Saint Praxedes

Praxedes soon showed with what spirit she had embraced the Christian religion: she began from her youth to practice continuous prayer, vigils, fasts, and all kinds of mortifications, and did not cease these exercises until her death. Her charity was admirable: she devoted all her wealth to the relief of the poor, particularly those who suffered for the defense of the faith. Going into the prisons to visit these precious victims of Jesus Christ, she served them in their illnesses and dressed their wounds herself. Praxedes encouraged them to suffer with constancy; she went to collect their blood when they were being tortured; finally, she took particular care, with her sister Pudentiana, to secretly remove all the bodies of the Martyrs she could obtain to bury them in a place in their house, where today stands a church that bears the name of Saint Pudentiana, in the middle of which one can see the hole through which they were lowered. This same house was open to all the faithful. As the emperors forbade, under the greatest penalties, for Christians to assemble, they came in secret to these holy virgins to offer their prayers, hear Mass, and receive Holy Communion: it was most often given to them by the hand of the Popes, who also took refuge in this place at the height of the persecution.

In the ancient Quercy (Guyenne) she is call ed Saint Pérusset sainte Pérussette Roman virgin of the 2nd century, daughter of the senator Pudens. te. But as this persecution, under the Emperor Ma rcus Aureli Marc-Aurèle Roman emperor marking the chronological limit of Hegesippus's work. us, instead of abating, became ever more violent, Saint Praxedes was so deeply affected by it that she prayed to Our Lord to take her from this life: her eyes could no longer look without unbearable horror upon the extreme miseries and great calamities to which the Christians were reduced; the continual carnage that was being made of them was a spectacle too painful for her heart. Her desires were fulfilled, her prayer was answered: God took her from this land of affliction and sorrow to place her in the abode of immortal glory, on the 12th of the Kalends of August (July 24), in the year of Jesus Christ 164, under the empire of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. Her body was buried in the tomb of her parents by a priest named Pastor, who w rote he Pasteur Priest who buried the saint and wrote her life. r life.

There is in Rome a church of Saint Praxedes, which is a very ancient cardinal title; and Sain t Charles Borromeo est saint Charles Borromée Cardinal-priest of the title of Saint Praxedes in the 16th century. eemed himself so greatly honored by it that he expressly asked permission of Pope Gregory XIII to drop the name of his family and house to be called simply Charles, Cardinal of Saint Praxedes. He also greatly enriched it with his benefactions. It is governed by religious of Vallombrosa, whose founder is Saint John Gualbert. One sees in the middle of the nave a well into which she threw the blood of the Martyrs, which she went to collect with a sponge. There is preserved in the chapel of Saint Zeno a considerable part of the column to which Jesus Christ was bound for the flagellation. Pope Saint Paschal, who had this church repaired f pape saint Pascal Pope who restored the church and translated the bodies of the martyrs. rom top to bottom, had the body of our illustrious Saint transferred there, where it is honored under the high altar. This same Pope had transported to this church the bodies of more than three thousand Martyrs whom he had taken from many remote places, where they had been buried in haste, and where they could not receive the veneration due to their holiness. Among this number are three Popes, several bishops, and a great number of holy priests.

Furthermore, all the Martyrologies make mention of Saint Praxedes, and of all those of her family whom we have named.

She is seen depicted carrying a basin in one hand and holding branches in the other. Painters intended to designate her thereby as a lady of charity who goes to bring remedies; she is also painted collecting the blood of martyrs or having their bodies buried. Acta Sanctorum. — Cf. Histoire de l'Église, by Abbé Durras.