ST PACIAN, BISHOP OF BARCELONA, CONFESSOR - 9 MARCH

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH 

Saints celebrated on the 9th of March

WELCOME!

SAINT PACIAN, BISHOP OF BARCELONA, CONFESSOR 

Saint Pacian was a great ornament of the church in the fourth century. He was illustrious by birth, and had been engaged in marriage in the world. His son Dexter was raised to the first dignities in the empire, being high chamberlain to the emperor Theodosius and præfectus-prætorio under Honorius. 

AFTER SOME TIME IN THE WORLD, HE RENOUNCED IT

St Pacian having renounced the world, was made bishop in 373. St Jerome, who dedicated to him his Catalogue of illustrious men, extols his eloquence and learning, and more particularly the chastity and sanctity of his life. We have his Exortation to Penance, and three letters to Sympronianus, a Novatian nobleman, on Penance, and on the name of Catholic; also a sermon on Baptism.

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)

QUOTES BY ST PACIAN

"Christian is my name, but Catholic my surname [Christianus mihi nomen est, catholicus vero cognomen]. The former gives me a name, the latter distinguishes me. By the one I am approved; by the other I am but marked." (St Pacian)

"Christ received body and soul from Mary. He came to save this soul and united it with his spirit making it his own. This is the marriage of the Lord, a union of two in one flesh, so that by that great mystery, two become one flesh, Christ and his Church." (St Pacian)

"Hold fast to what you have received; preserve it joyfully; sin no more. Keep yourselves as children cleansed by that sacrament and made spotless for the day of the Lord." (St Pacian)

"Sins are washed away by the cleansing waters of the font; the Holy Spirit is infused by oil of chrism... Thus the whole man is born again and made new in Christ." (St Pacian)