Saint Praxedes
Virgin
(† 165)

The holy virgin Praxedes was a Roman, daughter of Pudens, a senator, and sister of Novatus, Timothy, and Pudentiana, who are all honored as saints in the Church. The life of Saint Praxedes was a continual occupation and exercise in prayer, fasting, watching, and penance. She spent much of her means and revenues, wherewith she was most richly stored, in succoring and relieving the poor and needy, particularly in serving and comforting those who suffered and were afflicted for the faith of Jesus Christ, of whom there was an infinite multitude. For she provided for their necessities, visited, and comforted them in prison, dressed their wounds, urged them to be patient in their pains, gathered up their blood, buried their bodies, commended herself most earnestly and affectionately to their prayers, rejoiced for their conquests and victories, and desired exceedingly to imitate their sufferings and death for our Lord Jesus Christ, that she might take part with them in their rewards and crowns.

She harbored the saints in her house, entertained and cherished them with all love and kindness. And they used to meet and assemble in her home as in a secure harbor and place of refuge, to pray together, to hear Mass, and to receive the most precious body of our Lord. But as the persecution of Emperor Marcus Aurelius1 endured a long while, and an infinite quantity of Christian blood was daily spilled, the virgin’s tender heart was wonderfully wounded with compassion. After which she prayed to our Lord that if it were according to His holy will and pleasure, he would vouchsafe to deliver and take her away from the miseries of the present life and bring her to a place where she might forever enjoy his holy presence and where the tears would be dried up and washed away, where the cruel and heartless murdering of such an infinity of his servants was continually drawing from her eyes. Our merciful Lord heard her devout prayer and took her out of this world on the twenty-first of July in 164, in Marcus Aurelius’s and Lucius Verus’s reign. Her body was buried with her father and those of her family by a priest named Pastor, who wrote her Life. All Martyrologies make mention of her.

Ribadeneyra, Pedro de. “The Life of St. Praxedes, Virgin.” The Lives of Saints, With Other Feasts of the Year, according to the Roman Calendar. Written in Spanish by the Reverend Father Peter Ribadeneyra, Priest of the Society of Jesus. Translated Into English by W.P. (William Petre) Esq; The Second Edition Corrected and Amended, vol. 2, pp. 41–42. London. Printed by B.S., 1730.
Edited by Michael Murphy. Used with permission.

Consider purchasing Michael Murphy's book:
Not of Universal Importance: Canceled Saints and Lost Seasons in the Liturgical Calendar Changes of 1969