Another prayer card shows a fine figure of a man: dressed as a warrior, with a palm branch in his left hand and a sword in his right. This is Saint Quirinus and the building in the background is Park Abbey. Quirinus was a Roman soldier from the first centuries after Christ. After his daughter was cured of a serious illness thanks to the intercession of Pope Alexander, Quirinus converted to Christianity. During the first Christian persecutions he was arrested, he was hung up, his tongue was cut out, his hands and feet were cut off… and then he was beheaded. Saint Quirinus is the patron saint of knights and porters and the protector of cattle and horses. He is also one of the so-called ‘36 saints’ – actually there are 37 – who can be invoked for help even when the supplicant isn’t sure from which disease he or she is suffering. In the early 17th century a woman who had a lump in her breast is said to have been healed after she walked barefoot to Park Abbey, offered a candle to Saint Quirinus and had a Mass said in his honour.