Paulinus of Nola

380) but, prompted by the counsels of his Hispanic wife Therasia of Nola and by the assassination of the emperor Gratian, abandoned his career and was baptized as a Christian. Later, probably after Therasia's death, he became bishop of Nola in Campania. While there, he wrote poems in honor of his predecessor Saint Felix and corresponded with other Christian leaders throughout the empire. He is credited with the introduction of bells to Christian worship and helped resolve the disputed election of Pope Boniface I. His renunciation of his wealth and station in favor of an ascetic and philanthropic life was held up as an example by many of his contemporaries—including Augustine, Jerome, Martin, and Ambrose—and he was subsequently venerated as a saint. His relics became a focus of pilgrimage, but were removed from Nola sometime between the 11th and 20th centuries. His feast day is observed on 22 June in both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. In Nola, the entire week around his feast day is celebrated as the Festival of the Lilies.

• Honorific Prefix — Saint • Name — Paulinus of Nola • Born — 22 June 354 • Died — 22 June 431 354 • Feast Day — * Anglican tradition: 22 June (memorial) • Catholicism: 22 June • Eastern Orthodoxy: 23 January; and 22 June • Oriental Orthodox Churches: 8 September • Venerated In — * Anglican Communion • Catholic Church • Eastern Orthodox Church • Oriental Orthodox Churches • Birthplace — Burdigala, Gallia Aquitania, Roman Empire • Place of death — Nola in Campania, the Praetorian prefecture of Italy, Western Roman Empire • Titles — Bishop and Confessor

• Illustration — Line engraving of Saint Paulinus of Nola Pontius Meropius Paulinus was born c. 352 at Bordeaux, in southwestern France. He was from a notable senatorial family with estates in the Aquitaine province of France, northern Iberia, and southern Italy. Paulinus was a kinsman of Melania the Elder. He was educated in Bordeaux by his teacher, the poet Ausonius. At some time during his boyhood he made a visit to the shrine of St Felix at Nola near Naples. 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 c. 377, and appointed him governor of the southern Italian province of Campania c. 380. 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. It is possible that an attempt was made to accuse him in order to confiscate his property. 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. Paulinus was close to both Pelagius and to the Pelagian writer Julian of Eclanum. • Illustration — 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. Paulinus refused to remain in Barcelona, and in late spring of 395 he and his wife moved from Iberia to Nola in Campania where he remained until his death. Paulinus credited his conversion to Saint Felix, who was buried in Nola, and each year would write a poem in honor of him. The great building works undertaken by Paulinus in 402–403 were the crowning glory and ornament of the renovated Nola. He restored and improved the ancient basilica erected in the martyr's honour. He and Therasia also rebuilt a church commemorating Saint Felix, of great size and richly decorated, a monument of Christian art, with magnificent porticoes and fountains, for which a copious supply of water was brought from nearby Avella. Great crowds of pilgrims flocked to the martyr's tomb. 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. Around 410, Paulinus was chosen Bishop of Nola, where he served for twenty years. 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, city and ritual. Paulinus died at Nola on 22 June 431. The following year the presbyter Uranus wrote his "On the Death of Paulinus" (De Obitu Paulini), an account of the death and character of Paulinus.

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."

• Illustration — Giglio in Franklin Square, New York City, 2011 In about 800 Prince Grimoald III of Benevento removed Paulinus's bones as relics. From the 11th 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 15 May 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.

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.

• 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 Patrick G. Walsh), 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.. *