[Rank]
In Decollatione S. Joannis Baptistae;;Duplex majus;;4;;ex C2

[Rank1960]
In Decollatione S. Joannis Baptistae;;Duplex;;3;;vide C2

[Rule]
ex C2;
9 lectiones
Psalmi Dominica
Antiphonas Horas
Psalm5 Vespera=116
Psalm5 Vespera3=115
scriptura1960

[Ant Vespera]
For Herod had laid hold upon John, * and bound him, and put him in prison, for Herodias' sake.
O Lord my King, * give me in a charger the head of John the Baptist.
The damsel danced, * and her mother charged her, saying: See thou ask nothing, but only the head of John.
John had rebuked Herod for Herodias' sake, * his brother Philip's wife, for he had taken her.
Give me in a charger the head of John the Baptist. * And the King was sorry, for his oath's sake.

[Ant 1]
Herod sent * an executioner, and commanded that John's head should be cut off in the prison. And when his disciples heard of it, they came and took up his corpse, and laid it in a tomb.

[Oratio]
Lord, we beseech thee, that the keeping of this honourable feastday in memory of the holy Baptist John, thy Fore-runner, and thy Martyr, may be a mean to draw upon us the effectual outpouring of thy saving help.
$Qui vivis

[Commemoratio]
!Commemoration of St. Sabina, Martyr
@Commune/C7:Oratio proper
$Oremus
v. O God, Who, amidst the wondrous work of thy Divine power, dost make even weak women to be more than conquerors in the uplifting of their testimony, mercifully grant unto all us which do keep the Birthday of thy blessed handmaiden and witness Sabina grace to follow her steps toward thee.
$Per Dominum.

[Responsory1]
R. Herod the King sent forth, and laid hold upon John, and bound him in prison, for he feared him, for Herodias' sake,
* His brother Philip's wife, for he had married her.
V. For John had rebuked Herod, for Herodias' sake.
R. His brother Philip's wife, for he had married her.

[Responsory2]
R. John the Baptist had rebuked Herod,
* For Herodias' sake, his brother's wife, whom he had married while his brother was yet alive.
V. Herod sent an executioner, and commanded to behead John in the prison.
R. For Herodias' sake, his brother's wife, whom he had married while his brother was yet alive.

[Responsory3]
R. The damsel danced, and her mother charged her, saying:
* See thou ask nothing but only the head of John. And the king was sorry, for his oath's sake, and for their sakes which sat with him.
V. The damsel said unto her mother What shall I ask? And she said:
R. See thou ask nothing, but only the head of John. And the king was sorry, for his oath's sake, and for their sakes which sat with him.
&Gloria
R. And the king was sorry, for his oath's sake, and for their sakes which sat with him.

[Lectio4]
From the Book upon Virgins, written by St. Ambrose, Bishop (of Milan.)
!ii. 6
We must not hurry by the record of the Blessed Baptist John. We must ask what he was, and by whom, and why, and how, and when he was slain. He was a righteous man murdered by adulterers. The guilty passed upon their judge the sentence of death. Moreover, the death of the Prophet was the fee of a dancing-girl. And lastly, there was a feature about it from which even savages shrink; the order for completing the atrocity was given amid the merriment of a dinner-party. From banquet to prison, from prison to banquet, that was the course run by the servants of the murderer. How many horrors does this simple crime embrace within its details?

[Lectio5]
Who is there, that, on seeing the messenger hasten from the dinner-table to the prison, would not have forthwith concluded that he carried an order for the Prophet's release. If any one had heard that it was Herod's birth-day, and that he was giving a great feast, and that he had offered a damsel the choice of whatever she listed, and that thereupon a messenger had been sent to John's dungeon. If any one, I say, had heard this, what would he have supposed? He would have concluded that the damsel had asked and obtained John's freedom. What have executions in common with dinners, or death with gaiety? While the banquet was going on, the Prophet was hurried to death, by an order from the reveller whom he had not troubled even by a prayer for release. He was slain with the sword, and his head was served up in a plate. This was the new dish demanded by a cruelty which the Feast had been powerless to glut.

[Responsory5]
R. This is he which knew righteousness, and saw great wonders, and made his prayer unto the Most High
* And he is numbered among the Saints.
V. This is he which loved not his life in this world, and is come unto an everlasting kingdom.
R. And he is numbered among the Saints.

[Lectio6]
Look, savage King, look at a decoration which suiteth well with thy banquet. Put out thine hand, so as to lose no part of the luxury of cruelty, and let the streams of the sacred blood run between thy fingers. Thine hunger the dinner hath been unable to satisfy, thy cups have not been able to quench thine inhuman thirst. Suck, suck the blood which the still palpitating veins are discharging from the place where the neck has been severed. Look at the eyes. Even in death they remain the eyes of a witness of thine uncleanness, but they are closing themselves upon the spectacle of thy pleasures. Those eyes indeed are shutting but it seems not so much from the laws of natural death, as from horror at the scene of thine enjoyment. The golden mouth, whose bloodless lips are silent now, can repeat no more the denunciation which thou couldest not bear to hear, and still thou art afraid of it.

[Responsory6]
R. The Lord made him honourable, and defended him from his enemies, and kept him safe from those that lay in wait for him,
* And gave him perpetual glory.
V. He went down with him into the pit, and left him not in bonds.
R. And gave him perpetual glory.
&Gloria
R. And gave him perpetual glory.

[Lectio7]
From the Holy Gospel according to Mark
!Mark 6:17-29
At that time Herod had sent forth, and laid hold upon John, and bound him in prison, for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife, for he had married her. And so on.
_
Homily by St. Augustine, Bishop (of Hippo.)
!New Sermons.
The reading of the Holy Gospel hath set a scene of cruelty before our eyes even the head of St. John in a charger; a message of death sent forth to discharge the bloody commands of one that hateth the truth; a damsel dancing, and a mother rabid; a rash oath sworn in the midst of uncleanness and the revels of a supper, and a wicked fulfillment of the oath so sworn. It befell unto John according to his own saying. For he had said concerning the Lord Jesus Christ: He must increase, but I must decrease (John iii. 30,) so John decreased by an head, and Christ's height was made higher upon the Cross. The truth drew hatred. It could not be borne in patience that the holy man of God should utter a rebuke, albeit he sought by his rebuke nothing but the soul's health of them to whom he addressed it. They repaid him evil for good.

[Lectio8]
For what could he say but that whereof he was full? And what could they answer him but that whereof they were full? He sowed wheat, and found thorns. He had said unto the King: It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife. Lust had got the better of the King, and he kept a woman whom it was not lawful for him to have, even his brother's wife. But she pleased him, so that his cruelty was lulled. He respected the Saint who had spoken the truth to him. But the horrible woman conceived hatred, and by-and-by brought it forth. When she brought forth, she brought forth a girl, a dancing-girl.

[Lectio93]
!Commemoration for the Holy Martyr Sabina.
Sabina was a Roman lady, the wife of a distinguished nobleman named Valentine. The Christian faith was taught to her by a maiden named Seraphia. After the martyrdom of this holy virgin, Sabina gathered together her reliques, and buried them with godly service. For this cause she was in a little while arrested, under the Emperor Hadrian, and brought before the Judge Elpidius. Art thou, said he, the same Sabina who is so distinguished for her blood and for her marriage She answered "I am, but I give thanks to my Lord Jesus Christ for having delivered me through the prayers of His hand-maiden Seraphia from the troubling of devils." Diverse attempts were made to make her change her mind, but when they proved in vain the Praefect passed sentence of death upon her for despising the gods. The Christians laid her body in the same grave in which she had herself laid that of Seraphia, her teacher in the faith.
&teDeum

[Ant 3]
The unbelieving King * sent his loathsome messengers, and commanded that John the Baptist's head should be cut off.

[Lectio94]
From the Treatise concerning Virgins, by St. Ambrose the Bishop
_
We must not hurry past the record of blessed Baptist John. We must ask what he was; by whom he was slain; and why and how. He was a righteous man, murdered for his righteousness by adulterers. He was a judge, who suffered condemnation to death by the guilty ones because he had justly judged their guilt. He was the prophet whose death was a fee paid to a dancing-girl for a lascivious dance. And lastly a thing from which even savages would shrink his head was served up as a dish at a banquet. For the order to commit the atrocity was given amid the merriment of a dinner-party; and the servants of the murderer introduced the murder amid the courses of the meal, running from banquet to prison, and from prison to banquet! See how many infamies are contained in this one crime.
&teDeum