Saint Pudens
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Saint Pudens was an early Christian saint and martyr.
He is mentioned as a layman of the Roman Church in 2 Timothy 4:21.[1] According to tradition, he lodged Saint Peter and was baptised by him, and was martyred under Nero (reigned 54-68). He is commemorated on April 14 in the Eastern Orthodox Church calendar and May 19 according to the Dominican Martyrology.
He is said to have been the son of Quintus Cornelius Pudens, a Roman Senator. He is said to have had two sons, Novatus and Timotheus, and two daughters, Praxedes and Pudentiana, all saints, but if Pudens life is documented, those of his daughters is derived only by the existence of two ancient churches, Santa Prassede and Santa Pudenziana in Rome.
The acts of the synod of Pope Symmachus (499) show the existence of a titulus Pudentis, a church with the authority to administer sacraments. It is possible that a wrong interpretation of the titulus led to the creation of the figure of Pudentiana, and that the "church of Santa Pudenziana" was actually a "church of Pudens".
[edit] Notes
- ^ "Do your best to come before winter. Eubulus sends greetings to you, as do Pudens and Linus and Claudia and all the brethren." (Revised Standard Version)
[edit] References
- Martial, Epigrams, ed. & trans. D. R. Shackleton Bailey, Harvard University Press, 1993
- George Edmundson (1913), The Church in Rome in the First Century, Note C: The Pudens Legend
- William Smith (1884), Smith's Bible Dictionary [1]
