” “"A big-hearted man", who "managed to be close to his people in the sorrowful contingencies of the barbarian invasions". This is another definition used by the Pope to describe Saint Paolino of Nola, who "also experienced marriage": he actually married Teresia, a "pious noblewoman" from Barcelona, from whom he had a son, who however died shortly after. Just because of this premature death, told Benedict XVI, Paolino understood that "God had some other design for his life", and he felt himself "called to devote himself to Christ in a rigorous ascetic life". Thus, "in full agreement" with his wife, he moved to Nola, where he lived in "chaste fraternity" and according to "a form of life of typically monastic retreat". Ordained presbyter in Barcelona, Paolino "lived his priesthood to the benefit of the pilgrims" by lavishing pastoral attention mostly on the poor and through a "genuine pastoral of charity". "In his monastic community said the Holy Father , the poor felt at home", because Paolino "did not just give them alms, but welcomed them as Christ Himself"; he had "given them a ward of the monastery, he called them his patrons".” “
