Pudentiana

Pudentiana ST. Among the Roman families who, in the 2d century, embraced the Christian faith, one of the most distinguished seems to have been that of the senator Pudens, his mother Priscilla, and his daughters Pudentiana and Praxedis. Pudens is frequently alleged to have been a disciple of the apostles Peter and Paul, and there is really a Pudens named in the second letter to Timothy; but this Pudens seems not to be identical with the father of Pudentiana and Praxedis. According to the Bollandists, our Pudens was converted by pope Pius I, who lived in the middle of the 2d century. After the death of his wife, the new convert had his house transformed into a church. He taught his two daughters the doctrines and all good works of Christianity, in which they soon distinguished themselves, converting to their new faith, with the assistance of the pope, who used to say mass in the now consecrated building, not only the members of their family and inmates of their house, but a large number of other pagans. We do not know when Pudens and his holy daughters died. Pudentiana, as well as Praxedis, had churches in Rome in the earliest times. See the Bollandists on May 19, where a learned commentary is given about Pudens and his two daughters, with the documents relating to them. SEE PUDENS.