The Spanish Conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi, who founded the city of Manila in 1571, gained possession of the territory on 19 May of that year, the feast of this saint (in Spanish "Potenciana"), and declared her patron saint of what is now the Philippines.
Novatus and his brother, the martyr Timotheus, were the sons of Saint Pudens and Claudia Rufina and the brothers of Saints Pudentiana and Praxedes.