St Pachomius the Great

(1), ST., a monk of the Thebaid of Lower Egypt, inthe 4th century A.D., the founder of the famous monasteries of Tabenna; one of the first to collect solitary ascetics together under a rule. Beyond a brief mention of him in Sozomen, who praises: his gentleness and suavity (Hist. Zccl. iii. 14), the materials for his biography are of questionable authenticity. His memory is specially revered in the Greek Church (AA. SS. Mai. 14; DMenol. Gr. Mai. 15). Athanasius, during his visit. to Rome, made the name Pachomius familiar to the church there through Marcella and others, to whom he held up Pachomius and his. Tabennensian monks as a bright example (Hieron. Ep. 127, ad Principium). Rosweyd gives a narrative of his life in Latin, being a translation by Dionysius Exiguus, in the 6th century, of a biography said to be written by a contemporary monk of Tabenna (Vit. Patr. in Pat. Lat. Ixxiii. 227).

If we may trust this writer, Pachomius was born of wealthy pagan parents in Lower Egypt, before the council of Nicaea. We served in his youth under Constantine in the campaign against Maxentius, which placed Constantine alone on the undisputed throne. It was, as often in the early days of Christianity, the kindness shewn by Christians to himself and to his comrades in distress, which led him to become a Christian, Like many enthusiastic converts of that day, he attached himself to a hermit, celebrated for his sanctity and austerities. The narrative tells how he and Palaemon supported themselves by weaving the shaggy tunics (" cilicia"'), the favourite dress of Egyptian monks, not unlike the hair-shirt of later ascetics. He became a monk, and many prodigies are related of his power over demons, and in resisting the natural craving for sleep and food. (Vit. cc. 40, 44, 45, 47, 48, etc., ap. Rosw. V. P.)

His reputation for holiness soon attracted to him many who desired to embrace the monastic life, and without, apparently, collecting them into one monastery, he provided for them the organisation, without which disorder must have ensued. The bishop of a neighbouring diocese sent for him to regulate the monks there. Pachomius seems also to have done some missionary work in his own neighbourhood. Athanasius, visiting Tabenna, was eagerly welcomed by Pachomius, who, in that zeal for ortho- doxy, which was a characteristic of monks generally, is said to have flung one of Origen's writings into the water, exclaiming, that he would have cast it into the fire, but that it contained the name of God. He lived to a good old age (Niceph. Hist. Eccl. ix, 14). The Bollandists (Acta SS. 14 Mai. iii. 287) give the Acta of Pachomius by a nearly contemporary author, in a Latin translation from the original Greek MSS., with notes and commentary by Papebroch, Here (Acta, § 77) Pachomius died about the time when Athanasius returned to his see under Constantius, i.e. A.D. 349 as computed by Papebroch {ArmaNastus, p. 191