Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/625

 PATTI

567

PAUL

Rerum Liturgiranim I, xix; f^TANTON, Mennhioti of F.nqlntiii and Wales (London, 18S7); Lingard, The Hislm-', ,, / I .,/.-,„, /„.s of the Anglo-Saxon Church, II; Forster, .S'(u./ir ■, " li.,li,-a-

(ions (3 vols.. London, 1899); Mackinley. .1 ., Dedi-

cations 1/1 Sroltond (EdinburKh, 1910): L),.-,MMi. //, /,.ry ,)/ D„/,/,„ l\,ii I,,.. I liul.lin); C. T. 8. piil>lic'alicm.s; Coleman, Wis-

lonr. \l //.•(■,/„_„/ ,lrm,„;(, (Lluhlin, 1900); Smith,

Eo'i'! ' !,!:'■ I ■hiloii, 1S7I1); U \zi,iTr, The Livery Companies

of Ih, r,'v ...I / .'.'" (London, l.SUL'l; Hesse, Lfs Sainte Proffc-

(CJirs du TramiU n. 3.36 in Science et Religion (Paris). See also various ecclesiaatical Directories in Directories, Catholic. Henry Parkinson.

Patti, Diocese of (Pactensis), in the Province of Mps.sina (Sicily), on the western shore of the gulf of the same luiiiie. The eity has a large trade in tunny- fish. In its c:itheilr:il is preserved the body of St. Fe- bronia, virgin ;i.ii(l iiuirtyr. The city was rebuilt by Count Roger, ;ifter the Saracens had been driven from Messina (1058); it stands near the site of the ancient Tyndaris, a Lacedaemonian colony that had a very flourishing commerce; the magnificent temple of Mer- cury in the latter city was despoiled by Verres. In the time of Pliny, however, the sea had encroached greatly upon the shore, and after the foundation of Patti, Tyn- daris w.as almost entirely abandoned; there remains only the church of Santa Maria del Tindaro, with a Franciscan monastery. Three of the bishops of Tyn- daris are known: Severinus (501); Eutychius (594), with whose zeal for the conversion of pagans St. Greg- ory the Great was well pleased; and Theodorus (649).

Patti was destroyed by Frederick of Aragon about 1300, on account of its attachment to the House of Anjou; rebuilt in the sixteenth century, it was sacked by the Turks. Count Ruggiero had founded there a Benedictine abbey, and in 1131, the antipope Anacle- tus II made Patti an episcopal see, uniting it, however, with the Abbey of Lipari; Eugenius III in 1157 con- firmed the action of the antipope, the first legitimate pastor of the see being Gilbert.us. In 1399, Lipari and Patti were separated, and the first bishop of the sepa- rate see of Patti was Francesco Hermemir. Other bish- ops were: Francesco Urvio (1518), who in the course of controversies with the capitano dello spagnuolo was imprisoned ; later he was transferred to the Diocese of Urgel; Bartolomeo Sebastiani (1548), distinguished himself at the Council of Trent, and was Governor of Sicily for three years; Alfonso de los Cameros (16.52), the founder of the seminary, restored later by Bishop Galletti (1727); Cardinal Geremia Celesia, later Arch- bishop of Palermo, Bishop of Patti, 1860-71.

The diocese is a suffragan of Messina; it has 49 parishes, 20,000 inhabitants, 5 religious houses of men, and 15 of sisters, who conduct 4 institutes for girls and several schools.

Cappelletti. Le Chiese d' Italia. XXI. U. BeNIGNI.

Paul, Saint. — I. Preliminary Qdestigns. — A.

Apocryphal Ads of St. Paul. — Professor Schmidt has recently published a photographic copy, a transcrip- tion, a German translation, and a commentary of a Coptic papyrus composed of about 2000 fragments, which he has classified, juxtaposed, and deciphered at a cost of infinite labour ("Acta Pauli aus der Heidel- berger koptischen Papyrushandschrift Nr. 1 ", Leip- zig, 1904, and "Zusatze", etc., Leipzig, 1905). Most critics, whether Catholic (Duchesne, Bardenhewer, Ehrhard etc.), or Protestant (Zahn, Harnack, Cors- sen etc.), believe that these are real "Acta Pauli", although the text edited by Schmidt, with its very nu- merous gaps, represents but a small portion of the ori- ginal work. This discovery modified the generally ac- cepted ideas concerning the origin, contents, and value of these apocryphal Acts, and warrants the conclusion that three ancient compositions which have reached \is formed an integral part of the "Acta Pauli" viz. the "Acta Pauli et Thecla;", of which the best edition is that of Lipsius ("Acta Apostolorum apocrypha", Leipzig, 1891, 235-72), a "Martyrium Pauli" pre- served in Greek and a fragment of which also exists in

Latin (op. cit., 104-17), and a letter from the Corin- thians to Paul with the latter's reply, the Armenian text of which was preserved (cf. Zahn, "Gesch. des neutest. Kanons", II, 592-611), and the Latin discov- ered by Berger in 1891 (cf. Harnack, "Die apokry- phen Briefe des Paulus an die Laodicener und Ko- rinther", Bonn, 1905). With great sagacity Zahn anticipated this result with regard to the last two documents, and the manner in which St. Jerome speaks of the wtplo&ai. Pauli et Thecte (De viris ill., vii) might have permitted the same surmise with re- gard to the first.

Another consequence of Schmidt's discovery is no less interesting. Lipsius maintained — and this was hitherto the common opinion — that besides the Catho- lic "Acts" there formerly existed Gnostic "Acts of Paul", but now everything tends to prove that the latter never existed. In fact Origen quotes the "Acta Pauli" twice as an estimable writing ("In Joann.", xx, 12; "Deprincip.",II,i, 3); Eusebius (Hist, eccl.. Ill, iii, 5; XXV, 4) places them among the books in dis- pute, such as the "Shepherd" of Hermas, the "Apoca- lypse of Peter", the "Epistle of Barnabas", and the "Teaching of the Apostles". The stichometry of the "Codex Claromontanus " (photograph in Vigouroux, "Diet, de la Bible", II, 147) places them after the canonical books. Tertullian and St. Jerome, while pointing out the legendary character of this writing, do not attack its orthodoxy. The precise purpose of St. Paul's correspondence with the Corinthians which formed part of the "Acts", was to oppose the Gnos- tics, Simon and Cleobius. But there is no reason to admit the existence of heretical "Acts" which have since been hopelessly lost, for all the details given by ancient authors are verified in the "Acts" which have been recovered or tally well with them. The follow- ing is the explanation of the confusion: The Mani- cha?ans and Priscillianists had circulated a collection of five apocryphal "Acts", four of which were tainted with heresy, and the fifth were the "Acts of Paul". The "Acta Pauli" owing to this unfortunate associa- tion are suspected of heterodoxy by the more recent authors such as Philastrius (De haires., 88) and Pho- tius (Cod., 114). Tertullian (De baptismo, 17) and St. Jerome (De vir. ill., vii) denounce the fabulous character of the apocryphal "Acts" of Paul, and this se%'ere judgment is amply confirmed by the examina- tion of the fragments published by Schmidt. It is a purely imaginative work in which improbability vies with absurdity. The author, who was acquainted with the canonical Acts of the Apostles, locates the scene in the places really visited by St. Paul (Antioch, Iconium, Myra, Perge, Sidon, Tyre, Ephesus, Corinth, Philippi, Rome), but for the rest he gives his fancy free rein. His chronology is absolutely impossible. Of the sixty- five persons he names, very few are known and the part played by these is irreconcilable with the state- ments of the canonical " Acts ". Briefly, if the canoni- cal "Acts" are true the apocryphal "Acts" are false. This, however, does not imply that none of the details have historical foundation, but they must be con- firmed by an independent authority.

B. Chronology. — If we admit according to the al- most unanimous opinion of exegetes that Acts, xv, and Gal., ii, 1-10, relate to the same fact it will be seen that an interval of seventeen years — or at least six- teen, counting incomplete years as accomplished — elapsed between the conversion of Paul and the Apos- tolic council, for Paul visited Jerusalem three years after his conversion (Gal., i, 18) and returned after fourteen years for the meeting held with regard to legal observances (Gal., ii, 1: ETreixa 5ia itKareacrapuv irCiv). It is true that some authors include the three years prior to the first visit in the total of fourteen, but this explanation seems forced. On the other hand, twelve or thirteen years elapsed between the Apostolic council and the end of the captivity, for the captivity