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Abdon and Sennen were natives of Persia, most likely noblemen, who came to Rome sometime in the third century. They may have been prisoners of a Roman military campaign against the Persians. In Rome these two Persians converted to Christianity, and they committed themselves to caring for Christian martyrs and properly interring their bodies. Once discovered by the Roman authorities, Abdon and Sennen were arrested, and commanded to pay homage to idols. The two Christians refused, and even spat upon the idols in contempt of anything other than the true religion. They were imprisoned and tortured until the Emperor returned to Rome. Abdon and Sennen were then thrown before the wild beasts in the arena, but the animals miraculously refused to attack despite the urging of the keepers. Finally, gladiators were sent into the amphitheater to dispatch the two faithful Persians by the sword. As Abdon and Sennen had done for their fellow martyrs, a Christian named Quirinus rescued and buried the bodies, which were eventually reinterred with honor during the reign of the Emperor Constantine. Abdon and Sennen are often invoked for the protection of children and to ask for a good harvest.
AT Rome, in the reign of Decius, the holy Persian martyrs Abdon and Sennen, who were bound with chains, brought to Rome, scourged with leaded whips for the faith of Christ, and then put to the sword.
At Tuberbum Lucernarium, in Africa, the holy virgins and martyrs Maxima, Donatilla, and Secunda. The first two, in the persecution of Valerianand Gallienus, were forced to drink vinegar and gall, then scourged most severely, and stretched on the rack, burned on the gridiron, rubbed over with lime, afterwards exposed to the beasts with the virgin Secunda, twelve years old, but being untouched by them, they were finally beheaded.
At Assisi, in Umbria, St. Rufinus, martyr.
At Csesarea, in Cappadocia, St. Julitta, martyr. As she sought to recover through the courts the restitution of goods seized by an influential personage, the latter objected that, being a Christian, her cause could not be pleaded. The judge commanded her to offer sacrifice to the idols, that she might be heard. With great firmness, she refused, and being thrown into the fire, yielded her spirit to God, though her body remained uninjured by the flames. St. Basil the Great has proclaimed her praise in an excellent eulogy.
At Auxerre, St. Ursus, bishop and confessor.
℣. And elsewhere many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
℟. Thanks be to God.