Paulinus (Pontius Meropius) of Nola, St., a noted prelate of the early Christian Church, was born about A.D. 353, at Bordeaux, of a noble family. Ho was a pupil of Ausonius, and was recommended by him to the emperor Gratian, Avho appointed him consul in 378, and afterwards advanced him to several offices of great importance. Through the influence and exhor- tations of St. Ambrose, he was induced to relinquish the woi'ld and give his property to the Church. He retired from official life, caused himself and his wife to be baptized, and lived quietly for a while in the vicinity of the Pyrenees. But he was finally induced to enter the service of the Church, and was ordained presbyter, in 393, at Barcelona, in Spain. He did not, however, long remain to exercise his ecclesiastical functions in this region of country, but crossed over the Alps to Italj'. Passing through Florence, where he was greeted with much cordiality by St. Ambrose, he proceeded to Rome, and, after meeting with a cold reception from pope Siricius, who probably looked with suspicion on the hasty irregularity of his ordi- nation, reached Nola, in Campania, where he possess- ed some property, soon after Easter, A.D. 394. In the immediate vicinity of this citj' were the tomb and mir- acle-working relics of Felix, a confessor and mart3'r, over which a church had been erected, with a few cells for the accommodation of pilgrims. In these Paulinus, with a small number of followers, took up his abode, conforming in all points to the observances of monastic establishments, except that his wife ap- pears to have been his companion. After nearly fif- teen years, passed in holy meditations and acts of charity, he was chosen bishop of Nola in A.D. 409 (or, according to Pagi, in A.D. 403), and during the stormy inroad of the Goths attended in the episcopal capacity the Council of Ravenna (q. v.) in 419. He died in 431. Paulinus wrote several works, of which only a few have come down to us ; the principal of them are a discourse on almsgiving, some letters, and some thirty poems on religious subjects. Paul was intimate with the most distinguished theologians of his time, and is frequently mentioned in the Epistles of St. Augustine and St. Jerome. Paul of Nola was, in a sense, a be- liever in image and saint worship. He caused Bibli- cal pictures to be exhibited annualh' at the festival season, on the ground "that by them the Bible scenes were made clear to the uneducated rustic as they could not otherwise be, and impressed themselves on his
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memory, awakened in bim hoh' feelings and thoughts, and restrained him from all kinds of vice." His poems, too, are full of direct prayers for the intercession of the saints, especially of St. Felix, in whose honor he erected a basilica, and annually composed an ode, and whom he calls his patron, his father, his lord. He re- lates that the people came in great crowds around the wonder-working relics of this saint on his memorial day, and could not look on them enough. His works were published for the first time by Badius (Paris, 1516) ; but the best editions are by Muratori (Vero- na, 173(), fol.), and bj' Le Brun (Paris, 1G85, 2 vols. 4to). See Jortin, Remarks on Eccles. Hist, ii, 339 sq. ; Schaff, Ch. Hist, ii, 442 ; iii, 568, 598 ; Cave, Hist. Litt. i, 228; Alzog, Patrologie, § 69; Ceillier, Hist, des Au- ieurs Sacres, vol. viii ; Tillemont, Memoires Ecclesi- astiques, vol. xiv ; Schonemann, Bihlioth. Patr. Lat. vol. i, cap. 4, § 30; Bfihr, Gesch. der Romischen Literatur (supplement vol.), pt. i, § 23-25; pt. ii, § 100; Buse, Paidinus von Nola itnd seine Zeit (Regensb. 1856, 2 vols. 8vo) ; Gilly, Vigilantius and his Times (Lond. 1844). The article in Smith's Diet, of Greek and Roman Biog. and MythoL, we think, underestimates the pious character of Paul of Nola, and belittles his ability and scholarship. It is, however, a nearly ex- haustive sketch of the life and writings of this person- age.
Paulinus of Pella, surnamed the Penitent, was born in A.D. 376, at Pella, in Macedonia. He was the son of Hesperius, proconsul of Africa. He was taken at three j'ears of age to Bordeaux, where he appears to have been educated. An illness at the age of fifteen interrupted his studies, and the indulgence of his parents allowed him to pursue a life of ease and pleasure, in the midst of which, however, he kept up a regard for morality. At the age of twenty he mar- ried a lady of ancient family and of some propert}'. At thirty he lost his father, whose death was followed by a dispute between Paulinus and his brother, who wished to invalidate his f.tlier's will to deprive his mother of her dowry. In A.D. 414 Paulinus joined Attains, who attempted to resume the pui-j^le in Gaul under the patronage of tlie Gothic prince Ataulphus, and from whom he accepted the title of "Comes Re- rum Privatarum," thinking thus to be secure from the hostility of the Goths. He was, however, disap- pointed. The city where he resided (apparently Bor- deaux) was taken, and his house plundered ; and he was again in danger when Vasates (Bazas), to which he had retired, was besieged by the Goths and Alans. He proposed now to retire to Greece, where his mother had rich estates, but his wife would not consent. He then thought of becoming a monk, but his friends di- verted him from this plan. Misfortunes now thick- ened about him: he lost his mother, his mother-in-law, and his wife; his children forsook him, with the excep- tion of one, who was a priest, and who suddenlj' died soon after. His estates in Greece yielded him no rev- enue ; and he retired to Massilia (Marseilles), where he hired and farmed some land, but this resource failed him, and alone, destitute, and in debt, he was reduced to depend on charity. During his residence at Mas- silia he became acquainted with many religious per- sons, and their conversation combined with his sorrows and disappointments to impress his mind deeply with religious sentiments. He was baptized in A.D. 422, in his forty-sixth year, and lived at least till his eighty- fourth year (A.D. 460), when he wrote a poem embod- ying liis Christian sentiments. Some have supposed, but without good reason, tliat he is the Benedictus Pau- linus to whose questions of various points of theology and etiiics Faustus Keiensis wrote an answer (Histoire Litteraire de la France, ii, 343, etc., 461, etc.). See also Fabricius, Bihlioth. Med. et Infim. Latinit. v, 206, ed. Mansi; and Cave, Hist. Litt. i, 290, in his article on Paulinus Nolanus. — Smith, Diet, of Gr. and Rom. Biorj. and Mythol. s. v.