Pastor
Pastor (1). This name is connected with traditions of the Roman church,
which, though accepted as historical by Baronius and other writers, including Cardinal
Wiseman (Fabiola, p. 189), must be rejected as mythical. These traditions
relate to the origin of two of the oldest of the Roman tituli, those of St.
Pudentiana and St. Praxedis, which still give titles to cardinals, and the former
of which claims to be the most ancient church in the world. The story is that Peter
when at Rome dwelt in the house of the senator Pudens in the vicus Patricius, and
there held divine service, his altar being then the only one at Rome. Pudens is
evidently intended as the same who is mentioned II. Tim. iv. 21. His mother's name
is said to have been Priscilla, and it is plainly intended to identify her with
the lady who gave to an ancient cemetery at Rome its name. The story relates that
Pudens, on the death of his wife, converted his house into a church and put it under
the charge of the priest Pastor, from whom it was known us "titulus Pastoris." This
titulus is named in more than one document, but in all the name may have
been derived from the story. Thus in the Acts of Nemesius, pope Stephen is said
to have held a baptism there (Baronius a.d. 257, n. 23). Our story relates that
the baptistery had been placed there by pope Pius I., who often exercised the episcopal
functions in this church. Here the two daughters of Pudens, Pudentiana and Praxedis,
having given all their goods to the poor, dedicated themselves to the service of
God. This church, under the name of Ecclesia Pudentiana, is mentioned in an inscription
of a.d. 384, and there are epitaphs of priests tituli Pudentis of
a.d. 489
and 528 (de Rossi, Bull. 1867, n. 60; 1883, p. 107). The original authority
for the story appears to be a letter purporting to be written by Pastor to Timothy
(see Boll AA. SS. May 19, iv. 299). He informs Timothy of the death of his
brother Novatus, who, during his illness, had been visited by Praxedis, then the
only surviving sisters. He obtains Timothy's consent to the application of the property
of Novatus to religious uses according to the direction of Praxedis; and baths possessed
by Novatus in the vicus Lateritius are converted into a second titulus, now known
as of St. Praxedis. This titulus is mentioned in an epitaph of
a.d. 491 (de Rossi,
Bull. 1882, p. 65); and priests of both tituli sign in the Roman council
of 499. On this letter are founded false letters of pope Pius I. to Justus of Vienna,
given in Baronius (Ann. 166, i.), a forgery later than the Isodorian Decretals.
Those who maintain the genuineness of the letter of Pastor are met by the chronological
difficulty of connecting Pudens with both St. Paul and Pius I. It has been argued
that such longevity is not impossible; and it has been suggested that Praxedis and
Pudentiana were not grand-daughters of Pudens. But the spuriousness of the whole
story has been abundantly shown by Tillemont (ii. 286, 615).
[G. S.]