Hinweise zur Catholic Encyclopedia
Paphnutius
I. The most celebrated personage of this name was
bishop of a city in the Upper Thebaid in the early fourth century, and one of
the most interesting members of the Council of Nicæa (325). He suffered
mutilation of the left knee and the loss of his right eye for the Faith under
the Emperor Maximinus (308-13), and was subsequently condemned to the mines. At
Nicæa he was greatly honoured by Constantine the Great, who, according to
Socrates (H. E., I, 11), used often to send for the good old confessor and kiss
the place whence the eye had been torn out. He took a prominent, perhaps a
decisive, part in the debate at the First cumenical Council on the subject of
the celibacy of the clergy. It seems that most of the bishops present were
disposed to follow the precedent of the Council of Elvira (can. xxxiii)
prohibiting conjugal relations to those bishops, priests, deacons, and,
according to Sozomen, sub-deacons, who were married before ordination.
Paphnutius earnestly entreated his fellow-bishops not to impose this obligation
on the orders of the clergy concerned. He proposed, in accordance with the
ancient tradition of the Church
, that only those who were celibates at the time
of ordination should continue to observe continence, but, on the other hand,
that none should be separated from her, to whom, while yet unordained, he had
been united
. The great veneration in which he was held, and the well known fact
that he had himself observed the strictest chastity all his life, gave weight to
his proposal, which was unanimously adopted. The council left it to the
discretion of the married clergy to continue or discontinue their marital
relations. Paphnutius was present at the Synod of Tyre (335).
II. PAPHNUTIUS, surnamed (on account of his love of solitude) THE BUFFALO, an anchorite and priest of the Scetic desert in Egypt in the fourth century. When Cassian (Coll., IV, 1) visited him in 395, the Abbot Paphnutius was in his ninetieth year. He never left his cell save to attend church on Saturdays and Sundays, five miles away. When in his paschal letter of the year 399, the Patriarch Theophilus of Alexandria condemned anthropomorphism, Paphnutius was the only monastic ruler in the Egyptian desert who caused the document to be read.
III. PAPHNUTIUS, deacon of the church of Boou, in Egypt, suffered martyrdom in the persecution of Diocletian, under the Prefect Culcianus.
HEFELE-LECLERCQ, Histoire des conciles, I, i (Paris, 1907).
Heiligenlexikon als USB-Stick oder als DVD
Unterstützung für das Ökumenische Heiligenlexikon
Artikel kommentieren / Fehler melden
Suchen bei amazon: Bücher über Catholic Encyclopedia - Paphnutius
Wikipedia: Artikel über Catholic Encyclopedia - Paphnutius
Fragen? - unsere FAQs antworten!
Impressum - Datenschutzerklärung
korrekt zitieren: Artikel Catholic Encyclopedia - Paphnutius, aus dem Ökumenischen Heiligenlexikon - https://www.heiligenlexikon.de/CatholicEncyclopedia/Paphnutius.html, abgerufen am 23. 12. 2024
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet das Ökumenische Heiligenlexikon in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über https://d-nb.info/1175439177 und https://d-nb.info/969828497 abrufbar.