[Rank]
St. Antoninus, Bishop and Confessor;;Duplex;;3;;vide C4

[Oratio]
Help us, O Lord, we beseech thee, for the sake of thine holy Bishop and Confessor Antonine, and so show thyself merciful in us, Who didst show thyself wondrous in him.
$Per Dominum

[Commemoratio]
!Commemoration of Ss. Gordian and Epimachus, Martyrs.
@Commune/C3:Oratio proper
$Oremus
Grant, we beseech thee, that we who celebrate the feast of Gordian and Epimachus, martyrs, also enjoy their intercession.
$Per Dominum

[Lectio4]
Antonine was born of respectable parents at Florence, (in the year of grace 1389,) and the holiness of his after life was foreshadowed in him even as a little child. When he was sixteen years of age he entered the Order of Friars Preachers, and from that time forth he was a burning and a shining light to all the godly. He proclaimed a truceless war against idleness after a short night's rest, he was the first to come to the service of Mattins when they were over he spent the rest of the night in prayer, or at least in reading, or writing out books, or if sleep altogether overcame his weary body, he would rest against the wall with his head bowed down, and then shake off slumber again, and set himself anew with fresh eagerness to his sacred watch.

[Lectio5]
He required of himself the most unflinching observance of the Rule of his Order, and never ate meat unless he were grievously ill. He slept upon the ground or upon bare boards. He always wore haircloth, and sometimes an iron girdle which bit into his naked skin. His virginity he kept ever undimmed by the least breath or shadow. He was so skilful in giving advice that he gained the common nickname of “Counsel Antonine.” At the same time so beautifully brilliant was his lowliness, that even when he was at the head of houses and provinces of his Order, he most cheerfully undertook all the meanest services of the houses where he was. Eugenius IV. appointed him Archbishop of Florence, and he took it so ill, that it was only when awed by the threats of the Apostolic See that he obeyed, and accepted the dignity, (in the year 1446.)

[Lectio6]
As Archbishop it can hardly be told how noble he was, in wisdom, in godliness, in love, in meekness, in Priestly zeal. It was wonderful to see how thoroughly he taught himself nearly all the sciences, without the help of a master. At last, after much work, and publishing many valuable books on Doctrine, he received the Holy Eucharist and was anointed, and then, clasping the image of his crucified Saviour to his heart, joyfully welcomed death, on the 2nd day of May, in the year 1459. He was remarkable for the working of miracles, both during his life and after his death, and Adrian VI. enrolled his name among those of the Saints, in the year 1523.

[Lectio94]
Antoninus, born in Florence of good parents, from his boyhood gave remarkable evidence of his future sanctity. At the age of sixteen, he entered the Order of Friars Preachers, and from then on, he shone with the greatest virtues. His living was singularly abstemious, and he preserved his virginity intact. He was so skillful in giving advice that he was called Antoninus the Counsellor. Named Archbishop of Florence by Eugenius IV, he reluctantly accepted the post only at the Pope's insistence. In this office he excelled in prudence, piety, charity, gentleness and priestly zeal. With no teacher to help him, he gained a thorough mastery of almost all the sciences and wrote many famous books expounding them. He died in the Lord on May 2, 1459, and was canonized by Adrian VI.
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[Lectio93]
!Commemoratio for SS. Gordian and Epimachus.
Gordian was a judge before whom, in the reign of Julian the Apostate, Januarius the Priest was brought to be condemned. Januarius instructed Gordian in the Christian faith, and himself, with his wife, and fifty-three other persons of the same household, were all baptized at Rome. On this account the Praetor sent back Januarius, and ordered Clementian the Deputy to cast Gordian into prison. Afterward he caused the same Gordian to be brought before him in chains, and when he found he could not shake him in his will to cleave to the faith, he commanded that he should first be hided with whips loaded with lead, and thereafter beheaded. His body was thrown out before the temple of Apollo for dogs to eat, but the Christians buried it at night in the catacombs upon the Latin Way, in the same vault where were already lying the remains of the blessed Martyr Epimachus. These had been brought from Alexandria, in which city Epimachus had long been imprisoned for owning Christ, and had in the end grasped the crown of his testimony by being burnt alive.
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