Holy Martyrs Cyricus and His Mother Julitta

Julitta was a Christian widow of noble birth from Iconium who fled with her three-year-old son Cyricus during the persecution under Diocletian, seeking refuge first in Seleucia and then in Tarsus. Recognized and denounced there, she was brought before the governor along with her child; when Cyricus, held on the governor's lap, cried out that he too was a Christian and struggled to be returned to his mother, he was thrown down the courthouse steps and killed. Julitta gave thanks that her son had gone before her in confessing Christ, and was herself tortured and beheaded soon after, traditionally dated to around 304. Their relics were later dispersed widely across the Christian world, and the pair became one of the most widely venerated mother-and-child martyrdoms of the early Church.