PAMMACHIUS, Saint. - A Roman senator descended from the Furii, born around the middle of the 4th century and died in 409, during the siege of Rome by Alaric. A cousin of St. Marcella, he was a disciple of St. Jerome and a friend of St. Paulinus of Nola and of St. Augustine. In 385 he married Paulina, daughter of the famous Paula, herself also a disciple of Jerome.
Probably in 390 he worked together with other Christian nobles to bring the question of Jovinian before Pope Siricius. But in 392, when Jerome sent to Rome his books against that notorious heretic, P. showed himself opposed to the violent reaction of the Stridonite and sought to withdraw the copies that had been put into circulation. After the untimely death of his wife, which occurred in 397, P. embraced the ascetic life, not disdaining to appear in the senatorial hall in the neglected habit of a monk. Paulinus of Nola recalls that on that occasion P. gathered all the poor of Rome for a banquet in the basilica of St. Peter, which was not large enough to contain them all, so that the poor occupied even the atrium and the square; for this reason he calls P. «Ecclesiae munerarius» (Ep., 13: PL 61, 213). He distributed his possessions to the poor and, together with Fabiola (v.), built a great hospice for pilgrims at Porto, at the mouth of the Tiber (Jerome, Epist., 66, 77). Recent excavations have brought to light the plan of the building and various remains. He established on the Caelian the «titulus Pammachii»; indeed, in an inscription on the door one read: «quis tantas venerandas condidit aedes, si quaeris, cultor Pammachius fidei» (G. B. De Rossi, Inscr. chr., II, Rome 1888, p. 150). H. Grisar pointed out that the expression «cultor fidei» occurs in the canon of the Mass. In the subscriptions of the Roman Synod of 499 there are found two presbyters of the «titulus Pammachii», distinct from two others of the «titulus Bizantis» (today Sts. John and Paul). In 399 he urged
Jerome to translate the Περὶ Ἀρχῶν of Origen, in order to dispel certain insinuations of Rufinus against him. To P. Jerome dedicated many of his commentaries on Sacred Scripture. In 401 St. Augustine addressed to him a letter (Ep., 58), to thank him for an appeal made to the faithful of Numidia, that they abandon the Donatist schism. The Roman Martyrology commemorates his feast on 30 August.
Bibliography5 works
Emanuele Romanelli