Roman Virgins

ON THE HOLY ROMAN VIRGINS PUDENTIANA OR POTENTIANA, AND PRAXEDIS, AND PUDENS THE SENATOR THEIR FATHER.

II CENTURY

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

On the twofold Pudens, the latter of whom was the father of the Saints: and on their Acts, age, cult, and Relics.

Pudentiana or Potentiana, Virgin Sister at Rome (S.)

Praxedis, Virgin Sister at Rome (S.)

Pudens the Senator, their father, at Rome (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR D. P.

Among the Roman families, which in the times of the Apostles embraced the faith of Christ, there seems to have been the family of St. Pudens the Senator, and of his mother St. Priscilla, and of his daughters SS. Pudentiana or Potentiana and Praxedis the Virgins: accordingly we scarcely doubt that St. Paul in the second epistle to Timothy, which he wrote at Rome in chains, designates either this Pudens, Mention of Pudens, and of Claudia in ep. 2 to Timothy: as the interpreters everywhere indicate; or rather some one of the elder ones, when in chapter IV near the end he adds these things: There salute thee Eubulus, and Pudens, and Linus, and Claudia. Of St. Eubulus we have treated with the Greeks on the XVIII day of February: Linus seems to be he, who as the Vicar of St. Peter then, and afterward his successor in the Pontificate, is venerated on the XXIII of September. But Pudens and Claudia are made spouses by Franciscus Moncaeus, in a treatise printed at Tournai under this title: The royal cradle of the ancient British Christian Church. whether these were spouses and Claudia a Briton, The first argument of this is taken from the epigrams of Valerius Martial, as if he had made this epigram XIII of the second book, as an epithalamium on their nuptials, beginning from this distich, Claudia, O Rufus, my Pudens weds a foreign bride, Be prosperous, O Hymenaeus, with thy torches. Martial also inscribed various epigrams to the same Pudens: and her whom above he calls a foreign Claudia, he seems in book XI epigram 54 to call a Briton by origin in these verses, Since Claudia Rufina is sprung from the blue-painted Britons, Why has she the heart of the Latian folk? What grace of form! The Italian mothers can Believe her Roman, the Attic ones believe her their own. William Camden in his Britannia, where he treats of the manners of the Britons, relates that this British Claudia was said by some to have been married to the Pudens indicated above by the Apostle, nor does the reckoning of time altogether refuse it, although others think the contrary. Alford in the Annals of the British Church at the year of Christ 53 number 5 would embrace the same with open arms, if it could be done with the honor of other authors and of the sacred diptychs. Further it could be, if Pudens and Claudia be said to be distinguished from St. Pudens and his wife Savinilla, and another St. Pudens sprung from these, and the former be held the grandfather, or at least the uncle, of the latter: grandfather, I say, if from the said Pudens and Claudia St. Priscilla had been sprung, or her husband the Carthaginian; but uncle or great-uncle, if he be set down the brother of either. But be it so, let this be admitted; not at once without further proof can it be said that one and the same Pudens and Claudia are treated of in Paul and in Martial the poet.

[2] The reckoning of time for distinguishing them would be this, that the former Pudens mentioned by St. Paul is everywhere held the host of him and of St. Peter, and that these are said in his dwellings to have offered to God the Sacrifice of the Mass. the former Pudens in the I century Further this must necessarily have been done long before the year LXV, when these suffered under Nero then present at Rome. And this Pudens seems to be the same whom the Greeks in the Menaea, Synaxaria, and Anthology, Sirletus also in his Menology, celebrate on the XIV of April, although there he is named Πούδα or Πούδης, a follower of Paul, and after his death under Nero crowned with martyrdom. So thinks Antonio Gallonio, Presbyter of the Congregation of the Oratory and intimate of Baronius; and that from this one proceeded another St. Pudens, who therefore is only said to have been instructed with his children by St. Paul and a friend of the Apostles, because he was singularly devoted to the memory of these; and the discipline, which the other St. Pudens his grandfather or uncle had drawn from Paul, he preserved by domestic tradition. Whatever be of this explanation, which appears violent enough, and to which is preferable the reading, by which Pudens is called the Brother and friend of Timothy, a worshipper of the Apostles, a receiver of pilgrims; and B. Paul, who instructed him, can perhaps be understood as some Presbyter very different from the Apostle, since in this name all the MSS. agree. Whatever, I say, be of the explanation of Gallonio, St. Pudens, the father of SS. Pudentiana and Praxedis, flourished in the second century of Christ, in the time of St. Pius Bishop of Rome, who from the year CXLVI was Vicar of Hyginus the Pontiff, and afterward himself Supreme Pontiff, succeeding Anicetus in the year CLIV, lived until the month of July of the year CLXI. He consecrated the house of this Pudens under the title of the Shepherd: the latter in the 2nd century. he, when he had died, at the request of the daughters established a baptistery in the same: he then, when she had died, comforted Pudentiana, when she had only completed the XVI year of her age, her sister Praxedis. When Novatus likewise had died after a year and twenty-eight days, at the request of the same Praxedis he consecrated the Baths, which that man had given to the Church, under the name of St. Pudentiana. How much time then intervened until the house of St. Praxedis herself was consecrated into a church with a Title, we do not find expressed. It is credible nevertheless that this dedication also was performed by Pius: since two years after it the persecution was made; and the Emperor Antoninus, understanding that in the Title of Praxedis assemblies of Christians were held, ordered Symmetrius the Presbyter with twenty-two others, the cause not pleaded, to be punished by the sword; whom when Praxedis had buried, she herself, consumed with grief, died on the XXI of July; certainly while Antoninus was still living, who first in the year CLX on the VII day of March died, under Pope Pius. and so while Pope Pius was still living. That Antoninus had indeed permitted Christians to live privately in their own houses, such as was reckoned the house of Pudens, even after it had been consecrated into a Title, nor did he ever by public edict proclaim persecution. Why nevertheless should not the delations of the Gentiles, concerning the excessive increase of the Christians and the formidable frequency of the assemblies, two new churches now dedicated, at length have made savage a Prince otherwise mild? just as not long afterward his two sons and successors are said to have renewed the persecution. Praxedis died in the year 159. Certainly the long vacancy of the Apostolic See, after the death of Pius until the ordination of Soter, made on the XXI of January of the year CLXII, gives sufficient indication, that those confines of both the Empire and the Pontificate were by no means peaceful for the Christians; but the persecution first begun popularly under the father is therefore imputed to the sons, because they approved it by their edicts. But this being posited, the Chronology could be so ordered, that St. Praxedis died about the year CLIX, Pudentiana four or five years before her sister: but Pudens, their father, could by living have reached to the beginning of the Pontificate taken up by Pius: yet so that we say his house was consecrated by Pius, while still the Vicar of Hyginus or Anicetus.

[3] The chronology being ordered in this manner, and the two Pudentes being distinguished from one another, lest it should otherwise be necessary to make our Virgins, St. Pastor wrote the Acts. and much more their father, more than a hundred years old, the Acts will proceed conveniently enough, such as are believed to have been composed by the aforesaid Pastor. These moreover we give from a notable parchment MS. Passional of the month of May, preserved in the monastery of Bödeken of the Order of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine in the diocese of Paderborn, copied there by John Gamans: where this title was prefixed: Here begins the Life of the holy sister Virgins, Potentiana, which is on the XIV Kalends of June, and Praxedis whose feast is on the XII Kalends of August. The same things, but a little more contracted, are had in our notable MS. In other MSS. these same are divided into two parts, that each might be read on the birthdays of these Sisters, and thus we have the same from the MS. of Trier of St. Martin, and the former things concerning St. Potentiana from the MSS. of Trier of St. Maximin, and another ancient codex of ours, likewise another of Christina Queen of Sweden marked number 482: but the latter things concerning St. Praxedis from the MSS. of Fulda, and of the Hospital of St. Martin, which are also printed in Mombritius. We give all together, that the Reader may judge for himself, whether they are altogether sincere and whether by those who knew not how to distinguish the two Pudentes, something of bran has not been admixed, hardly difficult to discern from the purer flour, if at the beginning either you expunge the name of the Apostles, as superfluous and wrongly intruded; or from another MS. you add the word and read a worshipper of the Apostles, namely even after their death, just as Timothy in his rescript asks to be commended to the memory of the holy Apostles: and for B. Paul, who instructed all of them, you read B. Pius. Yet this conjecture is mere, founded in the reckoning of times, which we propose to be further weighed by learned men.

[4] St. Pastor is venerated on the XXVII of July, inscribed in the Roman Martyrology: who, because in Anastasius the Librarian and others he is said to be the brother of St. Pius the Roman Pontiff, we do not at once admit; and we fear lest it be intruded by those, whether this man was the brother of St. Pope Pius, who held that the same was Hermes, to whom an Angel appeared in the habit of a shepherd; but this Hermes, not Pastor himself, in the older Catalogue of the Roman Pontiffs, published by us before the tome I of April, and in many other MSS., is said to be the brother of St. Pope Pius: concerning whom at the Life of St. Hermas on the IX of May we have said some things. or of St. Pudens: It could also be doubted in what sense St. Pastor, writing to Timothy the Presbyter, at the very beginning of the epistle says, Pudens our brother. But it seems clear enough to me, that the brotherhood, not of blood, but of religion, is understood; just as below, speaking of Novatus to the same Timothy, he says, your German, who is our brother in the Lord. And in a similar manner, and not otherwise, Timothy in the rescript. To the holy Brother Pastor the Presbyter himself and to the most holy sister Praxedis in the Lord he says greeting. And let these things concerning the family of the holy Virgins suffice: what surname they had Floravantes Martinelli disputes, in the first Trophy of the holy Cross printed at Rome about the year 1655; and he inclines to the opinion of those, who ascribe them to the Servilian clan, on account of Servilius Pudens, in the time of Trajan named Legate of Nicomedia by Pliny; and Q. Servilius Pudens in the year CLXVII Consul with L. Fusidius Pollio. But that the conjecture is fallacious is proved by the surnames of other families, to which the name of Pudens was added, and severally L. Arrius Pudens, in the immediately preceding year Consul with M. Gavius Orfitus.

[5] It remains that I speak of the churches and titles of Pastor, Pudentiana, and Praxedis, since here also something of obscurity occurs among the Authors, The church of St. Pudentiana confounding the first with the second; but these very Acts seem not to distinguish the first from the second when it is said, that St. Pius the Bishop dedicated the Baths of Novatus a Church under the name of the blessed Virgin Potentiana (elsewhere Praxedis is read) within the city of Rome, in the quarter which is called Lateranus, where he established also a Title. It is agreed meanwhile, that of old and today the churches of the two Sisters are very different, one in the head of Suburra at the Esquiline mount, as far as the quarter Lateranus could once have extended itself, stretched toward the Lateran Palace; the other on the Viminal mount, where it is beyond controversy that the Baths of Novatus stood; In the Baths of Novatus not St. Praxedis: and those churches are distant from one another at least three hundred paces, obliquely facing the Basilica of St. Mary Major between them. The first, of St. Praxedis, the Vallombrosan Monks hold, the other, of St. Pudentiana, the reformed Bernardines from Gaul, called Feuillants. These obtained it from its restorer Henry Cardinal Caetani, under the Pontificate of Sixtus V, as Panciroli writes; those have possessed theirs for at least five hundred years, as is gathered from Onuphrius Panvinius, who published his little book on the principal churches of the City about the year 1570 and counted four hundred years.

[6] The same Onuphrius in the same little book treating of the church of St. Pudentiana, asserts, that of all the churches of the city, which now survive, it is the most ancient. And this to him and to the rest who assert it I will easily concede; the title of Pastor translated to the same not likewise without restriction, that this church anciently was called the Title of Pastor, from the name of St. Pastor the Presbyter, who first held that Title. For, if it be a question of the first institution of the Title, Pastor himself speaks thus of Pudens: Desiring his house to be consecrated a church of Christ, he brought it to effect through us sinners, where he established also a Title to our name in the city of Rome, namely in the place which is called the quarter of Patricius. Afterward Pastor treats of the Baths of Novatus, likewise converted into a church; and Anastasius the Librarian seems to have had his words before his eyes, when he wrote of Pius, that at the request of B. Praxedis he dedicated a church the Baths of Novatus in the quarter of Patricius, in honor of St. Potentiana his sister. Therefore I would say, that in the same quarter Patricius indeed, but the churches of Pastor and of Pudentiana were different; yet when that former one had either fallen or been desolated, the Title of Pastor (as can be shown to have often been done elsewhere) was united to the other, it is uncertain when and by what author; except that, Onuphrius being witness, Leopardus and Maximus the Presbyters under St. Pope Innocent, perhaps under Innocent I that is at the beginning of the V century, in the sepulcher before the church of St. Pudentiana are buried: and that in its right part is a most ancient chapel, decorated with mosaic work, founded by a certain Maximus an illustrious man, in which it is commonly handed down that S. Peter celebrated his first Mass. Which if they can be understood of one and the same Maximus, as they seem able to be; the consequence will not be improbable, that the translation of the Title was made in the time of the aforesaid Pope Innocent; and the monument of that translation remained in the chapel erected to that end under the name of Pastor (for so even today it is called) adorned with new marbles and pictures by the restorer of the church Card. Caetani. But the common tradition is to be pardoned, which in its manner confounding times, persons, and places, from the surviving name believes it to have been the old Title of St. Pastor; and that it does not distinguish that Pudens, in whose dwellings it was first erected, from the host or disciple of S. Peter.

[7] The same church of St. Pudentiana afterward received another restoration, which we should think was made before the ninth century, if we believed Floravantes Martinelli, referring the seals sculpted above the great door to the age of Hadrian the first. But the Leonine rhythmic verses subjoined to the several seals refute such a conjecture. For no learned man would make the beginning of Leonine verses older than the XII century; when also flourished Innocent II, or rather under the second, and with similar things was adorned the apse of the basilica of St. Mary across the Tiber, such as we exhibited to be seen at the Acts of A. Calepodius the Presbyter, on the X day of May. And perhaps under this second Innocent, and not the first, that Maximus, the illustrious man, and afterward Presbyter, lived; to whom we think can be attributed that he restored the church of St. Pudentiana, and perhaps took care that the Title of Pastor should be united to it, the aforesaid seals being formed to signify this very thing: of which receive this expression, taken from Floravantes Martinelli, and altogether apt to the age of Innocent II.

Floravantes omitted the fifth, the middle one among the four seals, in which a Lamb was expressed with some allusion to the Title of Pastor, by verses of this kind circumscribed in a circle. with seals and verses of the 12th century.

Dead and living I am the same, both Shepherd and Lamb. This Lamb restores by His blood the fallen world.

At the right side of the Lamb the nearest Virgin is thus addressed.

Protect us, O illustrious Virgin Puden-and-tiana. The Virgin Puden-and-tiana stands before with lamp full.

At the left, her Sister is similarly invoked:

We, pious Praxedis, by prayer bring to the holy dwellings. Praxedis meets the Bridegroom with clear light.

Again at the right S. Pastor in priestly habit, with this distich running around.

O holy Pastor, I pray, be thou an intercessor for us. This Pastor gives to all the doctrines of a holy life.

And finally at the left S. Pudens, in the habit, as Floravantes wills, of a sacred Lector; or, as it rather seems to me, robed in the Senatorial cloak, with this added:

I beseech thee, holy Pudens, purge us, thrusting away our crimes. This kindly Pudens also teaches the paths to the stars.

[8] Thus far of the church of St. Pudentiana; but from this I believe the other of St. Praxedis to have been distinguished enough in the Acts themselves; The church of St. Praxedis restored by various persons but by a scribal error and this exceedingly ancient, a line has fallen out, and the whole passage is thus to be read: At the same time, namely after the death of Novatus, the Virgin of the Lord Praxedis, having received power, asked B. Pius the Bishop that the Baths of Novatus, which now then were not in use, he would consecrate a church: which also pleased the holy Pius the Bishop, and he dedicated the Baths of Novatus a church under the name of the blessed Virgin Potentiana [in the quarter Patricius: but he dedicated also another under the name of the blessed Virgin Praxedis] within the city of Rome, in the quarter which is called Lateranus, where he established also a Title. But of this in the Librarian in Hadrian I it is read, that the Title of St. Praxedis, falling in part, he renewed entire. But afterward S. Pope Paschal (as at his Life from the same Librarian on the VI of May we have said) the church of the most blessed Praxedis, which once was built in ancient times, was now by too great age loosened, so that, about to fall from the foundations, it threatened its own ruin, removing it to another place not far off, raised it into a better state than it had been a while before. Panciroli adds that S. Charles Cardinal Borromeo, most piously devoted to this place, restored and adorned it in very many ways, where he erected the statues of both holy Sisters before the Tribune, and the marble at the entrance of the great door in the wall, upon which it was believed S. Praxedis lay down for the sake of macerating her body: and finally that Alexander Cardinal de Medici, who afterward was Leo XI, added the ornaments of new pictures. Pompeius Ugonius in his History of the Stations of the City, treats in station XLI of the same Church of St. Praxedis; and asserts that under the greater altar are preserved the Bodies of the two holy sisters Praxedis and Pudentiana, In this church the bodies of both holy women with the blood of the Martyrs. and at the entrance of the church under iron gratings in the middle of the principal nave there is a well of the blood of the Martyrs, gathered by S. Praxedis with a sponge. Which same thing is wrongly attributed to S. Pudentiana in an inscription, hung in the church of S. Pudentiana, and printed by Aringhi in book 4 of Subterranean Rome chapter 43, which is of this kind. This is the cemetery of Priscilla, in which exist the bodies of three thousand Martyrs, afflicted with martyrdom by the Emperor Antoninus: whom S. Pudentiana caused to be buried in this her venerable temple; and with her own hands she gathered with a sponge the blood of the aforesaid Martyrs, and laid it up in a well, which is at the right of this church in the chapel of S. Pastor. Thus there, but very ignorantly sculpted. For indeed the cemetery of Priscilla was on the Salarian Way, in which SS. Pudens, Pudentiana, and Praxedis had been buried at the beginning.

[9] In the same manner the burial of the Martyrs is attributed, not to S. Praxedis, but to S. Pudentiana in the Roman Martyrology on this XIX of May in these words: The memory of the same in the Calendars, At Rome St. Pudentiana the Virgin, who after innumerable contests, after the venerably exhibited burials of many Martyrs, after all her faculties bestowed on the poor for Christ, at length passed from earth to heaven. But on the XXI of July of S. Praxedis these things are read: At Rome St. Praxedis the Virgin, who instructed in all chastity and the divine law, assiduously devoting herself to vigils and prayers and fasts, rested in Christ, and was buried beside her sister Pudentiana on the Salarian Way. Which eulogy equally regards Pudentiana. Meanwhile the same things are read in Usuard: but the former is called Potentiana. as also of St. Pudens. More things concerning them from the Acts are had in Rabanus, Ado, and Notker. But of S. Pudens, their parent, on this XIX of May these things are added in Usuard: On the same very day of B. Pudens, the father of the aforesaid Virgins, who clothed by the Apostles in Christ in baptism, kept and preserved the innocent tunic unstained unto the crown of life. Similar things are read in Ado, Bellinus, Maurolycus, and others more recent with the Roman Martyrology, in which he is called a Senator.

[10] The feasts of S. Pudentiana and S. Praxedis are celebrated under the Simple rite in the Roman Breviary, Relics in other churches at Rome, but under the Semidouble rite that of S. Pudentiana in the Vatican church of S. Peter, because there they have a part of her head. But the head of Praxedis is preserved in the church of S. Salvator at the Holy Stairs, Panciroli relates in the Treasury of the city of Rome, and that other Relics of the same Virgins are in various Roman churches. That some Relics of both are also at Bologna Masinus asserts, namely those of S. Pudentiana in the church of S. Peter and another called the Annunciation outside the gate of S. Mamolus; and of S. Praxedis in the basilica of S. Stephen and in the church of S. John on the Mount. That at Prague also there is held the arm of Potentiana the Virgin, at Bologna, Prague, and Parma, from time immemorial, writes in the Diary of the Metropolitan church of S. Vitus its Dean Pezzina, Bishop of Samadria in Hungary. Finally Ranuccio Pico in the Theater of the Saints and Blessed of Parma describes her Life, on account of the Relics, deposited in the great altar of the Cathedral church, and laments that it is unknown how and when those were brought to Parma. That nevertheless at Cologne among the Carthusians is preserved the head of S. Pudentiana the Roman Virgin, sister of S. Praxedis, said Gelenius in his Cologne book 3 Treatise 40 §2. whether also at Cologne, Douai, and elsewhere. But he adds in the same place that there is the head of S. Praxedis, but from the Ursuline company of the Queen, which also of that S. Pudentiana will be better said, and likewise of other Relics of the same names, which at Cologne in other churches, at Cambrai, Douai, at Châtillon in the territory of Sens, and elsewhere are believed to be preserved. Saturninus, surnamed from All Saints, a Discalced Carmelite of the Aquitanian province, in a book under the title of Ancient Rome sanctified after the preaching of the Gospel, printed in French in the year MDCLXVI at Lyon, asserts in chapter 13 that at the time when he himself was at Rome, the body of S. Pudens was found, and was given to him by the Vicegerent Archbishop of Patras, the body of some St. Pudens at Limoges. and was sent by him into Gaul to the Convent of the Discalced Carmelites of Limoges, in whose church on this XIX day of May it is venerated, exposed to the devotion of the faithful. Whether that body can be believed to be that of S. Pudens the Senator, we leave to others to examine and determine.

THE ACTS

By the Author S. Pastor, an eyewitness. From various MS. codices.

Pudentiana or Potentiana, Virgin Sister at Rome (S.)

Praxedis, Virgin Sister at Rome (S.)

Pudens the Senator, their father, at Rome (S.)

BHL Number: 6988, 6989

FROM THE MSS.

[1] Pastor the Presbyter to Timothy the Presbyter greeting. a Pudens, our brother b and friend, was with the highest worshipper of the Apostles and receiver of pilgrims with the highest zeal. St. Pudens, a church being built, dies. Who after the death of his wife Savinilla and of his parents, that is, of his father the Carthaginian and his mother Priscilla, who had joined him to a wife, the wealth of the world being despised, was instructed in all the precepts of the Lord. But his wife having died had left him two daughters Praxedis and Potentiana: whom the same Pudens reared in all chastity, and with exceeding love of Christianity, taught them the whole divine law. He therefore by B. Pius c taught, who also taught thee, desiring his house after the death of his wife to be consecrated a church of Christ, brought it to effect through us sinners: where he established also a Title to our name in the city of Rome, namely in the place which is called the Quarter of Patricius. Of this Pudens therefore I make known to thee that he migrated to the Lord of all, and left the aforesaid daughters, supported by chastity, and instructed in all the divine law.

[2] Further the blessed Virgins themselves, selling all their faculties, bestowed them on the poor: His daughters SS. Praxedis and Potentiana, and without guile remaining whole in the love of Christ, in the flower of virginity they glory in every way, persevering continually in vigils, fasts, and prayers. But in the same place, where their father of good memory Pudens dedicated a Title to my name, this counsel was agreed between me and the handmaids of Christ Praxedis and Potentiana, they build a baptistery: that on the holy day of Easter (because the desire of them urged with exceeding love of faith) on account of the common household, which was Gentile, in the same Title we should have studied to build a font of baptism. Concerning which counsel when we had consulted Pius, the holy Bishop of the Apostolic See; it pleased him with so great desire, that with the highest zeal he exhorted that the baptistery be made as we had agreed: he also with his own hand designated the font, and built it. And with the help of God, all being completed, the handmaids of Christ called together their household, both from the city and from the possessions, and making inquiry, whomsoever they found Christians, they gave to free birth; whom d the Gentiles had attached to the belief of the holy law of Christ. Where then, counsel being taken with the blessed Pope Pius the Bishop, in the same Title according to the norm of antiquity manumission was celebrated. many are baptized: But on the holy day of Easter there were baptized of either sex to the number of ninety-six: and when all had been consummated, an assembly began to be made in the same Title, so that day and night the voice of hymns ceased not, and a multitude of Pagans ran together to the faith, and with all joy were baptized.

[3] Concerning which matter a suggestion was made to Antoninus the Emperor. Which Antoninus the most pious Augustus by his authority commanded, that whosoever should worship Christ, should know that it sufficed them to live in their own habitations; and that they should join with the rest of the people by no association, nor buy publicly, nor dwell in the public baths, but only remain in their own houses. on account of the edict of the Emperor they lie hidden. This precept being kept by all the Christians; our daughters dedicated to God, and confirmed in virginity by good testimony, in their house in the Title above said, with the people of God, who through them had believed, devoting themselves to prayers, vigils, and fasts, and persisting in the praises of Christ day and night, having necessaries sufficiently, for very many days we guarded. But also the most blessed Pius the Bishop, exulting, frequently visited us, and offered Sacrifices to the Lord for us.

[4] But completing e her sixteen years the Virgin of the Lord Potentiana, St. Potentiana dies, migrated to the Lord. Whose body we together with her German sister wrapped with all diligence in aromatics, and kept hidden in the aforesaid Title. But after twenty-eight days, we carried by night the body, and laid it beside her father Pudens, in the cemetery of Priscilla on the Salarian Way f on the XIV of the Kalends of June.

[5] St. Praxedis is visited by St. Novatus, g After whose death the Virgin of Christ Praxedis dwelt in the same Title, vehemently afflicting herself on account of the passing of her German sister. To whom when many noble Christians came for the sake of consoling her, together with the holy Pius the Bishop; there had come also to her your German h Novatus, who is our brother in the Lord, consoling her, and many poor Christians he refreshed with his faculties, and ministered to all from his faculties in honor of the same Virgin Praxedis, asking that by her prayers he might merit indulgence; who also commended you frequently to the most blessed Pius the Bishop, when he was about to approach the altar of the Lord. It happened after these things after a year and twenty-eight days, that Novatus being detained by sickness, was absent from the sight of the blessed Virgin Praxedis. Pius therefore the Bishop thinking of all the Christians together with the Virgin Praxedis, Novatus also is sought among them: of whom when it had been heard that he was detained by sickness; we were all saddened.

[6] Then B. Praxedis says to our father the holy Pius the Bishop: who being sick is visited by others, Let your Sanctity command that we go to him, if perchance by our visitation and your prayers the Lord may save him. Which word when it had pleased all of us, and rising by night we had gone to him; the man of God Novatus, seeing all of us gathered to have come to him, began to give thanks to God, because he merited to be visited by the holy Pius the Bishop, and the Virgin of the Lord together with our devotion. And we were in his house, days and nights eight. In which days it pleased him, that to us and to the blessed Virgin he should leave all his substance. This being thus ordained, on the thirteenth day he migrated to the Lord. Of which deed we have directed letters of this text to you, and then dying he leaves his possessions to the wish of others, together with the authority of the blessed Pius the Bishop of the Apostolic See and of the Virgin of Christ Praxedis: that what has pleased you concerning the substance of your German brother you make us know: so that your ordinance may be guarded in all things. Sent through Eusebius the Subdeacon of the Roman Church. i

The Rescript of Timothy the Presbyter.

[7] Timothy the Presbyter to the holy Brother Pastor the Presbyter, which Timothy approves. and to the most holy Sister Praxedis, in the Lord greeting. Exhibiting most willingly our service to you wherever you have need of us, we pray your Sanctity, that you deign to commend us also humble ones to the memory of the holy Apostles, and to the holy Pius the Prelate of the Apostolic See, and to all the Saints. I humble am filled with great joy, hearing what you have deigned to write to me. Whence let your Sanctity know, that my conscience in this matter for which you wrote is votive: and that what has pleased my German brother, pleases also us your servants; that is, that whatever he left be in your judgment and the holy Virgin's: and according to what shall please you to dispense it, you may have power. By this epistle we are filled with joy: and we delivered it to be read to the holy Pius the Bishop. Which when he had read he gave thanks to God.

[8] At the same time the Virgin of the Lord Praxedis, having received power, asked the blessed Pius the Bishop, The Baths are consecrated into a church: that the Baths of Novatus, which now then were not in use, he would consecrate a church he would consecrate: because the building was seen to be great and spacious in them. Which also pleased the holy Pius the Bishop: and he dedicated the Baths of Novatus a church, under the name of the blessed Virgin k Potentiana [in the quarter Patricius. But he dedicated also another under the name of the holy Virgin Praxedis] within the city of Rome; in the quarter which is called Lateranus: where he established also a Roman title: in which place he consecrated a baptistery on the IIII day of the Ides of May. After two years a great persecution of the Christians was made: and many were crowned with martyrdom. At which time the Virgin of the Lord Praxedis hid many Christians in the aforesaid title: whom she both fed with food and with the word of God. Then it was divulged to Antoninus l the Emperor, that assemblies of Christians were held in the title of Praxedis. And he sent at once and seized many of them: among whom he seized Simetrius the Presbyter with twenty-two others: and ordered them without hearing to be punished by the sword. Whose bodies by night the Blessed Praxedis collected, and in the cemetery of Priscilla m on the VII day of the Kalends of June buried. Then the Virgin of the Lord, constrained by the exceeding affliction of her body, with inmost sighs groaned to the Lord, and prayed that on account of this she might merit to be taken away from this world more quickly. St. Praxedis dies on the 21st of July. Whose prayers and tears reached to heaven. For after fifty- four days n from the passion of the aforesaid Saints, namely on the twelfth day of the Kalends of August, she migrated to the Lord. Whose body I Pastor the Presbyter buried beside her father Pudens, on the Salarian Way, in the cemetery of Priscilla. Where their prayers flourish o unto this day: our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, to whom is honor and dominion through eternal ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

In other ancient MSS. and in Mombritius this exordium is placed: All things which by the Saints have been done or are done, if anyone shall be willing studiously to seek out, exhibit both to himself and to very many a fruit of edification; and as a fruitful tree not without cause is approved to occupy the earth while it lives, since both itself is adorned with its fruits, and everyone who from it shall receive fruit is fattened. We write, as we have found in the deeds, what the Saints did, what they spoke, what they suffered. Show yourselves to be Catholics, who the victories of Christ always gladly hear, and I ask you, * yr. why then. which nevertheless among the apocryphal writings you judge by calling these so, through which is praised Pudens, our brother and friend of the Apostles, because he was with the highest ambition a worshipper and receiver of the holy pilgrims. Who with the world despised and the wealth of his parents, always ready for Christ, in all the precepts of the Lord &c. as above: But this exordium could seem composed in the age of Pope Gelasius, when there was much talk at Rome about distinguishing apocrypha: cause certainly was at hand for doubting of these Acts, on account of the inserted mention of the Apostles and B. Paul, and the parachronism hence arising. Aringhi in Subterranean Rome book 4 chapter 28 alleges other Vatican MSS., under numbers 4 and 9, at whose beginning is treated of Antoninus the Emperor; and it is subjoined: in his times there was in the city of Rome a man, by name Pudens, noble by office, whose father was called Punicus, but his mother Priscilla: by whose judgment indeed he had taken a wife, by name Sabinella, sprung from equally illustrious birth, of whom he received two daughters, fair in appearance, but fairer in morals. But these things do not savor of the simplicity of the genuine style, and are wrongly attributed to Pastor. The text is less altered, yet altered, in codex 1188 of the same Vatican Library, whose copy R. F. John Francis Vannius copied for us with his own hand with this exordium. To the holy and venerable Presbyter, Brother Timothy, Pastor the Presbyter. Let thy fraternity know, that Pudens our brother and friend, a worshipper of the Apostles, and receiver of pilgrims and despiser of the world, was instructed in all the precepts of the Lord.