Gender Feminine
Meaning & History
Taken directly from Latin patientia "patience, endurance, forbearance" (also "suffering" or "submission, subjection") – the ancestral cognate of Patience. This name was borne by St. Patientia of Loret (alias Santa Paciencia de Huesca), wife of Saint Orentius of Loret, both of whom were martyred in 240; their mutual feast day is May 1, with their joint patronage being against vermin. Pious Spanish tradition makes the couple the parents of St. Lawrence of Rome (d. 258).