ON S. QUIRINUS MARTYR,
BISHOP OF SISCIA IN PANNONIA.
UNDER GALERIUS.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
The most ancient Acts; the body translated to Rome, and thence asserted to be possessed by various places.
Quirinus, Bishop, Martyr at Siscia in Pannonia (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
In the place where the Colapis flows into the Save, the river of Pannonia, is Siscia, a city formerly Episcopal, now called Seseg, and almost midway between Carlstadt of the Wends, In Pannonia he confessed, died, and was buried for Christ and Zagreb of the Hungarians. In this city, with Diocletian and Maximian reigning and vainly attempting to extirpate the Christian faith, the same was fruitfully preached, perhaps first, certainly the only known, Bishop Quirinus; and the same faith he there generously confessed, under the tyranny of Galerius Maximianus, who imitated his father-in-law Diocletian; after the former, in the year 305 of the Christian era, had voluntarily laid down the purple. Then Sabaria across the Raab he consecrated by his glorious death; and a little further toward the North, Scarabantia, likewise of Upper Pannonia, cities closer to Austria, he consecrated by his burial and the cult of his body.
[2] The most ancient Acts, written in the age of Constantine the Great from proconsular monuments, The most ancient Acts are here given were exhibited in print, indeed two hundred years ago, by Joninus Mombritius; a hundred years ago by Laurentius Surius. And as thus published, with the Vatican Ms. Codex bearing the number 1191, written not long after the age of Innocent II, collated them Emmanuel Schelstraten, principal Custos of the same Library, and also Canon of the Basilica, and noted variant readings from Mombritius. Surius professes to have had them from a certain excellent Ms. Codex, adding: "The author's name is not there (as in no ancient Passions, to be recited among sacred things, was customary), but the history is gravely written, and quite ancient, as I judge." This certainly S. Jerome had and approved, in the additions interposed in the Eusebian Chronicle, as having fulfilled the office not only of interpreter, but also of writer (as he prefaces); and adding some things which seemed to have been omitted. seen by S. Jerome His words at the year of the Lord 310, taken from these Acts, thus sound: "Quirinus, Bishop of Siscia, is gloriously killed for Christ: for, with a handmill tied to his neck, cast headlong from a bridge into the river (namely the Sabaris, soon to flow into the Raab), he floated for a very long time; and conversed with the spectators, lest they be terrified by his example; barely, praying that he might be submerged, obtained it." At the same time when in Palestine Jerome, in Spain writing and flourishing Prudentius, in book peri Stephanon ("On the Crowns") Hymn VII, and by Prudentius. judged those very Acts worthy to be rendered in verse: which his Poem, from the latest recension of Daniel Heinsius, we give after the aforementioned Acts; of which would that more Mss. copies had befallen us to find, to supply the defects of certain words, common to Mombritius and Surius, and thus also very ancient: now I shall be compelled at times to use conjecture.
[3] Of these Acts we have found and described various epitomes, but did not think them to be reported here, The body translated to Rome at the Catacombs, having got the fountain, except insofar as they treat of the translation of the sacred body: about which at the end of the old Acts, it is read thus appended later: "But an incursion of barbarians having been made into the parts of Pannonia, the Christian people fleeing from the city of Scarabantia, bringing with them the holy body of Quirinus, Bishop and Martyr, conducted it with themselves: whom … they buried … in the place which is called the Catacombs." in the year likewise 395: We can understand this about that depopulation, by which the Goths roving through Europe in the year 395 are thus described by Claudian, lib. 2 against Rufinus, author of the slaughter and traitor of the empire, verse 36 and following.
To Gothic bands Europe Is given over for sport and for prey, even to the borders Of leafy Dalmatia. All the land that lies between The noble equal of Pontus and the Hadriatic waves, Lies squalid, void of cattle, inhabited by no farmers … The Thessalian field burns, Pelion is silent, its shepherd put to flight, Aemathian fire devastates the ears of corn. Now the region of Pannonia, and the wretched walls of the Thracians, And the fields of the Mysians; now no one's loss is to be wept: But the course was customary and the field was exposed To fury, and use had taken away the sense of evils.
[4] One of the aforementioned epitomes, which, received almost from Prudentius, in the Basilica of S. Mary across the Tiber, and in 1140 at S. Maria Transtiberina, on the feast day of S. Quirinus, providing the place of three Lessons, ends the last thus: "Then translated to Rome to the Catacombs, finally by Pope Innocent II was reposed in the church of S. Mary across the Tiber"; which things are explained more amply in the Vatican Ms., which you may even think on this account was formerly of that Church. This Innocent restored it in the year 1140, when Octavius Pancirolius says, under the Major altar were placed by him the bodies of SS. Cornelius Pope and Quirinus Bishop and Martyr, taken from the Catacombs; but the head of the last was given to the church of S. Mary in Campo Martio. The head at Campo Martio: Since no mention is made of this second Translation in the Codex which Surius used, we know that the aforementioned addition was added to the old text, brought with the body from Pannonia, before the age of Innocent II, perhaps even long before, in the 5th or 6th century. Meanwhile another epitome, which similarly divided into three Lessons serves the Church of Aquileia, or also to Aquileia? reports that one century before Innocent the body was given to the same Church, with these words: "Finally to Poppo the Bavarian, Patriarch of Aquileia; who created Supreme Pontiff, was called Gelasius II, it was granted by John XIX, and in the basilica of Aquileia, built by the same Poppo, it is buried, where now it is kept and venerated."
[5] The Aquileians number their first Bishops in this order: where also he was Bishop? S. Mark the Evangelist, S. Hermagoras, S. Helarus, S. Chrysogonus, S. Quirinus; and believing that this is the very one whom we today venerate as having suffered at Siscia, they weave the first Lesson about his Episcopate held successively in both places. But just as it is certain that they err in Chrysogonus, while they believe him to be the Martyr of this name, who is venerated as having suffered at Aquileia on the 24th of November; so I fear lest they have similarly erred in Quirinus, and have conflated two into one; and since the body of the Bishop of Siscia was undoubtedly believed to have been translated to Rome, they thought it followed that their Poppo received it thence from John XIX, in the time of the same Poppo governing the universal Church, from the year 1024 to 1033. But in all these things the authority of those Lessons is so much less to us, but probably another. as the author is proved to have been more ignorant even in domestic matters, who could confuse Poppo of Brescia, created Pope Gelasius II in the year 1048, with the Aquileian Patriarch of the same name and time; and from Galerius Emperor, make Galerius President, in place of Maximus. It can be then, that the Relics of S. Quirinus which were of old held at Aquileia, or are even now held; are more proper to that city than it itself knows; and were found at home, not brought from elsewhere.
[6] Even those bones which were brought from Rome in 838 into Germany Rudolph the Presbyter, in the Life of Bl. Rabanus Maurus, Archbishop of Mainz, his Master, illustrated on the 4th of February by Henschenius, no. 3, enumerating the Relics brought from Rome into Germany in the year 838; in the first place places "The bones of S. Quirinus"; supposing him to be the same who in Siscia, town of the Pannonias, Bishop … with a millstone tied to his neck, was cast headlong. The Milanese believe the same about Relics of similar nomenclature: from whose sense, to the Acts published by him Mombritius subjoined these things: "Afterwards by the most pious Lord Angilbertus, venerable Archbishop of Milan, Quirinus was transported, and honorably at the monastery of the Bl. Levite Vincent, together with S. Nicomedes the Presbyter, with the highest reverence reposed." Which also Baronius in the Notes on this day described. Galesinius, in similar Annotations of his, from Pontifical letters and Ambrosian Litanies which he cites, seems to wish to prove the same. or brought to Milan in the 9th or 11th century But we should rejoice that letters of this kind are still found, perhaps to teach us more certainly from them whether such a translation was truly made under Angilbert, of whose name one or two that Church had from the year 822 to 860; or rather under Heribert, as is read in the Milanese Breviary on this day, to which Castiglione and Ughellus adhere: he obtained the Cathedra from the year 1018 to 1045. The same Castiglione cites two Mss. Martyrologies of Usuard, to which is added: "Whose body finally was translated into the church of S. Vincent," in place of what Notker, author of the Florarium, and several others have, "Whose Relics were translated to Rome and placed at the Catacombs." Meanwhile concerning the Episcopate, kind, place, and time of this S. Quirinus's Martyrdom also, we suspend judgment; knowing how many both at Rome and elsewhere were Martyrs of this name, perhaps belong to another. since Martius alone offers us three on the fourth, twelfth, and thirtieth days: but the many things that could be said here about his Relics from Castiglione, we defer to the 15th of September, on which S. Nicomedes the Presbyter is venerated. We can also believe him different from the one Ferrarius says is venerated at Tibur on the 5th of June, on account of the body preserved there.
[7] The Bishop of Siscia, of whom we treat, is exhibited to us by the most ancient Hieronymian Martyrology, Name in the Hieronymian Martyrology in the two Lucca copies, the Corbey, and the Blume, with these words: "In the city of Sabaria, of Quirinus." Nor does the Epternach copy, more ancient than the rest, dissent, when, with the name truncated, it writes: "In the city of Saba in Pannonia": but in all these the title of Bishop is absent, added by error to Cyrinus and Rusticus immediately preceding, and above related by us to the class of Noviodunensian Martyrs — perhaps they suffered in the same Pannonia. Bede and Florus are silent about him, whence it is understood that the aforementioned Acts had not come to their knowledge, so that they could define his Birthday, who otherwise could not have been ignorant of one praised by S. Jerome in the Chronicle. Usuard first, having got hold of those Acts, thus inaugurated this day: "On the 2nd Nones of June. In Illyricum, in the city of Siscia, the birthday of Bl. Quirinus the Bishop, who for the faith of Christ (as Prudentius writes) with a millstone tied to his hand, cast into the river"; and the rest from Jerome — but who writes that a handmill was tied to his neck; which differently in Prudentius the exaggerating Martyr says, "with the neck I shall drag the rock." likewise in Usuard, but not without a slip. You may see the same error, drawn moreover from the same fountain, in Ado; either one followed Notker, the author of the Florarium, Doctrinale Clericorum, Maurolycus, Bellinus, and others: but Galesinius corrected them, and the Revisers of the Roman Martyrology, following Galesinius or rather the Acts themselves and Jerome and Prudentius, wrote, "cast down with a stone tied to his neck," as is read today.
THE MOST ANCIENT ACTS
From the editions of Mombritius and Surius, collated with the Vatican Ms. cod. 1191.
Quirinus, Bishop, Martyr at Siscia in Pannonia (S.)
BHL Number: 7037
FROM MSS.
[1] When the devil had stirred up the Princes of this world to torture souls, and was tossing the Churches of the Lord everywhere with various tempests of persecution; having stirred up friends of Kings, through whom he had moved fiercer wars against the people of God, he daily increased his cruelty. With the laws of the Emperor Maximian thus pressing, In the dire persecution of Diocletian the Christian army was harassed: throughout Illyricum, however, Diocletian raged with sacrilegious commands against the people of Christ in hostile fashion, with another Maximian added to his tyranny as partner in the reign, who showed both his own rage and Diocletian's throughout all Illyricum. Yet almost to all the judges of the provinces the sacrilegious decrees of the impious princes were sent, that they should compel Christians to sacrifice in the temples of demons; that the churches of Christ be shut; that the priests and ministers of Christ should obey the public laws and confess that gods exist: who, if they would not burn incense, would be subjected to various torments and to death.
[2] Among the many who triumphed in the army of Christ, S. Quirinus is apprehended: Bl. Quirinus, Bishop of Siscia, was ordered to be arrested by Maximus the Prefect. When they were eagerly seeking him, and the blessed Bishop had sensed this, he went out from the city: and fleeing, he was caught and brought back. When he was interrogated by Maximus the Prefect, why he was fleeing; Quirinus the Bishop responded: "I was not fleeing, but doing the command of my Lord: it is written to us, 'If they persecute you in one city, flee into another' Matt. 10." Maximus the Prefect said: "Who commanded this?" Quirinus the Bishop responded: "Christ, who is true God." Maximus said: "And do you not know that everywhere the commands of the Emperors could find you; and this one whom you call true God could not come to your aid when you were caught, just as even now, fleeing, you were caught and brought back?" Quirinus the Bishop responded: "He is always with us; and wherever we have been, the Lord whom we worship can come to our aid: and even now, when I was apprehended, He was with me, and here He is with me, comforting me, and He Himself responds to you from my mouth." Maximus said: "You speak many things, and by speaking you defer the institutions of great Kings. Read therefore the divine decrees, and do what is commanded." Quirinus the Bishop responded: "I do not hear the command of your Emperors, he urges the presence of God: because it is sacrilegious, and against the precepts of God commands the servants of Christ to sacrifice to your gods, whom I do not serve, because they are nothing. But my God, whom I serve, He is in heaven and on earth and in the sea. He is in every place: above all things, because He contains all within Himself: since through Him all things were made, and in Him all things consist."
[3] Maximus said: "By living for too long a time, you have learned certain fables: incense is placed before you, and learn that those are Gods whom you do not know: you will obtain no small gift of intelligence, if you are willing to be obedient to the commands. mocking the gods, But if you yourself will not persuade yourself to appear devout; know that you must be subjected to various injuries, and even by a terrible death your life must be ended." Quirinus the Bishop responded: "The injuries which you threaten me with, I count as glory; and the promised death, if I deserve it, will give eternal life. Therefore I desire to be devoted to my God, not to your Kings: nor do I believe them to be gods, who are not; and I do not place incense on the altars of demons, because I know there is an altar of my God, in which apt sacrifices of good odor are burned to Him." Maximus said: "I see that madness drives you to death: sacrifice to the gods." Quirinus the Bishop responded: "I do not sacrifice to demons, because it is written, 'All the gods of the gentiles are demons'; and, 'Those who sacrifice to gods shall be uprooted' Ps. 95." Then Maximus the Prefect ordered him to be beaten with cudgels, and said to him: "Look and recognize that those are powerful gods whom the empire of the Romans serves. For consenting to this, he is beaten with cudgels: you will be priest of the great god Jove: otherwise you will be sent to Amantius, Prefect of the first Pannonia, from whom you may receive a worthy sentence of death. Therefore turning back from your folly, comply." Quirinus the Bishop responded: "Truly now I am put to flight from the Priesthood; truly now I am made a Priest, if I shall have offered myself as a sacrifice to the true God. And in this, that my body is beaten, he feels no pain: I am delighted, feeling no pain: and therefore I offer myself to greater punishments, that those over whom I was placed in this life may follow me to that eternal life, to which through such a path one easily comes."
[4] Maximus the Prefect said: "Let him be shut in prison, and burdened with chains, he is led to prison: until he be overcome." Quirinus the Bishop responded: "I do not fear the prison, believing that my God is with me in prison, who is always with His worshippers." When he had been bound, Quirinus the Bishop was shut up in prison, and casting himself in prayer, said: "Thanks be to Thee, Lord, because for Thy sake these affronts have been brought upon me: and I pray, that those who are detained in this prison may sense that I am a worshipper of the true God; and may believe that there is no other God, but Thee." But in the middle of the night, a great splendor appeared in the prison: which when Marcellus the custodian of the persons saw, he opened the prison and prostrated himself at the feet of Bl. Quirinus the Bishop, saying with tears: "Pray to the Lord for me, because I believe there is no other God, but the one you worship." The blessed Bishop exhorted him much, and signed him in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[5] After three days Maximus ordered Quirinus the Bishop to be led to Amantius the Prefect to first Pannonia, that for the contumacy which he had displayed against the laws of the Emperors, he might suffer the ultimate sentence. When Bl. Quirinus had been brought down to first Pannonia, (for he was led bound in chains through individual cities to the bank of the Danube) Amantius returning that day from the city of Scarabantia, Bl. Quirinus the Bishop is offered to him: whom the Prefect decided to be brought back to the city of Sabaria for a hearing. Then Christian women entering to S. Quirinus the Bishop, offered him food and drink. Seeing their faith, the blessed Bishop, while he blesses the things they offer, the chains by which his hands and feet had been bound fell off. The food taken, then, with the women departing, those who guarded him led him to Sabaria. Whom the Prefect Amantius through his office ordered to be brought before him in the theater. When he had been offered, Amantius the Prefect said: "I ask you, whether those things which are shown to have been done at Siscia before the judge Maximus, are true." Quirinus the Bishop responded: then at Sabaria: "At Siscia I confessed the true God. Him I have always worshipped; Him I hold in my heart: nor will man be able to separate me from Him, who is the one and true God." Amantius the Prefect said: "We grieve that your age is stained by beatings: yet we wish to amend your understanding with words, and to correct it by the reward of promised life, so that you may enjoy the remaining time of your old age according to the sanction of the Imperial laws, serving the gods." Bl. Quirinus the Bishop said: "Why do you doubt of an age, which inviolate faith can render stronger than all torments? Neither is my confession broken by torments, nor corrected by the delight of the present life, nor by the fear of death, however bitter, is the solidity of my mind disturbed."
[6] out of love for eternal life he desires to die: Amantius the Prefect says: "Why are you so insistent upon death, that you should appear undevoted to the gods of the Roman Empire, and against human custom choose for yourself a life to be denied; while those who desire to evade death, by denying what they did, deceive their tortures? But you account the sweetness of your life as hateful, and hastily run to death, contradicting the Emperors. Wherefore we still exhort you, that you may live, and redeem your life, and exhibit yourself a worshipper of the laws of the Romans." Quirinus the Bishop said: "This address would perhaps bend childish souls, who long for the spaces of a longer life: but I have learned from my God, that I must come to that life which after death is not closed by the intercession of death; and therefore I, a faithful one, approach the temporal end of this life. For I am not like the guilty, as your authority speaks: for they, while they desire to live, by denying God truly die. But I attain to the eternity of life by confessing; nor do I yield to your laws, because I keep the lawful things of Christ my God, which I have preached to the faithful." Amantius the Prefect said: "For long we have wished to incline you to obedience to the royal commands, but since by the rigor of your mind you could not be tamed, you shall be an example for all Christians, that those who desire to live may dread the form of your death."
[7] Then among the other sufferings which he endured, he ordered that to the holy Priest or servant of God a millstone be tied to his neck, With a millstone tied to his neck, the holy man is cast into the river. and that he be submerged in the waves of the river Sabaris. When he had been cast headlong from the bridge into the river, and floated for a very long time, and had spoken with the onlookers, lest they be terrified by his example, barely praying that he might be submerged, did he obtain it. Whose body not far from the same place where it had been submerged, was found: where
also a place of prayer is held. But the holy body itself was deposited in the basilica at the Scarabantine gate, where there is a greater concourse of processions because of his merits. Bl. Quirinus the Bishop of Siscia, Martyr of Christ, suffered on the day before the Nones of June: and was crowned by our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be honor and glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.
[8] But an incursion of Barbarians having been made into the parts of Pannonia, The body is translated to Rome at the Catacombs, the Christian people fleeing from the city of Scarabantia to Rome, bringing the holy body of Quirinus Bishop and Martyr with them, conducted it with themselves. Whom on the Appian Way at the third milestone they buried in the basilica of the Apostles Peter and Paul, where they once lay, and where S. Sebastian Martyr of Christ rests, in the place which is called the Catacombs: building a worthy church for his name: [and there his venerable body lay long concealed: but with the Holy Spirit disposing, who does not allow the glory of His Saints to be hidden, and thence to S. Mary across the Tiber. in the time of Pope Innocent II, while the church of S. Mary across the Tiber was pouring out the oil of the founder, when the same church was being built, with the same Holy Spirit inspiring, by the counsel and command of the same Pontiff and of the whole Roman Church, the Clerics of S. Mary with great reverence lifted up the most precious Body of the most glorious Quirinus Bishop and Martyr from the same place: which with the fear of God they conveyed to the aforesaid Church of S. Mary across the Tiber; and with hymns and prayers, they reposed it in the major altar of the same church] where his benefits are bestowed to the present day.
ANNOTATIONS BY D. P.
p What follows is the addition of a later writer, made at Rome.
q S. Gregory Ep. 30 lib. 3 to Constantina Augusta asserts that the bodies of the Apostles were brought together at the Catacombs, at the second milestone of the City.
r Vat. Ms. "Catanymphas."
s Of this Church or rather Oratory within the Basilica here named no mention is found, so far as I know, in Anastasius; so that long before his age it had probably ceased to be. The Basilica just mentioned is now called S. Sebastian outside the walls.
t What Mombritius here adds, but is lacking in Surius, about the translation to Milan, we have related above, and have deferred to September 15, where will be treated of S. Nicomedes the Presbyter, whose bones are claimed, with the bones of S. Quirinus, to have been carried from Rome to Milan. The Vatican Ms. subjoins the following in [] enclosed and worth relating.
u Note that they are not yet called Canons: and from this understand it to be not ineptly believed, that this Addition was made not long after the aforementioned translation and restoration of the place; in which those who say that from the beginning there were Canons, whom Gregory IV in the year 827 substituted with Regulars (as in Pancirolius), say this gratuitously; for it is established that Holy Nuns succeeded the Clerics, who translated elsewhere in the year 1218, Callixtus II made it Collegiate.
HYMN OF PRUDENTIUS
From the edition and correction of Daniel Heinsius.
Quirinus, Bishop, Martyr at Siscia in Pannonia (S.)
BHL Number: 7039
A man distinguished in merits, * Quirinus, pleasing to God, The walls of the city of Siscia, Under Galerius caught at Siscia, A Martyr granted to themselves, Cherish in their fatherly embrace.
Here under Galerius the Leader, Who then was pressing upon the Illyrian gulfs With his dominions, He is said to have illustrated the Catholic Faith Through his end.
Him neither the stiffness of the sword, Nor flames, nor wild beasts Slay with cruel destruction: But while the whirlpool snatches him in the river's waters, It washes him.
It matters nothing, whether on the glassy plain, Or from a river of blood His passion stains the Martyr: Equally glory accrues, Wet by whatever flood.
From the summit of a lofty bridge The Bishop of the holy people Is given headlong to the river, The holy man is cast from the bridge into the river, nor can he be sunk: Bearing hung from a noose The stone of a great mill.
Cast down, the most placid Whirlpool of the river receives him, Nor allows him to be sunk in itself, With wondrous swimmings sustaining The vast weight of the stone.
They watch from afar from the shore The Teacher * timid flocks: For the people of Christ in throngs Had hedged the curvatures of the banks With a packed column.
But when Quirinus, eminent, Turned his face about; alas! by his Example * he sees them trembling. Not himself mindful of his own Peril among the waters:
He strengthens their pious hearts, but floating he strengthens the faithful: With words * wondrous praying, Lest such things terrify anyone; Nor let constant faith waver, Or count it a punishment to die.
As he speaks, the back of the river bears him on its floating waters; Nor does the depth spread beneath For the stone, and the noose, and the man, Dare to open of its own accord.
The Martyr Bishop sensed That now the palm of death and of departure Was being snatched from him already won, And the ascent denied To the throne of the Eternal Father.
"Jesus omnipotent," he says, and prays that he may be allowed to sink "By no means is this glory unusual Or new to Thee, To tread upon the roaring of the sea, And to halt prone rivers.
We know that the disciple Peter, When he dipped his footsteps Trembling with a mortal foot, By the help of Thy right hand Subjected the sea to dry land.
We know also that the Jordan, Wandering with twisted whirlpools, While it was carried by rapid impulse, Fled back to its source With reflowing courses.
These are miracles of Thy Power, O Lord, that even now There hangs, lightly floating Over the river's surface, While I drag a rock from my neck.
Now Thy title is full, Now is the power of Thy name revealed, By which gentile stupor is dulled, Release, I pray, most good one, The delays now of this soul.
What Thou canst, the river water proves, Which bears a flint. Now what remains, grant, Than which nothing is more precious, For Thee, O Christ God, to die."
Praying, at once breath, and he dies. And voice desert him, and warmth: The spirit climbs the heights: The stony weight becomes heavy; The waters take up the body.
Annotations* meriti
* Ductorem
* extemplo
* mitificis
* verticibus
* &