PAULINUS OF AQUILEIA, ST.

Patriarch and theologian; b. Friuli, Italy, c. 750; d. January 11, 802. Widely renowned in northern Italy for his learning, Paulinus was called by charlemagne (c. 776) to his court school, where he formed a lasting friendship with alcuin. By 787 he had written Liber exhortationis (Patrologia Latina 99:197–282) and Paulinus Magister in tres epistulas Pauli ad hebraeos (still in MS). In 787 Charlemagne appointed him patriarch of aquileia, where he governed wisely and firmly. Remaining in contact with the Frankish court, he kept abreast of theological discussions on Spanish adoptionism and the insertion of the filioque in the Creed. Paulinus attended the synod of Aix-la-Chapelle in 789; the convocation of Regensburg, which condemned the adoptionism of Felix of Urgel (d. 818) in 792; and the synod of Frankfurt in 794, at which he drafted the Libellus Sacrosyllabus (Patrologia Latina 99:151–166), a condemnation of adoptionist errors. He convoked and presided over the provincial synod of Cividale in 796 or 797, which prescribed the addition of the filioque to the Creed and condemned Spanish adoptionism. He advised this assembly that the best answer to adoptionism was the Constantinopolitan Creed and insisted that his clergy memorize the text of it that he distributed to the synod, which is approximately that in use in the West today. At the bidding of Charlemagne, he wrote Contra Felicem Urgellitanum libri tres (Patrologia Latina 99:343–468). He sat at the Synod of Aix-la-Chapelle in 801, which procured a guarantee for free episcopal elections. In view of his theological writings, hymns, poems, and letters, and his zeal for the conversion of the avars, Paulinus deserved to be called lux Ausoniae patriae.

Feast: Jan. 28 (formerly Feb. 9 and Jan. 11).

Bibliography: Patrologia Latina 99:1–684. Monumenta Germania Poetae 1:123–148. Monumenta Germania Epistolae 4:516–527. c. giannoni, Paulinus II, Patriarch von Aquileia (Vienna 1896). g. ellero, S. Paolino d'Aquil (Cividale 1901). Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters 1:368–370. j. reviron, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique 12.1:62–67. p. paschini, San Paolino patriarca e la Chiesa aquilei[e]se alla finedel secolo VIII (Udine 1977). Paulinus Aquileiensis Contra Felicem, ed. cetedoc (Turnhout 1990).

[j. m. o'donnell]