ON ST. PAULINUS OF CAPUA, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR, IN THE KINGDOM OF NAPLES,
ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 9TH CENTURY.
SYLLOGE.
Cult, proper lessons, time of his life.
Paulinus, bishop, confessor, at Capua in the kingdom of Naples. (S.)
BY J. B. F.
Capua, a very well-known city of Campania Felix in the kingdom of Naples, on the river Volturno, The Saint's memory in the sacred Fasti: is described at length in Ughelli, volume 6 of Italia Sacra, from column 291 of the second edition, and various notices are supplied concerning both Ancient and New Capua, collected from various writers, which may be inspected there by the curious reader. This city venerates St. Paulinus, once its bishop, on the present day, on which he is constantly announced in the various Calendars of the church of Capua, as may be seen in the Sanctuarium Capuanum of Michael the monk. Cardinal Baronius first inserted him in the Roman Martyrology with these words, which he had found in the Calendars cited in Michael the monk: At Capua, of St. Paulinus, bishop. Ferrarius adorns Paulinus with a more extended eulogy in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy; but since it contains nothing besides the things which are read in the Office of the Saint to be presented presently, I have not thought it necessary to transcribe it here. In the said Sanctuarium, page 75, there is extant the following proper Prayer about him: Be propitious, we beseech you, O Lord, to us your servants, through the glorious merits of this St. Paulinus, your confessor and bishop, who rests in the present church, that by his pious intercession we may always be protected from all adversities. Through our Lord etc.; and in the same place, page 90, Michael the monk supplies the following about the Saint's veneration: St. Paulinus was always held in the highest veneration by the people of Capua. The chapel of the Treasury, under whose altar his body is laid, received its title from his name: we remember that, by the care of the treasurer, the bells rang together in the evening for eight days before the feast, and on the vigil of the feast lamps were burning brightly at the top of the bell-tower.
[2] Moreover, the same writer in the same place, from page 75, has nine proper lessons on St. Paulinus: proper lessons but since the same things as in these are recorded more compendiously in three others, more recent indeed, but revised by the sacred Congregation of Rites, approved for the city of Capua and printed in the year 1669, I shall set these alone before the eyes here. On the 10th day of October, therefore, those three lessons of St. Paulinus, bishop and confessor, record these things: Lesson IV. Paulinus, bishop of the city of Capua, born in the island of Britain, given over from his earliest age to the divine service, after the studies of the liberal arts applied himself to sacred letters. He was so affected by the fear and the love of God that by the one, as by a bridle, he was restrained from evil, and by the other, as by a goad, he was spurred on to good. He preserved unblemished chastity even to old age. To students of good arts labouring under want he gave alms, lest they be drawn away from their studies by lack of means. He himself, so that he might follow the Lord more readily, distributed the wealth of his patrimony to the poor: then, burning with the desire of seeing the holy places, he undertook the pilgrimage to Jerusalem with a few companions; but when he had reached Capua, Radelbert, bishop of that city, having then died, he was asked to give a sermon in the church, and so moved everyone that with common vote they demanded him for their bishop.
[3] lessons Lesson V. Having therefore been elected and confirmed by the Roman Pontiff, he undertook the pastoral office, although unwilling and reluctant, lest he should seem to resist the divine will. Thus, a lamp shining and burning, set by God's will upon the candlestick, he diffused the rays of his brightness on every side, flashing with examples, burning with charity; he recalled sinners from their vices by deed and word, and spurred on the just to the summit of Christian perfection. But lest occasion for exercising patience should be lacking to him, he suffered for three whole years a sharp persecution from schismatics, to whom he returned love for hatred and benefits for injuries. Lesson VI. At that time a grievous famine was afflicting Capua, on account of which the holy Man's charity shone forth; for, moved by the calamity of the poor and needy, pouring out upon them the bowels of mercy, he went through the whole city and the houses of the needy, dividing to each from his means as each had need. Further, among the other works of charity this was memorable, that to a Matron with three sons who met him and asked for alms,
since he had nothing else to bestow, he handed over the mule on which he was sitting, so that, having sold it, she might procure with the price a living for herself and her sons. The holy Man presided over his church eight years and more, at the end of which he passed to heaven on the sixth day before the Ides of October; his body, entombed in the very church of Capua, is honoured there with great veneration.
[4] the time of his life. In the Catalogue of the Bishops of Capua in Michael the monk, as also in the lessons just cited and in volume 6 of Ferdinando Ughelli's Italia Sacra, we read that St. Paulinus, Radelpert having died, was raised to the episcopal throne, and ruled the flock committed to him with the highest praise for about eight years. But in what year of restored Salvation he was adorned with the pontifical dignity we cannot accurately define, since the year in which Radelpert, our Saint's predecessor, departed from this life is not found in the cited monuments. Chastelain indeed, announcing the holy Bishop on this day in the Universal Martyrology, fixes his death in the year 851; but since he brings forward no argument for his assertion, and not rarely goes astray in fixing epochs of this kind, I would not dare to trust him when he pronounces without witnesses. Ferdinando Ughelli, in the cited volume, having finished the eulogy of the Saint, marked the time of his birthday in heaven about the year of the Incarnate Word 851 by the following reasoning: At what time Paulinus presided over the church of Capua is established from the Chronicle of Erchempert. He has it that Paulinus died at the time when Lando, count of Capua, was living at Sicopolis, that is, at Palumbaria near Triflisco; and Lando received the county in the year 845 or 46: therefore Paulinus did not die before this year. But since he sat at Capua 8 years, 3 months, he must have been consecrated about the year 843 by Pope Gregory IV, who sat from the year 828 to the year 844; and died about the year 851. But who does not see that from the reasoning of Ughelli brought forward here it is in no way concluded that the Saint exchanged mortal life for immortal about the year 851? For since nothing at all occurs in the said reasoning on account of which we should believe Ughelli when he asserts that Paulinus was consecrated bishop about the year 843 by Pope Gregory IV, by this surely that writer proves by no reason at all, as will become plain to one considering it, that our Saint, who sat at Capua 8 years, 3 months, flew to heaven about the year 851. But although this is so, that Paulinus truly died about the year 851, or the middle of the 9th century, is nevertheless elicited from the Chronicle of Erchempert. For this, which is extant reprinted among the Writers of Italian Affairs, volume 2, page 243 there, not obscurely reveals that St. Paulinus closed his last day when Landulf, count of Capua, was already dead, and Lando, who immediately succeeded him, already held the county of Capua; and since Lando received the county of Capua either in the year 845 or the following, as Ughelli says, or, as others will have it, in the year 842, it follows as a consequence that the Saint, who sat only 8 years and 3 months, passed to those above either in one of those three years or certainly in another which was not far removed from the year 850, and that hence his death, which I marked above in the margin about the middle of the 9th century, must for certain be referred to this time.