She had a little boy named Cyrus, who at this time was only five or six years old. He was a beautiful child, and the pride of his mother’s heart. People who looked upon his angelic countenance thought he was more like one of the blessed spirits of God in Heaven than a child of this world.
When Julitta was led to the tribunal of the Governor, he asked her name and where she came from. She gave him only one answer to all his questions. She said : “I am a Christian.”
St. Julitta and St. Quiricus before the judge. Painting by Borghese di Piero
Then the Governor became very angry, and ordered her to be scourged.
All this time the child was in his mother’s arms. When the Governor had given this order he commanded the child to be brought to him. It was with the greatest difficulty that this could be done, for when the boy saw what they were going to do, he put his little arms round his mother’s neck, and clung more closely to her.
When the child was brought to the Governor, he made him sit upon his knees, and tried to stifle his cries by caressing him. But the little boy would not be pacified. He stretched out his arms towards his mother, and made every effort to get back to her again.
In the meantime, the executioners began to scourge Julitta, and while they were scourging her, the only words she said were these: “I am a Christian.”
“I am a Christian too,” said the child.
The Governor, on hearing this, became filled with great rage. He took the child by the foot, and from the high place on which he sat, threw him down with great violence to the ground. The child’s head struck against the corner of the stone steps leading up to the tribunal, and was broken. At the same instant his holy soul ascended to Heaven, to God his Father there, for Whom he had shed his blood.
Martyrdom of St. Quiricus
When the mother saw what had been done she was filled with great joy. “O my God,” she said, “I thank Thee with all my heart because Thou hast taken my child to Thyself in Heaven, and hast given him the martyr’s crown.”
These words increased the fury of the judge, and he gave orders to the executioners to inflict on her still more terrible torments.
While this was being done, a herald cried out to her: “Julitta, have pity on yourself, and sacrifice to the gods.”
Statue of Saint Quirico in Vercelli, Italy.
“I will never sacrifice to devils nor to deaf and dumb idols. I honor Jesus Christ, the only Son of God. My greatest desire now is to see my son again, and it is only in Heaven that I can have that happiness.”
The judge, seeing that neither threats nor torments could shake the courage of the heroic woman, commanded her to be beheaded, and her body, as well as that of her son, to be thrown into the place where the bodies of criminals were cast. 
On the way to the place of execution, the Saint fell on her knees, and prayed thus to God: “O Lord, I thank Thee for having given my little boy an eternal kingdom in exchange for the sufferings of this life, which end so soon; receive me also, Thy unworthy servant, into the abode of the blessed spirits, where nothing defiled can enter, where my soul shall for ever praise Thy Eternal Father, the Creator of all things, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.”
When this prayer was ended, the executioner raised his sword, and cut off her head, and the soul of the holy martyr was once more united to that of her beloved boy in Heaven.
Some of her acquaintances secretly took the bodies, and buried them in a field near the city.
*Note: Their feast day is June 16.
Rev. D. Chisholm, The Catechism in Examples (London: R & T Washbourne, Ltd., 1919), 277-80.
Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 394
