170 OVAN, ST.

PACHOMIU8

OVAN, ST., of Autun. [Evantius (1).]

OWAIN ap Macsen Wledig, surname! Vinddu,numbered among the Welsh saints, but >f uncer-tain character and history; the Triads presenthim as a warrior chief, and elected to th5 throneof the Britons in the 4th or 5th century. (Rees,W. SS. 108, 115: Williams, Em. Welsh. 365.)

[J. G.]

OWEN, ST. [Addoenus.]

OYAN, ST. [Eugendus (2).]

OZEAS, a presbyter, commended by Theo-doret as a champion of godliness, by whom hesent a letter to Ibas, bishop of Edessa. (Theod.Ep. 132.) [E. V.]

P

PABO, surnamed POST PRYDAIN, Welshwarrior and saint about the beginning of the6th century, buried at Llanbabo in Anglesey.( Myvir. Arch, of Wales, ii. 49 ; Williams, ToloMSS. 503, 527, 558; Rees, Wtlsh Saints , 103,167.) For the Llanbabo inscribed stone seeWestwood, Lap. Wall. 192. [J. G.]

PACATULA. [Gaudentius (10).]

PACATUS (1), LATINUS DREPANIUS(otherwise Latinus Pacatus Drepanius), aGallic rhetorician of the 4th century, author ofa panegyric pronounced before the senate onTheodosius the Great, Sept. 1st, 391, whichcontains much information upon the facts of thatemperor’s life. [Drepanius, in Diet. G. fy R.Biag.-] [G. T. S.]

PACATUS (2) (Paratus), Gallic poet, pro-bably near Bordeaux, c. a.d. 431. He obtainedfrom Hranius an account of the death of Paulinusof Nola (see it in Boll. AA. SS. Jun. v. 172),but the poetical life of St. Paulinus intended tohave been written by Pacatus, and based onthis, does not appear to have been composed.(Hist. Lit. Franc, ii. 202, 204; Fabricius, Bibl.Lat. v. 170, 195, ed. Mansi; Ceillier, Aut. Sacr.viii. 54.) [J. G.]

PACATUS (3), an ecclesiastical writeragainst Porphyrius, cited by John the Romandeacon, afterwards (as some think) pope John111. in his Exposition of the Heptateuch , printedin Pitra’s Spicilegium Solesmense (vol. i.pp. 280, 281). Nothing further is known ofthis Pacatus (Ceill. xi. 334). [C. H.]

PACHO (nax^, Pachomius in Cassiod.), asolitary in Scetis, from youth to extreme oldage, in the latter part of the 4th century, famedfor his strength in the monastic virtues, havingnever been seduced, writes Sozomen, by theappetites of the flesh, the passions of the soul,or the wiles of the evil one, to desire the thingsfrom which it behoves a philosopher to abstain,(Soz. vi. 29 ; Cassiod. Trip. Hist. viii. 1 ; Niceph.Call. H. E. xi. 36 ; Laus. Hist. c. 29 and note in

‘*»v«w«uui W nimintbeLausiac History has been wrongly attribute ♦St. Nilus. (Fabric. Bibl. Gr. \ x. « i« jHarles ; Ceill. viii. 211.) 'pi ^ ^

PACHOMIUS (1), ST., a monk of the The-baid of Lower Egypt, in the 4th century AlDthe founder of the famous monasteries * ofTabenna; one of the first to collect solitaryascetics together under a rule. Beyond a briefmention of him in Sozomen, who praises hisgentleness and suavity (Hist. Eccl. iii. 14) thematerials for his biography are of questionableauthenticity. His memory is specially reveredin the Greek Church (AA. SS. Mai. 14; Menol.Gr. Mai. 15). Athanasius, during his visit toRome, made the name Pachomius familiar tothe church there through Marcella and others,to whom he held up Pachomius and his Taben-nensian monks as a bright example (Hieron. Ep.127, ad Principium). Rosweyd gives a narrativeof his life in Latin, being a translation byDionysius Exiguus, in the 6th century, of abiography said to be written by a contemporarymonk of Tabenna ( Vit. Pair, in Pat. Lat. lxxiii,227).

If we may trust this writer, Pachomius wasborn of wealthy pagan parents in Lower Egypt,before the council of Nicaea. He served in hisyouth under Constantine in the campaignagainst Maxentius, which placed Constantinealone on the undisputed throne. It was, asoften in the early days of Christianity, thekindness shewn by Christians to himself and tohis comrades in distress, which led him tobecome a Christian. Like many enthusiasticconverts of that day, he attached himself to ahermit, celebrated for his sanctity and austeri-ties. The narrative tells how he and Palaemonsupported themselves by weaving the shaggytunics (“ cilicia ”), the favourite dress of Egyp-tian monks, not unlike the hair-shirt of laterascetics. He became a monk, and many prodi-gies are related of his power over demons, andin resisting the natural craving for sleep andfood. (Vit. cc. 40, 44, 45, 47, 48, etc., ap.Rosw. V. P.)

His reputation for holiness soon attracted tohim many who desired to embrace the monasticlife, and without, apparently, collecting theminto one monastery, he provided for them theorganisation, without which disorder must haveensued. The bishop of a neighbouring diocesesent for him to regulate the monks there.Pachomius seems also to have done some mis-sionary work in his own neighbourhood.Athanasius, visiting Tabenna, was eagerly wel-comed by Pachomius, who, in that zeal for ortho-doxy, which was a characteristic of monks gene-rally, is said to have flung one of Origenswritings into the water, exclaiming, that ®would have cast it into the fire, but that it con-tained the name of God. He lived to a go°old age (Niceph. Hist. Eccl. ix. 14). The Bo-landists (Acta SS. 14 Mai. iii. 287) give theActa of Pachomius by a nearly contempoi ar yauthor, in a Latin translation from the ° r *£ l! J aGreek MSS., with notes and commentary /Papebroch. Here (Acta, § 77) Pachomius dieaabout the time when Athanasius returnedhis see under Constantius, i.e. A.d. 349 wputed by Papebroch [Athanasius, p- 1“