ABDON E SENNEN, SANTI, MARTIRI

ABDON and SENNEN, Saints, Martyrs. — According to the *Passio*, of no historical value, they were kings of Persia, captured by Decius and killed in a Roman amphitheatre. In reality they were Roman martyrs of the 3rd century, buried in the cemetery of Ponziano on the Via Portuense, where a painting from the 6th or 7th century depicts them, dressed in oriental style, in the act of receiving crowns from the Saviour. Their names recur in the *Depositio Marfurni*, in the *Martyrologium Hieronymianum* and in the ancient Roman *Sacramentaries*. Pope Adrian I (772–95) restored the cemetery basilica dedicated to them, and Pope Nicholas I (858–62) their tomb, which had already been adorned, it seems, by Pope Damasus. The bodies of the two martyrs were later transferred to the basilica of St Mark, and subsequently part of them to Saint-André-les-Alpes (France). Near the Colosseum there once stood a church dedicated to them. Feast: 30 July.