Baring-Gould’s sources: Ancient Roman Martyrology, attributed to S. Jerome, Modern Roman Martyrology; also Usuardus and Notker. Authority The ancient Acts which were seen by S. Jerome, and by Prudentius who composed a hymn on this saint. The Acts were apparently written in the reign of Constantine, and w.?re extracted from the lYoconsular records. But they have gone through some slight enlargement. One manifest interpolation narrates the translation of the body to Milan in the time of Innocent II. (1130- 4$), but this is not to be found in all copies.] UIRINUS, of Blessed Memory, was Bishop of Sissek, now a small town, on the Save in Croatia. He was sought by the governor Maximus, and attempted to escape and hide himself, but was captured, and brought before the governor. Maximus asked him why he fled. He answered, “ I obeyed the words of my Lord who said, When they persecute you in one city, flee unto another.” Maximus — “Who gave this command?”

Quirinus — “ Christ, who is very God.” Maximus — “Know you not the imperial orders would S. Quirinus, find you wherever you were? And He whom you call God could not save you from falling into our hands nor deliver you out of them now you are in them.” Quirinus — “ The God whom we adore is ever present with us, to help in time of need. He was with me when I was taken, He is with me now, and He speaks to you through my mouth.”

Maximus — “You talk much, and delay the execution of the orders. Read the divine edicts, and comply with what they enjoin.”

Quirinus — “ I pay no heed to these injunctions, because they are impious, and contrary to the commands of God, requiring us to sacrifice to imaginary divinities. The God whom I serve is everywhere; He is in heaven and earth and sea. He is above all things, containing everything in Himself, and by Him and in Him all created things subsist.”

Maximus — “ Old age has weakened your understanding, and you are deluded with idle tales. Obey and throw a little incense on the fire to the gods, and you will be rewarded; refuse, and expect torments and death.” Quirinus — “What you threaten me with I count as great glory, and death will open to me eternal life. I will offer no incense to demons, for I know well the altar of my God, on which I have often sacrificed oblations of sweet savour.”

Maximus — “Your craze is driving you to destruction. Once for all — Will you sacrifice to the Gods?” Quirinus — “ No. It is written 4 the gods of the heathen are but devils/”

The governor then said, “You shall be beaten with clubs, and if you persist in your obstinacy, I shall send you to Amantius, governor of Pannonia [a Roman province roughly covering western Hungary and parts of Austria and Croatia] Prima, for a capital sentence.”

(June 4. The old bishop was then severely beaten, but remained firm. He was taken back to prison, and after three days was sent to Amantius the governor, who was then at Scarabantia (Odenburg near the Neusiedler See). He ordered the bishop to be conducted to Sabaria, or Sarvar on the Raab, whither he was proceeding. On reaching Sarvar, Amantius ordered him to be brought before him in the theatre, and having read the minutes of his examination by Maximus, asked the bishop if he admitted that they were correct S. Quirinus replied that they were so, and then Amantius asked him if he persisted in his refusal to adore the gods. Quirinus answered, “I have confessed the true God at Siscia, I have never adored any other. Him I carry in my heart, and no man can ever tear me from Him.”

Amantius endeavoured to overcome him by promises, but finding him inflexible, ordered him to be cast into the Raab, with a mill-stone round his neck. The stone, that of a hand-quern, was then attached to him, and he was plunged in the shallow stream of the Raab, and before he sank and was swept away, he addressed a few words of exhortation to the people who had crowded to see this execution.1 The body was carried ashore a little below Sarvar. The relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor] were afterwards transported to Rome, and in 1140 1 Alban BuUer says that to the great astonishment of the spectators S. Quirinus did not sink, but remained long above water, and it was only after a long prayer addressed to Christ that he succeeded in overcoming the repugnance of the mill* stone to drag him under water. The Acts only say, ** Jussit sancto Dei Sacerdoti molam ad collum ligari et in fluvii Sibaris undas demergi. Cumque de ponte prsecipitatus fuisset in fluvium [et diutissime supernataret] et cum spectantibus locutus essct, ne suo terrentur exemplo, vix orans ut mergeretur obtinuit." The portion in brackets seems to be an insertion of a copyist. The long prayer given by Butler is from the hymn of Prudentins, and not in the Acts at all. Of coarse there may have been a miracle wrought, but the circumstance is quite simple of explanation without. The Raab Is not deep at Sarvar, the season was summer, and the mill-stone was evidenUy one of a hand-quern. S. Metrophanes.

were placed in the Church of S. Maria beyond Tiber. Many other places claim to possess his relics, but undoubtedly they are the bones of other saints of the same name. There are at least six saints of this name known to have existed, and it is likely enough that a church possessing the remains of one of these, whose history is almost unknown, may have supposed them to have belonged to the famous Quirinus of Sissek.