Thursday, June 22, 2023

It is the 22nd of June, 2023. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org. I’m Dan van Voorhis.

It seems that when we read stories of ancient saints, the stories seem to be, sometimes, too polished, too “saintly,” and this might make us wonder if their lives were written to extol certain virtues. It might also be the case that these were exceptional characters whose “biographies” might lack the rigor of modern investigation but do reveal virtue prized by a certain community.

This seems to be the case with Paulinus of Nola- a man perhaps responsible for one of the most famous books in Christian History- more on that in a second.

Paulinus of Nola was born around 350 near Bordeaux, France, to a very wealthy and connected Roman family. He was set for an aristocratic life, studied philosophy and poetry, and was made governor of Campania in southern Italy. He was not a Christian, but with the faith recently legalized, he respected those who came to this region on pilgrimage to the grave of the popular St. Felix of Nola. He had the road to the site enlarged and had an inn set up to aid the pilgrims. His respect for Christianity may have had something to do with his cousin, Melania, the Elder who was amongst the most influential women in the church- a so-called “Desert Mother” who established monasteries in the Holy Lands.

Concerned with the state of his own soul, or so he tells us in his autobiographical letters, he left Campania for Milan to see the famous Bishop Ambrose of Milan. It is here that he likely came into contact with other famous Christians, including St. Augustine. Paulinus, curious about what Christian conversion looked like, wrote letters to other Christians asking them about their process- it has been suggested that one of these letters, sent to Augustine, was the inspiration behind the famous “Confession” of St. Augustine- one of the most influential spiritual biographies of all time (and something you’re going to be hearing about soon on this show!). Augustine was baptized in 386, Paulinus in 389, and some of their correspondence has survived. Ironically Paulinus would later favor Pelagius- an archenemy of Augustine.

Paulinus went home to Bordeaux, where he was baptized and married a Christian noblewoman, Therasia, from Barcelona. They moved to Aquitaine and had a son. His tragic death at a few days old leads them to take a drastic step. They would sell all of their belongings- a considerable amount being that they were both of noble backgrounds and they would move back to Campania to live near that site of the Holy Felix of Nola. Here they lived quasi-monastic lives (there were no rules yet for how it should look). Paulinus ministered to pilgrims and would be called (as the story often goes) against his will to be the Bishop of the See of Nola in 409.

Much of what we know about him comes from letters, carefully written, copied with copies of the letters that elicited his responses. He seemed interested in justifying his rather shocking decision to leave the life of a nobleman to take up the life of a (relatively) poor Christian. His former tutor, the poet Ausonius would write to him upset that he gave up his promising life as a poet to become a Christian.

He would defend his conversion and his choice of lifestyle with some of the earliest Christian poetry- a poem on Christian Marriage would become an early hymn. His role as a priest and Bishop who was married and extolled marriage has been used as an argument against vows of chastity later required in the Western Latin church.

A story is told by the later Pope Gregory I of him offering himself as the ransom for a young man from Nola kidnapped by the Visigoths. When they realized they had taken the Bishop as a slave, the story goes that he and all the others from Nola were saved.

In iconography, he is seen with lilies and a bell. He is sometimes referred to as the one who began using bells during mass- it is more likely it started around his time and in Southern Italy, and thus it is also attached to him. His feast day, today- the 22nd of June, is celebrated as the feast of the lilies in processions in Nola and abroad- some in the United States amongst immigrants from southern Italy. Paulinus of Nola- the man of wealth and influence who gave it up for a holy life, died on this, the 22nd of June in 431.

The last word for today comes from the daily lectionary from Hebrews 2:

It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. But there is a place where someone has testified:

“What is mankind that you are mindful of them,
    a son of man that you care for him?

You made them a little lower than the angels;
    you crowned them with glory and honor

    and put everything under their feet.”

In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them. But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 22nd of June 2023, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man not so much enamored with the Desert Mothers, but the Dessert Mothers- add an S and… recipes? Confections? He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man thankful to Ramona Quimby for always spelling desert and dessert correctly- I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.