Quirinus of Neuss

Quirinus of Neuss , sometimes called Quirinus of Rome (which is the name shared by another martyr) is venerated as a martyr and saint of the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church. His cultus was centred at Neuss in Germany, even though he was a Roman martyr.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, a Roman martyr named Quirinus was buried in the Catacomb of Prætextatus on the Via Appia. The Martyrologium Hieronymianum (ed. De Rossi-Duchesne, 52) mentions Quirinus' name and place of burial. The Itineraries to the graves of the Roman martyrs (Giovanni Battista De Rossi, "Roma sotterranea", I, 180–1) also mention these two pieces of information.

The Martyrologium Hieronymianum assigns him under the feast day of April 30, the date that appears in the catalogue of Roman martyrs of the 4th century. as also was his daughter Balbina. According to a document from Cologne dating from 1485, Quirinus' body was donated in 1050 by Pope Leo IX to an abbess of Neuss named Gepa (who is called a sister of the pope). ).

Inhabitants of Neuss invoked Quirinus' aid during the Siege of Neuss by Charles the Bold, 1474–5. Portraits of Quirinus and of Valentine appear at the top of the recto of the Nuremberg Chronicles (Folio CXXII [Geneva]).