Prayer to St. Paulinus of Nola, Bishop
God, You willed that St. Paulinus, Your Bishop, should shine forth with pastoral solicitude and compassion for the poor. Help us who celebrate his merits to imitate the example of his charity. Amen.
St. Paulinus of Nola, Bishop
Born in 353 at Bordeaux, Gaul, of a senatorial family, St. Paulinus was educated under the poet Ausonius, and became governor of the province of Campania. He married a Spanish Christian lady named Therasia and for fifteen years displayed his talents in honorable employment in Gaul, Italy, and Spain. His conversation with St. Ambrose at Milan, St. Martin whom he met at Vienne, and St. Delphinus, Bishop of Bordeaux, resulted in his being baptized by the latter in 390.
After the death of his only child the Saint and his wife took a vow of chastity, gave away their considerable wealth, and retired to Spain to embrace the religious life. Because of his widespread reputation for holiness, he was made Bishop of Nola in 409. His sanctity brought St. Paulinus in contact with the most eminent Saint of his time, such as Augustine and the ones already mentioned above. He had an intense devotion to the Saints and respect for their relics. His poetic works, many of them in honor of St. Felix, place him beside Prudentuis as the foremost Christian Latin poet of the patristic age. He died in 431.
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