Pammachius

Pammachius (c. 340–410) was a Roman senator, one of Jerome's closest friends, and a remarkable figure in his own right — a member of the powerful gens Furia who combined an active public career with deep Christian commitment. After the death of his wife Paulina (daughter of the elder Paula, another member of Jerome's ascetic circle), Pammachius gave away much of his wealth to the poor and founded a hospice for pilgrims at Portus, the harbor of Rome. He appears 6 times in this collection as a recipient of Jerome's letters, and the correspondence reveals a friendship between a fiery scholar and a thoughtful aristocrat. Jerome wrote to Pammachius about theology, translation theory, and the controversies that perpetually swirled around him, and Pammachius served as Jerome's most trusted representative in Rome — managing his reputation, circulating his works, and occasionally trying to smooth over the damage caused by Jerome's polemical excesses. Pammachius matters as evidence of the Christian transformation of the Roman aristocracy — the remarkable phenomenon of senators and their families choosing asceticism, charity, and theological study over the traditional Roman cursus honorum.

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Letters sent

9

Letters received

9

Total letters

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Correspondents

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Jerome6 Augustine of Hippo2

All letters (9)

From Jeromec. 386

An apology for the two books against Jovinian which Jerome had written a short time previously, and of which he had sent copies to Rome. These Pammachius and his other friends had withheld from publication, thinking that Jerome had unduly exalted virginity at the expense of marriage. He now writes to make good his position, and to do this makes ...

From Jeromec. 386

Jerome encloses the preceding letter, thanks Pammachius for his efforts to suppress his treatise against Jovinian, but declares these to be useless, and exhorts him, if he still has any hesitation in his mind, to turn to the Scriptures and the commentaries made upon them by Origen and others. Written at the same time as the preceding letter. 1.

From Jeromec. 389

When at a subsequent period Rufinus gave to the world what was in Jerome's opinion a misleading version of Origen's First Principles, he appealed to this letter as giving him ample warranty for what he had done. See Letters LXXX, and LXXXI, and Rufinus' Preface to the περί ᾿Αεχῶν in Vol. iii.

From Jeromec. 392

Pammachius a Roman senator, had lost his wife Paulina one of Paula's daughters, while she was still in the flower of her youth. It was not till two years had elapsed that Jerome ventured to write to him; and when he did so he dwelt but little on the life and virtues of Paulina. Probably there was but little to tell.

From Augustine of Hippoc. 395

1. The good works which spring from the grace of Christ in you have given you a claim to be esteemed by us His members, and have made you as truly known and as much beloved by us as you could be. For even were I daily seeing your face, this could add nothing to the completeness of the acquaintance with you which I now have, when in the shining l...

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From Jeromec. 398

A calm letter in which Jerome defines and justifies his own attitude towards Origen, but unduly minimizes his early enthusiasm for him. He admires him in the same way that Cyprian admired Tertullian but does not in any way adopt his errors. He then describes his own studies and recounts his obligations to Apollinaris, Didymus, and a Jew named Ba...

From Jeromec. 402

With this letter Jerome sends to Pammachius and Marcella a translation of the paschal letter issued by Theophilus for the year 402 A.D. together with the Greek original. He takes the precaution of sending this latter because in the preceding year complaints have been made that his translation was not accurate.

From Augustine of Hippoc. 405

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