PROSDOCIMO, saint. — According to what is commonly related about him, he is said to have been a disciple of St. Peter and to have been sent by him to Padua as its first bishop; he is then said to have evangelized Este, Altino, Vicenza, Treviso, Feltre, and Asolo, and subsequently also Oderzo, Concordia, and Belluno; he is said to have baptized the martyr St. Giustina, near whom he was later buried.
The legend that relates all this, full of anachronisms and inconsistencies, is not earlier than the 11th–12th centuries. The Saint is first mentioned in Aug. 860, in connection with a church in the Veronese area, without the designation of bishop.
BIBL.: Lanzoni, p. 912 ff.; A. Barzon, S. P. apostolo, etc., Padua 1949. V. Rivista di Storia della Chiesa in Italia, 5 (1951), p. 277. Pio Paschini