Majesty of Catholic saints in the baroque art of stained glass in cathedrals. Every day there is a name day celebration. (Illustrative image Infobae)
A few decades ago, even centuries ago, ancestors used to name their children after the saint of the day they were born. Not in vain, in the famous “Mañanitas” there is a stanza that says: “Today, because it is your saint’s day, we sing them to you here…”
The name day refers to the day on which a saint is celebrated, although it is common for many people to use it as a synonym for birthday, which is incorrect, since when talking about it we are only referring to the list of names on the calendar of saints.
As every day of the year, today we also commemorate the women and men who stood out for having special connections with the divinities, who did good deeds for their neighbors and who had high ethics and morals, reasons that led them to be canonized or beatified and form part of the calendar of saints.
This is the saint’s day for Friday, August 30th.
In one of the men in the orbit of Saint Jerome.
He belonged to the Camillian family, whose holdings in North Africa made them immensely rich. Pammachius was probably a lifelong Christian. He received a thorough education in rhetoric, eloquence and sacred literature. He was a companion of Jerome in his youth and their friendship remained even beyond the interruption caused by Jerome’s departure for the desert in 370, around the time Pammachius became a member of the Senate.
Perhaps he did not fully understand this outburst of generosity in prayer and perhaps he judged the rigor of the penance that the Jeronymite group so emphatically promoted as extreme. In fact, many Christians in Rome judged it excessive and criticized the saint abundantly, either by mistake or because the unconditional evangelical attitude of a small Christian circle was a silent criticism of their comfortable mediocrity.
The fact is that he married Paulina, daughter of Saint Paula, that ascetic woman who followed the penitent saint into the desert with Eustoquia.
With his Christian instinct, Pammachius detected and brought to light Jovinian’s doctrinal errors and had the courage to clearly expose them to Pope Siricius, who was forced to condemn the heresy a few years later, in 390. In order to be able to confidently take charge of the dangers contained in Jovinian teaching, he was frequently forced to turn to Jerome for specific consultations.
When Paulina died in childbirth in 393, when they had been married for only five years, Pammachius began to develop a charitable work with highly conspicuous works. He organized a banquet for the poor; he did not weep, but devoted himself to doing; he did not lament, but filled his days with works of mercy. Taking lessons from the Holy Scripture, meditating daily, he became convinced that charity covers the multitude of sins. The lame, the blind, the paralytic and the crippled are Paulina’s heirs. And as the voices fly, he is continually seen in Rome accompanied by a cloud of poor people around him.
This man of charity built a hospital in the Roman port to care for foreigners, where he himself, with his own hands, cured and cared for the sick and dying. Perhaps Pammachius was influenced by the clear and courageous help of his friend Jerome, who told him in a letter that he should not be content with “offering Christ your money, but yourself. We easily throw away what only sticks to us on the outside, but internal war is more dangerous; if we offer Christ our goods with our soul, he receives them willingly, but if we give what is outside to God and what is inside to the Devil, the sharing is not fair.”
Concerned not only with bodies but especially with souls, he carried out an orderly epistolary apostolate, writing frequent and solid letters addressed to those who administered his possessions in Numidia and looked after his lands in order to free them from the heresy of Donatus that had wreaked havoc among Christians who were uneducated or weak in faith; it was a work highly praised by Augustine of Hippo who thanked him for his intervention in a letter written in the year 401.
He died in 410, shortly before the dramatic sack of Rome.
Pamaquio remained a layman all his life, giving a clear testimony of love for God and of the coherence of his Christian faith. He served society from the highest professional positions and correctly administered his assets, not only looking out for his own benefit, but also taking into account the needs of his contemporaries. He was an example for the majority of Christian believers of all times.
Along with this character there are other saints and martyrs who are also celebrated this Friday, August 30, such as the following:
Saint Agilo of Rébais
Saint Bononius of Lucedio
Saint Fantinus the Younger
Saint Fiacre of Breuil
Saint Gaudencia martyr
St. Peter of Trevi
Blessed Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster
Blessed Ghebra Michael
Blessed Joaquín Ferrer Adell
Blessed Juan Juvenal of Ancina
Blessed Maria Rafols
Blessed Vincent Gabanes Badenas
Catholic faithful and members of the clergy attend the beatification ceremony of priests Rutilio Grande and Cosme Spessotto and lay people Manuel Solorzano and Nelson Lemus at the Plaza El Salvador del Mundo in San Salvador, El Salvador January 22, 2022. (REUTERS/Jose Cabezas)
The Catholic and Orthodox Church use canonization to declare a deceased person a saint, which involves including his or her name in the canon (list of recognized saints) and permission to venerate him or her, recognizing his or her power before God.
During Christianity, people were recognized as saints without a formal process; however, this changed in the Middle Ages.
In the case of Catholicism, the Church must conduct an exhaustive investigation of the life of the person to be sanctified and there are four ways to achieve the appointment: the way of heroic virtues; the way of martyrdom; the way of exceptional causes, confirmed by an ancient cult and written sources; and the way of offering one’s life.
In addition, it is an indispensable requirement that the saint has performed at least two miracles (or one in the case of a martyr). Canonization is carried out in a solemn papal declaration and a feast day is assigned for liturgical veneration.
There is no set period for the canonization of a character, as there are even cases such as that of Saint Peter Damian who was canonized up to 756 years after his death or, on the contrary, the case of Saint Anthony of Padua who was named up to 352 days after his death.
The last canonization took place in October 2019, when the Pope declared Cardinal John Henry Newman and Sister Dulce of Brazil saints.
