Mosaic Depicting Senator Pammachius Making An Offering

Mosaic Depicting Senator Pammachius Making An Offering

On the wall facing that of his wife, senator Pammachius was depicted on the left side of the shrine. In another show of private, domestic devotion to the resident saints, the senator was shown making an perfume offering, most likely balsam - the scent of Paradise. After the death of his wife, Pammachius withdrew from "the world," leaving the public world of the Roman aristocracy, and practiced a semi-monastic lifestyle in his home.

Ana Munk

Ana Munk. "Domestic Piety in Fourth Century Rome: A Relic Shrine Beneath the Church of Ss. Giovanni e Paolo." Hortus Artium Medievalium 15, no. 1. 2009.

2009

Photo taken by Ana Munk; permission granted for educative, non-commercial use