Saint Paulinus of Nola, Bishop

Paulinus was born about 354 into a wealthy family of Bordeaux, studied with the poet Ausonius and became governor of Campania. With his Spanish wife Therasia he became a Christian; after their only child died in infancy, they gave away most of their great fortune. He was ordained in Barcelona in 394 and settled with his wife at Nola near Naples, by the tomb of the martyr Felix, living a monastic life.

There he built a group of churches and a guesthouse for pilgrims and the poor, and wrote poems for Felix’s feast each year; he corresponded with Augustine, Jerome and Sulpicius Severus. About 409 he was chosen bishop of Nola. He died there on 22 June 431.