Paphnutius

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PAPHNUTIUS

The name of many monks in the Egyptian desert, among whom the more important were:

Paphnutius the Bishop, St., a bishop of the Upper thebaid; d. c. 356. He attended the Council of nicaea, 325, and the Synod of Tyre, 335. His left knee had been mutilated and his right eye torn out in the persecution of Maximinus. He was esteemed by constantine i and by the prelates at Nicaea. It was perhaps due to his influence that the council left the question of continence to the discretion of those clergy who had been married before ordination. If this Paphnutius is the "confessor and monk" to whom a miracle is attributed in the Vita Antonii (58; see r. meyer, tr., Ancient Christian Writers 10:69, 122,n. 198), he may also be the "anchorite of the desert about Heracleos in the Thebaid" mentioned in the Historia Monachorum (16).

Feast: Sept. 11 (Roman martyrology).

Paphnutius the Buffalo, anchorite and priest of the desert of Scete. He was 90 years old when visited by John cassian in 395, and was the only monastic leader in Scete to hold a public reading of the letter of the Patriarch theophilus of alexandria condemning anthropomorphism (397).

Paphnutius the Anchorite, St., martyr; d. c. 303; who suffered martyrdom under Diocletian, according to the Roman Martyrology.

Feast: Sept. 24.

Paphnutius the Abbot, St.; d. c. 480; the reputed father of St. Euphrosyne. He is highly venerated in the East.

Feast: Sept. 25.

Bibliography: h. delehaye, ed., "Passio," Analecta Bollandiana 40 (1922) 328343, Gr. Acta Sanctorum Sept. 6:681688, Lat. socrates, Ecclesiastical History 1:11 in Patrologia Graeca, ed. j. p. migne, 161 v. (Paris 185766) 67:102106. sozomen, Ecclesiastical History 1:23 ibid. 67:925926. c. j. von hefele, Histoire des conciles d'après les documents originaux, tr. and continued by h. leclercq, 10 v. in 19 (Paris 190738) v. 1.1. j. cassian, Conlationes, ed. m. petschenig (Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum 13; 1886) 3:4.1, 10.23. "Paphnutius the Buffalo," h. leclercq, Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie, ed. f. cabrol, h. leclercq, and h. i. marrou, 15 v. (Paris 190753) 13.1:135861.

[m. c. mccarthy]