Saint Paulinus of Nola

Bishop, Poet, and Father of the Church
(354–431)

Saint Paulinus was born at Bordeaux around 354 into a family of great wealth and senatorial rank. He received the finest education that the Roman world could offer, studying under the great poet Ausonius, who became his close friend and celebrated him as one of the most gifted pupils he had ever taught. Paulinus entered upon a brilliant public career, serving as a consul and as governor of Campania in southern Italy, where he administered justice with notable equity and won the affection of the people.

He was baptised as a Christian and married a Spanish lady named Therasia, a woman of deep piety who was to be his companion and helper in his spiritual transformation. The death of their only child, an infant boy, pierced both their hearts with grief but drew them closer to God. Gradually Paulinus began to feel the emptiness of his great wealth and social position, and the example of holy men like Saint Martin of Tours, whom he visited, showed him a more perfect way of life.

Around 394, after much prayer and discernment, Paulinus and Therasia took the decisive step of giving away their vast properties in Gaul and Spain to the poor, retaining only enough to live humbly. Paulinus was ordained a priest at Barcelona almost against his will, for his humility made him shrink from the priesthood. The couple settled near Nola in Campania, and there Paulinus established a monastic community, a hospice for the poor, and a school. He and Therasia lived in voluntary poverty, fasting, praying, and serving all who came to them.

When Therasia died, Paulinus was chosen by the people of Nola as their bishop, an office he accepted only out of obedience. As bishop he was beloved by all for his gentleness, charity, and pastoral zeal. When the Visigoths ravaged Campania and carried many of the inhabitants into slavery in North Africa, Paulinus is said to have offered himself as a slave in place of the son of a widow who could not pay the ransom demanded, accompanying the captives to Africa and there securing their freedom. Whether this story is historically precise, it perfectly captures the spirit of the man who wrote that he had chosen to be counted among the poor and lowly rather than among the great of this world.

He maintained a famous correspondence with the greatest Christian writers of his age, including Saints Augustine, Jerome, and Ambrose, and he is honoured as a significant Latin poet, whose verses on Christian themes are distinguished by their learning and genuine spiritual feeling. He died on June 22, 431, having given away everything he possessed and spent his last hours in prayer and the singing of psalms.