Pammachius

ON ST. PAMMACHIUS, ROMAN SENATOR, PERHAPS A PRIEST,

AT ROME,

In the year CDIX or CDX.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Pammachius, senator, and perhaps priest, at Rome (St.)

BY J. P.

§ I. Our Saint praised by St. Jerome on account of his virtues joined with the highest nobility of birth.

The Roman Martyrology said much in few words when it announced this Saint thus: The announcement of the Roman Martyrology is illustrated, In the same place (at Rome), of St. Pammachius the priest, who was conspicuous for learning and holiness. In the manuscript additions of the Brussels Charterhouse to the Usuard of Greven, on the XXVI day of April, mention is made of Pamachius the confessor — whether today's or another, is not established. Baronius in his notes on the same Roman Martyrology alleges several things which more distinctly serve to illustrate one by one the deeds of this most holy Man. He shone not only in the institute of the monastic life, which, trampling upon the enticements of the world, he embraced, but also, before he sent it its dismissal, by the illustrious nobility of his family and the copious abundance of his riches, which the Man's spirit especially adorned, bearing himself piously and wisely amid them. He lived in St. Jerome's time, in whose writings frequent mention is made of him. There was between the two a friendship altogether singular, and a literary correspondence, and moreover a great esteem conceived by each of the other, and confidence, as is wont to happen among intimate friends in Christ. Hence what I shall relate of St. Pammachius I shall chiefly draw from the irrefragable testimonies of St. Jerome; whereby it will come about that the reader will hear not so much me as a Saint speaking of a Saint.

[2] In volume 4 of the Works of St. Jerome, in letter 33 (otherwise 101) to Pammachius, On the Best Manner of Translating, from the Saint's most ancient column 255 of the edition of Jean Martianay, which hereafter I shall cite, the same holy Doctor of the Church addresses him: I will show you, most Christian of all the nobles and most noble of Christians, etc. In the same author's letter 54 (otherwise 26), column 584, he is called the great-grandson of consuls and the glory of the Furian stock. And in the same place, column 587, he is called by the same holy Father of patrician family. Now the Furian family was most distinguished for antiquity and splendor of nobility. Johann Hofmann in his Universal Lexicon, published at Basel in the year 1687, records this of it in volume 1, page 667: The Furii (understand, the family) migrated to Rome under Romulus from Medullia, a city of the Latins, which then surrendered itself to the Romans, and were enrolled among the patricians of the lesser houses. It was afterward most noble, distinguished into many families whose surnames are these: Medullinus (from the city whence it sprang, the origin also of the surname), Fusus, Pacilus, Camillus, Purpureo, Crassipes, Philus. Very famous and illustrious for seven dictatorships, twenty consulships, twenty-three military tribunates with consular power, four censorships, seven triumphs. This most briefly from the said author; for this subject would carry me too far afield if I were to unfold the honors of these families one by one, and laboriously discuss what belongs to each. By Jerome in letter 31 (otherwise 52), column 244, holy Marcella is called the cousin of our Confessor. In Tillemont, under St. Pammachius, page 567, he is said to have been a kinsman (parent) of the Melanias, of whom the younger is in the Roman Martyrology on the XXXI day of December, but the elder among the Passed Over on the VII and XXI of January. Of the latter, to whom he attributes the title of Saint, Tillemont has gathered various matters in volume 10 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments, page 591 and following; but of the former on pages 603, 610, and 611.

[3] and of his wife's nobility: Nor did St. Pammachius take a wife unequal to himself in birth and virtues, namely Paulina, daughter of St. Paula the Roman. Of St. Paula we treated in volume 11 of January with the Roman Martyrology, and we said this in the same place, page 713, in her Life written by St. Jerome: Let us therefore take up the order of narration. Let others go back further, and from her cradle and her very rattles (so to speak) bring forward her mother Blesilla and her father Rogatus: of whom the one is of the stock of the Scipios and the Gracchi, the other is said, through almost all Greece down to this day, by pedigrees and riches and nobility, to draw the blood of Agamemnon, who destroyed Troy by a ten years' siege. We shall praise nothing except what is her own, and what is brought forth from the purest fountain of a holy mind. Among the Scipios these three were memorable by surname, namely Scipio Africanus, Asiaticus, and Africanus the Younger. And I read that Titus Sempronius Gracchus, the father of Caius and Tiberius, was twice consul, once censor, and twice earned a triumph. Let it suffice to have touched on these most ancient families thus in passing: if anyone wish to know more of them, let him consult the authors who have written of the deeds of the Romans.

[4] whose gifts of nature and virtues St. Jerome relates Thus St. Jerome of her most ancient lineage; to which Paulina added the most excellent endowments of a most upright life. Let the same Saint be heard again in letter 54 (otherwise 26), in which he consoles St. Pammachius on the death of his wife Paulina, column 582: If medicine should wish to restore the color of a healed wound and of skin drawn over into a scar, while it seeks the beauty of the body, it renews the smart of pain. So I too, a late consoler, who have unseasonably kept silence for two years, fear that I may now speak more unseasonably still, and, by touching the wound of your breast which time and reason have cured, may exulcerate it by remembrance. For what ears are so hard, what heart cut out of flint and nourished on the milk of Hyrcanian tigers, can hear without tears the name of your Paulina? Who would look with unmoved eyes upon a rose in its birth and a budding cluster, cut down untimely before its circle is poured into the cup and all the ambition of the reddening petals is spread open, and see it wither? A most precious pearl is broken. The green gem of the emerald is crushed. What good health has, sickness shows. We have felt more what we had, after we ceased to have it. In a field of good ground we gather three fruits: the hundredfold, the sixtyfold, and the thirtyfold. In three women joined both by blood and by virtue, I recognize the three rewards of Christ. Eustochium reaps the flowers of virginity. Paula treads the laborious threshing-floor of widowhood. Paulina keeps the chaste bed of matrimony. Such a mother of daughters, upheld by such a company, claims for herself on earth all that Christ promised in heaven.

[5] And that one house might send forth a chariot-team of soundness, and that men might answer to the virtues of the women, praising also St. Pammachius, there is added as companion Pammachius, a true Cherub of Ezekiel — kinsman, son-in-law, husband, nay most loving brother, because the fellowships of the Holy Spirit do not keep the names of marriage. Over this team Jesus presides. Of these horses Habakkuk too sings: "Ascend upon thy horses, and thy riding is salvation." With unequal pace, but equal spirit, they strive toward the palm. The horses are of different colors, but concordant in will; they draw the one yoke of the charioteer, not waiting for the lash of the whip, but eager at the encouragements of his voice. Note here in passing that St. Pammachius is called brother, and below in number 17 St. Paula, his mother-in-law, is indicated as mother in this sense which Jerome indicated. To Eustochium, the virgin just named, Paulina's sister, the same Saint wrote letter 86 (otherwise 27), The Epitaph of her mother Paula: who had Rogatus for father and Blesilla for mother, and was afterward married to Toxotius, by whom were born Blesilla, Paulina, Eustochium (who also had the name Julia), and Rufina, and also one son Toxotius, of his father's name, as the synopsis prefixed to the aforesaid letter has it. If anyone wishes more, let him go to the fountain itself, from which it is enough for our purpose to have marked out these few things.

[6] But St. Pammachius then chiefly shone forth, and then most of all was resplendent, who is excellently proclaimed by the same for his contempt of the world, when, trampling upon all the splendor of the world, he chose to be abject in the house of his God. Baronius under the year 398, number 15, praising him, says: He, bereft of his wife, a most holy woman, the daughter of St. Paula, distributed his goods among the poor, and embracing the monastic institute, changing with his garments his manner of life also, attained the highest summit of Christian philosophy. But let us go once more to St. Jerome, who in letter 54 (otherwise 26) writes thus to him, column 583: For us, after the falling asleep and slumber of Paulina, the Church has borne Pammachius the monk, a posthumous child, patrician by the nobility both of his father and of his wife, rich in alms, sublime in humility. And a little after he thus continues: In our times Rome possesses what the world before knew not. Then there were few Christians wise, powerful, noble: now there are many monks wise, powerful, noble; than all of whom my Pammachius is wiser, more powerful, more noble: great among the great, first among the first, ἀρχιστρατηγός [] of monks. He was a father of the poor, St. Jerome being witness in the same place: Such children Paulina by her death gave us, whom while living she had longed to possess. "Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not" — for as many poor as there are at Rome, so many sons hast thou suddenly begotten. The blazing gems with which formerly her neck and face were adorned now fill the bellies of the needy.*

[7] and his alms *Silken garments, and gold drawn out into thread, have been changed into soft woolen clothing, by which cold is kept off, not by which ambition is laid bare. Virtue consumes what was once the furniture of luxury. That blind man, stretching out his hand, and often crying aloud where no one is, is the heir of Paulina, the coheir of Pammachius. That man maimed of his feet, dragging himself along with his whole body, is upheld by the hand of a tender girl. The doors which before poured forth crowds of visitors are now besieged by the wretched. One with a swollen belly is in travail with death; another, tongueless and dumb, and not even having

wherewith to ask, asks the more because he cannot ask. This man, disabled from childhood, does not beg alms for himself. That one, rotted with the royal disease, outlives his own corpse.

Not if I had a hundred tongues and a hundred mouths Could I run through all the names of these torments.

[8] distributed to the poor: Attended by this army he goes forth; in these he cherishes Christ; by their filth he is made white. The paymaster of the poor and the candidate of the needy, thus he hastens to heaven. Other husbands scatter violets, roses, lilies, and purple flowers upon the tombs of their wives, and console the grief of their heart with these services: our Pammachius waters the holy ashes and the venerable bones with the balsams of almsgiving. With these pigments and perfumes he cherishes the resting ashes, knowing that it is written: "As water quenches fire, so alms quench sin." How great power mercy has, and with what rewards it is to be endowed, blessed Cyprian sets forth in a large volume, and Daniel's counsel proves; who knew that a most impious king, if he had been willing to hear him, might be saved by the sustenance of the poor. The mother rejoices in such a daughter as her heir. She does not grieve that her wealth has come to another, which she sees dispensed to the very persons to whom she herself had wished. Nay rather she rejoices that her vows are fulfilled without her own labor. For it is not a diminution of the substance, but a change of the workman.

[9] The same holy Doctor sets St. Pammachius's virtues before others But in how great esteem the same holy Doctor held the exceptional virtues of St. Pammachius, he proclaims with full mouth in letter 92 (otherwise 34) to Julian, a man indeed rich and powerful, but who had suffered adversity, while by his example and that of St. Paulinus he exhorts him to perfection of life, column 752: Nor is there, he says, any reason for you to plead as excuse your nobility and the weight of your riches. Look upon the holy man Pammachius, and upon Paulinus the priest of most fervent faith, who offered to the Lord not only their riches but themselves; who, against the shuffling of the devil, by no means gave skin for skin, but consecrated to the Lord their flesh and bones and souls; who by both example and speech, that is, by both deed and tongue, can lead you to greater things. You are noble, and so are they: but in Christ they are more noble. Rich and honored, and so were they — nay, from rich and honored they became poor and inglorious, and therefore richer and more renowned, because for Christ they are poor and dishonored. In his Commentaries on the Prophet Isaiah, volume 3, book 17, chapter 60, speaking of these words uttered by Christ the Lord, It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, he expounds them thus, column 450: He set forth the difficulty of the thing, says the holy Doctor to Eustochium, not its impossibility. In short, your mother Paula of holy memory, and your brother-in-law [] Pammachius, passed through the eye of the needle, that is, through the strait and narrow way which leads to life, into the kingdom of heaven, leaving behind with their baggage the broad way which leads to Tartarus.*

[10] Nay, whatever they had, they bore into the gifts of the Lord, he proposes for imitation. fulfilling that which is written: "The ransom of a man's soul is his own riches." For the things which are impossible with men are possible with God. Having among their gifts the chief things — gold, incense, and frankincense of the best odor — and saying: "Let my prayer be directed as incense in thy sight." And: "We are the good odor of Christ in every place" — by the example of their virtue they daily announce the salvation of the Lord, that all the sheep of Kedar [] may be gathered into the Church, and pass from the darkness of error to the light. Calmet in his Dictionary of Sacred Scripture, at the word Kedar, observes this: Kedar, son of Ishmael, Gen. 35. 23 (rather 25. 13), father of the Kedarenes … who held a region of Desert Arabia next to the Nabataeans. He adds, however, that it is difficult to find the certain dwelling place of this people, and appends the reason: They dwelt chiefly, however, in the southern tract of Desert Arabia, to the north of Arabia Petraea and Felix, from which many ranged as far as the Red Sea. Sometimes all Desert Arabia is called Kedar by sacred Scripture.* And this portion of St. Pammachius's virtues, mentioned in the last place, appeared especially in certain letters written to his tenants whom he had in Numidia in Africa, with such success that he led them over from the error of the Donatists to the orthodox faith. We shall relate the matter below from St. Augustine.

*. That is, commander of the sacred host. *. That is, his sister's husband. *. That is, the unbelievers.

§ II. The hospice erected by the Saint: the title-church of SS. John and Paul: the counsels given him by St. Jerome; his friendship with the same holy Father and with St. Paulinus.

The Saint erects a hospice at the Roman Port: The holy Doctor of the Church, already repeatedly praised, in the above-mentioned letter 54, column 586, says: I hear that you have made a hospice at the Roman Port, and have planted a rod from Abraham's tree on the Ausonian shore. Like Aeneas you measure out a new camp, and over the wave of the Tiber, where he, driven once by want, spared not the fated crusts and the broad cakes, you build our little village, that is, the house of bread []; and you make up for a long famine by a sudden fullness. Well done! From this you pass on as our own; you hold the highest station; from the root you come to the summit; first among monks, in the first city, you follow the first patriarch. Let Lot, whose name means "declining," choose the plains, and after the letter of Pythagoras follow rather what is easy and sinister. Do you upon the steep and rocky places prepare a monument for yourself with Sarah. Let the city of letters be near; and, the giants, the sons of Anak [], being destroyed, let joy and laughter receive your inheritance. Abraham was rich in gold, silver, cattle, possessions, garments: he had so great a household that at sudden tidings, choosing out his young men, he could arm an army, and overtaking in Dan the four kings from whom five kings had fled, could slay them []; and yet, after so many frequent offices of hospitality, while he refuses not to receive men, he merited to receive God. He did not command his men-servants and maid-servants to wait upon his guests, nor did he lessen through others the good that he practiced; but, as though he had found booty, with his Sarah he alone applied himself to kindness. He himself washed their feet, he himself carried a fat calf on his shoulders from the herd. He stood as a servant while the strangers dined, and, meaning himself to fast, set before them food cooked by Sarah's hands. Of the praised hospice one may also read St. Jerome's letter 84 (otherwise 30) to Oceanus, On the Death of Fabiola, column 662. Francesco Orlendi of the Order of Preachers, in his Sacred and Profane World, part 1, book 4, chapter 4, page 269, treating of the Roman Port and its demolition, says: No traces remain of that most noble hospice. Ughelli in the Italia Sacra, volume 1, column 104 of the earlier edition, wrongly writes thus: Pope Symmachus, as St. Jerome relates, built a noble hospice at the Roman Port,* etc. But how could Pope Symmachus be mentioned by St. Jerome, who died about eighty years before his pontificate? This Saint has been treated among us on the XIX day of July.

[12] [He raises the title-church of SS. John and Paul at Rome, whose inscription is given.] Baronius under the year 398, number 18, adds to this hospice another monument of St. Pammachius's pious munificence, when he records this: Although St. Jerome writes these things, so far is he from having described more than the truth that he has rather passed over even great matters. For among other things Pammachius raised a noble memorial to the holy martyrs Paul and John, who in this century, in the time of Julian the Apostate, suffered at Rome (as we have recalled) near the Clivus Scauri opposite the Palatine, and erected it into a title-church, which even to this day, called by the name of the said Martyrs, remains the title of Pammachius. Thus far Baronius, who in volume 12 among the Addenda and Corrections, page 893, recites an inscription suited to the present purpose. It is extant in Gruter's Ancient Inscriptions, page 1164, number 8, under this heading, prefixed at the entrance of the church of John and Paul:

The Lord's high priest adorns the lofty sanctuaries of Christ; The fair grace of the place adorns the vestibule. Because it shines forth trim and gleams upon the very front, It shows how great a divinity dwells within. Who founded for Christ these venerable halls so great? If thou askest — Pammachius, a cultivator of the faith.

The Acts of the Martyrs just named we illustrated in volume V of June, on the XXVI day of that month, page 158 and following.

[13] St. Jerome exhorts him to offer not only his wealth but himself to Christ, St. Jerome by the best counsels strengthened and kindled St. Pammachius to solid virtues and to sincere service in Christ's household. For after those things which I related above from him about the hospice built, he adds this, column 587: These things I counsel, dearest brother, out of the affection with which I love you, that you offer to Christ not only your money but yourself, a living victim, holy, pleasing to God, your reasonable service; and that you imitate the Son of Man, who came not to be ministered unto but to minister. And what the patriarch showed to strangers, this the Master and Lord showed to his disciples and servants. Hide for hide, and all that a man possesses he can give for his life. But touch, says the devil, his flesh, and see if he will not bless thee to thy face. The ancient enemy knows that the contest of continence is greater than that of coin. What clings on the outside is easily cast off: the inward war is more dangerous. We unglue what is joined, we cut asunder what is united. Zacchaeus was rich, the apostles poor. He restored fourfold what he had seized, and divided among the poor half of the substance that remained; he received Christ as guest, salvation came to his house; and yet, because he was little of stature and could not stretch himself to the apostolic height, he was not in the number of the twelve apostles. But the apostles, as to riches, left nothing; as to will, they equally left the whole world. If we offer our wealth to Christ together with our soul, he will gladly receive it. But if we give to God the things that are outside, and to the devil the things that are within, it is not a fair division, and it is said to us: "If thou offer rightly but divide not rightly, hast thou not sinned?"

[14] Then Jerome exhorts St. Pammachius to true contempt of self and profound humility, and that by his example he abase himself, when he presently subjoins this: That, being of patrician family, you have begun to be the first among the first of monks, let this be to you no occasion of pride but of humility, since you know that the Son of God became the Son of Man. However far you abase yourself, you will not be humbler than Christ. Suppose you walk with bare feet, are clothed in a dark tunic, are made equal to the poor, condescend to enter the cells of the needy; suppose you are the eye of the blind, the hand of the feeble, the foot of the lame; suppose you yourself carry water, cut wood, build the fire: where are the chains? where the buffets? where the spittle? where the scourges? where the gibbet? where death? And when you have done all that I have said, you will be surpassed by your Eustochium and Paula, if not in work, at least in sex. I indeed was not at Rome, and the desert then held me (and would that it had held me still!), when, your father-in-law being alive,

Toxotius, they were serving the world.

[15] But nevertheless I hear that they who could not bear the filth of the streets, and despise it, who were carried in the hands of eunuchs, and crossed uneven ground with much trouble; to whom a silken robe was a burden and the heat of the sun a burning, are now soiled and mourning-clad, and, brave in comparison with their former selves, either trim the lamps, or kindle the fire, sweep the pavements, clean the vegetables, throw the bundles of herbs into the boiling pot, set the tables, hand the cups, pour out the food, and run to and fro. And surely a great choir of virgins dwells with them. Could they not command others to such services? But they will not be outdone in bodily labor by those whom they themselves surpass in strength of soul. I say this, not that I doubt anything of the ardor of your mind, but that I may urge on the runner, and to one fighting keenly may add fervor to fervor.

[16] But the same holy Doctor, knowing very well that human respect, as they call it, is a most powerful engine for drawing men away — especially those distinguished by the nobility of ancestral birth and by riches — from the praiseworthy way of a more perfect life and from constant perseverance in virtue, arms Pammachius against this most bitter enemy, and he arms him against human respect admonishing him in these words, column 584: For who would believe this, that the great-grandson of consuls and the glory of the Furian stock should walk among the purples of senators clad in a dark tunic, and should not blush before the eyes of his companions, so that he himself laughed at those who laughed at him? There is a shame which leads to death, and there is a shame which leads to life. The first virtue of a monk is to despise the judgments of men, and always to remember the Apostle, who says: "If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ." Something of this sort the Lord also speaks to the prophets: that he had set their face as a city of brass, and a stone of adamant, and an iron pillar, that they might not be dismayed at the injuries of the people, but might crush the impudence of the mockers by the firmness of their brow. Minds liberally educated are more easily overcome by shame than by fear. And those whom torments do not conquer, shame sometimes conquers. It is no small thing that a man noble, a man eloquent, a man wealthy, should avoid in the streets the retinue of the powerful, mingle with the crowds, cleave to the poor, join himself to countrymen, and from a prince become one of the common folk. But the humbler he is, the more sublime.

[17] by the promises of Christ to those who follow him. And presently he stirs up the holy Man by the great promises of Christ, that he may go on to follow him: A pearl, he says, shines amid filth, and the flash of a most pure gem radiates even in mud. This is what the Lord promised: "Them that glorify me I will glorify." Let others understand this of the future, when sorrow shall be turned to joy, and, the world passing away, the crown of the Saints does not pass away: I see the promises to the Saints fulfilled even in the present. Before he served Christ with his whole mind, he was known in the senate; but many others had the proconsular fillets []. The whole world is full of honors of this kind. He was first, but among the first. He went before others in dignity; but he also followed others. However bright an honor is, it becomes cheap in a crowd; and among good men that very dignity becomes more unworthy which many unworthy men possess. Whence Tully said excellently of Caesar, that when he wished to adorn certain men, he did not honor them, but disgraced the honors themselves. But now all the Churches of Christ speak of Pammachius. The world admires as a poor man him whom hitherto it knew not as a rich one. What is more illustrious than the consulship? It is a yearly honor, and after another has succeeded, the former ceases. Laurels lie hidden in the multitude, and triumphs are sometimes polluted by the baseness of those who triumph. That which formerly was handed on through patrician hands, and nobility alone possessed; for which the consul Marius, conqueror of Numidia and of the Teutons and Cimbri, was accounted unworthy because of the meanness of his family; which Scipio deserved before his years by his valor — now mere soldiering possesses, and the shining palm surrounds bodies but lately rustic. We have therefore received more than we gave. We have let go small things and possess great ones. With a hundredfold interest the promises of Christ are repaid. In such a field Isaac too once sowed, who, ready for death, bore the evangelical cross before the Gospel. Above I noted that we must read infulas. The edition of Erasmus of Rotterdam, in the scholia, volume 1 of the Works of St. Jerome, folio 73 verso, notes: It was a kind of tiara, a mark of nobility, as now, he says, they wear a golden chain about the neck.* Of Caius Marius, Hofmann, cited before, has gathered much from various authors, from page 997.

[18] The singular friendship between the two From the foregoing admonitions of St. Jerome written to St. Pammachius it is plain that no one can doubt that between the two there existed the closest bond of friendship, and a harmonious sharing of studies and wills. This the holy Doctor plainly professes in his letter to him On the Best Manner of Translating, when, accused about the letter of St. Epiphanius wrongly rendered into Latin, and assailed with public barkings as a forger, he leaves his cause to the judgment of St. Pammachius: I have exceeded, he says, column 256, the measure of a letter; but I have not exceeded the measure of my grief. For I who am called a forger, and am torn to pieces among the shuttles and weaving-rooms of silly women, am content to deny the charge, not to retort it. Hence I leave all to your judgment, that you may read the letter itself, both Greek and Latin; and you will at once perceive the dirges and shameful complaints of my accusers. Moreover it suffices me to have instructed a most dear friend, and, lying hid in my little cell, only to await the day of judgment. And I could wish, if it may be, and if my adversaries permit, to write for you Commentaries on the Scriptures rather than the Philippics of Demosthenes and Tully.

[19] Now that friendship was continued through very many years, it was continued for very many years: St. Pammachius was also the friend since it began as it were from their earliest youth, as I gather from these words of letter 54, cited before, column 586: Which we, once as young lads, laughed at when it was uttered by a finished orator in his little preface. I think you remember our common mistake, when the whole Athenaeum resounded with the voices of the scholars: "Soon enough, if well enough." This he also expresses in letter 30 (otherwise 50), which is entitled The Apologetic of St. Jerome the priest to Pammachius, for his books against Jovinian, column 229, where this is found: Challenged by your most sweet letters, and by letters of such a kind as should challenge me to the philosophy of our own teaching, I receive with open arms, as they say, my one-time fellow-student and comrade and friend, and prepare a defender of my little works — yet only if I shall first have you as an appeased judge; nay, if I shall have instructed my advocate upon all the points laid to my charge. But in the preface to the prophet Obadiah, volume 3 of the Works, page 1455, he thus addresses the holy Man to whom he writes that lucubration: This is that time, my Pammachius, sweeter to me than this light, when, having come out of the school of the rhetoricians, we were carried away by different pursuits: when I and my dearest Heliodorus were striving alike to inhabit the solitude of Syrian Chalcis. To this most illustrious pair of friends let us join St. Paulinus, the most celebrated bishop of Nola, and exceedingly devoted to St. Pammachius, as is plain from his letter which is found among his Works published at Paris in the year 1685, volume 1, page 66 and following, and there set down as the thirteenth in order. In this that Saint consoles Pammachius, who had followed his wife Paulina's death with many tears and most abundant alms to the poor, and from each of these two counts he takes matter for consoling and praising him. It will suffice to excerpt a few things thence about his alms:

[20] For I shall now come, he says on page 73, to the proclamation of your works, of St. Paulinus, bishop of Nola. and shall pass over from the holiness of your tears to your pious acts… And so the poor, the patrons of our souls, of whom many earn a dole [] throughout all Rome, you, a rich man, gathered together in the hall of the Apostle. Truly I am fed with the fair spectacle of so great a work of yours. For I seem to see all those religious swarms of the pitiable populace, those foster-children of the divine mercy, flowing in with such vast throngs deep into the most spacious basilica of the glorious Peter, … so that all the spaces both within the basilica, and before the doors of the atrium, and before the steps of the open ground, are crowded. I see them, when gathered, arranged in distinct order by couches, and all filled with overflowing food, etc. And on page 77: To you therefore, Brother of one mind in Christ …, whose mouth is full of blessing, whose riches are the breasts of the poor, whose house is the lodging of Christ, who do not endure a beggar to lie before your door while you feast, but on the contrary joyfully bring him under your roof either to feast with you, or, even while you fast, to be filled — to you poverty in sins is happy, and wealth in virtues is blessed,* etc.

*. Bethlehem. *. See Num. 13, ℣ 34. *. See chapter 14 of Genesis. . Read infulas*. . Otherwise Roma stipem*.

§ III. The mutual labors of SS. Pammachius and Jerome for the good of the Church; he is praised by St. Augustine and by Palladius; whether he was a priest.

St. Pammachius exhorts St. Jerome to refute the calumnies of Rufinus: Our Saint and Oceanus exhort the holy Doctor, in letter 40 (otherwise 64), column 341, to translate Origen's book περὶ Ἀρχῶν exactly into the Latin tongue, to refute the calumnies of Rufinus, to meet the suspicions of men, and to show himself a stranger to the Origenists: We beseech, they say, your excellency that you deign to bestow this Work especially, which will profit not so much us as all who dwell in the City… Purge therefore the suspicions of men, and confute the accuser: lest, if you dissemble, you seem to consent. The Saint obeyed his friends' admonitions, as we have from his letter 41 (otherwise 65) addressed to both, column 341. But among very many other things in which St. Pammachius profited the Church of God, this is the crowning one, that with joined forces together with St. Jerome he solidly and bravely assailed the heretical depravity which was creeping into the city of Rome, the holy Father being witness in the preface upon the prophet Joel, volume 3 of the Works, page 1337: Since these things are so, he says, I beseech you, my Pammachius, who fight against the devil with every art of warfare, that while we fight against Amalek you may with Moses lift up light hands to the Lord, and overcome the adversaries of Israel by your prayers… Though the scorpion rise up, and try to strike with its arched wound: do you, the companion of my journey and the charmer of venomous bites, show yourself a spiritual ψυλλεύς to me; and take up as a dutiful heir that which we promised to the holy and venerable Paula your kinswoman.

[22] [A certain expression of the holy Doctor, somewhere wrongly understood, is explained:] On the word ψυλλέα this is noted in the latest edition, which we use: How great is the corruption of this word and of Jerome's sentence, he will scarcely be able to comprehend in mind who has seen it with his eyes in the old editions of Erasmus and Marianus, who make St. Hierome most absurd, reading ψηφιστήν, that is, a voter or reckoner, not ψυλλέα, that is, a Psyllus, according to the witness of all the manuscript codices. Now the Psylli are a people of Libya in Africa, named from king Psyllus, who have an inborn poison deadly to serpents,

and by whose odor they can lull them to sleep. See Pliny, book 7, chapter 2. Moreover Plutarch writes in his Cato that this same Cato, when making his way through the deserts of Libya, took Psylli with him to cure the bites of serpents, drawing out the poison with the mouth and soothing the serpents themselves with charms. The holy Doctor has this whole passage in view, who desires to have in Pammachius a spiritual Psyllus for overcoming the virus and venom of rivals and heretics, as is manifest to the prudent reader.

[23] [By St. Pammachius's labor Jovinian was condemned, and writing was undertaken against John, bishop of Jerusalem:] By St. Pammachius's labor Jovinian was condemned, to whose errors he first of all set himself in opposition, Baronius being witness under the year 390, number 38: When therefore, he says, Jovinian, as has been said, had published writings of this sort at Rome, the first of all who rose up against him, and contended hand to hand against the deformed monster, and brought it about that he was condemned by Apostolic authority, was Pammachius, a most noble senator and the most learned of the Romans, who was the son-in-law of holy Paula, a most exact cultivator of the Christian religion and a most ardent champion of the Catholic faith. Let us hear the words which he subjoins, from St. Jerome in letter 30 (otherwise 50) to Pammachius, column 229: In short, it was for this reason, by your doing under the Lord, that he (Jovinian) was condemned: because he dared to compare matrimony to perpetual chastity. What the same Saint did against Jovinian on St. Jerome's behalf is understood from his letter 31 (otherwise 52) addressed to Pammachius: Concerning my little works against Jovinian, he says at column 243, I know very well how both prudently and lovingly you acted in withdrawing the copies. But that diligence profited nothing, since a good many coming from the City read out to me the very same things, which they said they had received at Rome. The same great Man pressed the holy Father, after a long silence, to write against John, bishop of Jerusalem, as we understand from the lengthy letter 38 (otherwise 61) of the praised Saint to Pammachius against that bishop's errors. You know, he says at column 306, Pammachius, you know, that I come down to this Work neither out of enmity nor out of desire of glory; but, challenged by your letters out of ardor for the faith, and wishing, if it could be, that all should hold the same view; nor can I be reproached with impatience and rashness if I speak after three years. In short, unless you said that the minds of many were disturbed by that apology of which I have now undertaken to write, and that opinion wavered on both sides, I had resolved to remain in my undertaken silence.

[24] To this holy Doctor let us add another light of the Church, St. Augustine, St. Augustine praises his zeal for propagating the faith in Africa: in volume 2 of whose Works, published by the Benedictine monks, there is letter 58 (otherwise 134), written at the end of the year CDI, as is added, and inscribed to Pammachius, column 145: from which letter (concerning which see above, number 10) I excerpt this: To him I now speak, to him I write, my beloved friend, who, absent in body, became known to me though absent. Yet already we were together, and joined under one Head we lived; in whose charity, unless you were rooted, Catholic unity would not be so dear to you, nor would you admonish your African tenants — settled in that part of the world whence the fury of the Donatists arose, that is, in the midst of consular Numidia — with such an address, nor animate them with so great a fervor of spirit, that with most ready devotion they chose to follow that which they judged that so great and such a Man as you would not follow except upon the truth being acknowledged; and that, though so far removed from you by intervals of place, they should go under the same Head, and be reckoned for ever with you among the members of him by whose precept they serve you temporally. And after other things by which the holy Doctor wished to attest his affection toward Pammachius out of the fullness of his heart, he thus subjoins at column 146: O how we desire in Africa such a work from many senators together with you, and likewise sons of holy Church, as that of yours in which we rejoice! But that no one may doubt about the name of Pammachius inscribed on this letter, the learned editors observe: In four manuscripts it is written Palmachius. Moreover we do not doubt that this is that Pammachius, a Roman citizen and most illustrious senator, who was the son-in-law of Paula, the husband of Paulina, and very familiar with Jerome. Nor do we see, considering the characteristics of the letter, why we should depart from their opinion; nor did Tillemont, in volume 10 under St. Pammachius, article 6, and in volume 13 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments under St. Augustine, article 136, page 360, since from it he relates the deed of St. Pammachius of which we have just spoken. But let us return to St. Jerome.

[25] He sends to SS. Pammachius and Marcella the Greek Paschal letter of Theophilus of Alexandria. the letter of Theophilus of Alexandria sent by Jerome to Pammachius: St. Jerome knew of course that his translation would be most welcome to those two persons zealous for the public good. In letter 87 (otherwise 78) he thus speaks of it: Again I enrich you with Eastern wares, and in early spring I send the wealth of Alexandria to Rome. And at column 690: Receive, you lights of the Christian senate, both the Greek and the Latin letter this year also; lest again the heretics falsely allege that very much has been either added or changed by us: in which I confess I have labored to preserve the elegance of the words with an equal charm of translation, and, running within defined lines and nowhere going beyond, not to lose the streams of his eloquence, and to render the same matters in the same style. Whether I have attained this or not, I leave to your judgment. And presently he subjoins a division of the same letter.

[26] the public good of the Church We learn from the same holy Doctor that Pammachius was most zealous for sacred Scripture, and most intent upon the common good of the Church, which he rightly hoped for from his friend's excellent expositions of it. In volume 3 of the Works of St. Jerome, in the preface to Jonah, page 1471, this is read: Moreover we are not ignorant, venerable father Chromatius, etc.; but by their editor the following is observed: So read all the manuscript codices — of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, of the monastery of Cluny, of St. Aubin of Angers, and of St. Cyran, etc.; and in the same way the books published by Erasmus and Marianus. Yet we are not ignorant that this reading is false, and that for "venerable father Chromatius" the name of Pammachius must be substituted: for Jerome himself in the preface to the third book of his commentaries on the prophet Amos in set terms advises the reader that he published commentaries on Obadiah and Jonah at Pammachius's bidding, that is, at his request for an exposition of both those prophets. Thirdly, he says, "after a silence of long time, I expounded Obadiah and Jonah at your bidding." Therefore he expounded Obadiah and Jonah to that same Pammachius, not to Chromatius bishop of Aquileia, to whom he had assigned only two books on Habakkuk. But whence so constant an error flowed into the printed and manuscript books we leave to the reader's guesswork to judge. Unless perhaps he had promised an exposition of Jonah to other holy men also, as he did the commentaries on Amos and Hosea, though he dedicated these to Pammachius. See the commentary on Amos, chapter 1. If this happened, we have a copy sent by Jerome not to Pammachius but to Chromatius.

[27] with learning In the second preface to Amos he says this, page 1395: Wherefore, Pammachius, now grey-headed along with me, obtain for me from the Lord that I may deserve to have wisdom as my companion … that with her help and fellowship I may complete the Work begun upon Amos. And in the third preface to the same prophet, page 1423: Hosea, he says, and Joel and Amos I could not refuse you. He had premised this in the same place: Obadiah and Jonah I expounded at your bidding. He dedicates his Commentaries on Daniel to him and to Marcella, page 1073, writing this: And so I beseech you, most learned [] Pammachius, and Marcella, sole pattern of Roman sanctity, joined by faith and by blood, that you assist my endeavors with your prayers. He inscribes also to Pammachius his Commentaries on Hosea, and in their preface, page 1235 and the following, he says: About twenty-two years ago, when at the request of my holy and venerable mother-in-law (nay, of your mother Paula; for the former is a name of the flesh, the latter of the spirit: she who ever burned with love of monasteries and of the Scriptures) I was at Alexandria, etc. The same holy translator promised his Pammachius Commentaries on the prophet Isaiah. Here are his words, page 1, in their prologue: Having with difficulty completed over a long time twenty books of explanations on the twelve prophets, and the Commentaries on Daniel, you compel me, Eustochium, virgin of Christ, to pass on to Isaiah, and to render to you what I promised your holy mother Paula while she lived. And this indeed I remember I promised also to your most learned brother-in-law Pammachius.* And in the preface to chapter 65 of Isaiah, book 18, page 478, he says that Pammachius, both then, namely while St. Paula was alive, and afterward, did not cease by frequent writings to urge him to that Work.

[28] The foregoing abundantly establish that our Saint watched over the public good of the Church, he joined. and was adorned with singular praise for learning, so that Baronius most deservedly praises him under the year 398, number 15, using these words: Whose … learning if you consider, from the cradle he was trained in good letters together with St. Jerome himself, and he stood forth easily first among the other Christians of the senatorial order. Moreover to this excellent learning that most wise Man joined a candid and native simplicity, from St. Jerome's letter 54 (otherwise 16), column 586: I perceive, he says, that you burn with divine teachings, and that you do not, with the rashness of certain men, teach what you do not know, but first learn what you are to teach. Your simple letters smell of the Prophets, they savor of the Apostles. You do not affect a buskined eloquence, nor after the manner of boys build up clever little sentences in your clauses.

[29] The very many specimens of St. Pammachius's virtues which from St. Jerome's testimonies we have repeatedly interspersed in this Commentary He is praised by Palladius: leave no room for doubt concerning them. These too were well known to Palladius, his contemporary, in the Lausiac History, who in chapters 121 and 122, page 215 of the Paris edition of the year 1570, relates this: And they treated us with no small honor when we had come to Rome on account of blessed John the bishop … There came to him a man of proconsular rank, named Pammachius, who, having renounced the world, led a most excellent life, and of his wealth partly indeed dispersed it while living, and partly at his death left it to the poor. St. Jerome in letter 92 (otherwise 34), column 752, exhorts Julian to a perfect life, that is, to an absolute contempt of the world, by the example of SS. Pammachius and Paulinus: Look, he says, upon the holy man Pammachius, and Paulinus the priest of most fervent faith, etc. See above, number 9.

[30] You see here, reader, that the title of priest is given only to St. Paulinus, whether he was a priest. but not to St. Pammachius. Was he then, like the other, likewise not a priest? Yet the Roman Martyrology, above at number 1, affirmed that he was such. Tillemont, in volume 1 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments, under St. Pammachius, article 6, page 580, asserts that no

authority is cited by Baronius for that title, and that he himself has found no foundation for this matter, nor does he think that St. Jerome anywhere attributes this quality to him; and from the letter to Julian cited he observes that the title of priest is given to St. Paulinus, but to Pammachius that of holy man. Neither have we anything about his priesthood from Palladius, whom we just now indicated. Nor do I see that this is sufficiently established from the fact that St. Jerome in letter 54 (otherwise 26) to Pammachius says this, column 586: Do not greatly care what the little rumors of the ignorant bandy about concerning your talent; but drink daily the marrow of the prophets, initiate of Christ, fellow-initiate of the patriarchs. For although the holy Man was then so circumstanced, his wife Paulina being dead, that he could have been initiated into the priesthood and be a mystes of Christ — taking this word for a priest, as we still use it today, when we call newly consecrated priests neomysts — nevertheless here by the word mystes the holy Doctor means one skilled in the mysteries, a cultivator or investigator of the mysteries, or something similar, as is suggested by these words: but drink daily the marrow of the prophets — being of course their symmystes, a partaker and companion in their discipline. Since therefore about the priesthood, of which we here dispute, I am not sufficiently certain, I have restricted the same in the title before this Commentary by the adverb perhaps. But although we do not know that he was adorned with this dignity, we do know that St. Pammachius shone with such excellence of virtues that he was worthy of the priesthood, as St. Jerome attests in letter 31 (otherwise 52), column 244, writing thus to him: I hear that the zeal of the whole City is stirred up in your favor. I hear that the will of the Pontiff and of the people agree with one mind. It is a lesser thing to hold the priesthood than to deserve it.

*. That is, most eager to learn.

§ IV. A letter against St. Pammachius wrongly ascribed to St. Jerome: the time of his death: the chronology of his life.

The invective letter against the Saint is spurious: Among the lucubrations attributed to St. Jerome there is extant a letter to Pammachius and Oceanus, which contains an exhortation vehement enough to suit hardened men entangled in the delights of the world, that they should return to their heart and lead a life conformable to the religion they profess. This letter has rightly been relegated to the little works wrongly ascribed to the holy Doctor, volume 5, column 208, and is censured thus: I ask you, reader — to say nothing of the character of the style — what is there in this letter which seems to pertain to Pammachius or Oceanus? He rebukes those whose piety he is everywhere else wont to proclaim. Lastly, by what sign would you detect that it was written to two men rather than to one? And it seems probable that by those who put St. Jerome's name to it, it was directed to those two persons because he had written to them on various occasions. Here for you, reader, are some fine little flowers, forsooth, out of it: I recognize in you Jewish testimonies, not Christian. Since seeing you see not, and hearing you will not hear. To omit other invectives, the same letter concludes thus: One thing I say which I desire: that Christians ought to love heaven, not earth, and to obey the word of God more than the devil, and to fear the eternal judgment more than the judgment of men. Let this suffice.

[32] there is discussion of the year The collection of matters pertaining to the holy Man's life being now finished, let us discuss the year of his death. Baronius, volume 5, under the year 410, number 31, places St. Pammachius's death in the ninth year of Pope Innocent, the sixteenth of the emperor Honorius, the third of Theodosius, when Rome was taken by Alaric king of the Goths (as he had said before under the same year). And presently he subjoins this in number 32 from St. Jerome's preface to book 1 on Ezekiel; in our copy, volume 3, page 698: I desired (he says) to pass on (namely, after the translation elaborated upon Isaiah, as Baronius inserts) and to set, as they say, the last hand to the prophetical Work: and lo, suddenly there was announced to me the death of Pammachius and Marcella, the siege of the city of Rome, and the falling asleep of many brothers and sisters, etc. But Pagi in the Critica Baroniana, under the year just named, number 17, having cited the words of the same preface, says: Wherefore holy Pammachius … departed this life in the preceding year, to which he attaches the siege and devastation of the city of Rome, bringing forward various arguments by which he tries to prove his opinion. It would be tedious to set forth and examine here all his reasons, which may be read in him. Nor does it seem worth while to detain the reader longer over so small a discrepancy of one year. And so in Pagi's opinion St. Pammachius closed his life in the year 409; but in the opinion of Baronius and Tillemont in the year 410. The last-named, in volume 5 of the Emperors, note 29 upon Honorius, discussing the time when Rome was taken, sets down the year 410, which he also marks in the Chronological Table, page 844, and in volume 10 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments, under St. Pammachius, article 6, page 380. But I, thinking this knot should be cut, set down at the opening of this Commentary the Saint's year of death as 409 or 410.

[33] To this we add a few things concerning the day on which the holy Man is recorded to have died. and the day of his death: Baronius under the year 410, number 32, from St. Jerome just cited, concludes this: By which he signifies that a little after the storming of the City St. Marcella closed her last day, and he indicates that she is entered in the sacred Calendars on the XXXI day of January, not because she then died, but because she was then translated; whereas the birthday of Pammachius, who died at the same time, is kept on the third of the Kalends of September. But the compiler of the Ecclesiastical Monuments just designated, in the article cited under St. Pammachius, affirms it to be believed that the city of Rome was taken on the XXIV of August; and so, as he adds, St. Pammachius's death may be placed about a month earlier. And as to the XXX day of August, which Baronius marks in the Roman Martyrology, he replies that no authority of any antiquity is alleged by him. But the same compiler was not always consistent with himself. For in volume 10, in the chronological table under the year of Christ 410, he indeed fixes the death to that year, but adds that St. Marcella and St. Pammachius died a few days after the taking of Rome, and the reader is referred to volume 10, page 580, and to volume 12, pages 301, 303, 319, 320. The day, therefore, of our holy Confessor's death is not ascertained by us; nevertheless we record him today, following the Roman Martyrology.

[34] It will conduce not a little to the reader's benefit if we reduce what has been narrated in the foregoing paragraphs to a chronological order, drawing this almost wholly from the notes of times by which, in the latest edition of the Works of St. Jerome, Martianay fitted out the same holy Doctor's letters, and from the chronological series of Tillemont under St. Pammachius, where he coupled his various deeds with the order of years. Our Saint and St. Jerome were both fellow-students in the class of eloquence, as was said before, from which Tillemont, page 567, places their coming forth together about the year 370, not later — nay rather, perhaps somewhat earlier. Baronius under the year 372 discusses St. Jerome's age in number 57. Tillemont in volume 12, in note 3 upon the same holy Doctor, page 618, says that the time of his birth is uncertain enough, and heaps up various matters to the present purpose, which may be treated on the XXX day of September. Meanwhile what forbids us to fix St. Pammachius's birth by conjecture about the year of Christ 330? and in the year 348 he could have been St. Jerome's fellow-student. But when the course of their studies was completed, they entered upon different ways of ordering their lives: Jerome indeed was meditating solitude, as has already been said in number 19, while St. Pammachius was girding himself for public administration. We do not see, says Tillemont, that St. Jerome had any particular exercise of friendship with him during that time when he was at Rome, from the year 382 to the year 385; although the same author indicates that it may very probably be presumed, because Pammachius had already then married Paulina, the daughter of St. Paula.

[35] of his life He adds, however, that it is certain that neither wrote to the other until about the year 392. The heresy of Jovinian, therefore, renewed their old friendship. See what was premised above in number 23 from letter 30 (otherwise 50), which Martianay attaches to the year 394 or 395, and from letter 54 (otherwise 26), which by the same editor is noted as written in the year 398. Further, from the same holy Doctor's letter 31 (otherwise 52), columns 243 and 244, directed to Pammachius, it is understood what he did on his behalf against Jovinian. See above, number 23. It is marked by Martianay as written and sent along with the preceding, which is 30 (otherwise 50), and is an apology against the same heretic, in the year 394 or 395. The aforesaid compiler of the Ecclesiastical Monuments, page 568, assigns the letter On the Best Manner of Translating, inscribed to our Saint, to about the beginning of the year 396 (Martianay marking the same year or thereabouts); and he relates that about the month of September of that same year St. Jerome sent to Pammachius his apology against John of Jerusalem, as may be seen from page 568; and he subjoins on page 569 that the holy Father at this time resumed at St. Pammachius's request his Commentaries on the Minor Prophets, and for him completed the explanation of Jonah about the beginning of the year 397; also that the Commentaries on Obadiah were sent to him; but the said compiler confesses that he does not know whether this may not have happened some years later.

[36] chronology. Then, gathering various things about the Saint's wife Paulina, he relates that she died in the year 397 toward the winter season and at the end of that year. Besides the eulogies of her recited above from St. Jerome, she is praised by St. Paulinus in letter 13, designated before. But although St. Pammachius from the year 393, which Tillemont marks among the things he has gathered concerning him, article 4, page 573, was so remarkable for integrity of life and adornment of virtues that he was held worthy of the priesthood — St. Jerome being witness, cited above at the end of §3 — nevertheless a singular increase was added to these ornaments of probity by the holy Man's most abundant alms, contempt of the world, foundation of the hospice, and the monastic manner of living (of what kind it was, we have not ascertained) which he embraced. And with this retinue of virtues about him he went forward after the death of his wife, concerning which St. Jerome's letter 54 (otherwise 26) was written, in Martianay's reckoning, in the year 398; but in Tillemont, page 576, in the year 399. The latter, on page 580, asserts that that great work of charity, praised above in number 24 by St. Augustine, by which St. Pammachius brought back the tenants subject to him in Africa to the bosom of the Catholic Church, may be referred to the year 401 (the Benedictines cited in number 24 place it at the end of that year); and he subjoins that St. Jerome

about the year 405 resolved to consecrate the remaining days of his life to the exposition of the Prophets, which the holy Man had urgently asked of him, and that he dedicated to him in the year 406 his Commentaries on Hosea, Joel, and Amos; and that probably in the year 407 Daniel was inscribed by him to St. Marcella together with Pammachius, who did not see Ezekiel expounded by St. Jerome, being prevented by death in the year 410, as the oft-cited compiler indicates in the same place; but, according to us, in the year 409 or 410, as we have related at greater length before, at about the seventieth year of his age, according to what has been said above. This, reader, I have judged should be set before you concerning today's Saint.