Paschasinus of Lilybaeum consults the pope about the Paschal cycle and on which date Easter should be celebrated the following year (probably AD 444). Paschasinus himself is convinced that the Alexandrian computus is more correct than the ambiguous Roman. He refers also to the "computation of the Hebrews," that is, to setting the Pascha on the fourteentth day of the moon. He tells the story of the controversy about the date of Easter in AD 417 (tempore ... Zosimi, anno consulatus Honorii Augusti undecimo et Constantii secundo "in the times of Zosimus, in the year of the eleventh consulship of the Emperor Honorius and second of Constantius"). That year, Easter was celebrated on 25 March, not on 22 April. The error was shown by the following miracle:

 

3. There is a certain very humble estate called Meltinas in the steep mountains and the most dense forests, and on this estate, there is a very small, poorly built church. In the baptistery of this church in the holy paschal night in the hour of baptizing the baptismal font refilled by itself though there was neither a canal nor a pipe, nor water in the neighbourhood. After the consecration of a few who were there, because there was no drain, the water disappeared as it came. In the year, then, which we mentioned above [i.e. AD 417] during the pontificate of my late lord, the most blessed pope Zosimus of holy memory, because the error arosed among the Westerners, after reading the customary readings in the holy night, the presbyter, according to custom, went to look for the water in the hour of baptizing. But the water did not appear before dawn, and those who were supposed to be baptized left without consecration. To cut a long story short, in this night preceding Sunday on the tenth day before the Kalends of May, the holy font was filled with water at the proper hour. This miracle showed clearly that the Westerners were wrong.

 

(trans. and summary by M. Szada)