SS. JULITTA AND CYRIACUS OF ICONIUM, MARTYRS - 16 JUNE

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JUNE

Saints celebrated on the 16th of June

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

SS. JULITTA AND CYRIACUS OF ICONIUM, MARTYRS 

Saint Julitta and Saint Cyriacus [Quiricus] were martyred under Diocletian. The names of these two martyrs, who in the early Church enjoyed a widespread veneration, are found in the “Martyrologium Hieronymianum” and also in the calendars and menologies of the Greek and other Oriental Churches. 

SHE FLED FROM THE PERSECUTION

According to the Acts of their martyrdom, which appeared later, and a letter of the sixth century, Julitta fled with her three-months-old child, Quiricus, from Lycaonia, when the Maximinian persecution broke out there, to Isauria and thence to Tarsus in Cilicia. 

THEIR MARTYRDOM

She suffered martyrdom in the last-named city after her child had first been killed before her eyes. The veneration of the two martyrs was common in the West at an early date, as is proved by the chapel dedicated to them in the Church of Santa Maria Antiqua at Rome, as well as by testimony from Gaul. 

THEIR RELICS

Their relics are said to have been brought to the monastery of Saint-Amand (Elnonense monasterium) in the Diocese of Tournai. The feast is observed on June 16; in the Synaxarium of Constantinople it is set under the date of July 15.

(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)