[Rank]
Ss. Gordian and Epimachus martyrs;;Simplex;;1.1;;vide C3

[Rule]
vide C3;

[Oratio]
Grant we beseach thee that we who celebrate the feast of Gordian and Epimachus martyrs also enjoy their intercession
$Per Dominum

[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.
&teDeum