St. Prosdocimus of Padua

Prosdocimus is remembered as the first bishop of Padua. Butler’s short notice preserves the tradition that he was Greek and connected with the mission of St. Peter. It associates his preaching with Padua and neighbouring cities, including Concordia and Vicenza.

The account belongs to the traditional remembrance of the beginnings of those churches. It does not provide enough evidence to turn every detail of that early chronology into a certain date. This reading therefore leaves open the proposed year of death and presents the connection with St. Peter as a tradition.

Butler also describes the continuing veneration of Prosdocimus at the church and monastery of St. Justina outside Padua’s earlier walls. A marble chapel there bore his name. That local remembrance forms the clearest part of the short notice: the Church of Padua honoured him as a founding pastor and preserved his memory with its other early witnesses.