Pudentiana
Life and witness
At Rome, of St. Pudentiana, virgin, who after she had passed through innumerable combats, after she had most honourably buried the bodies of many holy martyrs, and distributed all her goods to the poor for the love of Christ, went at length from earth to heaven.
The Lives Of The Saints: Volume 05, May · SS. PUDENS AND PUDENTIANA.
SS. PUDENS AND PUDENTIANA.
(2ND CENT.)
[Roman Martyrology. Mentioned in the Sacramentary of Pope Gela- sius. S. Pudens her father also in the Roman Martyrology, and in that of Usuardus, Ado, Bellinus and Maurolycus. S. Praxedis, the sister of S. Pudentiana, is commemorated on July 21st. Authority : — The Acts, which purport to be written by S. Pastor (July 27th), a contemporary. But their authenticity is very questionable.]
AINT PUDENS was a Roman senator, who had the honour of receiving S. Peter into his house, when the prince of the Apostles came to Rome. He was probably converted by S. Paul, for that Apostle mentions him as his disciple in his second Epistle to S. Timothy. He died in the inno- cence of his baptismal condition, and left behind him two daughters, Praxedis and Pudentiana. These saintly virgins gave great alms to the poor, and their palace was used for the celebration of the Divine Mysteries. S. Pudentiana is said to have died a martyr’s death in the year 160,1 but this is hardly possible, and it is more probable that there were two saints of the same name, and that a similar confusion has been made in her case to that which exists
1 The Acts by S. Pastor say nothing about her dying by martyrdom, but simply state that she died at the age of sixteen. Consequently the Pudentiana who died in 160 must have been another.
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Biographical overview
Pudentiana was a Christian virgin and martyr of the second century who refused to worship the Roman Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Antoninus Pius as deities. As the eldest daughter of the Roman senator Pudens, she is sometimes locally known as "Potentiana" and is often associated with her younger sister, Praxedes, the martyr.
Martyrologium Romanum · Latin witness
Romae sanctae Pudentianae Virginis, quae, post innumeros agones, post multorum Martyrum venerabiliter exhibitas sepulturas, post omnes facultates suas pro Christo pauperibus erogatas, tandem de terris ad caelos migravit. Ibidem sancti Pudentis Senatoris, qui ejusdem sanctae Pudentianae ac sanctae item Praxedis Virginis fuit pater; atque, ab Apostolis Christo in baptismo vestitus, innocentem tunicam usque ad vitae coronam immaculate custodivit.