The years of life of Augustine and of Paulinus of Nola overlapped almost exactly, and their paths in life were quite parallel.
They never met, but enjoyed a positive correspondence for twenty-five years.
Copies of a number of their letters still exist, and Augustine dedicated one of his written works to Paulinus.
Meropius Pontius Paulinus was born about the year 355 (Augustine in 356) in Aquitaine in Gaul, and died on 22nd June 431 (Augustine in 430).
He was a member of a wealthy aristocratic family, and received a good education at Bordeaux.
In 381 he served as governor (consularis in Latin) of Campania, the area around Naples, south of Rome. Like Augustine, then, he was an employee of the Roman imperial service.
In Campania he visited the shrine of St Felix at Nola, and this may have been what spurred in interest in leading a dedicated Christian life.
By 386 he had visited Milan in northern Italy, and there met Saint Ambrose. (Augustine first met Ambrose in the year 383).
In Spain he married Therasia, a wealthy woman, and they had one child, Celsus, who died ten days after birth.
In 389 Paulinus was baptised at Bordeaux (Augustine was baptised in Milan on Easter Saturday 386). In 393 Paulinus and Therasia began to dispose of their property and to take up monastic life at Nola.
On Christmas Day 394 Paulinus was ordained to the priesthood at Barcelona (Augustine had been ordained in 391), and after Easter 395 the couple returned to Nola, near Naples.
In Nola he established separate monastic houses for men and women, with a rigorous and ascetic rule of life.
(Continued on the next page.)
Photos (at right):
National Augustinian Encounter for Young Adults at Collaroy, Sydney, Australia: October 2007.
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