[Officium]
St. Donatus, Bishop and Martyr

[Oratio]
O God, Who art thyself the glory of thy priests, grant unto us, we beseech thee, to feel the help of thine holy martyr and bishop Donatus, whose Feast we are keeping.
$Per Dominum

[Lectio93]
Donatus was the child of a father and mother who had both been slain for Jesus Christ's sake. He fled with the monk Hilarinus to Arezzo in Tuscany, of which city he afterwards became Bishop. There the Praefect Quadratian, during the persecution under Julian, commanded both Hilarinus and Donatus to worship idols, and when they both refused to commit such abominable iniquity, Hilarinus was beaten with clubs before the eyes of Quadratian, until he gave up the ghost. Donatus also was savagely tortured, and slain with the sword. The Christians buried their bodies honourably hard by the city.
&teDeum