[Officium]
Ss. Gervase and Protase, Martyrs

[Name]
Gervase and Protase

[Lectio93]
Gervase and Protase were the sons of Vitalis and Valeria, both of whom testified even unto death for the Lord Christ's sake, the father at Ravenna, and the mother at Milan. After the victory of their parents, Gervase and Protase gave all the inheritance to the poor, and set free their slaves. This act of theirs stirred up against them a savage hatred on the part of the heathen priests, and when the Count Astasius was about setting forth to war, they believed they had got a good occasion for the destruction of the two godly brethren. They persuaded Astasius that their gods had revealed to them that he had no chance of conquering in the war, unless he had first made Gervase and Protase to deny Christ and to offer sacrifice to the gods. Being commanded so to do, they flatly refused, and Astasius then ordered Gervase to be lashed until he died between the stripes, and Protase to be cudgelled and beheaded. A servant of Christ named Philip took away their dead bodies by stealth, and buried them in his own house, and, in after times, St. Ambrose, being warned of God, found them, and bestowed them in an hallowed and honourable place. They suffered at Milan upon the 19th day of June.
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