Gregory the Great, in his Dialogues (3.1), describes how *Paulinus (bishop of Nola, ob. 431, S01321) offered himself to the Vandals as a slave in order to redeem a prisoner; he also describes Paulinus’ gift of prophecy, which secured the freedom of many prisoners in Africa, and a miracle which occurred on his deathbed. Written in Latin in Rome, c. 593.
Evidence ID
E04382
Type of Evidence
Literary - Hagiographical - Other saint-related texts
Major author/Major anonymous work
Gregory the Great (pope)
Gregory the Great, Dialogues 3.1
Summary:
When Campania was attacked by the Vandals, Paulinus gave away many of the furnishings of his episcopal residence to those attacked or captured by the Vandals. He was unable to give anything to free a widow’s son who had been taken prisoner by the Vandal king’s son-in-law, so he offered himself as a slave in place of the son. He was then taken to North Africa, where he was employed as a gardener and won the respect of the Vandal king’s son-in-law. He predicted the death of the Vandal king and appeared as a judge in a dream to the same king. As a result, he and all his people were freed from captivity.
It was written that when Paulinus died, the room he was in shook, as if in an earthquake, although the rest of the house remained still.
Summary: Frances Trzeciak.
MiraclesMiracle at martyrdom and death
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesForeigners (including Barbarians)
Miracle at martyrdom and death
Power over elements (fire, earthquakes, floods, weather)
Revelation of hidden knowledge (past, present and future)
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesForeigners (including Barbarians)
Women
Monarchs and their family
Slaves/ servants
Source
Gregory the Great (Pope, 590-604) wrote his Dialogues on the Lives and Miracles of the Italian Fathers (Dialogi de vita et miraculis patrum italicorum) in Rome around 593. Organised into four books, the first three are a collection of lives and miracles of various Italian saints. The longest is the Life of Benedict of Nursia, which comprises the entirety of book 2. The final book consists of an essay on the immortality of souls after death. As a whole, the work documents and explains the presence of the miraculous in the contemporary world and the ability of saints to effect miracles both before and after death. The attribution of the Dialogues to Gregory has been disputed, most recently by Francis Clark who argued that the work was created in the 680s in Rome. Others - such as Adalbert de Vogüé, Paul Meyvaert and Matthew dal Santo - have, however, strongly argued for Gregory's authorship and it is broadly accepted that Gregory was responsible for the Dialogues.For a discussion of Gregory's devotion in writing the Dialogues, see E04383, and for the role of the Dialogues as a tract justifying the nature of miracles and theorising on the immortality of souls, see E04457.
Gregory's principal aim in collecting the miracle stories of the holy men and a very few women of sixth-century Italy was to show the presence of God's power on earth as manifested through them, rather than to encourage the cult of these individuals. Indeed, though posthumous miracles at the graves of a few individuals are recorded (and also a few miracles aided by contact relics of dead saints), there is very little emphasis in the Dialogues on posthumous cult; some of the miraculous events that Gregory records (e.g. E04429) are not even attributed to named individuals. Although very few of the holy persons in the Dialogues are 'proper' saints, with long-term cult, we have included them all in our database, for the sake of completeness and as an illustration of the impossibility of dividing 'proper' saints from more 'ordinary' holy individuals.
Discussion
The story of Paulinus of Nola's voluntary captivity in Africa is entirely legendary since he died in 431, long before the Vandals began raiding Italy (indeed before they had completed their conquest of Africa). The miraculous events at Paulinus' death, however, derive, as Gregory himself states, from a written account of this event (Uranius, De obitu Paulini, E07860).Bibliography
Edition:Vogüé, A. de, Grégoire le Grand, Dialogues, Sources chrétiennes 260 (Paris: Cerf, 1979), with full introduction and notes.
Translation:
Zimmerman, O.J., Dialogues of Saint Gregory the Great, Fathers of the Church 39 (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1959).
Further Reading:
Clark, F.,The 'Gregorian' Dialogues and the Origins of Benedictine Monasticism (Leiden: Brill, 2003).
Dal Santo, M., "The Shadow of A Doubt? A Note on the Dialogues and Registrum Epistolarum of Pope Gregory the Great (590–604)," Journal of Ecclesiatical History, 61.1, (2010), 3-17.
Meyvaert, P., "The Enigma of Gregory the Great’s Dialogues: A Reply to Francis Clark," Journal of Ecclesiastical History 39 (1988), 335–81.
Vogüé, A. de, "Grégoire le Grand et ses Dialogues d’après deux ouvrages récents," Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique 83 (1988), 281–348.
Record Created By
Frances Trzeciak
Date of Entry
23/08/2017
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S01321 | Paulinus, bishop of Nola, ob. 431 | Paulinus | Certain |
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Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Frances Trzeciak, Cult of Saints, E04382 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E04382