Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 2.djvu/175

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ST. PRjaPEDIGNA 163 SS. Potamia (4V July 30, M. at Tabnrbum ; (5) April 15, M. at Antioch. AA.S8. St. Potamicena (i), June 28, M. 202. Represented with a crown in ber band. A fiEimoas martyr of Alexandria, in the sixth persecution, the same in which SS. Pebpetua and Feligitas suffered. After enduring . extreme torture, Pota- mioena was burnt with ber mother St. QuiNOTiA Mabcella. A centurion named Basileides had charge of ber. As he led her to the place of torture he defended her from the insults of the gladiators and the populace. This kind- ness was rewarded by his conversion. She thanked him and spoke to him of tbe crown of life. He thought there must be somethiog in it, and asked ber, " How do you know that you shall have such a crown ? ** " If you see me with it/' she answered, << will you believe that I have it ? " He said that of course be would. Soon after ber death, she ap- peared to him in a dream, wearing a crown brighter than any on earth, and bearing another in her band which she promised to him. He at once confessed himself a Christian and was thrown into prison. There he was baptized by the brethren, beheaded and numbered among the saints, June 30. B,M. Neale, Church History, St. Potamicena (2), June 7, Feb. 22, Y. M. called the younger. She was the slave of a wicked man of Alexandria, in the reign of the Emperor Maximian. She was young and beauti- ful, and ber master tried to seduce ber by bribes and threats, and at last denounced her as a Christian, arranging with the prefect of the city that ber trial should be stopped if she consented to obey him. A cauldron of boiling pitch was prepared for her and she was told she must be cast into it if she adhered to her resolution. She remained firm, and the prefect ordered her to be stripped and plunged into the cauldron. She cried out, '* By the head of the Emperor whom you serve, do not order me to be stripped. Order me rather to be let down by slow degrees into the boiling pitch, and you will see how great a measure of patience is given to me by Christ Whom you know not." Her request was granted and in three hours, when the pitch reached to her neck, she expired. It was common among the Romans to pour boiling pitch on the bodies of slaves as a punishment. AA,SS,y June 7. Tille- mont. Smith, Latin Diet, « Pix." St. Potaninia, Pantamia. St. Potentella, Pobentella. St. Potentia. (See Cinebia.) St. Potentiana (i), Pudbntiana (i). St. Potentiana (2), April 17, per- haps 13tb century. A weaver. Patron of Andnjar. Joint patron with St. Eupbrasius, of Villanueva near the Ouadalquiver. Represented weaving or holding some implement necessary to that handicraft. Local tradition said she was a weaver at Villanueva in very remote times and was buried among the ruins of an ancient Gothic building where many persons re- sorted to pray, and to honour the saint. They often took earth from the tomb and carried it to sick persons to cure them. In the seventeenth century. Cardinal Sandoval, bishop of Toledo, attended by several dignitaries and a great concourse of people, opened the tomb and found the body of the saint in excellent preservation. They also found a little chapel where there was a very old picture of St. Potentiana with SS. Bartholomew and Ildefonso. Some years afterwards these relics were translated, part to Andujar and part to Jaen. No one could discover anything about her. The tradition that she wove and that her loom remained until *'the days of our fathers" led Bilches to conclude that she lived after the restoration of Andalusia, conse- quently after the year 1200. AA.SS. Bilches, Santos de Jaen y Baeza. Madrid. 1653. St. Potentilla, Pobentella. St. Pozanna, Pecinna. St. Praepedigna, Feb. 17 and 18, also called Pbobedigna, Pbopediona ; in French, Pbedigne. Wife of Claudius and mother of Alexander and Cuthias. This whole family was converted by St. Susanna and her father, with their friend Maximus, they were condemned during the persecution of the Christians under