Confession and Martyrdom
The OCA synaxarion relates that when Decius persecuted the Christians of Babylon, the emperor ordered Bishop Polychronius to sacrifice to the idols. Polychronius answered that he and his companions would offer themselves in sacrifice to the Lord Jesus Christ but would never worship idols, and for this he was cast into prison. At a second interrogation he kept silence.
When the presbyter Parmenius objected to the emperor's mockery, Decius ordered his tongue removed; tradition holds that despite this mutilation Parmenius continued to speak clearly. Decius then had Polychronius struck in the mouth with stones, and the bishop died of these injuries. The two Persian princes Abdon and Sennen secretly buried his body.
The emperor had the three presbyters and two deacons taken to Kordula, where he again demanded that they sacrifice to the idols. After being subjected to intensified torture involving fire, they were beheaded with axes; Abdon and Sennen again buried their bodies. The martyrs Olympius and Maximus were tortured separately and beheaded after refusing to renounce Christianity.
Abdon and Sennen
According to their Acts, the Persian nobles Abdon and Sennen were brought before Decius, refused to sacrifice to the Roman gods, and were martyred about the year 250. The synaxarion relates that Decius brought them to Rome in chains and ordered them executed by wild beasts; when lions and bears refused to harm them, they were run through with swords. A Christian named Cyrenius is said to have buried them secretly.
Their veneration as martyrs is shared by the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic traditions, with a feast on July 30. The Roman Martyrology records their burial on that day in the Cemetery of Pontianus on the Via Portuensis outside Rome. The names appear in several variant forms, such as Abdo or Abdus and Sennes, Sennis, or Zennen.
Historians note that little can be securely established about Abdon and Sennen: their Acts, composed before the ninth century, are held to contain fictitious elements concerning the cause and circumstances of their coming to Rome and the nature of their sufferings.
Relics & Shrines
The synaxarion records that the relics of Abdon and Sennen rest in the church of Saint Mark at Rome. The Acta Sanctorum maintains that their bodies were translated to the Basilica of San Marco Evangelista al Campidoglio in Rome in 1474.
Abdon and Sennen are honored as patron saints of Calasparra in Spain and of other localities.
Identity and Sources
The Luke listed among the companions of Polychronius is a deacon of this group and is not to be identified with the Evangelist Luke.
A separate Western entry commemorates a 'Polychronius of Babylon,' bishop and martyr, on February 17, of whom it is said that no other reliable information has survived. The differing date and the absence of the companions suggest a distinct or imperfectly identified tradition rather than the July 30 group described in the Orthodox synaxarion.
