Letter 3
Paschasinus of Lilybaeum consults the pope about the Paschal cycle and on which date Easter should be celebrated the following year (probably AD 444). Paschasinus himself is convinced that the Alexandrian computus is more correct than the ambiguous Roman. He refers also to the "computation of the Hebrews," that is, to setting the Pascha on the fourteentth day of the moon. He tells the story of the controversy about the date of Easter in AD 417 (tempore ... Zosimi, anno consulatus Honorii Augusti undecimo et Constantii secundo "in the times of Zosimus, in the year of the eleventh consulship of the Emperor Honorius and second of Constantius"). That year, Easter was celebrated on 25 March, not on 22 April. The error was shown by the following miracle:
3. Quaedam vilissima possessio, Meltinas appellatur in montibus arduis ac silvis densissimis constituta, illicque perparva atque vili opere constructa est Ecclesia. In cuius baptisterio nocte sacrosancta paschali, baptizandi hora, cum nullus canalis, nulla sit fistula, nec aqua omnino vicina, fons ex se repletur, paucisque qui fuerint consecratis, cum deductorium nullum habeat, ut aqua venerat, ex sese discedit. Tunc ergo, sicut supra diximus, sub sanctae memoriae domino quondam meo ac beatissimo papa Zosimo, cum apud Occidentales error ortus fuisset, consuetis lectionibus nocte sancta decursis, cum presbyter secundum morem baptizandi horam requireret, usque ad lucem aqua non veniente, non consecrati, qui baptizandi fuerant, recesserunt. Ut ergo breviter narrem, illa nocte, quae lucescebat in diem Dominicam, decimo die kalendas Maii fons sacer hora competenti repletus est. Evidenti ergo miraculo claruit Occidentalium partium fuisse errorem.
(ed. Krusch 1880: 249-250)