St. Pacian of Barcelona

St. Pacian of Barcelona was bishop of Barcelona in Roman Spain in the later fourth century, a learned and cultivated churchman esteemed for the purity of his Latin and the wisdom of his teaching; St. Jerome, who names him among the illustrious Christian writers, records that his son rose to high office in the imperial service.

His surviving works, though few, are valued witnesses to the faith and discipline of the early Spanish Church. He wrote against the rigorist Novatianist sect, defending the Church's power to forgive even grave sins after baptism through penance, and composed a treatise and letters on penance and on the practice of the faith. He is best remembered for a phrase that has echoed through the ages, his declaration "Christian is my name, and Catholic my surname," a ringing profession of catholic identity. He died about 391, and is venerated as a saint, his memory kept on 9 March.