[Rank]
Ss. Quatuor Coronatorum Martyrum;;Simplex;;1.1;;vide C3

[Rule]
vide C3;

[Oratio]
Grant, we beseech thee, O Almighty God, that we who know thy glorious witnesses~
to have been in their testifying leal toward thee, may feel, now that they are~
with thee, that they are in their prayers pitiful towards us.
$Per Dominum

[Lectio93]
In the persecution under Diocletian four brothers named Severus, Severian,~
Carpophorus, and Victorinus, boldly refused to worship the gods, and were lashed~
with whips loaded with lead until they gave up their lives for Christ's Name's~
sake under the strokes. Their bodies were thrown out to be eaten by the dogs,~
but as they remained untouched after a long while, the Christians took them away,~
and buried them in a sand-pit upon the Lavican Way at the third milestone from~
the City, hard by the grave of the holy martyrs Claudius, Nicostratus,~
Symphorian, Castorius, and Simplicius, who had suffered under the same Emperor,~
because being excellent sculptors they could nowise be brought to make figures~
of idols, and when they were brought to the image of the Sun to do reverence to~
it, they had said they would never worship the works of men's hands. For this~
reason they were thrown into prison, and when after many days they were still~
found of the same mind, they were first lashed with scourges armed with hooks,~
and then soldered up alive in leaden coffins and thrown into the river. There is~
in the City of Rome a Church called that of the Four Holy Crowned. Their actual~
names were long unknown, but afterwards made manifest by God. In this Church are~
honourably buried the bodies of these four, and also those of the other five;~
and a Festival is held in their honour upon the 8th day of November.
&teDeum
