quintinus (10. 259)

Venerated with a feast on the calendar of saints on this day, marking his martyrdom by beheading whilst on his way to trial in Reims, the capital city of Gallia Belgica, for proselytizing Christianity in the late third century, Quentin of Amiens, was charged by the prefect Rictovarus (the province’s vicarious, a deputy, a vicar) whom under the reign of Diocletian (see previously) is cited as a the persecutor of thousands of the faith community—before converting himself and put to death, at least by tradition though that may be a pious fiction, and subjected to torture though refused to relent. Unceremoniously tossed in the Somme, his body was first miraculous discovered by a Roman woman visiting the region on pilgrimage—her sight restored—and then again in the seventh century by Saint Eligius who established a permanent shrine which became the basilica of Saint-Quentin. For no particular reason that I can fathom, Quentin is invoked against sneezes and coughs and dropsy (edema, water retention) and is the patron protector of chaplains, locksmiths (see above), porters, tailors and surgeons.