The Extant Works of St. Pacian of Barcelona: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Extant Works of St. Pacian of Barcelona, credited to Pacian of Barcelona, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of The Extant Works of St. Pacian of Barcelona by Pacian of Barcelona. (Translated by Charles Henry Collyns.) Read in English by InTheDesert Pacian, Bishop of Barcelona in the Pyrenees, of chastened eloquence, eminent for his life as for his writings, wrote various works, of which is the Cervus and against the Novatians. He died lately in the reign of Theodosius, in extreme old age; i.e. before A. 392. He was born then probably about 30 years after the martyrdom of St. Cyprian, was a younger contemporary of Hosius, and through him joined on to the Council of Eliberis, and the restoration of discipline in the Spanish Church. His memory was kept with great affection at Barcelona on May 9, on which he is commemorated in the Martyrologium Romanum, in words taken from St. Jerome. It is of the good Providence of God, that, of the same father, works should have come down, vindicating the doctrine of the Church on penitence, as a doctrine, against the heresy of Novatian, practically, against the neglect of careless sinners. The Epistles to Sympronian and the exhortation to Penitence, combined, shew how compatible are tenderness to the sinner with a strict and, as it would now seem, severe doctrine of penitence; that not earnest calls to a self-avenging and self-chastening penitence, but the denial of its fruits and of the power of the keys, is the essence of Novatianism. Well versed as St. Pacian was in the writings of St. Cyprian, who also insists on the same acts of penitence, his language approaches more both in style and vividness of expostulation to that of Tertullian, whose work on penitence he claims, as having been written by him while a Catholic. It is hoped that from this very combination, his works might be useful in these days, in which, for want of that more frequent special application of the power of the keys, which our Church suggests, any mention of more earnest penitence is thought to partake of the hard and uncompassionating heresy of Novatian. - Summary from the Preface

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Extant Works of St. Pacian of Barcelona
• Author credits: Pacian of Barcelona
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 6
• Listed recording duration: 2:23:11

Catalogue topics

• Christianity
• theology
• writings

Track guide

1. 00 - Preface — 4:38
2. 01 - Epistle I: On the Catholic Name — 17:46
3. 02 - Epistle II: Concerning Novatian's Letter — 18:57
4. 03 - Epistle III: Against the treatise of the Novatians — 59:20
5. 04 - Treatise of exhortation to penance — 27:49
6. 05 - Discourse on Baptism — 14:41

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This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.