Western Fatherswriter
Who he was
- Tyrannius Rufinus, with whom St. Jerome was involved in controversy, had been in early life his devoted friend.
- Rufinus was born at Concordia (Italy) ca. 345 and studied at Rome ca. 359-368, where he met St. Jerome.
- At Aquileia 368-373, Rufinus was one of the group of ascetics to which St. Jerome belonged.
- He departed for the East at the same time as St. Jerome but passed the years 373-380 in Egypt in the company of the monks and in the school of Didymus the Blind.
- With Melania the Elder, he took up residence on the Mount of Olives where they founded a double monastery for men and women; he remained there until 397.
- During his time in Jerusalem he was in frequent communication with St. Jerome, who was then at Bethlehem.
- An unfortunate quarrel between the two began while Rufinus was still in Palestine. Rufinus took the side of the bishop of Jerusalem in the Origenist Controvery, and St. Jerome attacked him as someone lazy who did not succeed in writing.
- Though resolved for a time, their quarrel broke out again on the return of Rufinus to Italy in 397, and continued until his death in 410.
- One of the consequences was that in ecclesiastical circles Rufinus lay long under the suspicion of heresy.
What he wrote
- Translations from the Greek, introduced to the West and in some cases preserved for posterity some of the masterpieces of Origen, Pamphilus, Eusebius, Sts. Basil, Gregory of Nazianzus, and others.
- It is to Rufinus we owe our knowledge of the greater part of Origen’s De Principiis, and of his homilies on the Old Testament.
- As an original author, Rufinus is less remarkable. He has given us a continuation of the Church history of Eusebiusto 395.
- An apology in which he defends himself against the attacks of St. Jerome.
- Acommentary on the creed of Aquileia.
- Among his original works, his Commentary on the Apostles’ Creed is somewhat dependent on the writings of Cyril of Jerusalem. In it he wrote: Could I doubt that He who made me from the dust of the earth can make me, a guilty person, innocent? Could I doubt that He who made me see when I was blind, or hear when I was deaf, or walk when lame, can recover my lost innocence for me?…Just as an evil will, prompted by an evil demon, has exposed me to sin and death, the will changed to good and prompted by the good God has restored me to innocence and life.