Etymology:

the name Abdon derives from the Hebrew Avdon (עַבְדּוֹן) meaning “servant”, “slave” or also “adorer”.

Abdon was a martyr of Persian origin who lived in the 3rd century AD and suffered martyrdom in Rome. His identity, along with that of his companion Sennen, is surrounded by a veil of legend; however, there is reliable information about them, also because they are mentioned in many official texts and martyrologies. These sources record the deposition of their relics in the cemetery of Pontianus in Rome, along the Via Portuense. Other texts describe Abdon and Sennen as Persian princes who, in their condition as slaves or freedmen in Rome, devoted themselves to burying the bodies of martyrs. Because of this activity, they were targeted during the Christian persecutions, imprisoned, and beheaded by gladiators. In the Basilica of San Marco Evangelista al Campidoglio there is an altar dedicated to them that houses their relics.

The history of the statue in the Duomo’s construction site:

Saint Abdon is the work of the sculptor Nardo Pajella, who created it between 1951 and 1953. He is depicted as a young saint, tall and strong, shown stepping forward with his gaze fixed straight ahead. His left hand is placed on his chest, while his right arm hangs along his side holding the palm of martyrdom. There is an earlier version of this work: its model was created by the sculptor Luigi Casareggio, while the marble execution was carried out by the sculptor Gerolamo Argenti, who completed the statue in 1810. The attribution of the different stages of production to these two artists is documented in a record preserved in the Archive of the Veneranda Fabbrica, in which the sculpture professor Camillo Pacetti states that he supervised the transfer of the model of Saint Abdon from Casareggio’s workshop to that of Argenti. This earlier statue, however, shows some differences from the “current” one, such as the right arm raised and the left on the hip.