[Rank]
S. Bonifacii Martyris;;Simplex;;1.1;;vide C2

[Rule]
vide C2;

[Oratio]
Grant, we beseech thee, O Almighty God, that we who do make solemn remembrance of thine holy Martyr, Boniface, may be helped in thy presence by his prayers.
$Per Dominum

[Lectio93]
Boniface was a Roman citizen who had lived in sin with the noble lady Aglae. The memory of this transgression overwhelmed him with exceeding sorrow, so that for penance he gave himself up to look for and bury the bodies of the martyrs. While he was at Tarsus, and apart from his fellow-travellers, he saw a great many persons being diverse ways tormented, because they confessed to believing in Christ. He kissed their chains, and vehemently exhorted them bravely to bear their sufferings, seeing that the same their affliction which was but for a moment, was working for them an exceeding, even an eternal weight of glory. For this cause Boniface also was taken, and his flesh torn off him with iron claws. Sharp reeds also were driven between his finger-nails and the quick, and molten lead poured into his mouth. In his agony he was only heard to say "I thank thee, O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God." Afterward he was dipped head foremost into a vessel of boiling pitch, and as he was drawn out unharmed, the judge in fury commanded him to be beheaded. At the time it was done there was a great earthquake, whereby many unbelievers were turned to believe in the Lord Christ. The fellow-travellers of Boniface sought him the next day, and when they knew that he had undergone martyrdom, they bought his body for fifty shillings, and after that they had embalmed it with spices, and wrapped it in linen, they carried it to Rome. The Lady Aglae, who had herself with great contrition given up her life to godly works, was told by an angel what had come to pass. She therefore went forth to meet the holy body, and built a Church in the name of Boniface, wherein his said body was buried upon the fifth day of June next after that fourteenth of May whereon in the city of Tarsus in Cilicia, under the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian, he had passed away to heaven.
&teDeum