Pudentiana

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Fresco of the 15th century, picturing Saint Pudentiana. From the church of Santa Pudenziana in Narni, Italy.

Saint Pudentiana is a traditional Christian saint of unknown dates. She is also sometimes called Potentiana and is often coupled with Saint Praxedes.

Saint Pudentiana in the mosaic of the apsis of the basilica devoted to her.

According to her acta, published by the Bollandists (dating from the 8th century) and the traditional martyrology, she was a Roman virgin of the early Christian church, daughter of Saint Pudens, friend of the Apostles, and sister of Saint Praxedes. Praxedes and Pudentiana, together with presbyter Pastor and Pope Pius I (140-154), built a baptistery in the church present inside their father's house, and started to baptize pagans. Pudentiana died at the age of sixteen, possibly a martyr, and is buried next to her father Pudens, in the Priscilla catacombs, in via Salaria.

While there is evidence for the life of St. Pudens, there is no direct evidence for either Pudentiana nor Praxedes. It is possible that the early Church's "ecclesia Pudentiana" in documents (i.e. the Church of Pudens) was mistaken for "Saint Pudentiana."

Her feast day in the Roman Catholic Church is May 19.^[1]