PARMENAS (“constant”). – The sixth of the seven deacons chosen and consecrated by the Apostles to attend to the widows of the converted Hellenistic Jews (Act. 6:1–6). Since he has a Greek name (Παριενέζ, an abbreviation of Παριενίδης), like the other deacons, it is probable that P. too was a Hellenist. Nothing else is known with certainty about his life.
According to Pseudo-Hippolytus (De septuaginta Apost., 12: PG 10, 956), P. would have been one of the 72 disciples chosen by Jesus and would later have become bishop of Soli. According to Pseudo-Dorotheus (De septuaginta Domini disc., 11: PG 92, 1061), he died in his diaconate under the eyes of the Apostles.
The Roman Martyrology commemorates him on 23 January as a martyr of Philippi in Macedonia, under the emperor Trajan (Acta SS. Ianuarii, II, Venice 1734, p. 453).
Pietro De Ambroggi