Paulinus of Nola (; ; also anglicized as Pauline of Nola; – 22 June 431) born Pontius Meropius Anicius Paulinus,

His normal career as a young member of the senatorial class did not last long. In 375, the Emperor Gratian succeeded his father Valentinian. Gratian made Paulinus suffect consul at Rome , and appointed him governor of the southern Italian province of Campania . Paulinus noted the Campanians' devotion to Saint Felix of Nola and built a road for pilgrims, as well as a hospice for the poor near the local shrine.

In 383 Gratian was assassinated at Lyon, France, and Paulinus went to Milan to attend the school of Ambrose. Around 384 he returned to Bordeaux. There he married Therasia, a Christian noblewoman from Barcelona. Paulinus was threatened with the charge of having murdered his brother. He was baptized by Bishop Delphinus of Bordeaux. He and his wife traveled to Iberia about 390. When they lost their only child eight days after birth they decided to withdraw from the world, and live a secluded religious life.

thumb|Statue of St. Paulinus in [[Nola]]

In 393 or 394, after some resistance from Paulinus, he was ordained a presbyter on Christmas Day by Lampius, Bishop of Barcelona. (This was similar to what had happened with Augustine of Hippo, who had been ordained against his protestations in the year 391 at the behest of a crowd cooperating with Bishop Valerius in the north African city of Hippo Regius.) However, there is some debate as to whether the ordination was canonical, since Paulinus received ordination "at a leap" (per saltum), without receiving minor orders first.

In January 406, during the peace which followed the defeat of Radagaisus, Paulinus hosted a circle of guests which included Melania the Younger, her husband, her mother Albina, and many other Christians such as the Bishop of Beneventum; Melania and all her household stayed on until sometime before 408.

During these years Paulinus engaged in considerable epistolary dialogue with Jerome among others about monastic topics. "Paulinus decided to invest his money for the poor and the church rather than rejecting it completely, which stands in contrast to other more severe contemporary views such as Jerome's".

Therasia died some time between 408 and 410, and shortly afterwards Paulinus received episcopal ordination.

Paulinus died at Nola on 22 June 431.

Already during his governorship Paulinus had developed a fondness for the 3rd-century martyr, Felix of Nola.

Paulinus may have been indirectly responsible for Augustine's Confessions: Paulinus wrote to Alypius, Bishop of Thagaste and a close friend of Augustine, asking about his conversion and taking up of the ascetic life. Alypius's autobiographical response does not survive; Augustine's ostensible answer to that query is the Confessions. Paulinus also wrote five letters to Delphinus and six to Amandus of Bordeaux.

"Paulinus' surviving letters and poems, many devoted to the feast day of Felix, reveal his attitudes and values, illuminate his social and spiritual relationships, preserve vivid traces of the literary and aesthetic evolution of Latin literature under the influence of Christian ideas, and document the emergence of the late antique cult of the saints."

We know about his buildings in honor of Saint Felix from literary and archaeological evidence, especially from his long letter to Sulpicius Severus describing the arrangement of the building and its decoration. He includes a detailed description of the apse mosaic over the main altar and gives the text for a long inscription he had written to be put on the wall under the image. By explaining how he intended the visitors to understand the image over the altar, Paulinus provided rare insight into the intentions of a patron of art in the later Empire. He explained his project in a Poem dedicated to another great catechist, St Nicetas of Remesiana, as he accompanied him on a visit to his basilicas: "I now want you to contemplate the paintings that unfold in a long series on the walls of the painted porticos. ... It seemed to us useful to portray sacred themes in painting throughout the house of Felix, in the hope that when the peasants see the painted figure, these images will awaken interest in their astonished minds."

In later life Paulinus, by then a highly respected church authority, participated in multiple church synods investigating various ecclesiastical controversies of the time, including Pelagianism.

Legend

Gregory the Great recounts a popular story that alleges that when the Vandals raided Campania, a poor widow came to Paulinus for help when her only son had been carried off by the son-in-law of the Vandal king. Having exhausted his resources in ransoming other captives, Paulinus said, "Such as I have I give thee", and went to Africa to exchange places with the widow's son. There Paulinus was accepted in place of the widow's son, and employed as gardener. After a time the king found out that his son-in-law's slave was the great Bishop of Nola. He at once set him free, granting him also the freedom of all the captive townsmen of Nola. According to Pope Benedict XVI, "the historical truth of this episode is disputed, but the figure of a Bishop with a great heart who knew how to make himself close to his people in the sorrowful trials of the barbarian invasions lives on."

The bones are now found in the small Sicilian city of Sutera, where they dedicate a feast day, and conduct a procession for the saint at Easter each year.

Modern devotion to Saint Paulinus

The people of modern-day Nola and the surrounding regions remain devoted to Saint Paulinus. His feast day is celebrated annually in Nola during La Festa dei Gigli (the Feast of the Lilies), in which Gigli and several large statues in honor of the saint, placed on towers, are carried upon the shoulders of the faithful around the city. In the United States the descendants of Italian immigrants from Nola and Brusciano continue the tradition in Brooklyn. This proud tradition is also kept alive in East Harlem, held on Giglio Way by the Giglio Society of East Harlem and on Long Island in West Hempstead with the Sons of San Paulino di Nola.

Paulinus is also venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church, where his feast day commemorated on 23 January.

Citations

General and cited references

  • Ausonius, & Paulinus of Nola, Ausone et Paulin de Nole : Correspondance, tr. D. Amherdt (2004) [Latin text; French translation]. Introduction, Latin text, French translation & notes. Bern: Peter Lang Publ., 2004 (Sapheneia, Beiträge zur Klassischen Philologie; 9) VII, 247 p.
  • Catherine Conybeare, Paulinus Noster Self and Symbols in the Letters of Paulinus of Nola (2000)
  • Chapter III of the Dialogues contains a long anecdote about Paulinus.
  • C. Iannicelli, "Rassegna di studi paoliniani" (1980–1997), in Impegno e Dialogo 11 (1994–1996) [publish. 1997], pp. 279–321 Rassegna Iannicelli
  • J. T. Lienhard, "Paulinus of Nola and Early Western Monasticism, with a Study of the Chronology of His Work and an Annotated Bibliography", 1879–1976 (Theophaneia 28) (Köln-Bonn 1977), pp. 192–204.
  • C. Magazzù, 'Dieci anni di studi su Paolino di Nola' (1977–1987), in Bollettino di studi latini 18 (1988), pp. 84–103.
  • J. Morelli, De S. Paulini Nolani Doctrina Christologica (Theology doctorate dissertation, Pontificia Facultas Theologica Neapolitana apud Majus Seminarium, ex Typographica Officina Forense, Neapoli, 1945)
  • Paulinus of Nola, Letters of St Paulinus of Nola translated ... by P. G. Walsh, 2 vols., 1966–7 (Ancient Christian Writers, 35–36). .
  • Paulinus of Nola, The Poems of Paulinus of Nola translated ... by ), 1975 (Ancient Christian Writers, 40). .
  • Paulinus of Nola, Paolino di Nola Le Lettere. Testo latino con introduzione, traduzione italiana ..., ed. G. Santaniello (2 vols., 1992)
  • Paulinus of Nola, Paolino di Nola I Carmi ..., ed. A. Ruggiero (1996)
  • Paulinus of Nola, Sancti Pontii Meropii Paulini Nolani Opera, ed. G. de Hartel (2nd. ed. cur. M. Kamptner, 2 vols., 1999) [v. 1. Epistulae; v. 2. Carmina. Latin texts]
  • Paulinus Nolanus, Carmina, ed. F. Dolveck (2015). Corpus Christianorum. Series Latina 21. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers. .
  • Brooklyn Giglio "In honor of Our Lady of Mt Carmel and San Paulino di Nola"
  • Sons of San Paolino
  • Catechesis of Pope Benedict XVI about Paulinus
  • Giglio USA
  • San Paolino de Nola
  • Works in Latin at Musisque Deoque
  • Works in Latin at The Latin Library
  • Works in Latin in the Scaife Viewer
  • Digitized codex (1471–1484) that contains: Epistula de obitu Paulini by Uranius, Vita sancti Paulini by Pope Gregory I, Epistolae by Paulinus of Nola and fragments about the life of Paulinus of Nola, at Somni.