotine...
in 116. Legends make him a Roman tribune who was ordered with executing Alexander, Eventius, and Theodolus, who had been arrested by order of Trajan
Trajan
Trajan , was Roman Emperor from 98 to 117 AD. Born into a non-patrician family in the province of Hispania Baetica, in Spain Trajan rose to prominence during the reign of emperor Domitian. Serving as a legatus legionis in Hispania Tarraconensis, in Spain, in 89 Trajan supported the emperor against...
. Quirinus converted to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, however, after witnessing miracles performed by these three saints, and he was baptized along with his daughter Balbina. He was then martyred on March 30 by being decapitated and was then buried catacomb of Prætextatus on the Via Appia.
Veneration
AdoAdo (archbishop)
Ado , archbishop of Vienne in Lotharingia, belonged to a famous Frankish house, and spent much of his middle life in Italy. He held his archiepiscopal seat from 850 till his death on the 16 December 874. Several of his letters are extant and reveal their writer as an energetic man of wide...
took the name from these Acts and put it in his Martyrology under date of March 30, on which day it is now also found in the Roman Martyrology (Quentin, "Les martyrologes historiques", 490). For April 30, the Roman Martyrology states: “Item Romae in coemetério Praetextáti via Appia, sancti Quirini mártyris, qui tribúnus confessiónem fídei martyrio coronávit.”
According to a document from Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
dating from 1485, Quirinus' body was donated in 1050 by Pope Leo IX
Pope Leo IX
Pope Saint Leo IX , born Bruno of Eguisheim-Dagsburg, was Pope from February 12, 1049 to his death. He was a German aristocrat and as well as being Pope was a powerful secular ruler of central Italy. He is regarded as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, with the feast day of April 19...
to an abbess of Neuss named Gepa (who is called a sister of the pope). In this way the relic
Relic
In religion, a relic is a part of the body of a saint or a venerated person, or else another type of ancient religious object, carefully preserved for purposes of veneration or as a tangible memorial...
s came to the Romanesque
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...
Church of St. Quirinus at Neuss (Quirinus-Münster) which still exists. A statue of Quirinus sits atop the church (which Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte attempted to plunder during the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
).
Inhabitants of that city invoked him for aid during Siege of Neuss
Siege of Neuss
The Siege of Neuss, from 1474–75, was part of the Burgundian Wars. The siege, led by Charles the Bold against the Holy Roman Empire city of Neuss, was unsuccessful...
by Charles the Bold that occurred in 1474-5. His cult spread to Cologne, Alsace
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
, Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
, western Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, the Netherlands, and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, where he became the patron saint
Patron saint
A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person...
of Correggio
Correggio, Italy
Correggio is a small town and comune in the Province of Reggio Emilia, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, in the Po valley. As of 2007 Correggio had an estimated population of 23,108....
. Numerous wells and springs were dedicated to him, and he was invoked against the bubonic plague
Bubonic plague
Plague is a deadly infectious disease that is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis, named after the French-Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin. Primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas, the disease is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death...
, smallpox
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
, and gout
Gout
Gout is a medical condition usually characterized by recurrent attacks of acute inflammatory arthritis—a red, tender, hot, swollen joint. The metatarsal-phalangeal joint at the base of the big toe is the most commonly affected . However, it may also present as tophi, kidney stones, or urate...
; he was also considered a patron saint of animals. Pilgrims to Neuss sought the Quirinuswasser (Quirinus water) from the Quirinusbrunnen (Quirinus spring or pump-room).
A farmers' saying
Weather lore
Weather lore is the body of informal folklore related to the prediction of the weather.It has been a human desire for millennia to make accurate weather predictions. Oral and written history is full of rhymes, anecdotes, and adages meant to guide the uncertain in determining whether the next day...
associated with Quirinus' feast day of March 30 was "Wie der Quirin, so der Sommer" (“As St. Quirinus’ Day goes, so will the summer”).
Quirinus, along with Hubertus
Hubertus
Saint Hubertus or Hubert , called the "Apostle of the Ardennes" was the first Bishop of Liège...
, Cornelius and Anthony
Anthony the Great
Anthony the Great or Antony the Great , , also known as Saint Anthony, Anthony the Abbot, Anthony of Egypt, Anthony of the Desert, Anthony the Anchorite, Abba Antonius , and Father of All Monks, was a Christian saint from Egypt, a prominent leader among the Desert Fathers...
, was venerated as one of the Four Holy Marshals
Four Holy Marshals
The Four Holy Marshals are four saints venerated in the Rhineland, especially at Cologne, Liège, Aachen, and Eifel. They are conceived as standing particularly close to throne of God, and thus powerful intercessors...
(Vier Marschälle Gottes) in the Rhineland
Rhineland
Historically, the Rhinelands refers to a loosely-defined region embracing the land on either bank of the River Rhine in central Europe....
. Portraits of Quirinus and of St. Valentine appear at the top of the recto
Recto
The recto and verso are respectively the "front" and "back" sides of a leaf of paper in a bound item such as a codex, book, broadsheet, or pamphlet. In languages written from left to right the recto is the right-hand page and the verso the left-hand page...
of the Nuremberg Chronicles (Folio CXXII [Geneva]).
Further reading
- Walter Bader: St Quirinus zu Neuss. 1955
- Max Tauch: Quirinus von Neuss. 2000, ISBN 3-8790-9692-9
- Helmut Wessels: Neuss und St. Quirin zu Fuß. 2004, ISBN 3-761-61801-8, Engl. ISBN 3-761-61956-1)
- Erich Wimmer: Quirinus von Neuss. in Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche (LThK) Bd. 8