Editing Paulinus of Nola (section)

==Life==
[[File:Saint Paulinus of Nola. Line engraving. Wellcome V0032823.jpg|thumb|left|Line engraving of Saint Paulinus of Nola]]

Pontius Meropius Paulinus was born {{circa|lk=no|352}} at [[Bordeaux]], in southwestern France. He was from a notable [[Roman senate|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.<ref name=Loffler>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11585b.htm Löffler, Klemens "St. Paulinus, Bishop of Nola". ''The Catholic Encyclopedia''] Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911.</ref>

His normal career as a young member of the senatorial class did not last long. In 375, the Emperor [[Gratian]] succeeded his father [[Valentinian I|Valentinian]]. Gratian made Paulinus [[suffect consul]] at Rome {{circa|lk=no|377}}, and appointed him governor of the southern Italian province of [[Campania]] {{circa|lk=no|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.<ref name=cna>[https://web.archive.org/web/20140624014941/http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint.php?n=703 "St. Paulinus of Nola"]. Catholic News Agency</ref>

In 383 Gratian was assassinated at [[Lyon]], France, and Paulinus went to Milan to attend the school of Ambrose.<ref name=Benedict>{{cite web | author=Pope Benedict XVI | date=19 December 2007 | url=http://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2007/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20071212.html | title=St. Paulinus of Nola | work=L'Osservatore Romano | page=15}}</ref> Around 384 he returned to Bordeaux. There he married [[Therasia of Nola|Therasia]], a Christian noblewoman from Barcelona.<ref name=foley>{{cite web| url = http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/saint.aspx?id=1420| title = Foley, Leonard. ''Saint of the Day, Lives, Lessons, and Feast'', Franciscan Media}}</ref> Paulinus was threatened with the charge of having murdered his brother.<ref name=Loffler/> It is possible that an attempt was made to accuse him in order to confiscate his property.<ref>J. Quasten (ed.). [https://books.google.com/books?id=QePRsSSaDVgC&dq=Paulinus+of+Nola+%2B+murder&pg=PA220 ''Letters of St. Paulinus of Nola''], no. 14, p. 220, Paulist Press, 1966 {{ISBN|9780809100880}}</ref> 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.<ref name=Loffler/> Paulinus was close to both [[Pelagius]] and to the [[Pelagian]] writer [[Julian of Eclanum]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Brown |first1=Peter |title=The Patrons of Pelagius: the Roman Aristocracy Between East and West |journal=The Journal of Theological Studies |date=1970 |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=56–72 |doi=10.1093/jts/XXI.1.56 |jstor=23957336 |issn=0022-5185}}</ref>

[[File:StatuadiSanPaolinodaNola.JPG|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]].<ref name="Bardenhewer">[[Otto Bardenhewer|Bardenhewer, Otto]]. Translated by Thomas J. Shahan (2006). ''Patrology: The Lives and Works of the Fathers of the Church''. Kessinger Publishing. p.447.</ref> (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.<ref name=Loffler/>

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 of Nola|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.<ref>The Life of St. Melania, Cardinal Rampolla, https://archive.org/stream/MN5140ucmf_10/MN5140ucmf_10_djvu.txt</ref>

In January 406 following the peace after the defeat of [[Radagaisus]], Paulinus invited a circle of guests including 
[[Melania the Younger]] and her husband and mother (Albina) and many other christians such as the Bishop of Beneventum, and where Melania wished to stay with all her household, though she left before 408.<ref>Natalicia, S. Paulinus of Nola</ref>

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".<ref>Kirstein, Robert (2001). [https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2001/2001.10.16 Review of Trout's "Paulinus of Nola: life, letters, and poems. The transformation of the classical heritage"], ''Bryn Mawr Classical Review''</ref>

Therasia died some time between 408 and 410, and shortly afterwards Paulinus received episcopal ordination.<ref name=cna/> 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 [[Christian liturgy|ritual]].<ref name=dingdong>{{cite encyclopedia |contribution=[[s:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Bell|Bell]] |title=Encyclopædia Britannica |edition=9th |volume=III |editor-last=Baynes |editor-first=Thomas Spencer |display-editors=0 |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |location=New York |date=1878 |ref={{harvid|''EB'', "Bell"}} |pages=536–37 }}</ref>

Paulinus died at Nola on 22 June 431.<ref name=cna/> The following year the presbyter Uranus wrote his "On the Death of Paulinus" (''{{lang|la|De Obitu Paulini}}''), an account of the death and character of Paulinus.