Saint Quirinus of Neuss

Several early martyrs bore the name Quirinus, and Johann Peter Kirsch, in the 1911 Catholic Encyclopedia, counts five who still had feasts in the Roman calendar. ¹ One was buried in the catacomb of Pontian, and his relics went to Tegernsee in Bavaria; another was a bishop of Siscia in Croatia, drowned in 309; others are venerated at Tivoli and at Malmedy. ¹ This page is about the second in Kirsch's list: the martyr of the catacomb of Praetextatus. ¹

For him there is solid evidence of a grave and a name. Kirsch says both "are mentioned in the 'Martyrologium Hieronymianum'," the ancient list of martyrs attributed to Saint Jerome, and in the old guidebooks that led pilgrims to the tombs of the Roman martyrs. ¹ He adds that the name "undoubtedly appeared in the catalogue of Roman martyrs of the fourth century" under April 30. ¹ The current Roman Martyrology remembers him on that day, in the cemetery of Praetextatus on the Via Appia, as a martyr who, being a tribune, crowned his witness to the faith with martyrdom. ⁶

The rest comes from the Acts of Saints Alexander and Balbina, which Kirsch calls legendary and into which, he says, Quirinus "is introduced" as a tribune. ¹ In his article on Balbina he calls it "the purely legendary account of the martyrdom of St. Alexander." ² Thomas Shahan, writing on Pope Alexander I in the same encyclopedia, says the pope's "so-called 'Acts' are not genuine, and were compiled at a much later date." ³ katolsk.no, the Norwegian bishops' saints database, cites modern scholars who describe it as a romance, the so-called Passion of Saint Alexander, and dates it to the sixth century. ⁴

In katolsk.no's retelling, Quirinus held both Pope Alexander and the city prefect Hermes in prison for their faith, in separate jails under heavy guard. ⁴ He tried to bring Hermes back to the old gods, but promised to become a Christian if Hermes could prove there was a life after this one. ⁴ Hermes said the pope could do that better than he could. Quirinus took it for an evasion and tightened the guard, but an angel led Alexander to Hermes's cell, and Quirinus found them together the next morning. ⁴

Hermes told him that the pope had raised his dead son to life. Quirinus answered that his own daughter Balbina had a goiter, and that if the pope could heal her he would become a Christian. ⁴ Balbina was brought to Alexander and kissed his chains, and he told her to go and find the chains of Saint Peter and kiss those instead. ⁴ Quirinus found them, Balbina kissed them and was cured, and the tribune set Alexander and Hermes free and was baptized with his daughter. ⁴ katolsk.no says the legend goes on to make this the origin of the church of San Pietro in Vincoli, Saint Peter in Chains. ⁴

Vatican News gives a shorter and somewhat different version: that Quirinus was charged with executing the Christians Alexander, Eventius and Theodulus, arrested under Trajan, and that he was instead converted by their miracles, baptized with Balbina, and martyred. ⁸ katolsk.no says father and daughter were arrested about 130 under Hadrian, and that Quirinus's tongue, hands and feet were cut off before he was beheaded. ⁴

Balbina is remembered in Rome on her own day. The current Roman Martyrology commemorates her on March 31 as the saint whose venerable name is borne by the basilica founded on the Aventine. ⁷ Kirsch says the tradition made her the daughter of Quirinus, baptized by Alexander, who lived unmarried and was buried near her father in the catacomb of Praetextatus. ² katolsk.no and Vatican News say instead that she was beheaded, with or after her father. ⁵⁹

Kirsch is careful about her too. He notes that the old church of Saint Balbina on the Aventine is first mentioned in a sixth-century epitaph and in the signatures of a Roman council of 595 under Gregory the Great, and that its titular saint "is supposed to be identical" with the Balbina of Praetextatus. Then he adds: "It is not certain, however, that the two names refer to the same person." ² katolsk.no says modern scholars admit only that there was a Roman virgin named Balbina. ⁵

Kirsch traces how Quirinus came to the Rhine. In 1050, Pope Leo IX gave his relics to his sister Gepa, abbess of Neuss. "In this way the relics came to the beautiful Romanesque Church of St. Quirinus at Neuss which still exists." ¹ katolsk.no says the present church was built over them in 1206, that it became the center of a popular festival, especially after 1475, and that it was made a minor basilica in 2009. ⁴ The people of Neuss believed their patron had saved the city from capture in the war of Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy. ⁴

In the medieval province of Cologne, katolsk.no says, Quirinus was one of four saints honored as special helpers in need and known as the four holy marshals, together with Anthony the Great, Pope Cornelius and Hubert. ⁴ Pilgrims went to each in turn: to Wesel, to Kornelimünster in the Eifel, to Saint-Hubert in the Ardennes, and last to Neuss. ⁴ He is shown in art as a tribune or knight with a shield bearing nine balls, which katolsk.no says comes from confusing Novesia, the Latin name of Neuss, with novem, nine. ⁴

Saint Quirinus is the patron of the city of Neuss, according to katolsk.no, which says he is venerated especially in Germany and Switzerland. ⁴ He is invoked against earache, epilepsy, ailments of the feet and legs, fistula, gout and paralysis. ⁴ Balbina, by the same source, is invoked against goiter and other diseases of the throat, after the healing in her legend. ⁵

Saint Quirinus's feast day is April 30 in the current Roman Martyrology, the date that the Martyrology of Jerome gave him. ¹⁶ Kirsch explains that the martyrologist Ado took his name from the Acts and entered him on March 30, and that in Kirsch's day the Roman Martyrology had him on March 30 as well. ¹ katolsk.no gives April 30 in its article on Quirinus and March 30 in its article on Balbina. ⁴⁵ Saint Balbina's own day is March 31. ²⁷ This page follows the current Martyrology.

Of Quirinus himself the Church knows a name, a grave on the Via Appia, and that he died a martyr. ¹⁶ Everything else was written centuries later by people who wanted to know more than had been kept. ¹²³

The legend they wrote is about a soldier who asked for proof. He set terms for God, the terms were met, and he kept his word. ⁴⁸ Its center is a father asking for his sick daughter, and then being baptized with her. ⁴

The Church keeps the grave and the name, and is honest about the rest. ¹⁶ Neuss kept the bones, built a church over them, and for eight hundred years has believed that the martyr of the Via Appia looks after it. ¹⁴