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Il pasto per i poveri presso la Basilica Costantiniana di S. Pietro a Roma secondo la lettera di san Paolino di Nola a san Pammachio

The articles analyzes a fragment of the “Letter 13”, written by St Paulinus of Nola to St Pammachius. The shred describes the meal which St Pammachius offered – at his own expenses – to the poor and needy people in Rome, when he was Senator and already a Monk.  The exact date of the occurrence is still debated, while it is ascertained what happened when St Pammachius was quite aged, namely when his wife, Therasia, was dead, and he used her properties and patrimony to help the needy people, willing to live a poor life as a monk. The letter written by St Paulinus expresses his own appreciation for the behavior and initiative of the Senator-Monk Pammachius, whom he wanted to gratify with his esteem and appreciation. In order to provide a better presentation of the Letter and its context, the present article introduces the two monks: the author of the Letter and the addressee. Both St Paulinus and St Pammachius had conducted a similar life, had many interests and concerns in common – though St Paulinus was 20 years older than St Pammachius – and were tied by bonds of spiritual friendship. The fragment of the Letter analyzed in the present article clearly shows that the offering of the meal to the poor people by St Pammachius was not motivated by philanthropic attitude – in the secular sense of the term – but rather inspired by and rooted into the Gospel message, over and against the contemporary pagan mentality, quite often marked by self-centered and hedonistic desires and motivations and lacking sensitivity towards the others. In this context, St Paulinus considers the meal offered by St Pammachius, as an authentic “competition in favor of the Church”, as opposed to the pagan celebrations and St Peter’s Basilica, where the meals took place, as “Christ’s theatre”. The fragment of the Letter examined proves also of remarkable interest for historians and archeologists inasmuch as it provides important details about the ancient appearance of St Peter’s Basilica. The description of the basilica, in fact, reports the splendor and the majesty of such key-place for all Christianity and humanity, as it appeared until the beginning of the 16 th century, when Pope Julius II replaced the ancient basilica with the new Vatican Basilica.