Paulinus of Pella – A Thankful Heart After Formidable Losses

Paulinus of Pella – A Thankful Heart After Formidable Losses

Paulinus of Pella is mostly known by historians of Ancient Rome, as his poetic account of his life during the troubled end of the Roman Empire provides us with a first-hand description of the challenges experienced by many.

            But Paulinus was more than a poet or historian. He was a Christian who made sense of his sufferings in the light of God’s providence. This poem is the only writing of his that has survived, and is not considered a high literary accomplishment. Yet his words resound in the heart of every Christian who has experienced both difficult times and ineffable consolations from a faithful God.

A Thankful Song

            Paulinus’s poem is composed of 616 exameters in Latin and entitled Eucharistikos (Greek for “Thanksgiving”). If the literary critics have not been impressed by this work, we can appreciate it for its honesty and candor –rare in later Christian writings – and for the sincerity of his faith and love for God.

            Whatever the critics may say of his poem, it includes some moving passages, such as his description of his decision to express his feelings of gratitude. While these feelings were already known to God, he said, “breaking through the silent depths of the mind, the unbidden, conscious voice of desire erupts as an overflowing fountain.”[1]

            The poem opens with five paragraphs in prose, describing the intent of his work. Aware of his literary limitations and the common nature of his experience, he recognized God’s hand in his life and the lessons he had learned through suffering: “He has clearly taught me that I ought neither to love too earnestly present prosperity which I knew I might lose, nor to be greatly dismayed by adversities wherein I had found that his mercies could succour me.”[2]

            He states that has no intention to leave this for posterity. He wants his work to be accepted by God rather than “win its way to the attention of the learned.” It might simply be a statement of humility which was common in early authors. In any case, his poem has in fact captured the attention of many, perhaps bringing more comfort than the author had imagined.

A Troubled Life

Paulinus was born in Pella, a city in Macedonia, Asia Minor. His father was at that time a deputy for the Roman prefect but, just nine months after Paulinus’s birth, was appointed proconsul in Carthage, North Africa. The family moved there for some time. But even that office didn’t last long. Eighteen months later, they moved again, spending some time in Rome and finally settling in Bordeaux, France, where the ancestors of Paulinus’s father had lived. Paulinus’s mother was from Greece.

In an effort to give Paulinus a good education, his parents kept him so long inside that they damaged his health. To remedy this, Paulinus’s father started to take him out hunting. Paulinus enjoyed the game and all that went with it: “a fine horse bedecked with special trappings, a tall groom, a swift hound, a shapely hawk.”[3] He also had a special ball sent from Rome for games of pitching. He wore the most fashionable clothes and used the best perfumes.

These pleasures led to others, and he started a life of wantonness, checked only by his desire to save his reputation, which limited his love affairs to willing slaves in his own home. He had at least a son, who died as an infant.

He continued in this fashion from the age of eighteen until he was almost thirty. By then, his parents’ constant pleadings convinced him to get married. His wife came from a prestigious family with large properties that had been neglected, so Paulinus and his slaves worked to turn the properties into a prosperous estate.

At this point, he would have been content to live off the profits of his lands, if large populations from the north had not crossed the Rhine, bringing destruction to the region. Soon, they arrived to Paulinus’s properties, pillaging them. Around the same time, Paulinus’s father died, causing great sorrow in Paulinus’s heart, who loved him dearly and had been closer to him than to men his age.

Soon after their father’s death, Paulinus’s brother tried to overthrow his will to the detriment of their mother, and Paulinus had to fight back. At times, Paulinus just wanted to leave the region, possibly to Macedonia, where his mother still had some properties, but was stopped by “the conflicting wishes” of his loved ones and by his reluctance to leave his life of ease.

This ease ended when one of the conquering nations, the Goths, took over his lands. Their leader, Priscus Attalus, had crowned himself Roman Emperor. In this capacity, he gave Paulinus the title of Comes rerum privatarum (something like a procurator).

But Attalus didn’t last long, and the next king of the Goths stripped Paulinus of all his properties. Paulinus saw his ability to leave the region unharmed with his wife and his mother as an act of God’s mercy. He was also glad that a daughter who had just gotten married was not living there at that time. They fled to the neighbouring city of Baza.

But not even Baza was a safe place, as a group of slaves had launched a revolt and were intent on killing their masters. In Paulinus’s view, they were “far more dangerous than the beleaguering foe.” Once again, he thanked God for His protection.

Soon, however, the Goths arrived in Baza. Paulinus looked for help from a king who had been his long-standing friend. After an initial refusal, this king was able to protect Paulinus. Once again, Paulinus tried to move to the east, but his wife refused to go. Unwilling to either force her to go or leave her behind, Paulinus stayed in Gaul, although he strangely took a few months off to live alone as a hermit.

But her wife didn’t live long after that, and neither did his mother. And when Paulinus’s sons came of age, they went back to the family’s estate in Bordeaux, even though they had to share it with the Goths. Paulinus didn’t want his sons to leave, but hoped they would at least preserve the family’s goods. Instead, they both died – most likely killed, because they also lost all their belongings.

Eventually, Paulinus moved back to Bordeaux, living on his property at the “charge of others.” By then, he was totally destitute, but God came to his rescue by sending a Goth to buy (instead of taking) a small farm that had once belonged to Paulinus. As he had done throughout his poem, Paulinus concluded this episode of his life with an expression of gratefulness to God: “Rejoi­cing in my enrichment with this exceeding gift, to thee, Almighty God, I owe fresh thanks, such as may almost overwhelm and bury all those preceding, whereof each page of mine holds record. And although my constant devotion, grown too lengthy, has o'erspread its wide limits this while past, and almost calls itself to halt; yet it knows not how to make an end of dwelling on the gifts I owe to thee, O Christ.”[4]

It was around that time, living on the money received from the Goth, that Paulinus wrote his thanksgiving poem. He was about 83 years old, and died soon after, around the year 460.

Last Hope and Prayer

The last lines of his poem are a conclusion of a long and difficult life. His only desire was to make God the object of his speech and his thought (“in utterance to tell of thee, and in silence to remember thee”). Now that death was getting near, he asked God for a brave heart: “Whatever lot awaits me at my end let hope of beholding thee, O Christ, assuage it, and let all fearful doubts be dispelled by the sure confidence that alike while I am in this mortal body I am thine, since all is thine, and that when released from it I shall be in some part of thy body.”[5]