Catechesis of Benedict XVI on St. paulinus of nola

Church Is Sacrament of Unity With God, Says Pope

Notes St. Paulinus Knew This Long Before Vatican II

VATICAN CITY, DEC.12, 2007 (Zenit.org).-

		St. Paulinus of Nola

The Church is a reflection of mankind's union with God and with one another, says Benedict XVI.

The Pope said this today during the general audience in Paul VI Hall, in which he commented on St. Paulinus, bishop of Nola, a friend and contemporary of St. Augustine.

He said that the concept of the Church as it was presented in the Second Vatican Council -- "sacrament of the intimate union with God, and as such the union of us all, and eventually of all humankind" -- can be found already in the testimony of St. Paulinus of Nola, who died in 431.

Paulinus was born around 354 into a notable family in Bordeaux in the south of France, and he left home as a young man to follow a promising political career.

The Pontiff said that after rising quickly to the post of governor of the province of Campania, in southern Italy, "the seed of conversion was planted in his heart."

"The stimulus came from the simple yet intense faith with which people honored the grave of a saint, Felix the martyr, in the shrine of what is now Cimitile," he said.

The Holy Father recounted how Paulinus, "longing to make sense of existence," joined Ambrose's school in Milan. He was later baptized in his native Bordeaux, and eventually married Therasia, a devout noblewoman from Barcelona.

Therasia and Paulinus had a son together, but the baby died only days after it was born. Benedict XVI said the event "shook" Paulinus, "showing him that God had a different plan for his life."

The couple sold their earthly belongings and began living a chaste, monastic life in Nola, next to the Basilica of St. Felix, said the Pope. Paulinus, who had been ordained a priest, began his ministering to the pilgrims there, and around 409 was elected bishop.

"Betrayed"

The Holy Father noted that not all of Paulinus' companions were impressed by his conversion. His teacher Ausonius, a pagan poet, felt "betrayed," he said. The poet reproached Paulinus for his "scorn" of material wealth and for abandoning his literary vocation.

"Paulinus replied that giving to the poor did not mean he despised earthly assets," said the Pontiff. "On the contrary, he gave them a higher value by using them for charitable ends."

As for poetry, continued Benedict XVI, "Paulinus did not abandon the poetic talent, which he would still cultivate, but rather the poetic forms inspired by mythology and pagan ideals."

He added: "A new aesthetic was driving his sensitivity: It was the beauty of God made man, crucified and resurrected, of whom he was now a poet. In truth he hadn't left poetry; now he took inspiration from the Gospel, as he says in the following verse: 'To me faith is the only art, and Christ is my poetry.'

"His poems are songs of faith and love in which the daily history of small and big events is seen as the history of salvation, the history of God with us."

The Pope said Paulinus wrote later of his decision to sell all he owned to pursue a monastic life as just the beginning of his journey toward perfection. The bishop said: "Abandoning or selling the assets we own in this world does not constitute the completion, but only the beginning of our race in the stadium; it is not, so to speak, the goal, but only the starting point. The athlete, in fact, does not win when he undresses, as he puts down his clothes to begin his fight; he is worthy of being crowned winner only after he has duly fought."

		St. Paulinus of Nola

Patrons

Highlighting the bishop's charity, the Holy Father said "Paulinus did not only give alms: He welcomed the poor as if they were Christ himself."

He recounted how the poet invited the poor into the monastery, calling them his "patrons," and partitioning to them the first floor of the convent. "He liked to say that their prayer served as the foundation of his house."

Benedict XVI also highlighted that through the bishops poems and letters, "the sense of the Church as a mystery of unity emerges."

In a letter to St. Augustine he writes of the deep, spiritual friendship that exists between members of Christ's Church: "We should not be astonished if we, though distant, are in each other's presence and, without having met, we know each other, as we are parts of one body, we have one head only, we are filled with one grace, we live of the same bread, we walk along one single road, we live in the same house."

"As we can see," the Pope commented, "this is an amazing description of what it means to be a Christian, to be the Body of Christ, to live in communion with the Church."

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