Pudens of the Seventy
The Holy Apostle Pudens of the Seventy
Apostle of the Seventy · Martyr · d. c. 67
Commemorated 15 April — With the apostles Aristarchus and Trophimus
Pudens was a Christian of Rome, named by the Apostle Paul in the Second Letter to Timothy, and is numbered by the Church among the Seventy Apostles. Tradition makes him a Roman of rank whose house was a gathering-place of the apostles, and who was beheaded at Rome with the apostles Aristarchus and Trophimus under Nero. He is commemorated on April 15 with his companions, and among the Seventy on January 4.
Pudens appears in the New Testament in the greetings at the close of Paul's last letter: "Eubulus greeteth thee, and Pudens, and Linus, and Claudia, and all the brethren" (2 Tim. 4:21) — the little company of the Roman church gathered about the imprisoned apostle. From this the tradition drew that Pudens was a Roman of standing — by later legend a senator — whose house served as a shelter and meeting-place for Peter and Paul and the brethren, one of the first hearths of the Church in the capital.
Numbered among the Seventy, Pudens laboured in the Gospel and, like his fellows, sealed his confession with his blood: in the Neronian persecution he was beheaded at Rome, about the year 67, together with Aristarchus and Trophimus. The Church keeps the three apostles together on April 15.
Feast and commemoration
April 15 (church date; Old Calendar civil April 28), together with the apostles Aristarchus and Trophimus; and among the Seventy Apostles on January 4.
Hymns
Troparion — Tone 3 (common of an apostle)
O holy apostle Pudens, intercede with the merciful God, that He may grant to our souls forgiveness of transgressions.
Original translation from the Greek
Iconography
Pudens is painted as an apostle in tunic and himation, holding a scroll, and is most often shown together with Aristarchus and Trophimus in the icon of the three. No pre-1900 icon of him alone has been identified for this collection.