Saints Abdon & Sennen, Martyrs
Ss. Abdon et Sennen Martyrum
Saints Abdon and Sennen were Persian martyrs who suffered for Christ at Rome in the age of persecution, and whose names have been honoured in the Roman Church from very early times.
Saints Abdon and Sennen are venerated as martyrs of Persian origin who gave their lives for Christ at Rome during the persecutions of the early Church. Their names are among the oldest in the Roman tradition, recorded in the ancient martyrologies and honoured at a cemetery on the Aurelian Way, and the Church keeps their memory each year on the thirtieth of July.
What is reliably known
The accounts of the passion of Saints Abdon and Sennen that have survived are of a later date and clothe their story in legendary detail that cannot be confirmed. What is certain and ancient is the fact of their veneration: their names stand in the earliest Roman lists of martyrs, their burial place was known and honoured, and the Christian people kept their memory across the centuries. The tradition that they were Persians, brought to Rome and there put to death for confessing Christ, is old and constant, even if its particulars escape the historian’s certainty.
The Church, in honouring them, asks no more than what is sure. Two men of a distant land, strangers in the imperial city, were judged worthy to shed their blood for the name of Jesus, and their witness was treasured by the Roman faithful from the first. That is enough to set their names upon the calendar of the saints.
Their veneration
The cult of Saints Abdon and Sennen is genuinely ancient, attested in the oldest Roman calendars and in early Christian art, where the two martyrs are sometimes depicted in Persian dress receiving their crowns from Christ. Their relics came in time to be venerated in several places, and in parts of Spain and southern France they have long been invoked as protectors of the harvest and of the fruits of the field. Their feast joins the faithful to the great host of martyrs whose names the Roman Church has guarded with reverence since the beginning.
The Collect
O God, who didst bestow upon Thy holy Martyrs Abdon and Sennen an abundant gift of grace whereby to attain unto this glory: grant to Thy servants the pardon of their sins, that by the interceding merits of Thy Saints they may be delivered from all adversities.
Deus, qui sanctis tuis Abdon et Sennen ad hanc glóriam veniéndi copiósum munus grátiæ contulísti: da fámulis tuis suórum véniam peccatórum; ut, Sanctórum tuórum intercedéntibus méritis, ab ómnibus mereántur adversitátibus liberári.
Patronage
They are honoured among the early Roman martyrs and, in parts of Spain and southern France, are invoked as protectors of the harvest and the fruits of the field.
In the Modern Calendar
In the modern calendar they are no longer commemorated on the universal calendar, though their veneration continues in local and particular calendars.
Common Questions
When is the feast of Saints Abdon and Sennen?
Their feast is kept on 30 July in the calendar of the 1962 Roman Missal, as a Fourth Class feast.
Who were Saints Abdon and Sennen?
They were early martyrs of Persian origin who gave their lives for Christ at Rome during the persecutions. Their names are among the most ancient in the Roman tradition, recorded in the earliest martyrologies and honoured at a burial place on the Aurelian Way.
Why is so little known about them?
The surviving accounts of their passion are of a later date and contain legendary detail that cannot be verified. What is certain is the antiquity of their veneration — their names stand in the oldest Roman lists of martyrs — and the Church honours them for the sure fact of their witness unto death.
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