Early Christian martyr St Quirinus, patron saint of Krk Town on Krk island, Croatia, is commemorated by a stone plaque above Mala Vrata, the small town gate in the defensive walls, a few meters from the medieval early Romanesque Church of St Quirinus.
Krk Town, Krk island, Croatia: a stone plaque depicting Krk Town's patron saint, the bishop and early Christian martyr St Quirinus of Siscia, is fixed above and to the right of Mala Vrata, the small town gate piercing the town walls. St Quirinus (Serbo-Croat: Sv. Kvirin) served as Bishop of Siscia (modern Sisak, southeast of Zagreb) in the 4th century. According to legend, he was arrested in 309 AD during the persecution of Christians by the Roman emperor Diocletian. Although he managed to convert his jailer to Christianity, he was then taken to Sabaria (present-day Szombathely in Hungary) and thrown into a river with a millstone tied to his neck after he refused to renounce his faith. A variant of the legend states that Quirinus escaped death by untying himself from the millstone, fled his persecutors and continued to preach. Whatever the truth of the legend, his relics were eventually interred in a church in Rome. A cult grew up around him and he was named as one of the national spiritual protectors of the Republic of San Marino. A church dedicated to Quirinus was built in San Marino in 1550 and in Croatia, churches at Jesenovik and in Krk Town itself also bear his name. A similar relief carving features on the main well in Krk Town's Vela Market Place.
Size: 2832px × 4256px
Location: Krk Town, Krk island, Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, Croatia.
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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