“S. Praxedes.” Praxedes and Pudentiana were the daughters of
the Senator Pudens, a pupil of S. Peter. There was an old title-church of
Rome, “titulus Pudentis,” called also the “ecclesia
Pudentiana.” The two female figures in the mosaic of the apse of S.
Pudenziana, via Urbana, are Pudentiana and Praxedes. In the fourth century
a new church, “titulus Praxedis,” was built near Santa Maria
Maggiore, and when Paschal I in 822 rebuilt the church in its present form
(the basilica and title-church S. Prassede all’ Esquilino) he
translated to it the bodies of S. Praxedes, S. Prudentiana, and of many
other martyrs. Under the High Altar are the chief Relics of the Saints. In
the Chapel of S. Zeno, which dates from the ninth century, is the Holy
Pillar of the Scourging brought in 1223 from Jerusalem by Cardinal Giovanni
Colonna. Another portion of the Holy Pillar is preserved in the Church of
the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, where it is publically venerated each year
on Easter Eve. S. Prassede is one of the richest churches in Rome in Relics.
It contains the Bodies of S. Zoe, S. Feldian, S. Candid, S. Basil, S.
Celestine I, S. Nicomedius; important Relics of S. Matthew, S. Luke, S.
Bartholomew, S. Philip, S. Andrew, S. Peter, S. Paul, and S. John Baptist;
some of the garments of Our Lady; a piece of the seamless robe of Our Lord;
thee Thorns from the Crown of Thorns; and four fragments of wood from the
True Cross.