[Rank]
Ss. Nerei, Achillei et Domitillae Virginis atque Pancratii Martyrum;;Semiduplex;;2;;vide C3

[Rank1570]
Ss. Nereus, Achilleus and Pancras martyrs;;Simplex;;1.1;;vide C3

[Rule]
vide C3;
9 lectiones

[Oratio]
May the blessed and solemn remembrance of thy Martyrs Nereus, Achilles, Domitilla, and Pancras, making our hearts to burn within us, may cause us to be more meet for thy service.
$Per Dominum

[Lectio4]
Nereus and Achilles were brethren, eunuchs belonging to Flavia Domitilla, who were baptized by blessed Peter, along with her and her mother Plautilla. They had advised Domitilla to consecrate her virginity to God, and on this account Aurelian, to whom she was betrothed, accused them of being Christians. They nobly confessed the faith, and were banished to the island of Ponza. Then they were again put to the torture, and after being scourged, were taken to Terracina. At Terracina, Minutius Rufus tormented them with the rack and with fire, but as they constantly affirmed that having once been baptized by the blessed Apostle Peter, no torture could ever make them sacrifice to idols, they were beheaded. Auspicius, their own disciple and the tutor of Domitilla, took their bodies to Rome, where they were buried on the road to Ardea.

[Lectio5]
'"The Virgin Flavia Domitilla was a Roman, the niece of the Emperors Titus and Domitian, and was veiled by the blessed Pope Clement. Aurelian, son of the Consul Titus Aurelius, to whom she was betrothed, accused her of being a Christian, and the Emperor Domitian banished her into the island of Ponza, where she long suffered and testified in prison. At length she was taken to Terracina, where she again confessed Christ, and as she seemed ever to grow firmer, the judge, under the Emperor Trajan, caused her chamber to be set on fire, and there Domitilla, with her foster-sisters the maidens Theodora and Euphrosyne, finished the race of faith by grasping the crown of glory, on the 7th day of May. Their bodies were found whole, and were buried by the Deacon Caesarius. This, the twelfth day of May, is that whereon the bodies of Nereus and Achilles, and that of Domitilla, were carried from the Deaconry of St Hadrian, and laid in the Church which is properly called by the name of these holy martyrs, but formerly by that of " St Peter's Bandage."

[Lectio6]
Pancras was the son of a noble family of Phrygia. He came to Rome in the reign of the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian, being then a boy of fourteen years of age. There he was baptized by the Bishop of Rome, and Drought up in the Christian faith. On this account he was soon after taken, and having constantly refused to sacrifice to the gods, he offered his neck to the -executioner with manly courage, and won a glorious crown of martyrdom. The Lady Octavilla took his body by night, embalmed it with precious ointments, and buried it on the Aurelian Way.

[Lectio7]
From the Holy Gospel according to John
!John 4:46 -53
At that time There was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum. And so on.
_
Homily by Pope St Gregory the Great.
!28th Sermon, viz. that preached on the Birth-day and in the Church of these Holy Martyrs.
Wherefore was it that when this nobleman besought the Lord to come down where his child died, the Lord (albeit He healed him) would not come, and yet, when the Centurion prayed Him to heal his servant, albeit not asked to come down, He went with them He deemed not that the nobleman's son was worthy of His bodily presence, but He refused not to go to help the Centurion's servant. What is this but a rebuke to earthly pride, which maketh us to respect in men their honours and riches rather than that Divine image wherein they are created It was not so with our Redeemer, who would not go to the son of the nobleman, but was ready to come down for the Centurion's servant, to show that to Him the things which are great among men are but of little moment, and the things which are little esteemed among men are not beneath His notice.

[Lectio8]
Our pride then standeth rebuked, that pride which maketh us forget for the sake of one man that another man is a man at all. This pride, as we have said, looketh only at the surroundings of men, not at their nature, and seeth not that God is to be honoured in a man because he is a man. Lo how the Son of God will not go unto the nobleman's son, but is ready to go and heal the servant. Of myself I know that if any one's servant were to ask me to go to him, I have a sort of pride which would say to me silently inside my heart Go not thou wilt lower thyself; the Papal dignity will be lightly esteemed thy exalted station will be degraded. Behold how He Which came down from heaven, doth not deem it below Him to go to help a servant, and yet I who am of the earth earthly, shrink from being trodden on.

[Lectio9]
Think not therefore within yourselves what ye have, but what ye are. Behold, the world which I love, is a world which passeth away. Those holy servants of God, by whose grave I am standing, ennobled themselves mentally above the world at its fairest. To them was offered length of days, robust health, plenty in possessions, fruitfulness in offspring, comfort under perpetual peace: and yet while the spring-tide of life was unfolding before them, their hearts had~
already condemned it to an arid winter. Behold, winter in their hearts, spring in mine Death, and pain, and barrenness occur all around me, I am attacked on all sides, and I feel very bitter, and yet the sting of fleshly lust so blindeth me, that I love the bitter feelings, I hunt after that which flees from me, and cling to that which would leave me.
&teDeum

[Lectio94]
The brothers Nereus and Achilleus were eunuchs of Flavia Domitilla and were baptized by St. Peter at the same time as she herself and her mother Plautilla. Because they persuaded Domitilla to consecrate her virginity to God, they were accused of being Christians by Aurelian, who had been betrothed to her, and were sent to the island of Ponza. Soon afterwards, there were scourged in an effort to make them sacrifice to idols, and were taken to Terracina, where, after they had overcome the torture of the rack and flaming torches, they were beheaded. Their bodies were taken to Rome by their disciple Auspicius and buried on the Ardeatine Way. As for Flavia Domitilla, who had received the sacred veil of a virgin from Pope St. Clement, she also was deported to the island of Ponza, and after a long imprisonment was taken to Terracina. There, by the judge's orders, her dwelling was set on fire, and she won a glorious death, along with the virgins Theodora and Euphrosyna, her foster-sisters, on May 7, under Emperor Trajan. Their bodies were buried by the Deacon Caesarius. Pancras, born of a noble Phrygian family, was baptized in Rome at the age of fourteen. Under the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian, he was arrested ; and when he firmly refused to sacrifice to the gods, he was beheaded and so won the glorious crown of martyrdom. His body was buried secretly on the Via Aurelia by the matron Octavilla.
&teDeum
