The virgin Pudentiana was daughter of the Roman Senator Pudens. Having lost her parents, and being most exemplary in her practice of the Christian religion, she sold, with her sister Praxedes’ consent, her possessions, gave the money to the poor and devoted herself to fasting and prayer. It was through her influence that her whole household, which consisted of 96 persons, was baptised by Pope Pius I. In consequence of the decree issued by the emperor Antoninus which forbade the Christians to offer sacrifice publicly, Pope Pius celebrated the holy mysteries in Pudentiana’s house, and the Christians assembled there to assist at the celebration. She received them with much charity and provided them with all the necessaries of life. She died in the practice of these Christian and pious duties and, on the fourteenth of the Calends of June (May 19), was buried in her father’s tomb in the Cemetery of Priscilla Cemetery on the Via Salaria.
Dom Prosper Guéranger:
In the same city, St. Pudens, senator, father of the virgin just mentioned, who, being clothed with Christ in baptism by the Apostles, preserved unspotted the robe of innocence until he received the crown of life.
Also at Rome, on the Via Appia, the birthday of the Saints Calocerus and Parthenius, eunuchs. The former was chamberlain to the wife of the emperor Decius, and the latter chief officer in another department. For refusing to offer sacrifice to idols they were put to death.
At Nicomedia, the martyr St. Philoterus, son of the proconsul Pacian, who after much suffering under the emperor Diocletian received the crown of martyrdom.
In the same city six holy virgins and martyrs. The principal one, named Cyriaca, having freely reproved Maximian for his impiety, was most severely scourged and lacerated and then consumed with fire.
At Canterbury, St. Dunstan, bishop.
In Bretagne, St. Ives, priest and confessor, who for the love of Christ defended the interests of orphans, widows and the poor.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
Dom Prosper Guéranger:
This same nineteenth of May has another glory attached to it: it is the day on which died the noble virgin Pudentiana. That name carries us back to the very first Age of the Christian Church. She was a daughter of a wealthy Roman called Pudens, who was a kinsman of the Pudens spoken of by Saint Paul in his second Epistle to Timothy (2 Timothy iv. 21). She and her sister Praxedes had the honour of being numberedamong the earliest members of the Church, and both of them consecrated their virginity to Jesus Christ. Upon their father’s death, the two sisters distributed their fortune to the poor and devoted their whole time to good works. It was the eve of the Persecution under Antoninus. Pudentiana, though scarcely 16 years of age, was ripe for Heaven and winged her flight to her Divine Spouse when the storm was at its height. Her sister survived her many years. We will commemorate her saintly memory on the 21st of July. Pudentiana’s house which, in her grandfather’s time, had been honoured by Saint Peter’s presence, was made over, by the holy virgin herself, to Pope Pius I, and the divine mysteries were celebrated in it. It is now one of the most venerable Churches of Rome, and is the Station for the Tuesday of the third week of Lent.
Pudentiana is a tender flower offered to our Risen Jesus by the Roman Church. Time has diminished nothing of the fair lily’s fragrance, and pure as her very name, her memory will live in the hearts of the Christian people, even to the end of the world.
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Like the dove of Noah’s Ark that found not where to rest her feet on the guilty earth, you took your flight, O Pudentiana, and rested in the bosom of Jesus, your Spouse. Thus will it be at the end of the world when the souls of the elect will have been re-united to their bodies: they will fly like eagles to their King, and will cluster around Him as the object of all their desires (Matthew xxiv. 28). They will flee from this sinful Earth as you did from the abominations of pagan Rome that was drunk with the blood of the martyrs (Apocalypse xvii. 6). We celebrate your departure, dear youthful Saint, with a feeling of hope for our own future deliverance. We honour you reaching your Jesus, and we long to be there together with you. Oh get us detachment from all transitory things, intenser love of the New Life which came to us with Easter, and indifference as to what concerns that other lower life, which is not that of our Risen Lord.Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:
In the same city, St. Pudens, senator, father of the virgin just mentioned, who, being clothed with Christ in baptism by the Apostles, preserved unspotted the robe of innocence until he received the crown of life.
Also at Rome, on the Via Appia, the birthday of the Saints Calocerus and Parthenius, eunuchs. The former was chamberlain to the wife of the emperor Decius, and the latter chief officer in another department. For refusing to offer sacrifice to idols they were put to death.
At Nicomedia, the martyr St. Philoterus, son of the proconsul Pacian, who after much suffering under the emperor Diocletian received the crown of martyrdom.
In the same city six holy virgins and martyrs. The principal one, named Cyriaca, having freely reproved Maximian for his impiety, was most severely scourged and lacerated and then consumed with fire.
At Canterbury, St. Dunstan, bishop.
In Bretagne, St. Ives, priest and confessor, who for the love of Christ defended the interests of orphans, widows and the poor.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
