[Rank]
Sts. Vitalis and Agricola, Martyrs

[Oratio]
Grant, we beseech thee, O Almighty God, that we who keep the solemn memorial of thy blessed Martyrs Vitalis and Agricola, may find succour with thee in their prayers on our behalf.
$Per Dominum.

[Lectio93]
!Commemoration of Sts. Vitalis and Agricola
Vitalis was a slave, and Agricola his owner. They were arrested at Bologna in the persecution under Diocletian and Maximian, for preaching Jesus Christ. Vitalis, the more he was implored and threatened to change his mind so much the more proclaimed himself a worshipper and servant of Christ, and after bravely bearing a course of diverse tortures, gave up his soul in prayer to God. The execution of Agricola had been put off, in the hope that the agonies of his servant might scare him into denying Christ; but the sight only hardened him. He was therefore crucified, and so became sharer and fellow with his slave Vitalis in the glory of testification. Their bodies were laid in the Jews' burying-place, where they were found by St. Ambrose, who removed them to an hallowed and honourable sepulchre.
&teDeum