Sts. Abdon and Sennen
(Variously written in early calendars and martyrologies Abdo,
Abdus; Sennes, Sennis, Zennen.)
Persian martyrs under Decius, About A.D. 250, and commemorated 30
July. The veneration paid them dates from as early as the third
century, though their Acts, written for the most part prior to the
ninth century, contain several fictitious statements about the cause
and occasion of their coming to Rome and the nature of their
torments. It is related in these Acts that their bodies were buried
by a subdeacon, Quirinus, and transferred in the reign of
Constantine to the Pontian cemetery on the road to Porto, near the
gates of Rome. A fresco found on the sarcophagus supposed to contain
their remains represents them receiving crowns from Christ. According
to Martigny, this fresco dates from the seventh century. Several
cities, notably Florence and Soissons, claim possession of their
bodies, but the Bollandists say that they rest in Rome.
Acta SS., 30 July. MARTIGNY, Dict. des antiq. chret.,
1; CHEETHAM, in Dict. Christ. Antiq,; BUTLER, Lives of the
Saints, July 30.
JOHN J. WYNNE
Transcribed by Stephen Patrick Wilson
Dedicated to Barbara May Wilson
The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia