Saint Pammachius, Basilica Ss. Giovanni e Paolo, Rome
Pammachius the Senator
(RM)
Died at Rome, Italy, in 410. The Roman senator, proconsul, and scholar,
Pammachius, belonged to the house of the Furii. In 385, he married Paulina, the
second daughter of Saint Paula. He spent much of his time in study and religious
affairs. He was a great friend of Saint Jerome, his former school fellow.
Pammachius was
probably one of the religious men who denounced to Pope Saint Siricius a
certain man named Jovinian, who maintained among other errors that all sins and
their punishments are equal; he certainly sent copies of the heretic's writings
to Jerome, who replied to them in a long treatise. This reply did not meet with
the entire approval of Saint Pammachius: he found its language too strong (a
failing to which Jerome was generally very inclined) and that it contained
exaggerated praise of virginity and depreciation of marriage; so he wrote and
told him so. Jerome replied in two letters, thanking him for his interest and
defending what he had written. Meanwhile, Jovinian was condemned at a synod at
Rome in 390 and by Archbishop Saint Ambrose of Milan.
When Paulina died
in childbirth in 397, Pammachius provided a banquet for all the poor of Rome
following her funeral Mass. He received a long letter of condolence from his friend
Saint Paulinus of Nola, who praised her goodness and her husband's faith and
fortitude. The letter ended: "Your spouse is now a pledge and a powerful
intercessor for you with Jesus Christ. She now obtains for you as many
blessings in heaven as you have sent her treasures [Masses] from hence, not
honoring her memory with fruitless tears, but making her partner of these
living gifts (i.e., by alms given for the repose of her soul); she is honored
by the merit of your virtues; she is fed by the bread you have given to the
poor." Saint Jerome tells us that Pammachius watered her ashes with the
balm of alms and mercy, which obtains the pardon of sins; that from the time of
her death he made the needy their coheirs.
Thus, Pammachius
devoted the balance of his life to study, prayer, and works of charity. (Some
say that he donned the monastic habit and received ordination to the
presbyteriate, but this seems unlikely.) Together with Saint Fabiola he built
at Porto a large hospice to shelter pilgrims coming to Rome, especially the
poor and the sick. This was the first such enterprise in the West. Pammachius
and Fabiola spent much time there personally tending to their guests.
Pammachius was
enormously disturbed by the bitter controversy between Jerome and Saint Rufinus
over the teachings of Origen. He wrote to Jerome urging him to undertake the
translation of Origen's De principiis, and gave Jerome very useful help in his
controversial writings, but he could not convince Jerome to tone down the
language of his works.
Pammachius also
wrote to the people living on his estates in Numidia in North Africa to urge
them to abandon the Donatist schism and return to the Church. This action drew
a letter of thanks from Saint Augustine in 401. Pammachius converted his home on
the Coelian Hill into the present Passionist church of Saint John and Saint
Paul, which was called the titulus Pammachii. Remains of the original house
have been found beneath the church (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney,
Encyclopedia, Husenbeth, Walsh).
St. Pammachius
Roman senator, d. about 409. In youth he
frequented the schools of rhetoric
with St. Jerome. In 385 he married
Paulina, second daughter of St. Paula. He was probably among the viri
genere optimi religione præclari, who in 390 denounced
Jovinian to Pope St. Siricius
(Ambrose, Ep. xli). When he attacked St. Jerorme's book against Jovinian for prudential reasons, Jerome
wrote him two letters (Epp. xlviii-ix, ed. Vallarsi) thanking him; the first, vindicating the
book, was probably intended for publication. On Paulina's death in 397,
Pammachius became a monk, that is, put on a religious
habit and gave himself up to works of charity (Jerome, Ep. lxvi; Paulinus of Nola, Ep. xiii). In 399 Pammachius and Oceanus
wrote to St. Jerome asking him to translate Origen's "De Principiis", and repudiate the
insinuation of Rufinus that St. Jerome was of one mind
with himself with regard to Origen. St. Jerome replied the following year (Epp. lxxxiii-iv).
In 401 Pammachius was thanked by St. Augustine (Ep. lviii) for a letter he wrote to the
people of Numidia, where he owned property, exhorting them to abandon
the Donatist schism. Many of St. Jerome's commentaries
on Scripture were dedicated
to Pammachius. After his wife's death Pammachius built in conjunction with St. Fabiola (Jerome,
Epp. lxvi, lxxvii), a hospice
at Porto, at the mouth of the
Tiber, for poor strangers. The
site has been excavated, and the excavations have disclosed the plan and the
arrangement of this only building of its kind. Rooms and halls for
the sick and poor were grouped
around it (Frothingham, "The Monuments of Christian
Rome," p. 49). The church
of SS. John and Paul
was founded either by Pammachius or his father. It was anciently known
first as the Titulus Bizantis,
and then as the Titulus Pammachii.
The feast of Pammachius
is kept on 30 August.
Sources
CEILLIER,
Hist. des auteurs eccles., X, 99 sqq.; TILLEMONT, Mémoires, vol.
X, p. 567; GRISAR, Storia di Roma, I, 73; LANCIANI, Pagan and
Christian Rome, 158-9; MARUCCHI, Eléments d'Archéol. chrét., 203.
Bacchus,
Francis Joseph. "St. Pammachius." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 11.
New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 30 Aug. 2016
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11436a.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by WGKofron. With thanks to Fr. John
Hilkert and St. Mary's Church, Akron, Ohio.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. February 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur.
+John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
