Saint Pamphilus of Caesarea

The times of persecution were advancing. It was then easy to foresee that Christianity was going to be established on the ruins of the ancient religion of the Gentiles, as a principle of life and regeneration, over dogmas that were dead and which reasoning had pierced on all sides. There were, however, still some learned men who fought against the Church and fiercely defended the interests of their pleasures and passions. These men were for the most part philosophers. Educated enough to understand the weakness of the doctrines they defended, they wanted at least to impose themselves upon the people through certain extraordinary practices of devotion and austerity, and the idolatrous world was then full of these Platonic virtues, formed in the school of Marcus Aurelius and Trajan. It is for this reason that we already see in the holy doctors of the second age, as in Saint Justin, this brilliant varnish of Christian philosophy, polished, elegant in its manners like a memory of Rome and Athens, pure, humble, and devoted like a worthy child of the Gospel, and which ran to die in the amphitheaters for the faith it professed. We can say that Pamphilus, priest of th e church of Caesarea, was himself a sub Pamphile, prêtre de l'église de Césarée Priest and martyr, scholarly librarian of Caesarea. lime model of this, and that no one knew better how to combine the love of science, selflessness, and the contempt for pain with that Christian humility and that charity which refers everything to God, the true character of the disciples of Jesus Christ. Joining a taste for science with that of piety, he began to assemble a library composed of the best ancient works, which he had brought from all sides at great cost. But as he thought only of defending the faith, it was above all with ecclesiastical authors that he filled it, and the number of books it contained subsequently became so considerable that it reached thirty thousand. Among them, one noted above all the writings of Origen, of whom he was a great a Origène Great theologian and teacher of Gregory in Caesarea. dmirer. He wrote the greater part of his works by his own hand, and Saint Jerome considered that he had acquired a treasure when he found the manuscript that our Saint had made of the twenty-five books of commentaries by this author on the twelve minor prophets.

One of the works that Pamphilus had most at heart was to correct the text of the Bible, in order to present this divine book to the faithful, pure from all the alterations that human weakness might have introduced into it. To better succeed in this work, he associated with himself the most famou s of h Eusèbe Church historian to whom Ceraunus is compared. is disciples, Eusebius, later Bishop of Caesarea and friend of the great Emperor Constantine. Eusebius—estimable as a scholar, little estimable as a bishop, and a fierce partisan of Arius—became attached to our Saint with such affection that only death was able to separate him from him, and having been unable to share his labors and his martyrdom, he wished at least to make known to posterity by what intimate bonds the y had been united, Eusèbe de Pamphile Church historian to whom Ceraunus is compared. by taking the name Eusebius Pamphili. One of the first and most important works they did together was undoubtedly the cor correction des Septante Greek translation of the Bible corrected by Pamphilus. rection of the Septuagint, the text of which had been extremely corrupted by the ignorance and negligence of copyists since Origen had corrected it.

Moreover, this is not the only eminent service that the scholarship of Pamphilus and his love for the holy letters rendered to the Church. Precious remains of the Saint's library have survived the outrages of the centuries in the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius of Caesarea, which has come down to us. And perhaps it is true to say that, without this precious collection, the Church would have lost the knowledge of a great number of facts from its first centuries, since it was from this treasure that Eusebius drew all the help he needed to write it.

It is unnecessary to recount all the exercises of penance and piety that Saint Pamphilus added to so many useful labors. To practice mortification and evangelical detachment in a more perfect manner, he distributed his patrimony to the poor, kept with him only the servants and slaves who had long been attached to his family, separated himself from the world, and sought silence and freedom in solitude. Fasting prolonged until sunset, prayers recited in the silence of the night while all rested around him, and the abnegation of his own will—such were the exercises of penance by which he prepared himself for the martyrdom to which God had predestined him.

He was giving public lessons in the city of Caesarea when the persecution of Maximin Daia, who s Maximin Daïa Roman emperor and persecutor. urpassed even the Emperor Galerius Maximin in cruelty, interrupted the course of his holy exercises. There was hardly a surer way to flatter the ferocious Caesar than to invent some new torment to afflict the disciples of Jesus Christ and to water the cities and provinces with their blood. Urban, one of his creature s, who Urbain Father of Saint Christina and prefect of Tyre, her first persecutor. m he had made governor of Palestine and who executed his protector's orders with unheard-of violence, had Pamphilus arrested in the city of Caesarea, based on his reputation as one of the principal teachers of the Christians. The account he had been given of the learning and virtues of this extraordinary man had given him the desire to see him and to test his knowledge and merit for himself. Having had him appear before him, he spoke amicably with the holy priest for a few moments, and did not take long to understand how important it would be to win over to paganism a man of such great weight. Promises, threats, sufferings, and seductions of every kind—he forgot nothing to break the virtue of Pamphilus. He had his sides torn with iron claws; he had him scourged with such great cruelty that the Martyr had to be carried to his prison half-dead, exhausted from loss of blood. All his efforts were useless, and his rage failed before the courage of the valiant champion of the faith. He was waiting for his wounds to heal to begin again with him this horrible combat of tyranny against conviction, when an order arrived from the emperor, which stripped him of his own dignities and condemned him to lose his life. Urban, stripped of everything, abandoned by his guards, and shamefully driven from the palace, was dragged through the streets and abandoned to the outrages of the vilest populace. They took ample revenge for the exactions of this unfaithful governor, for his barbarity, and for his licentious life; they covered him with mud, insults, and wounds until he reached the place of execution, where he had his head severed by the hand of the executioner.

Maximin, who had only favored this wretched governor because of the hatred he bore toward Christians, sent Firmilian in his place, ordering him not to diminish the fury of the persecution in any way. The new governor, seeing the city of Caesarea almost entirely populated by disciples of the new religion, did not wish to provoke them at the beginning of his administration. Pamphilus was almost forgotten in his prison, and the friends of the holy confessor were given the opportunity to visit him as they pleased. Eusebius of Caesarea was imprisoned with him; they took advantage of this time of trial to compose together five books of the Apology for Origen, to wh Apologie d'Origène Great theologian and teacher of Gregory in Caesarea. ich Eusebius alone later added a sixth book. This writing was primarily addressed to the confessors who were working in the mines of Palestine, who were uncertain, in their simplicity, whether they should venerate the memory of Origen or believe those who declared themselves enemies of his belief and his writings. It was to refute the calumnies of the latter that the work of Pamphilus was undertaken. The six books were still seen in the ninth century, in the time of Photius. Today, we have only the first one remaining.

Saint Pamphilus had been in prison for nearly two years when an entirely unforeseen circumstance gave him the opportunity to finally receive the crown he had been awaiting for so long. Five Egyptians were returning from Cilicia, where they had escorted confessors condemned to the mines. Upon arriving in the city of Caesarea, they declared themselves Christians to the gate guards and were immediately led to prison. These holy figures had abandoned the profane names their parents had given them and had called themselves Jeremiah, Isaiah, Samuel, Elijah, and Daniel. The next day they were brought before the governor, who simultaneously summoned Pamphilus, four other Christians, Paul, and the holy elder Valens, the last two who were to receive the crown of martyrdom with him.

We shall not speak here of the martyrdom of the five Egyptians and their four companions, whose sentence was not pronounced at the same time as that of Valens, Paul, and Pamphilus. These nine martyrs were already condemned when Firmilian came to the three confessors and prepared to subject them to interrogation. But upon receiving notice that all three had already been subjected to it under his predecessor, he deemed it useless to put their constancy to the test once more; he questioned them for form's sake and condemned them to death, applying the penalty pronounced by the emperors' edicts. At this moment, Porphyrius, a serva nt of Pa Porphyre Servant of Pamphilus, burned alive for requesting his burial. mphilus, a young philosopher full of courage, virtue, and attachment to his master, loudly requested burial for the condemned who were to be exposed to wild beasts and birds of prey. He was seized and cast into the fire without any other form of judgment. He received the baptism of blood in the flames that consumed him, and the catechumen preceded the priest by a few hours into the glory of God. Saint Pamphilus and his two companions were executed in the evening, and their bodies, by order of the governor, remained exposed during the night at the place of execution. But as no animal approached them during the night to devour them, such a visible protection from heaven touched the guards, who allowed the faithful the freedom to carry them away.

MM. Ju-le and Caillau, *Vies des Pères*; — Cf. AA. SS., Ralliet, Godescard and all hagiographers.