Prende is the Albanian goddess of dawn, love, beauty, fertility and the protectress of women, worshipped especially by women in the northern highlands until recent times. Her byname Afër-dita ('the day is near', 'dawn') links her to the cult of Venus as the morning and evening star, and her name endures in the Albanian weekday e premte / e prende ('Friday'). Albanian tradition makes her the daughter of the sky god Zojz, preserving the ancient Indo-European pattern in which the dawn goddess is the Daughter of Heaven. Her feast fell on 26 July, and after Christianization she was assimilated to Saint Veneranda (Shën Prende).