Paulinus of Nola
Encyclopedia
Saint Paulinus of Nola, also known as Pontificus Meropius Anicius Paulinus (Bordeaux
, 354 – June 22 431 in Nola
, outside Naples
) was a Roman senator
who converted to a severe monasticism
in 394. He eventually became Bishop of Nola
, helped to resolve the disputed election of Pope Boniface I
, and was canonized as a saint.
family with possessions in Aquitaine
, northern Spain
, and southern Italy
. He was educated in Bordeaux, where his teacher, the poet Ausonius
, also became his friend. His normal career as a young member of the senatorial class did not last long—he served as governor of the southern Italian province of Campagna
, but returned to Bordeaux where he became a serious Christian
. Paulinus married a Spanish Christian woman named Therasia. After visiting the shrine of Saint Felix
in Nola, Paulinus converted to Christianity and was baptized in 389 by Delphinus, Bishop of Bordeaux. Paulinus and Therasia lost their first child, a boy, only eight days after birth. Paulinus and Therasia after in 390 decided to live a secluded religious life on their estates in Spain. In 393 or 394, after some resistance from Paulinus, he was ordained a priest on Christmas
day by Lampius
, Bishop of Barcelona. This was very similar to what happened with Saint Augustine of Hippo
, who had been ordained against his will in the year 391 by 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 he received ordination per saltum without receiving minor orders.
Paulinus refused to remain in Barcelona
, though, and in late spring of the following year he and his wife moved from Spain to Nola
in Campagna
since Nola was better suited to monasticism than Barcelona. Moreover, Paulinus credited his conversion to Saint Felix who was buried in Nola. During this time, he engaged in considerable epistolary dialogue about this with Saint Jerome
among others about monastic topics.
. Felix was a minor saint of local importance and patronage whose tomb had been built within the local necropolis at Cimitile
, just outside the town of Nola
. As governor, Paulinus had widened the road to Cimitile and built a residence for travelers; it was at this site that Paulinus and Therasia took up residence. Nearby were a number of small chapels and at least one old basilica. Paulinus rebuilt the complex, constructing a brand new basilica to Felix and gathering to him a small monastic community. Paulinus wrote an annual hymn (natalicium) in honor of St. Felix for the feast day when processions of pilgrims were at their peak. In these hymns we can understand the personal relationship Paulinus felt between himself and Felix, his advocate in heaven. His poetry shares with much of the work of the early 5th century, an ornateness of style that classicists of the 18th and 19th century found cloying and dismissed as decadent—though Paulinus' poems were highly regarded at the time and used as educational models.
Many of Paulinus's letters to his contemporaries, including Ausonius and Sulpicius Severus
in southern Gaul
, Victricius of Rouen in northern Gaul, and Augustine in Africa are preserved. At least one of the letters to Ausonius has led to speculation that Paulinus may have been homosexual, although this interpretation has not been supported by other biographers.
Paulinus may have been indirectly responsible for Augustine's Confessions: Paulinus wrote to Alypius
, Bishop of Thagaste and a close friend of Saint Augustine
, asking about his conversion and taking up of the ascetic life. Alypius's autobiographical response does not survive; St Augustine's ostensible answer to that query is the "Confessions."
Around 410 Paulinus was chosen Bishop of Nola. Like a growing number of aristocrats in the late 4th and early 5th centuries who were entering the clergy rather than taking up the more usual administrative careers in the imperial service, Paulinus spent a great deal of his money on his chosen church and city.
We know about his buildings in honor of St 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 has 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.
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
. St Paulinus died on June 22, 431, at Nola.
prince of Benevento
removed Paulinus's bones as relics. From the eleventh century, they rested at the church of Saint Adalbert, now Saint Bartholomew, on the island in the Tiber
in Rome; in 1908 Pope Pius X
permitted them to be translated
to the new Cathedral at Nola, where they were reinterred on May 15, 1909. 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.
and Brusciano
continue the tradition in Brooklyn and elsewhere.
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
, 354 – June 22 431 in Nola
Nola
Nola is a city and comune of Campania, southern Italy, in the province of Naples, situated in the plain between Mount Vesuvius and the Apennines...
, outside Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
) was a Roman senator
Roman Senate
The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
who converted to a severe monasticism
Monasticism
Monasticism is a religious way of life characterized by the practice of renouncing worldly pursuits to fully devote one's self to spiritual work...
in 394. He eventually became Bishop of Nola
Bishop of Nola
The Diocese of Nola is a Roman Catholic diocese in Italy, with its seat in the ancient city Nola. The diocese is a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Naples....
, helped to resolve the disputed election of Pope Boniface I
Pope Boniface I
Pope Saint Boniface I was pope from December 28, 418 to September 4, 422. He was a contemporary of Saint Augustine of Hippo, who dedicated to him some of his works....
, and was canonized as a saint.
Life
Paulinus was from a notable senatorialRoman Senate
The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
family with possessions in Aquitaine
Aquitaine
Aquitaine , archaic Guyenne/Guienne , is one of the 27 regions of France, in the south-western part of metropolitan France, along the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees mountain range on the border with Spain. It comprises the 5 departments of Dordogne, :Lot et Garonne, :Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Landes...
, northern Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, and southern Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. He was educated in Bordeaux, where his teacher, the poet Ausonius
Ausonius
Decimius Magnus Ausonius was a Latin poet and rhetorician, born at Burdigala .-Biography:Decimius Magnus Ausonius was born in Bordeaux in ca. 310. His father was a noted physician of Greek ancestry and his mother was descended on both sides from long-established aristocratic Gallo-Roman families...
, also became his friend. His normal career as a young member of the senatorial class did not last long—he served as governor of the southern Italian province of Campagna
Campagna
Campagna is a small town and comune of the province of Salerno, in the Campania region of Southern Italy.-History:The town, located in a mountainous district, gradually lost importance in the 20th century...
, but returned to Bordeaux where he became a serious Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
. Paulinus married a Spanish Christian woman named Therasia. After visiting the shrine of Saint Felix
Saint Félix
Saint Felix the Hermit was a 9th century fisherman and hermit, who is venerated as a saint in Portugal.-Legend:Felix was from Villa Mendo, an ancient Roman villa that was rediscovered in the 20th century, having been buried under sand dunes in Póvoa de Varzim, Portugal. Felix could catch no fish,...
in Nola, Paulinus converted to Christianity and was baptized in 389 by Delphinus, Bishop of Bordeaux. Paulinus and Therasia lost their first child, a boy, only eight days after birth. Paulinus and Therasia after in 390 decided to live a secluded religious life on their estates in Spain. In 393 or 394, after some resistance from Paulinus, he was ordained a priest on Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
day by Lampius
Lampius
Lampius was bishop of Barcelona from 393 to 400 AD. He is best remembered for being responsible for the ordination of Saint Paulinus of Nola on Christmas, 393 AD, in the cathedral of Barcelona. He also attended the First Council of Toledo....
, Bishop of Barcelona. This was very similar to what happened with Saint Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
, who had been ordained against his will in the year 391 by a crowd cooperating with Bishop Valerius in the north African city of Hippo Regius
Hippo Regius
Hippo Regius is the ancient name of the modern city of Annaba, in Algeria. Under this name, it was a major city in Roman Africa, hosting several early Christian councils, and was the home of the philosopher and theologian Augustine of Hippo...
. However, there is some debate as to whether the ordination was canonical since he received ordination per saltum without receiving minor orders.
Paulinus refused to remain in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, though, and in late spring of the following year he and his wife moved from Spain to Nola
Nola
Nola is a city and comune of Campania, southern Italy, in the province of Naples, situated in the plain between Mount Vesuvius and the Apennines...
in Campagna
Campagna
Campagna is a small town and comune of the province of Salerno, in the Campania region of Southern Italy.-History:The town, located in a mountainous district, gradually lost importance in the 20th century...
since Nola was better suited to monasticism than Barcelona. Moreover, Paulinus credited his conversion to Saint Felix who was buried in Nola. During this time, he engaged in considerable epistolary dialogue about this with Saint Jerome
Jerome
Saint Jerome was a Roman Christian priest, confessor, theologian and historian, and who became a Doctor of the Church. He was the son of Eusebius, of the city of Stridon, which was on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia...
among others about monastic topics.
Influence
Already during his governorship Paulinus had developed a fondness for the 3rd century martyr Saint Felix of NolaFelix of Nola
Saint Felix of Nola was a priest of Nola in Italy, who though once listed in the General Roman Calendar as a martyr, was instead a confessor of the faith.-Legend:Felix was the elder son of Hermias, a Syrian soldier who had retired to Nola, Italy...
. Felix was a minor saint of local importance and patronage whose tomb had been built within the local necropolis at Cimitile
Cimitile
Cimitile is a comune in the Province of Naples in the Italian region Campania, located about 25 km northeast of Naples. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 6,877 and an area of 2.7 km²...
, just outside the town of Nola
Nola
Nola is a city and comune of Campania, southern Italy, in the province of Naples, situated in the plain between Mount Vesuvius and the Apennines...
. As governor, Paulinus had widened the road to Cimitile and built a residence for travelers; it was at this site that Paulinus and Therasia took up residence. Nearby were a number of small chapels and at least one old basilica. Paulinus rebuilt the complex, constructing a brand new basilica to Felix and gathering to him a small monastic community. Paulinus wrote an annual hymn (natalicium) in honor of St. Felix for the feast day when processions of pilgrims were at their peak. In these hymns we can understand the personal relationship Paulinus felt between himself and Felix, his advocate in heaven. His poetry shares with much of the work of the early 5th century, an ornateness of style that classicists of the 18th and 19th century found cloying and dismissed as decadent—though Paulinus' poems were highly regarded at the time and used as educational models.
Many of Paulinus's letters to his contemporaries, including Ausonius and Sulpicius Severus
Sulpicius Severus
Sulpicius Severus was a Christian writer and native of Aquitania. He is known for his chronicle of sacred history, as well as his biography of Saint Martin of Tours.-Life:...
in southern Gaul
Gaul
Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...
, Victricius of Rouen in northern Gaul, and Augustine in Africa are preserved. At least one of the letters to Ausonius has led to speculation that Paulinus may have been homosexual, although this interpretation has not been supported by other biographers.
Paulinus may have been indirectly responsible for Augustine's Confessions: Paulinus wrote to Alypius
Alypius of Thagaste
Saint Alypius of Thagaste was bishop of the see of Tagaste in 394. He is also credited with building the first monastery in Africa. He was a lifelong friend of Saint Augustine of Hippo and joined him in his conversion and life in Christianity. He came from an aristrocratic family and his early...
, Bishop of Thagaste and a close friend of Saint Augustine
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
, asking about his conversion and taking up of the ascetic life. Alypius's autobiographical response does not survive; St Augustine's ostensible answer to that query is the "Confessions."
Around 410 Paulinus was chosen Bishop of Nola. Like a growing number of aristocrats in the late 4th and early 5th centuries who were entering the clergy rather than taking up the more usual administrative careers in the imperial service, Paulinus spent a great deal of his money on his chosen church and city.
We know about his buildings in honor of St 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
Apse
In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome...
mosaic
Mosaic
Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral...
over the main altar and gives the text for a long inscription he has 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.
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
Pelagianism
Pelagianism is a theological theory named after Pelagius , although he denied, at least at some point in his life, many of the doctrines associated with his name. It is the belief that original sin did not taint human nature and that mortal will is still capable of choosing good or evil without...
. St Paulinus died on June 22, 431, at Nola.
Relics
About 800, a LombardLombards
The Lombards , also referred to as Longobards, were a Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin, who from 568 to 774 ruled a Kingdom in Italy...
prince of Benevento
Benevento
Benevento is a town and comune of Campania, Italy, capital of the province of Benevento, 50 km northeast of Naples. It is situated on a hill 130 m above sea-level at the confluence of the Calore Irpino and Sabato...
removed Paulinus's bones as relics. From the eleventh century, they rested at the church of Saint Adalbert, now Saint Bartholomew, on the island in the Tiber
Tiber Island
The Tiber Island , is a boat-shaped island which has long been associated with healing. It is an ait, and is one of the two islands in the Tiber river, which runs through Rome; the other one, much larger, is near the mouth. The island is located in the southern bend of the Tiber. It is...
in Rome; in 1908 Pope Pius X
Pope Pius X
Pope Saint Pius X , born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, was the 257th Pope of the Catholic Church, serving from 1903 to 1914. He was the first pope since Pope Pius V to be canonized. Pius X rejected modernist interpretations of Catholic doctrine, promoting traditional devotional practices and orthodox...
permitted them to be translated
Translation (relics)
In Christianity, the translation of relics is the removal of holy objects from one locality to another ; usually only the movement of the remains of the saint's body would be treated so formally, with secondary relics such as items of clothing treated with less ceremony...
to the new Cathedral at Nola, where they were reinterred on May 15, 1909. The bones are now found in the small Sicilian
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
city of Sutera
Sutera
Sutera is a comune in the Province of Caltanissetta in the Italian region Sicily, located about 70 km southeast of Palermo and about 30 km west of Caltanissetta. The area is dominated by a large monolithic rock termed "The Mountain of San Paolino". Upon this mountain sits the bones of...
where they dedicate a feast day, and conduct a procession for the Saint at Easter each year.
Modern Devotion to St. Paulinus
The people of modern day Nola and the surrounding regions remain devoted to St. Paulinus. His feast day is celebrated annually in Nola during "La Festa dei Gigli" (the Feast of the Lilies), in which Gigli, 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 NolaNola
Nola is a city and comune of Campania, southern Italy, in the province of Naples, situated in the plain between Mount Vesuvius and the Apennines...
and Brusciano
Brusciano
Brusciano is a municpality in the province of Naples, in Italy, on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius. It was completely devastated in AD 79.Situated inland north-east of Naples, 15 km from center city, the ancient town of rural vocation has developed along the way National Puglia, in the stretch...
continue the tradition in Brooklyn and elsewhere.
External links
- Sons of San Paolino
- East Harlem Giglio Society
- Catechesis of Pope Benedict XVIPope Benedict XVIBenedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
about Paulinus - Giglio USA San Paolino de Nola