The Presbyters Project

Pacian reproaches those sinners who do not practice public penance and normally participate normally in the life of the Church and society.

10. [...] Ne haec quidem quae videri etiam a sacerdote possunt, et episcopo teste laudari; ne haec quidem quotidiani servamus; flere in conspectu Ecclesiae, perditam vitam sordida veste lugere, ieiunare, orare, provolvi: si quis ad balneum vocet, recusare delicias: si quis ad convivium roget, dicere: Ista felicibus, ego deliqui in Dominum, et periclitor in aeternum perire: quo mihi epulas, qui Dominum laesi? Tenere praeterea pauperum manus, viduas obsecrare, presbyteris advolvi, exoratricem Ecclesiam deprecari, omnia prius tentare quam pereas.

(ed. Granado 1995)

Pacian reproaches the sinners who do not practice public penance and normally participate in the life of the Church and society.

10. [...] We do not even do those things which also can be seen by the priest and praised by the bishop when he witnesses them; nor do we observe the following daily duties: to weep in the sight of the Church; to mourn our lost life in poor garb; to fast, to pray, to prostrate ourselves; to refuse luxurious delights if someone invites us to the baths; to say, if someone asks us to a feast, 'Such things are for the blessed. I have sinned against the Lord and am in danger of perishing eternally. What do I, who have injured the Lord, have to do with

feasting?' And in addition to this: to hold the poor man by the hand; to seek the prayers of the widows; to prostrate oneself before the presbyters; to beg mercy from the interceding Church; to attempt all these first, rather than to perish.

(trans. Hanson 1999: 82-83, slightly altered)

Discussion:

The passus about the prostration before presbyters is a quotation from Tertullian, De poenitentia 9.

Place of event:

Region

Iberian Peninsula

City

Barcelona

About the source:

Author: Pacian of Barcelona
Title: On Penitents, Treatise of Exhortation unto Penance, The Paraenesis, Paraenesis sive exhortatio libellus ad paenitentiam, De paenitentibus
Origin: Barcelona (Iberian Peninsula)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

It seems certain that Pacian wrote the treatise on penitents while already being a bishop of Barcelona. However, the date of his episcopal elevation is not firmly established. It was after AD 343, when Praetextatus was still a bishop of Barcelona). Scholars have tried to pinpoint that it should be before AD 377 (based on the information in Letter 1 of Pacian about heretical Apollinarians, condemned in 377 by Pope Damasus, Hanson 1999: 4) or AD 380 (as Pacian is expressing the opinions that only Nicene Orthodoxy can use the name "Catholic Church", which was officially recognized only in the edict of Theodosius, 28 March 380 AD; Rubio Fernández 1958: 14-16). The date of Pacian`s death is established on the basis of a mention of Pacian in the Jerome`s De viris illustribus written in 393.

Edition:

Edition:

C. Granado ed., Pacien de Barcelone, Écrits, Sources Chrétiennes 410, Paris 1995.

Translation:

L. C. Hanson, Iberian Fathers, v. 3, Pacian of Barcelona, Orosius of Braga, Washington D. C 1999.

Bibliography:

L. C. Hanson, Iberian Fathers, v. 3, Pacian of Barcelona, Orosius of Braga, Washington D. C 1999.

L. Rubio Fernández, San Paciano obras, Barcelona 1958.

Categories:

Ritual activity - Reconciliation/Administering penance

Reverenced by

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER83, http://presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=83