, orRUFINUS, a very celebrated priest of Aquileia, called by some Toranius,
, orRUFINUS, a very celebrated priest of
Aquileia, called by some Toranius, was born about the
middle of the fourth century, at Concordia, a small city in
Italy. He retired to a monastery in Aquileia, and devoted
himself wholly to reading and meditating on the sacred
scriptures and the writings of the holy fathers. St. Jerome
passing that way became much attached to him, and vowed
an indissoluble friendship. When St. Jerome retired into
the east some years after, Ruffinus, inconsolable for their
separation, resolved to quit Aquileia in search of his friend.
He accordingly embarked for Egypt, visited the hermits
who inhabited the deserts, and having been told much of
the chamy of St. Melania the elder, had the satisfaction of
seeing ner at Alexandria, where he went to hear the celebrated Didymus. The piety which Melania observed in
Ruffinus induced her to make him her confident, which he
continued to be while they remained iti the East, which was
about thirty years. But the Arians, who ruled in the reign
of Valens, raised a cruel persecution against Ruffinus, cast
him into a dungeon, and loaded him with chains, where he
suffered the torments of hunger and thirst, and they afterwards banished him to the most desolate part of Palestine.
Melania ransomed him, with several other exiles, and returned to Palestine with him. It was at this period, that
St. Jerome, supposing Ruffinus would go directly to Jerusalem, wrote to a friend in that city to congratulate him
on the occasion, in the following terms: “You will see
the marks of holiness shine in the person of Ruffinus,
whereas I am but his dust. It is enough for my weak eyes
to support the lustre of his virtues. He has lately been
further purified in the crucible of persecution, and is now
whiter than snow, while I am defiled with all manner of
sins.
” Ruffinus built a monastery on mount Olivet, converted numbers of sinners, re-united to the church above
400 solitaries, who had engaged in the schism of Antioch,
and persuaded several Macedonians and Arians to renounce
their errors. He, at the same time, translated such Greek
books as appeared to him the most interesting; but his
translations of Origen’s works, particularly “the Book of
principles,
” occasioned that rupture between him and St.
Jerome, which made so much noise in the church, and so
deeply afflicted St. Augustine, and all the great men of
their time. Ruffinus was cited to Rome by pope Anastatius, who is said to have condemned his translation of
“the Book of principles.
” Being accused of heresy, he
published some very orthodox apologies, which discover
great ingenuity. His chief plea was, “That he meant to
be merely a translator, without undertaking to support or
defend any thing reprehensible in Origen’s works.
” He
went afterwards into 'Sicily, and died there about the
year 410. He translated from Greek into Latin, “Josephus;
” “The Ecclesiastical History,
” by Eusebius, to
which he added, two books; several of Origen’s writings,
with his “Apology
” by St. Pamphilius; ten of St. Gregory
of Nazianzen’s Discourses, and eight of St. Basil’s, in all
which he has been accused of taking great liberties, and
in some of them acknowledges it. He has also left a Tract
in defence of Origen; two “Apologies
” against St. Jerome; “Commentaries
” on Jacob’s Benedictions, on
Hosea, Joel, and Amos; several “Lives of the Fathers of the
desert,
” and “An Exposition of the Creed,
” which has
always been valued. His works were printed at Paris, 1580,
fol.; but the “Commentary on the Psalms,
” which bears
his name, was not written by him. The abbe“Gervase has
published a
” Life of Ruffinus," 2 vols. 12mo.