Editing Paulinus of Nola (section)

==Influence==
[[File:Bas-relief Saint Paulinus Torregrotta.JPG|right|thumb|Bas-relief of Saint Paulinus in [[Torregrotta]]]]
As [[bishop of Nola]], Paulinus is traditionally credited with the introduction of the use of [[Altar bell|bell]]s in church services. One form of medieval handbell was known as the ''{{lang|la|nola}}'' and medieval steeple bells were known as ''{{lang|la|campana}}s'' from this supposed origin.<ref name=dingdong/> However, Dr. Adolf Buse, professor at the Seminary of Cologne, showed that the use of bells in churches, an invention credited to Paulinus by tradition, is not due to him, nor even to the town of Nola.<ref>{{DCBL|inline=1 |last=Phillott |first=H. W. |wstitle=Paulinus, bishop of Nola}}</ref>

Already during his governorship Paulinus had developed a fondness for the 3rd-century martyr, [[Felix of Nola]].<ref name="Bardenhewer"/> 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 of Nola|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 Saint 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 centuries 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. Four letters from Paulinus to Augustine survive, and eight from Augustine to Paulinus. In one, Augustine invites Paulinus to visit Africa. As a publishing technique at that time, Augustine often sent copies of his works to Paulinus, to be copied and circulated in Italy.<ref>[http://www.augnet.org/en/life-of-augustine/his-era/augustines-contemporaries/1418-paulinus-of-nola/ "Paulinus of Nola"], Augnet</ref>
Paulinus may have been indirectly responsible for Augustine's ''Confessions'':  Paulinus wrote to [[Alypius of Thagaste|Alypius]], Bishop of [[Tagaste|Thagaste]] and a close friend of [[Augustine of Hippo|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."<ref>Trout, Dennis E. [https://oxfordre.com/classics/classics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-4796?rskey=QLHsmt&result=2 "Paulinus of Nola, c. 352/3–c. 431 CE"]. ''Oxford Classical Dictionary''</ref>

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.&nbsp;... 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."<ref>Carm. XXVII, vv. 511, 580–583)</ref>

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]].