De sanctis Abdon et Sennen
The Courage of Abdon and Sennen
Abdon and Sennen are arrested and brought before Emperor Decius for their devotion to the Christian dead.
Abdon and Sennen were martyred under the Emperor Decius. For when the Emperor Decius had conquered Babylon along with other provinces, he found certain Christians there, whom he took with him to the city of Corduba and put to death with various tortures. Two sub-rulers, Abdon and Sennen, took them and buried them; for this they were accused and presented to Decius, then led in chains after him to Rome. Brought into the presence of Decius and the senate, they were ordered either to offer sacrifice and regain their freedom, or to be devoured by the jaws of wild beasts.
Faithful unto Death
The saints endure the theater and wild beasts, eventually finding rest in burial and later veneration.
Scorning this and spitting upon the idols, they were dragged to the theater, where two lions and four bears were released against them. But when the beasts would not touch the saints—and even guarded them—they were killed by swords thrust into them, and their bodies were dragged by their feet and thrown before the idol of the sun. After they had lain there for three days, the subdeacon Quirinus gathered them up and buried them in his own house. They suffered around the year of our Lord 252. In the time of Constantine, these four martyrs revealed their own bodies, and they were translated by the Christians to the cemetery of Pontianus, where the Lord continues to grant many benefits to the people through them.1
Read the original Latin
Abdon et Sennen sub Decio imperatore martirium passi sunt. Cum enim Decius imperator Babyloniam cum aliis provinciis superasset, quosdam christianos ibi invenit, quos secnm ad urbem Cordubam deducens diversis suppliciis consummavit, et eos duo subreguli capientes, scilicet Abdon et Sennen, sepelierunt, unde accusati et Decio praesentati Romam post eum vincti catenis ducuntur” et in conspectu Decii et senatus introducti aut sacrificare et rerum suarum recipere libertatem aut morsibus bestiarum devorari jubentur. Contemnentes itaque et exspuentes in simulacra ad theatrum pertrahuntur et ad eos duo leones et ursi quatuor dimittuntur, qui cum sanctos non tangerent, sed etiam custodirent, injectis in eos gladiis occiduntur et ligatis pedibus tracti sunt et jactati ante simulacerum solis, Qui cum ibi triduo jacuissent, Quirinus subdyaconus eos collegit et in domo sua sepelivit. Passi sunt antem circa annos domini CCLIIL Tempore antem Constantini ipsi quatuor martires eorum corpora revelaverunt et a christianis translata sunt in cimiterium Pontiani, ubi dominus per eos malta praestat beneficia populo,
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin text contains a likely typo in the date 'CCLIIL', which does not correspond to standard Roman numeral notation. It is rendered here as 252, the traditional date for the martyrdom of Abdon and Sennen.
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