{"paulinus-nola-carmina/0.1":{"o":"Iniuria quidem est patri familias maritimis deliciis abundanti terrenum aliquid et agreste praebere; sed ego, ut et causa mihi esset apud unanimitatem tuam aliquid conloquendi et aliquod sermoni huic obsequium uiderer adiungere, pauculas de paucissimis quas pueruli uespere inferunt ficedulas misi. quarum cum erubescerem paucitatem, plura etiam uersiculis uerba subtexui quasi uero numerum loquacitate facturus. sed quia utraque culpabilia sunt, tu utrisque benigne ac familiariter ignoscendo facies, ut nec inhumana uideatur paucitas nec odiosa garrulitas.","t":"It is indeed an insult to offer something earthly and rustic to a householder who abounds in the delicacies of the sea; but so that I might have a reason for saying something to your oneness of heart, and might seem to attach some courtesy to this message, I have sent a few fig-peckers out of the very few that the boys bring in at evening. Since I blushed at how few they were, I have added more words besides in little verses, as if I meant to make up the number by talkativeness. But since both are blameworthy, you, by pardoning both kindly and as a friend, will see to it that neither the fewness seems ungracious nor the chatter tiresome.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 0.1 (CSEL 30; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/0-1)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/1.1":{"o":"Sume igitur pastas dumoso in rure uolucres,\nquas latitans filicis sub tegmine callidus auceps,\ndum simili mentitur aues fallitque susurro,\nagmina uiscatis suspendit credula uirgis.\ntunc referens tenuem non paruo munere praedam.\ndigerit aucupium tabulis; et primus opimis\nordo nitet sensim tenuatus ad ima tabellae.\nut minus offendat macies, praelata saginae\ngratia praeuentos pingui iuuat alite uisus.","t":"Take, then, these birds fed in the brambly countryside,\nwhich the cunning fowler, lurking under a covering of fern,\nwhile he imitates birds and deceives them with a like whisper,\nhangs up, a trusting troop, on limed twigs.\nThen, bringing back a slender prey as no small gift,\nhe sets out his catch on boards; and the first row\ngleams with the plump ones, thinning by degrees toward the bottom of the board.\nSo that leanness may give less offense, the charm of the fattened birds, set in front,\npleases eyes that the plump bird has first won over.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 1.1 (CSEL 30:2lines 1–9; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/1-1)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/10.1":{"o":"Quarta redit duris haec iam messoribus aestas\net totiens cano bruma gelu riguit,\nex quo nulla tuo mihi littera uenit ab ore,\nnulla tua uidi scripta notata manu,\nante salutifero felix quam charta libello\ndona negata diu multiplicata daret.\ntrina etenim uario florebat epistola textu,\nsed numerosa triplex pagina carmen erat.\ndulcia multimodis quaedam sub amara querellis\nanxia censurae miscuerat pietas.\nsed mihi mite patris plus quam censoris acerbum\nsedit et e blandis aspera penso animo.\nista suo regerenda loco tamen et grauiore\nuindicis heroi sunt agitanda sono.\ninterea leuior paucis praecurret iambus\ndiscreto referens mutua uerba pede.\nnunc elegi saluere iubent dictaque salute,\nut fecere aliis orsa gradumque, silent.\nQuid abdicatas in meam curam, pater,\nredire Musas praecipis?\nnegant Camenis nec patent Apollini\ndicata Christo pectora.\nfuit ista quondam non ope, sed studio pari\ntecum mihi concordia\nciere surdum Delphica Phoebum specu,\nuocare Musas numina\nfandique munus munere indultum dei\npetere e nemoribus aut iugis.\nnunc alia mentem uis agit, maior deus,\naliosque mores postulat,\nsibi reposcens ab homine munus suum,\nuiuamus ut uitae patri.","t":"This is now the fourth summer returning for the hard-working reapers,\nand as often has winter stiffened with white frost,\nsince any letter came to me from your lips,\nsince I saw any writing marked by your hand,\nuntil at last a happy sheet, with a welcome little book,\ngave me gifts long denied, multiplied.\nFor a threefold letter flowered with varied texture,\nbut the threefold page was a poem in many measures.\nAnxious affection had mixed certain sweet things beneath\nbitter ones, in complaints of many kinds of censure.\nBut it is the gentleness of a father, more than the bitterness of a censor,\nthat has settled with me, and I weigh the harsh things by the kind.\nThose things, however, must be answered in their own place and handled\nwith the weightier sound of the avenging hexameter.\nMeanwhile the lighter iambus will run ahead in a few lines,\nreturning words in exchange in its distinct foot.\nNow the elegiacs bid you hail, and, the greeting spoken,\nhaving made the opening and the step for the others, fall silent.\nWhy, father, do you bid the Muses, whom I have renounced,\nto return to my care?\nHearts dedicated to Christ refuse the Camenae\nand are not open to Apollo.\nOnce there was this harmony between you and me,\nnot of equal power but of equal zeal:\nto rouse deaf Phoebus from his Delphic cave,\nto call on the Muses as deities,\nand to seek from groves or ridges the gift of speech,\nwhich is granted by the gift of God.\nNow another power drives my mind, a greater God,\nand demands other ways,\nclaiming back for himself from man his own gift,\nthat we may live for the Father of life.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 10.1 (CSEL 30:24lines 1–32–25; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/10-1)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/10.131":{"o":"nam mea si reputes quae pristina, quae tibi nota,\nsponte fatebor eum modo me non esse sub illo\ntempore qui fuerim, quo non peruersus habebar\net peruersus eram, falsi caligine cernens,\nstulta deo sapiens et mortis pabula uiuens.\nquo magis ignosci mihi fas, quia promptius ex hoc\nagnosci datur a summo genitore nouari\nquod non more meo geritur; non, arbitror, istic\nconfessus dicar mutatae in praua notandum\nerrorem mentis, quoniam sim sponte professus\nme non mente mea uitam mutasse priorem.\nmens noua mi, fateor, mens non mea, non mea quondam,\nsed mea nunc auctore deo, qui si quid in actu\ningenioue meo sua dignum ad munia uidit,\ngratia prima tibi, tibi gloria debita cedit,\ncuius praeceptis partum est quod Christus amaret.\nquare gratandum magis est tibi quam queritandum,\nquod tuus ille, tuis studiis et moribus ortus,\nPaulinus, cui te non infitiare parentem,\nnec modo, cum credis peruersum, sic mea uerti\nconsilia, ut sim promeritus Christi fore, dum sum\nAusonii; feret ille tuae sua praemia laudi\ndeque tua primum tibi deferet arbore fructum.\nunde precor meliora putes nec maxima perdas\npraemia detestando tuis bona fontibus orta.","t":"For if you reckon my former ways, those known to you,\nI will freely confess that I am not now the man I was\nat that time, when I was not thought perverse\nand was perverse, seeing through the fog of falsehood,\nwise in what is foolish to God, and living on the food of death.\nSo it is all the more right that I be pardoned, because from this\nit is more readily granted to recognize that I am renewed by the highest Father,\nsince what is done is not done in my own way. I shall not, I think, be said\nto have confessed here a branded error of a mind\nchanged for the worse, since I have freely professed\nthat I did not change my former life by my own mind.\nA new mind is mine, I confess, a mind not mine, once not mine,\nbut mine now by God's authorship; and if he has seen anything in my conduct\nor character worthy of his service,\nthe first thanks go to you, the glory due goes to you,\nby whose teaching was produced what Christ might love.\nSo you have more cause to congratulate than to complain\nthat your Paulinus, born of your studies and your character,\nwhose parent you do not deny you are,\nhas now, though you believe him perverse, so turned his\ncounsels that he has earned the right to be Christ's while he remains\nAusonius's; he will bring his rewards to your praise\nand will offer you the first fruit from your own tree.\nSo I pray you to think better things, and not to lose the greatest\nrewards by cursing good things that sprang from your own fountains.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 10.131 (CSEL 30:30lines 131–155–31; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/10-131)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/10.156":{"o":"non etenim mihi mens demens neque participantum\nuita fugax hominum, Lyciae qua scribis in antris\nPegaseum uixisse equitem, licet auia multi\nnumine agente colant, clari uelut ante sophorum\npro studiis musisque suis, ut nunc quoque castis\nqui Christum sumpsere animis agitare frequentant,\nnon inopes animi neque de feritate legentes\ndesertis habitare locis, sed in ardua uersi\nsidera spectantesque deum uerique profunda\nperspicere intenti, de uanis libera curis\notia amant strepitumque fori rerumque tumultus\ncunctaque diuinis inimica negotia donis\net Christi imperiis et amore salutis abhorrent\nspeque fideque deum sponsa mercede sequuntur,\nquam referet certus non desperantibus auctor,\nsi modo non uincant uacuis praesentia rebus,\nquaeque uidet spernat, quae non uidet ut mereatur\nsecreta ignitus penetrans caelestia sensus.\nnamque caduca patent nostris, aeterna negantur\nuisibus, et nunc spe sequimur quod mente uidemus,\nspernentes uarias, rerum spectacula, formas\net male corporeos bona sollicitantia uisus.\nattamen haec sedisse illis sententia uisa est,\ntota quibus iam lux patuit uerique bonique,\nuenturi aeternum saecli et praesentis inane.\nat mihi, non eadem cui gloria, cur eadem sit\nfama? fides noti par est, sed amoena colenti\nnunc etiam et blanda posito locupletis in acta\nlitoris unde haec iam tam festinata locorum\ninuidia est? utinam iustus me carpere liuor\nincipiat, Christi sub nomine probra placebunt.","t":"For I do not have a mad mind, nor do I live the fugitive life\nthat shuns the company of men, as you write that the rider of Pegasus\nlived in the caves of Lycia; even though many dwell in pathless places\nunder God's prompting, as famous philosophers did before\nfor the sake of their studies and their Muses, and as now also those\nwho have taken up Christ with chaste minds often do,\nnot poor in mind, nor choosing out of wildness\nto live in deserted places, but turned to the lofty\nstars, beholding God, and intent on looking into the depths\nof truth; they love leisure free from vain cares\nand shrink from the din of the forum and the tumult of affairs\nand all business hostile to divine gifts,\nout of regard for Christ's commands and love of salvation,\nand with hope and faith follow God for the promised reward,\nwhich the sure Author will pay to those who do not despair,\nif only present things do not prevail with their empty goods,\nand the mind scorns what it sees, that it may earn what it does not see,\nits fiery sense penetrating heavenly secrets.\nFor perishable things lie open to our sight, eternal things are denied\nto our eyes, and now we follow in hope what we see with the mind,\nscorning the varied forms, the spectacles of things,\nand the goods that wrongly solicit the bodily eyes.\nYet this judgment seemed settled to those\nto whom the whole light of the true and the good has already opened:\nthe eternity of the age to come and the emptiness of the present.\nBut why should I, who do not have the same glory, have the same\nreputation? A known man's report is equally believed; but since I now still live\nin pleasant and charming places, settled on the shore of a wealthy coast,\nwhence comes this hasty envy of my places?\nWould that a just envy would begin to pluck at me:\nunder the name of Christ reproaches will please me.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 10.156 (CSEL 30:31lines 156–186–32; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/10-156)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/10.187":{"o":"non patitur tenerum mens numine firma pudorem,\net laus hic contempta redit mihi iudice Christo.\nne me igitur, uenerande parens, his ut male uersum\nincrepites studiis neque me uel coniuge carpas\nuel mentis uitio; non anxia Bellerophontis\nmens est nec Tanaquil mihi, sed Lucretia coniunx.\nnec mihi nunc patrii uisa est obliuio caeli,\nqui summum suspecto patrem, quem qui colit unum\nhic uere memor est caeli. crede ergo, pater, nos\nnec caeli inmemores nec uiuere mentis egentes\nhumanisque agitare locis; studia ipsa piorum\ntestantur mores hominum; nec enim inpia summum\ngens poterit nouisse deum. sint multa locorum,\nmulta hominum studiis inculta, expertia legum,\nquae regio agresti ritu caret? aut quid in istis\ninprobitas aliena nocet? quid tu mihi uastos\nVasconiae saltus et ninguida Pyrenaei\nobicis hospitia, in primo quasi limine fixus\nHispanae regionis agam nec sit locus usquam\nrure uel urbe mihi, summum qua diues in orbem\nusque patet mersos spectans Hispania soles?\nsed fuerit fortuna iugis habitasse latronum,\nnam lare barbarico rigui, mutatus in ipsos,\ninter quos habui socia feritate colonos?\nnon recipit mens pura malum neque leuibus haerent\ninspersae fibris maculae; sic Vascone saltu\nquisquis agit purus sceleris uitam integer aequus,\nnulla ab inhumano morum contagia ducit\nhospite. sed mihi cur sit ab illo nomine crimen,\nqui diuersa colo, ut colui, loca iuncta superbis\nurbibus et laetis hominum celeberrima cultis?","t":"A mind firm in God does not allow a tender sense of shame,\nand praise scorned here returns to me with Christ as judge.\nSo do not, revered parent, rebuke me as wrongly turned\nto these pursuits, nor carp at me for my wife\nor for a fault of mind; mine is not the anxious mind of Bellerophon,\nnor is my wife a Tanaquil, but a Lucretia.\nNor do I seem now to have forgotten my native heaven,\nI who look up to the highest Father; whoever worships him alone\nhere truly remembers heaven. Believe then, father, that we\nare neither forgetful of heaven nor living without mind,\nand that we spend our lives in places where men live; the very pursuits of the godly\nbear witness to the characters of men; for an impious\npeople will not be able to know the highest God. Granted that many places,\nmany, are untilled by men's pursuits, without laws:\nwhat region lacks rustic custom? Or what harm does the\nwickedness of others do in such places? Why do you cast up to me\nthe wild forests of Vasconia and the snowy lodgings\nof the Pyrenees, as if I lived fixed at the very first threshold\nof the Spanish region, and had no place anywhere\nin country or city, where rich Spain lies open\nall the way to the edge of the world, beholding the setting suns?\nBut suppose it was my lot to have lived on robbers' ridges:\ndid I grow wild by a barbarian hearth, changed into those very people\namong whom I had settlers sharing their savagery?\nA pure mind does not admit evil, nor do stains sprinkled\non light fibres stick; so in a Basque forest\nwhoever leads a life pure of crime, upright, just,\ndraws no contagion of manners from an inhuman\nhost. But why should a charge be laid against me from that name,\nI who live, as I have lived, in different places, joined to proud\ncities and thronged with the glad cultivation of men?","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 10.187 (CSEL 30:32lines 187–217–34; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/10-187)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/10.218":{"o":"ac si Vasconicis mihi uita fuisset in oris,\ncur non more meo potius formata ferinos\nponeret in nostros migrans gens barbara ritus?\nnam quod in euersis habitacula ponis Hibera\nurbibus et deserta tuo legis oppida uersu\nmontanamque mihi Calagurrim et Birbilim acutis\npendentem scopulis collemque iacentis Hilerdae\nexprobras, uelut his habitem laris exul et urbis\nextra hominum tecta atque uias: an credis Hiberae\nhas telluris opes, Hispani nescius orbis,\nquo grauis ille poli sub pondere constitit Atlans,\nultima nunc eius mons portio metaque terrae,\ndiscludit bimarem celso qui uertice Calpen?\nBirbilis huic tantum, Calagurris, Hilerda notantur,\nCaesarea est Augusta cui, cui Barcino amoena\net capite insigni despectans Tarraco pontum.\nquid numerem egregias terris et moenibus urbes,\nqua geminum felix Hispania tendit in aequor,\nqua Baeti Oceanum Tyrrhenumque auget Hibero\nlataque distantis pelagi diuortia conplet,\norbe suo finem ponens in limite mundi?\nan(ne) tibi, o domine inlustris, si scribere sit mens,\nqua regione habites, placeat reticere nitentem\nBurdigalam et piceos malis describere Boios?\ncumque Maroialicis tua prodigis otia thermis\ninter et umbrosos donas tibi uiuere lucos,\nlaeta locis et mira colens habitacula tectis:\nnigrantesne casas et texta mapalia culmo\ndignaque pellitis habitas deserta Bigerris?\nquique superba potens contemnis moenia Romae\nconsul, harenosos non dedignare Vasatas?","t":"And even if I had lived on the Basque coasts,\nwhy should the barbarian people not rather be formed by my ways,\nlay aside their savage rites and pass over into ours?\nFor as to your placing my dwelling in ruined Iberian\ncities, choosing deserted towns for your verse,\nand reproaching me with mountainous Calagurris, and Bilbilis hanging\non sharp crags, and the hill of fallen Ilerda,\nas if I lived among them, an exile from house and city,\noutside the homes and roads of men: do you think, ignorant\nof the Spanish world, that these are the riches of the Iberian land,\nwhere that Atlas stood under the heavy weight of the sky,\nnow its last portion, a mountain and the boundary of the earth,\nwhich with its lofty peak shuts off two-sea Calpe?\nIs this land known only for Bilbilis, Calagurris, Ilerda,\nthe land that has Caesarea Augusta, that has pleasant Barcino,\nand Tarraco, looking down on the sea from its noble height?\nWhy should I count the cities excellent in lands and walls,\nwhere happy Spain stretches toward the twin sea,\nwhere it swells the Ocean with the Baetis and the Tyrrhenian with the Ebro\nand fills the wide divide of the distant seas,\nsetting its own bound at the limit of the world?\nOr would you, my illustrious lord, if you had a mind to write\nin what region you live, be pleased to keep silent about shining\nBurdigala and to describe the pitch-black Boii?\nAnd when you spend your leisure lavishly at the baths of Marojalicum\nand grant yourself to live among shady groves,\ndwelling in places glad and in houses wonderful under their roofs,\ndo you live in blackened huts and hovels thatched with straw\nand wilds fit for the skin-clad Bigerri?\nAnd you, a powerful consul, who despise the proud walls of Rome,\ndo you not scorn the sandy Vasates?","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 10.218 (CSEL 30:34lines 218–248–35; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/10-218)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/10.249":{"o":"uel quia Pictonicis tibi fertile rus uiret aruis,\nRaraunum Ausonia heu deuenisse curules\nconquerar et trabeam ueteri sordescere fano,\nquae tamen augusta Latiaris in urbe Quirini\ncaesareas inter parili titulo palmatas\nfulget inadtrito longum uenerabilis auro,\nflorentem retinens meriti uiuacis honorem?\naut cum Lucani retineris culmine fundi,\naemula Romuleis habitans fastigia tectis,\nmateriam praebente loco, qui proxima signat,\nin Condatino diceris degere uico?\nmulta iocis pateant; liceat quoque ludere fictis.\nsed lingua mulcente grauem interlidere dentem,\nludere blanditiis urentibus et male dulces\nfermentare iocos satirae mordacis aceto\nsaepe poetarum, numquam decet esse parentum.\nnamque fides pietasque petunt, ut quod mala nectens\ninsinuat castis fama auribus hoc bona uoti\nmens patris adfigi fixumque haerescere cordi\nnon sinat. et uulgus scaeuo rumore malignum\nante habitos mores, non semper flectere uitam\ncrimen habet; namque est laudi bene uertere. cum me\ninmutatum audis, studium officiumque require.\nsi prauo rectum, si religiosa profanis,\nluxurie parcum, turpi mutatus honestum,\nsegnis iners obscurus ago, miserere sodalis\nin mala peruersi; blandum licet ira parentem\nexcitet, ut lapsum rectis instauret amicum\nmoribus et monitu reparet meliora seuero.","t":"Or, because your fertile estate grows green in the fields of the Pictones,\nshall I lament that, alas, the Ausonian curule chair has come down to Rauranum,\nand that the consular robe grows shabby in an old shrine,\nthat robe which nevertheless, in the august city of Latian Quirinus,\nshines among the emperors' palm-embroidered robes with equal title,\nlong venerable with unworn gold,\nkeeping the flourishing honour of living merit?\nOr when you are kept at the summit of your estate at Lucaniacus,\nliving under roofs that rival the halls of Romulus,\nshall you be said, because the place supplies the material, since it marks what lies nearby,\nto live in the village of Condate?\nLet much be open to jests; let it be allowed to play with fictions too.\nBut to strike in a heavy tooth while the tongue soothes,\nto play with burning flatteries and to leaven\nill-sweet jests with the vinegar of biting satire,\nis often fitting for poets, never for parents.\nFor faith and affection require that what evil rumour, weaving its web,\ninsinuates into chaste ears, the good mind of a father, by its wish,\nshould not allow to be fixed and, once fixed, to cling to the heart.\nThe crowd, malicious with ill-omened rumour, counts it a crime\nnot always to keep one's life to the ways one held before;\nbut to turn for the better deserves praise. When you\nhear that I am changed, inquire into my pursuit and my duty.\nIf I have changed from right to wrong, from religious to profane,\nfrom frugal to luxurious, from honourable to shameful,\nif I live sluggish, idle, obscure, pity your companion,\nturned to evil; let anger rouse even a gentle parent\nto restore his fallen friend to upright\nways and to repair better things by stern warning.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 10.249 (CSEL 30:35lines 249–277–37; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/10-249)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/10.278":{"o":"at si forte itidem quod legi et quod sequor audis,\ncorda pio uouisse deo, uenerabile Christi\nimperium docili pro credulitate sequentem\npersuasumque dei monitis aeterna parari\npraemia mortali damnis praesentibus empta,\nnon reor id sancto sic displicuisse parenti,\nmentis ut errorem credat sic uiuere Christo,\nut Christus sanxit. iuuat hoc nec paenitet huius\nerroris. stultus diuersa sequentibus esse\nnil moror, aeterno mea dum sententia regi\nsit sapiens. breue, quicquid homo est, (est) corporis aegri,\ntemporis occidui et sine Christo puluis et umbra;\nquod probat aut damnat, tanti est quanti arbiter ipse.\nipse obit, atque illi suus est comitabilis error,\ncumque suo moriens sententia iudice transit.\nat nisi, dum tempus praesens datur, anxia nobis\ncura sit ad domini praeceptum uiuere Christi,\nsera erit exutis homini querimonia membris,\ndum leuia humanae metuit conuicia linguae,\nnon timuisse graues diuini iudicis iras,\nquem patris aeterni solio dextraque sedentem,\nomnibus inpositum regem et labentibus annis\nuenturum, ut cunctas aequato examine gentes\niudicet et uariis referat sua praemia gestis,\ncredo equidem et metuens studio properante laboro,\nsi qua datur, ne morte prius quam crimine soluar.","t":"But if perhaps you hear likewise what I have chosen and what I follow:\nthat I have vowed my heart to the godly God, following the venerable rule\nof Christ with teachable belief,\nand persuaded by God's warnings that eternal rewards are prepared,\nbought by a mortal with present losses,\nI do not think that this has so displeased my holy parent\nthat he believes it an error of mind to live for Christ\nas Christ has ordained. This pleases me, nor do I repent of this\nerror. To seem foolish to those who follow other things\nI do not mind at all, so long as my judgment is wise\nto the eternal King. Brief is whatever man is: he is of a sick body,\nof a setting time, and without Christ dust and shadow;\nwhat he approves or condemns is worth as much as the judge himself.\nHe himself dies, and his error goes along with him,\nand the judgment passes away, dying with its judge.\nBut unless, while the present time is given, we take anxious\ncare to live by the precept of Christ the Lord,\ntoo late will be man's complaint when he has put off his limbs\nthat, while he feared the light reproaches of human tongues,\nhe did not fear the heavy anger of the divine Judge,\nwho sits on the throne and at the right hand of the eternal Father,\nset over all as king, and who, as the years glide by,\nwill come to judge all nations with an even balance\nand render to their varied deeds their rewards;\nthis I believe indeed, and, fearful, I labour with hastening zeal,\nif it may be granted, not to be released by death before I am released from sin.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 10.278 (CSEL 30:37lines 278–303–38; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/10-278)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/10.304":{"o":"huius in aduentum trepidis mihi credula fibris\ncorda tremunt gestitque anima id iam cauta futuri,\npraemetuens ne uincta aegris pro corpore curis\nponderibusque grauis rerum, si forte recluso\nincrepitet tuba uasta polo, non possit in auras\nregis ad occursum leuibus se tollere pinnis,\ninter honora uolans sanctorum milia caelo,\nqui per inane leues neque mundi conpede uinctos\nardua in astra pedes facili molimine tollent\net teneris uecti per sidera nubibus ibunt,\ncaelestem ut medio uenerentur in aere regem\nclaraque adorato coniungant agmina Christo.\nhic metus est, labor iste, dies ne me ultimus atris\nsopitum tenebris sterili deprendat in actu,\ntempora sub uacuis ducentem perdita curis.\nnam quid agam, lentis si dum coniueo uotis,\nChristus ab aetheria mihi proditus arce coruscet\net subitis domini caelo uenientis aperto\npraestrictus radiis obscurae tristia noctis\nsuffugia inlato confusus lumine quaeram?\nquod mihi ne pareret uel diffidentia ueri\nuel praesentis amor uitae rerumque uoluptas\ncurarumque labor, placuit praeuertere casus\nproposito et curas finire superstite uita\ncommunique deo uentura in saecula fretum\nexpectare trucem securo pectore mortem.\nsi placet hoc, gratare tui spe diuite amici;\nsi contra est, Christo tantum me linque probari.","t":"At his coming my believing heart trembles\nwith quivering fibres, and my soul, already wary of the future, is restless,\nfearing beforehand that, bound to the body by sick cares\nand heavy with the weights of things, if perhaps the vast trumpet\nshould sound when the sky is opened, it could not raise itself into the air\non light wings to meet the King,\nflying among the honoured thousands of the saints in heaven,\nwho, light through the void, will lift their feet, not bound by the world's\nfetter, to the lofty stars with easy effort,\nand, carried on soft clouds, will go through the stars,\nto worship the heavenly King in the midst of the air\nand join their bright ranks with the adored Christ.\nThis is my fear, this my labour: that the last day may catch me\nasleep in black darkness, in barren activity,\nspending lost times in empty cares.\nFor what shall I do if, while I blink over sluggish prayers,\nChrist, revealed from his heavenly citadel, flashes upon me,\nand, dazzled by the sudden rays of the Lord coming from the opened heaven,\nconfounded by the light brought upon me, I seek the sad\nrefuges of dark night?\nSo that neither distrust of the truth nor love of the present life,\nnor the pleasure of things, nor the labour of cares, might bring this upon me,\nI have resolved to forestall misfortune by my purpose,\nand to end my cares while life remains,\nand, relying on God, who is common to all for the ages to come,\nto await cruel death with a carefree breast.\nIf this pleases you, rejoice in the rich hope of your friend;\nif not, leave me to be approved by Christ alone.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 10.304 (CSEL 30:38lines 304–331–39; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/10-304)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/10.33":{"o":"uacare uanis, otio aut negotio,\net fabulosis litteris\nuetat, suis ut pareamus legibus\nlucemque cernamus suam,\nquam uis sophorum callida arsque rhetorum et\nfigmenta uatum nubilant,\nqui corda falsis atque uanis imbuunt\ntantumque linguas instruunt,\nnihil ferentes, ut salutem conferant\naut ueritate nos tegant.\nquod enim tenere uel bonum aut uerum queunt\nqui non tenent summae caput,\nueri bonique fomitem et fontem deum,\nquem nemo nisi in Christo uidet?\nhic ueritatis lumen est, uitae uia,\nuis mens manus uirtus patris,\nsol aequitatis, fons bonorum, flos dei,\nnatus deo, mundi sator,\nmortalitatis uita nostrae et mors necis,\nmagister hic uirtutium;\ndeusque nobis atque pro nobis homo\nnos induendo se exuit,\naeterna iungens homines inter et deum\nin utroque se commercia.\nhic ergo nostris ut suum praecordiis\nuibrauerit caelo iubar,\nabsterget aegrum corporis pigri situm\nhabitumque mentis innouat;\nexhaurit omne quod iuuabat antea\ncastae uoluptatis uice\ntotusque nostra iure domini uindicat\net corda et ora et tempora;","t":"He forbids us to be free for vain things, in leisure or in business,\nand for the literature of fables,\nso that we may obey his laws\nand see his light,\nwhich the cunning force of the philosophers, the art of rhetoricians, and\nthe fictions of the poets cloud over,\nwho steep hearts in false and vain things\nand train only tongues,\nbringing nothing that might confer salvation\nor cover us with truth.\nFor what good or true thing can they hold\nwho do not hold the head of the highest,\nGod, the kindling and the fountain of the true and the good,\nwhom no one sees except in Christ?\nHe is the light of truth, the way of life,\nthe power, mind, hand, and strength of the Father,\nthe sun of justice, the fountain of good things, the flower of God,\nborn of God, sower of the world,\nthe life of our mortality and the death of death;\nhe is the master of the virtues;\nGod for us and man on our behalf,\nhe stripped himself by putting us on,\njoining in himself, in both natures, eternal\nexchanges between men and God.\nSo when he has darted his own radiance from heaven\ninto our hearts,\nhe wipes away the sick mould of the sluggish body\nand renews the condition of the mind;\nhe drains out all that used to please before,\nin exchange for chaste pleasure,\nand by the Lord's right wholly claims\nour hearts and lips and times;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 10.33 (CSEL 30:25lines 33–64–27; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/10-33)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/10.65":{"o":"se cogitari intellegi credi legi,\nse uult timeri et diligi.\naestus inanes, quos mouet uitae labor\npraesentis aeui tramite,\nabolet futurae cum deo uitae fides.\nquae quas uidemur spernere\nnon ut profanas abicit aut uiles opes,\nsed ut magis caras monet\ncaelo reponi creditas Christo deo,\nqui plura promisit datis,\ncontempta praesens uel mage deposita sibi\nmulto ut rependat fenore.\nsine fraude custos aucta creditoribus\nbonus aera reddet debitor\nmultaque spretam largior pecuniam\nrestituet usura deus.\nhuic uacantem uel studentem et deditum,\nin hoc reponentem omnia\nne, quaeso, segnem neue peruersum putes\nnec crimineris inpium.\npietas abesse christiano qui potest?\nnamque argumentum mutuum est\npietatis, esse christianum, et inpii,\nnon esse Christo subditum.\nhanc cum tenere discimus, possum tibi\nnon exhibere id est patri,\ncui cuncta sancta iura, cara nomina\ndebere me uoluit deus?\ntibi disciplinas dignitatem litteras,\nlinguae togae famae decus\nprouectus altus institutus debeo,\npatrone praeceptor pater.","t":"he wills to be thought of, understood, believed, read;\nhe wills to be feared and loved.\nThe empty surges which the toil of life\nstirs along the path of the present age\nare abolished by faith in the future life with God.\nThat faith does not cast away the riches which we seem to scorn\nas profane or worthless,\nbut counsels that, as dearer, they be stored\nin heaven, entrusted to Christ God,\nwho has promised more than what is given,\nso that what is scorned, or rather deposited with him, in the present\nhe may repay with much interest.\nA guardian without fraud, a good debtor, he will return\nincreased sums to his creditors,\nand God, more generous, will restore with much usury\nthe money that was scorned.\nSo do not, I pray, think me sluggish or perverse\nif I am free for him, or study him and am devoted to him,\nstoring up all things in him,\nnor accuse me of impiety.\nHow can piety be absent from a Christian?\nFor being a Christian is the proof of piety,\nand not being subject to Christ\nis the proof of the impious, each of the other.\nWhen we learn to hold this, can I fail to show it to you,\nthat is, to a father,\nto whom God willed that I should owe\nall holy rights and dear names?\nTo you I owe my learning, rank, letters,\nthe glory of tongue, toga, and fame,\nadvanced, raised up, instructed by you,\nmy patron, teacher, father.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 10.65 (CSEL 30:27lines 65–96–28; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/10-65)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/10.97":{"o":"sed cur remotus tamdiu degam arguis\npioque motu irasceris?\nconducit istud aut necesse est aut placet,\nueniale quicquid horum inest.\nignosce, amans, mi si geram quod expedit;\ngratare, si uiuam ut libet.\nDefore me patriis tota trieteride terris\natque alium legisse uagis erroribus orbem,\nculta prius uestrae oblitum consortia uitae,\nincrepitas sanctis mota pietate querellis.\namplector patrio uenerandos pectore motus\net mihi gratandas saluis affectibus iras.\nsed reditum inde meum, genitor, te poscere mallem\nunde dari posset. reuocandum me tibi credam,\ncum steriles fundas non ad diuina precatus,\nCastalidis supplex auerso numine Musis?\nnon his numinibus tibi me patriaeque reducis.\nsurda uocas et nulla rogas (leuis hoc feret aura\nquod datur in nihilum) sine numine nomina Musas.\ninrita uentosae rapiunt haec uota procellae,\nquae non missa deo uacuis in nubibus haerent\nnec penetrant superi stellantem regis in aulam.\nsi tibi cura mei reditus, illum aspice et ora,\nqui tonitru summi quatit ignea culmina caeli,\nqui trifido igne micat nec inania murmura miscet\nquique satis caelo soles largitur et imbres,\nqui super omne quod est uel in omni totus ubique\nomnibus infuso rebus regit omnia Christo,\nquo mentes tenet atque mouet, quo tempora nostra\net loca disponit. quod si contraria uotis\nconstituat nostri, prece deflectendus in illa est\nquae uolumus. quid me accusas? si displicet actus\nquem gero agente deo, prius est, si fas, reus auctor,\ncui placet aut formare meos aut uertere sensus.","t":"But why do you charge me with living so long far away,\nand grow angry with a loving emotion?\nEither it is useful, or it is necessary, or it pleases me;\nwhichever of these is in it is pardonable.\nForgive me, loving one, if I do what is good for me;\ncongratulate me, if I live as I please.\nThat I have been away from my native land for three whole years\nand, wandering astray, have chosen another world,\nforgetful of the fellowship of your life which I once cultivated,\nyou rebuke me with holy complaints, moved by affection.\nI embrace these emotions, worthy of reverence, from a father's heart,\nand your anger, which I must welcome with my affection unharmed.\nBut I would rather, father, that you sought my return\nfrom where it could be granted. Am I to believe I shall be called back to you\nwhen you pour out barren prayers, not to the divine,\nbut as a suppliant to the Castalian Muses, with heaven turned away?\nNot by these deities do you bring me back to you and to my country.\nYou call on deaf things and ask from nothing (a light breeze will carry off\nwhat is given into nothing): the Muses, names without divinity.\nThe windy storms snatch away these useless prayers,\nwhich, not sent to God, cling to the empty clouds\nand do not reach the starry hall of the King above.\nIf you care about my return, look to him and pray to him\nwho with thunder shakes the fiery heights of highest heaven,\nwho flashes with three-forked fire and mingles no empty rumblings,\nand who from heaven bestows suns and rains on the sown fields,\nwho, above all that is, and wholly everywhere in all,\nrules all things through Christ, poured into all things,\nthrough whom he holds and moves minds, through whom he disposes\nour times and places. But if he should ordain things contrary\nto our wishes, he must be bent by prayer to what\nwe want. Why do you accuse me? If the course I follow, God driving me,\ndispleases you, then, if it is lawful to say so, the author is the first defendant,\nwhose pleasure it is either to form or to turn my thoughts.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 10.97 (CSEL 30:28lines 97–130–30; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/10-97)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/11.1":{"o":"Continuata meae durare silentia linguae\nnumquam tacito memoras placitamque latebris\ndesidiam exprobras neglectaeque insuper addis\ncrimen amicitiae formidatamque iugalem\nobicis et durum iacis in mea uiscera uersum.\nparce, precor, lacerare tuum nec amara paternis\nadmiscere uelis ceu melli absinthia uerbis.\ncura mihi semper fuit et manet officiis te\nomnibus excolere, adfectu obseruare fideli.\nnon umquam tenui saltem tua gratia naeuo\nconmaculata mihi est; ipso te laedere uultu\nsemper et incauta timui uiolare figura.\ncumque tua accessi uenerans, mea cautius ora\nconposui et laeto formaui lumine frontem,\nne qua uel a tacito contractam pectore nubem\nduceret in sanctum suspicio falsa parentem.\nhoc mea te domus exemplo coluitque colitque,\ninque tuum tantus nobis consensus amorem,\nquantus et in Christum conexa mente colendum.\nquis tua, quaeso, tuis obduxit pectora liuor?\nquo rumore pium facilis sibi fama per aures\ninrupit pepulitque animum contraque uetustam\nexperta pietate fidem noua uulnera mouit,\nlaederet ut natis placidum malesuada parentem?\nsed mihi non fictae mens conscia simplicitatis,\nnec patris inculti pietas rea respuit omne\ninmeritum et falso perstringi crimine non fert,\ninmunis uero; grauius uiolatur iniquo\nuulnere tam tenera offensae quam libera culpae.\ndiscussisse iugum quereris me, quo tibi doctis\niunctus eram studiis. hoc nec gestasse quidem me\nadsero; namque pares subeunt iuga, nemo ualentes\ncopulat infirmis, neque sunt concordia frena,\nsi sit conpulsis mensura iugalibus inpar.","t":"You recall that the silence of my tongue has lasted long\nwithout a break, and you reproach me with a sloth that delights in hiding,\nand you add besides the charge of neglected friendship,\nand throw in my face a wife to be feared, and hurl a harsh verse into my heart.\nRefrain, I pray, from tearing one who is yours, and do not wish to mix\nbitter things with fatherly words, like wormwood with honey.\nIt has always been and remains my care to honour you with every\nduty and to respect you with faithful affection.\nNever has your favour been stained for me even by the slightest\nblemish; I always feared to hurt you even by my face\nor to offend you by a careless expression.\nAnd when I approached you reverently, I composed my face\nmore carefully and formed my brow with glad eyes,\nso that no false suspicion might draw toward my holy parent\na cloud gathered even in a silent breast.\nBy this example my household has cherished you and cherishes you,\nand so great is our agreement in love for you,\nas great as in worshipping Christ with joined minds.\nWhat envy, I ask, has clouded your heart against your own?\nBy what rumour has easy report burst through your godly ears\nand struck your mind, and, against the old trust proved by affection,\nstirred new wounds, so that, counselling evil, it should set a gentle parent against his children?\nBut my mind, conscious of unfeigned simplicity,\nand my duty toward a father I have not neglected, being guiltless, rejects every\nundeserved charge and does not bear to be grazed by a false accusation,\nbeing truly innocent; one is wounded more heavily by an unjust\nwound when one is as tender to offence as one is free of guilt.\nYou complain that I have shaken off the yoke by which I was joined\nto you in learned studies. I assert that I never even\nbore it; for equals go under yokes; no one couples\nthe strong with the weak, nor are reins in harmony\nif the measure of the yoked pair is unequal.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 11.1 (CSEL 30:39lines 1–34–41; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/11-1)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/11.35":{"o":"si uitulum tauro uel equum committis onagro,\nsi confers fulicas cygnis et aedona picae,\ncastaneis corylos, aequas uiburna cupressis,\nme conpone tibi; uix Tullius et Maro tecum\nsustineant aequale iugum. si iungar amore,\nhoc tantum tibi me iactare audebo iugalem,\nquo modicum sociis magno contendit habenis\ndulcis amicitia aeterno mihi foedere tecum\net paribus semper redamandi legibus aequa.\nhoc nostra ceruice iugum non scaeua resoluit\nfabula, non terris absentia longa diremit\nnec perimet. toto licet abstrahar orbe uel aeuo,\nnumquam animo diuisus agam; prius ipsa recedet\ncorpore uita meo quam uester pectore uultus.\nego te per omne quod datum mortalibus\net destinatum saeculum est,\nclaudente donec continebor corpore,\ndiscernar orbe quolibet,\nnec ab orbe longe nec remotam lumine\ntenebo fibris insitum,\nuidebo corde, mente conplectar pia\nubique praesentem mihi.\net cum solutus corporali carcere\nterraque prouolauero,\nquo me locarit axe communis pater,\nillic quoque animo te geram.\nneque finis idem qui meo me corpore\net amore laxabit tuo.\nmens quippe, lapsis quae superstes artubus\nde stirpe durat caeliti,\nsensus necesse est simul et affectus suos\nretineat ut uitam suam;\net ut mori sic obliuisci non capit,\nperenne uiuax et memor.","t":"If you match a calf with a bull or a horse with a wild ass,\nif you compare coots with swans and the nightingale with the magpie,\nhazels with chestnuts, if you make viburnums equal to cypresses,\nthen set me beside you; scarcely could Tully and Maro\nbear an equal yoke with you. If I am joined to you in love,\nin this alone will I dare to boast that I am your yoke-mate:\nthat sweet friendship, with its reins, draws the small along with the great,\nin an eternal bond between me and you,\nalways equal in its laws of returning love.\nThis yoke no sinister tale has loosed from my neck,\nno long absence has severed in the lands,\nnor will it destroy it. Though I be drawn away over the whole world or for all time,\nI shall never live divided from you in mind; sooner will life itself\ndepart from my body than your face from my breast.\nThrough all the age that is given and appointed to mortals,\nas long as I am held in the enclosing body,\nin whatever part of the world I am separated from you,\nnot far off, nor removed from my sight,\nI shall hold you, planted in my fibres;\nI shall see you with my heart, embrace you with a loving mind,\npresent to me everywhere.\nAnd when, freed from the prison of the body,\nI have flown forth from the earth,\nin whatever region of heaven the common Father places me,\nthere too I shall bear you in my soul.\nNor will the same end that releases me from my body\nrelease me from my love for you.\nFor the mind, which, surviving the fallen limbs,\nendures from its heavenly stock,\nmust keep its feelings and affections\nas it keeps its life;\nand as it cannot die, so it cannot forget,\never living and remembering.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 11.35 (CSEL 30:41lines 35–68–42; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/11-35)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/12.1":{"o":"Inclite confessor, meritis et nomine Felix,\nmens pietate potens, summi mens accola caeli\nnec minus in totis experta potentia terris,\nqui dominum Christum non uincta uoce professus\ncontemnendo truces meruisti euadere poenas,\ndeuotamque animam tormenta per omnia Christo\nsponte tua iussus laxatis reddere membris\nliquisti uacuos rabidis lictoribus artus,\nuectus in aetherium sine sanguine martyr honorem,\no pater, o domine, indignis licet, adnue seruis,\nut tandem, hanc fragili trahimus dum corpore uitam,\nsedibus optatis et qua requiescis in aula\nhunc liceat celebrare diem, pia reddere coram\nnota et gaudentes inter gaudere tumultus.\nsit iam, quaeso, satis merita inpietate tulisse\nhanc poenam, tot iam quod te sine uiximus annis,\nsede tua procul heu! quamuis non mente remoti.\niam desideriis inmenso tempore fessis\nconsule, iam uel sero memor miserere tuorum\nperque orbem, magni qui nos tanto aequore ponti\ndisparat, obtritis quae nos inimica retardant\npande uias faciles et, si properantibus ad te\ninuidus hostis obest, obiecta repagula pelle\nfortior aduersis et amicos prouehe cursus.\nseu placeat telluris iter, comes aggere tuto\nesto tuis; seu magna tui fiducia longo\nsuadeat ire mari, da currere mollibus undis,\nut famulis famulos a puppi suggere uentos,\nut Campana simul Christo duce litora necti\nad tua mox alacri rapiamur culmina cursu\ninque tuo placidus nobis sit limine portus.\nillic dulce iugum, lene onus blandumque feremus\nseruitium sub te domino; etsi iustus iniquis\nnon egeas seruis, tamen et patiere et amabis\nqualescumque tibi Christo donante dicatos\net foribus seruire tuis, tua limina mane\nmunditiis curare sines et nocte uicissim\nexcubiis seruare piis et munere in isto\nclaudere promeritam defesso corpore uitam.","t":"Famous confessor, Felix by merit and by name,\nmind mighty in piety, mind dwelling in highest heaven,\nand no less a power experienced in all the lands,\nwho, confessing Christ the Lord with unfettered voice,\nearned by scorning them to escape savage punishments,\nand, bidden to give back to Christ a soul devoted through all torments,\nyour limbs released of their own accord,\nleft the raging lictors your empty limbs,\ncarried to heavenly honour, a martyr without blood:\nO father, O lord, though we are unworthy, nod assent to your servants,\nthat at last, while we drag out this life in a frail body,\nwe may celebrate this day in the longed-for dwelling and in the hall where you rest,\npay our godly vows in your presence,\nand rejoice among the rejoicing throngs.\nLet it now be enough, I pray, to have borne this punishment for deserved impiety,\nthat we have lived so many years without you,\nfar, alas, from your dwelling, though not removed in mind.\nNow take thought for desires wearied by an immense time,\nnow, though late, remember and pity your own,\nand through the world, which divides us by so wide an expanse of the great sea,\ncrush what hostilely holds us back\nand open easy ways; and if the envious enemy stands in the way of those hastening to you,\ndrive back the barriers he throws up,\nstronger than adversaries, and speed a friendly course.\nIf a land journey pleases, be a companion on a safe road\nto your own; or if great trust in you\npersuades us to go by the long sea, grant us to run on gentle waves,\nand supply servant winds from the stern for your servants,\nso that, brought at once to the Campanian shores, with Christ as guide,\nwe may soon be swept with eager course to your roof,\nand in your threshold there may be a calm harbour for us.\nThere we shall bear a sweet yoke, a light burden, a pleasant\nservitude under you as lord; though, being just, you need no\nunjust servants, yet you will suffer and love\nsuch as we are, dedicated to you by Christ's gift,\nand allow us to serve at your doors, to care for your thresholds\nin the morning with cleaning, and by night in turn\nto guard them with godly vigils, and in this service\nto close a life spent, with a wearied body.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 12.1 (CSEL 30:42lines 1–39–44; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/12-1)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/13.1":{"o":"Felix, hoc merito quod nomine, nomine et idem\nqui merito, redit alma dies, qua te sibi summas\nadsciuit patriam confessum Christus in aulam,\ntempus adest plenis grates tibi fundere uotis.\no pater, o domine, indignis licet optime seruis,\ntandem exoratum est inter tua limina nobis\nnatalem celebrare tuum. tria tempore longo\nlustra cucurrerunt, ex quo sollemnibus istis\ncoram uota tibi, coram mea corda dicaui.\nex illo qui me terraque marique labores\ndistulerint a sede tua procul orbe remoto,\nnouisti; nam te mihi semper ubique propinquum\ninter dura uiae uitaeque incerta uocaui.\net maria intraui duce te, quia cura pericli\ncessit amore tui, nec te sine; nam tua sensi\npraesidia in domino superans maris aspera Christo;\nsemper eo et terris te propter tutus et undis.\nhunc, precor, aeterna pietate et pace serenum\nposce tuis, cuius magno stas nomine, Felix.\nnunc iuuat effusas in gaudia soluere mentes,\ncara dies tandem quoniam hic praesentibus orta est,\nsemper et externum nobis celebrata per orbem,\nquae te sacrauit terris et contulit astris.\necce uias uario plebs discolor agmine pingit,\nurbes innumeras una miramur in urbe.\no felix Felice tuo tibi praesule Nola,\ninclita ciue sacro, caelesti firma patrono\npostque ipsam titulos Romam sortita secundos,\nquae prius imperio tantum et uictricibus armis,\nnunc et apostolicis terrarum est prima sepulchris!\nsis bonus o felixque tuis dominumque potentem\nexores, liceat placati munere Christi\npost pelagi fluctus mundi quoque fluctibus actis\nin statione tua placido consistere portu.\nhoc bene subductam religaui litore classem,\nin te conpositae mihi fixa sit anchora uitae.","t":"Felix, rightly so by name and likewise\nso by merit as by name, the kindly day returns on which Christ\ntook you, a confessor, into the supreme hall of the fatherland;\nthe time is here to pour out thanks to you with full prayers.\nO father, O lord, best one, though to unworthy servants,\nat last it has been granted to our prayers to celebrate\nyour birthday within your thresholds. Three lustra\nhave run their long course since, at these solemnities,\nI dedicated my vows to you in your presence, and my heart.\nSince then, what labours by land and sea\nhave kept me far from your dwelling in a distant world,\nyou know; for I always called on you as near me everywhere,\namid the hardships of the road and the uncertainties of life.\nAnd I entered the seas with you as guide, because care for danger\ngave way to love of you; nor was I without you; for I felt your\nprotection in Christ the Lord as I overcame the roughness of the sea;\nalways, because of you, I am safe on land and wave.\nAsk, I pray, that this day be serene for your own with eternal kindness and peace\nfrom him by whose great name you stand, Felix.\nNow it delights to let our minds overflow in joy,\nsince the dear day has at last dawned here for us who are present,\nthe day which we always celebrated in a foreign world,\nthe day that consecrated you to the earth and brought you to the stars.\nBehold, the many-coloured people paint the roads with varied columns;\nwe marvel at countless cities in one city.\nO Nola, happy in your Felix as patron,\nfamous for your holy citizen, made firm by a heavenly patron,\nand, after Rome herself, allotted the second titles,\nRome which before was first of the earth only by empire and victorious arms,\nand now also by the tombs of the apostles!\nBe kind, O Felix, and propitious to your own, and entreat the mighty Lord\nthat by the gift of Christ appeased,\nafter the waves of the sea and the waves of the world have been passed,\nwe may come to rest at your anchorage, in a calm harbour.\nOn this shore I have tied up my fleet, drawn well ashore;\nin you let the anchor of my settled life be fixed.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 13.1 (CSEL 30:44lines 1–36–45; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/13-1)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/14.1":{"o":"Venit festa dies caelo, celeberrima terris,\nnatalem Felicis agens, qua corpore terris\noccidit et Christo superis est natus in astris,\ncaelestem nanctus sine sanguine martyr honorem.\nnam confessor obit poenas non sponte lucratus\nacceptante deo fidam pro sanguine mentem,\nqui cordis taciti scrutator ferre paratos\naequiperat passis, sat habens interna probasse\nsupplicium carnis iusta pietate remittit;\nmartyrium sine caede placet, si prompta ferendi\nmensque fidesque deo caleant; passura uoluntas\nsufficit et summa est meriti testatio noti.\nergo dies, tanto quae munere condidit alto\nFelicem caelo, sacris sollemnibus ista est,\nquae post solstitium, quo Christus corpore natus\nsole nouo gelidae mutauit tempora brumae\natque salutiferum praestans mortalibus ortum\nprocedente die secum decrescere noctes\niussit, ab hoc quae lux oritur uicesima nobis,\nsidereum meriti signat Felicis honorem.\ndenique nil inpar his, qui fudere cruorem,\ntestibus et titulo simul et uirtute recepti\nmartyris ostendit meritum, cum iure potenti\ndaemonas exercet deuinctaque corpora soluit.\nnam sibi Felicem caecis incumbere poenis\npestiferi proceres tristi clamore fatentur\noccultasque cruces gemitu testantur aperto,\nuelatumque oculis mortalibus, at manifestum\nauribus et multo praesentem numine produnt,\ncum captiua intra deprensi corpora Christum\nin sancto fulgere suo clamantque probantque,\nmembrorum incussu tremuli capitumque rotatu\ntormentisque suis; sed non sua corpora torquent,\nclamantes proprios aliena per ora dolores\norantum ueniam; latet ultor, poena uidetur.","t":"The festal day has come, celebrated in heaven, thronged on earth,\nkeeping the birthday of Felix, on which he died to the earth in body\nand was born to Christ among the stars above,\ngaining heavenly honour, a martyr without blood.\nFor the confessor died having escaped his punishments not by his own will,\nGod accepting a faithful mind instead of blood,\nGod who, the searcher of the silent heart, makes those ready to bear\nequal to those who suffered, and, content to have proved the inner man,\nin just kindness remits the punishment of the flesh;\nmartyrdom without slaughter pleases him, if a mind and faith ready\nto bear glow before God; the will to suffer\nsuffices and is the highest testimony of known merit.\nSo this is the day, with holy solemnities, which by so great a gift\nestablished Felix on high in heaven:\nafter the solstice in which Christ, born in the body,\nchanged the season of icy winter with a new sun,\nand, giving a saving birth to mortals,\nordered the nights to wane along with him as the day advanced,\nthe twentieth light that dawns for us from it\nmarks the starry honour of Felix's merit.\nFinally, in no way unequal to those witnesses who shed their blood,\nhe shows the merit of a martyr, received in title and in power alike,\nwhen with mighty right he drives out demons and frees bound bodies.\nFor the pestilent chiefs confess with gloomy cries\nthat Felix is pressing upon them with unseen punishments,\nand with open groans testify to hidden torments,\nand they reveal him, veiled from mortal eyes but manifest\nto the ears and present in great power,\nwhen, caught within the captive bodies, they cry out and prove\nthat Christ shines in his saint,\ntrembling, by the shaking of limbs and the rolling of heads,\nand by their tortures; but they do not torment their own bodies,\ncrying their own pains through others' mouths,\nbegging pardon; the avenger is hidden, the punishment is seen.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 14.1 (CSEL 30:45lines 1–35–47; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/14-1)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/14.36":{"o":"tum si quos grauiore malo uiolentior hostis\nuinxerit, ista dies diuino numine soluit.\ncernere nunc passim est sacra purgata medella\npectora liminibus sterni, iam mente refectos,\ngratantes iam uoce sua; concurrit hiantum\nturba tremens hominum, mixtae inter gaudia cunctis\nprosiliunt lacrimae, praesens deus omnibus illic\ncreditur; inmensi Felix est gloria Christi.\nalma dies magnis celebratur coetibus, omnes\nuota dicant sacris rata postibus; omnia gaudent\nterrarum et caeli, ridere uidetur apertis\naethra polis, uernum spirare silentibus aurae\nflatibus et laetum plaga cingere lactea caelum.\nnec modus est populis coeuntibus agmine denso\nnec requies, properant in lucem a nocte diemque\nexpectare piget, uotis auidis mora noctis.\nrumpitur et noctem flammis funalia uincunt,\nstipatam multis unam iuuat urbibus urbem\ncernere totque uno conpulsa examina uoto.\nLucani coeunt populi, coit Apula pubes\net Calabri et cuncti quos adluit aestus uterque,\nqui laeua et dextra Latium circumsonat unda;\net bis ter denas Campania laeta per urbes\nceu propriis gaudet festis, quos moenibus amplis\ndiues habet Capua et quos pulchra Neapolis aut quos\nGaurus alit, laeta exercent qui Massica quique\nUfentem Sarnumque bibunt, qui sicca Tanagri\nquique colunt rigui felicia culta Galaesi,\nquos Atina potens, quos mater Aricia mittit.","t":"Then, if the more violent enemy has bound any with heavier evil,\nthis day looses them by divine power.\nNow one may see everywhere breasts purged by a holy remedy\nlying prostrate at the thresholds, now restored in mind,\nnow giving thanks with their own voice; a trembling crowd of gaping\nmen runs together, tears burst forth mixed with joy\nfor all, God is believed present to all there;\nFelix is the glory of the immeasurable Christ.\nThe kindly day is celebrated by great gatherings; all\ndedicate fulfilled vows at the holy doorposts; all things\nof earth and heaven rejoice; the upper air seems to smile\nwith the heavens opened, the breezes to breathe spring with silent\ngusts, and the milky zone to gird the glad sky.\nThere is no limit, no rest, for the peoples gathering in dense columns;\nthey hasten from night into light, and it irks them to wait for the day;\nthe night's delay to eager vows\nis broken, and torches conquer night with flames.\nIt delights to see one city crowded with many cities\nand so many swarms driven together by one vow.\nThe Lucanian peoples gather, the youth of Apulia gather,\nand the Calabrians, and all whom either tide washes,\nwhich sounds round Latium with wave on left and right;\nand joyful Campania, through its sixty cities,\nrejoices as at its own festival: those whom rich Capua holds\nin its broad walls, those whom fair Neapolis, or those\nwhom Gaurus feeds, who work the glad Massic slopes, and those\nwho drink the Ufens and the Sarnus, who till the dry fields of the Tanager\nand the happy farms of the watered Galaesus,\nthose whom mighty Atina, whom mother Aricia sends.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 14.36 (CSEL 30:47lines 36–64–48; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/14-36)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/14.65":{"o":"ipsaque caelestum sacris procerum monumentis\nRoma Petro Pauloque potens rarescere gaudet\nhuius honore diei portaeque ex ore Capenae\nmilia profundens ad amicae moenia Nolae\ndimittit duodena decem per milia denso\nagmine; confertis longe latet Appia turbis.\nnec minus ex alia populis regione profectis\naspera montosae carpuntur strata Latinae,\nquos Praeneste altum, quos fertile pascit Aquinum,\nquosque suburbanis uetus Ardea mittit ab oris,\nquique urbem liquere Cales geminamque Teanum,\nquam grauis Auruncus uel quam colit Apulus asper;\nhuc et oliuifera concurrit turba Venafro,\noppida Samnites duri montana relinquunt.\nuicit iter durum pietas, amor omnia Christi\nuincit et alma fides animisque locisque rigentes\nsuadet acerba pati, simul aspera ponere corda.\nuna dies cunctos uocat, una et Nola receptat,\ntoto plena sui spatio spatiosaque cunctis,\ncredas innumeris ut moenia dilatari\nhospitibus. sic, Nola, adsurgis imagine Romae,\n[tu quoque post urbem titulos sortita secundos;\nnam prius imperio tantum et uictricibus armis,\nnunc et apostolicis terrarum est prima sepulchris].\ntu quoque perpetuas duplici sub honore coronas,\nante sacerdotis, post martyris omne per aeuum\nFelicis conplexa tui, gemino bene caelum\ncontingis merito diuini mater amici.\nte prius alma pio celebrans altaria cultu\npresbyter instituit placido et moderamine rexit.\nnunc quoque perpetuo decorat te nomine Felix.","t":"And Rome herself, mighty with the sacred monuments of the heavenly chiefs,\nPeter and Paul, rejoices to be thinned out\nin honour of this day, and, pouring out thousands from the mouth of the Capena gate,\nsends them to the walls of friendly Nola\nover ten times twelve miles in a dense column; far and wide the Appian Way\nlies hidden by the packed crowds.\nNo less, by peoples setting out from another region,\nthe rough pavements of the mountainous Latin Way are worn,\nthose whom lofty Praeneste, whom fertile Aquinum feeds,\nand those whom ancient Ardea sends from the suburban coasts,\nand those who have left the city of Cales and twin Teanum,\nwhich the stern Auruncan or the rough Apulian inhabits;\nhither too runs a crowd from olive-bearing Venafrum,\nand the hardy Samnites leave their mountain towns.\nPiety conquered the hard road; the love of Christ conquers\nall things, and kindly faith persuades those stiff in mind and in place\nto suffer harsh things and at the same time to lay aside harsh hearts.\nOne day calls all, and one Nola receives them,\nfull of itself through its whole space and spacious enough for all,\nso that you might believe its walls are widened for the countless\nguests. So, Nola, you rise up in the likeness of Rome.\nYou also, under a double honour, have embraced everlasting crowns\nof your Felix, first as priest, then as martyr, through every age;\nmother of a divine friend, you touch heaven well by twofold merit.\nAs presbyter he first founded you, celebrating the kindly\naltars with godly worship, and ruled you with gentle governance.\nNow too Felix adorns you with his everlasting name.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 14.65 (CSEL 30:48lines 65–95–49; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/14-65)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/14.96":{"o":"namque tuo meritum in gremio sacratus honorem\nducit odorifero pia conditus ossa sepulchro.\naurea nunc niueis ornantur limina uelis,\nclara coronantur densis altaria lichnis,\nlumina ceratis adolentur odora papyris,\nnocte dieque micant. sic nox splendore diei\nfulget et ipsa dies caelesti inlustris honore\nplus nitet innumeris lucem geminata lucernis.\nnos quoque felices, quibus istum cernere coram\net celebrare diem datur et spectare patroni\npraemia praestantique suis tam grandia Christo\ngratari et laetos inter gaudere tumultus.\nferte deo, pueri, laudem, pia soluite uota\net pariter castis date carmina festa choreis,\nspargite flore solum, praetexite limina sertis.\npurpureum uer spiret hiems, sit floreus annus\nante diem, sancto cedat natura diei.\nmartyris ad tumulum debes, et terra, coronas.\nast illum superi sacra gloria liminis ambit\nflorentem gemina belli pacisque corona.\nhunc, precor, aeterna nobis cum pace serenum\nposce diem, hoc iterum liceat gaudere reuerso\nannuaque hic et uota tuis et carmina festis\nreddere placati tranquillo numine Christi.\nhic amor, hic labor est nobis; haec uota tuorum\nsuscipe commendaque deo, ut cum sedula cura\nseruitium nostrum longo tibi penderit aeuo,\ntunc demum placitos pietate laboris alumnos\nabsoluas mittente manu, positasque tuorum\nante tuos uultus animas uectare paterno\nne renuas gremio domini fulgentis ad ora,\nquem bonitate pium sed maiestate tremendum\nexora, ut precibus lenis meritisque redonet\ndebita nostra tuis. cum tu quoque, magna piorum\nportio, regnantem, Felix, comitaberis agnum,\nposce ouium grege nos statui, ut sententia summi\niudicis hoc quoque nos iterum tibi munere donet,\nne male gratatis laeuos adiudicet haedis\net potius dextre positos in parte piorum\nmunifico pecori laudatisque adgreget agnis.","t":"For, consecrated in your bosom, he draws honour from his merit,\nhis godly bones laid in a fragrant tomb.\nNow the golden thresholds are adorned with snow-white curtains,\nthe bright altars are crowned with crowded lamps,\nfragrant lights burn on waxed papyrus wicks,\nthey glitter night and day. So night shines with the splendour\nof day, and the day itself, illustrious with heavenly honour,\nshines more brightly, its light doubled by countless lamps.\nWe too are happy, to whom it is given to see this day\nin person and to celebrate it, and to behold our patron's\nrewards, and to congratulate Christ who grants such great things to his own,\nand to rejoice amid the glad throngs.\nBring praise to God, boys, pay your godly vows,\nand likewise give festal songs with chaste dances;\nstrew the ground with flowers, fringe the thresholds with garlands.\nLet winter breathe a purple spring, let the year be flowery\nbefore its time, let nature yield to the holy day.\nYou too, earth, owe garlands to the martyr's tomb;\nbut the sacred glory of the threshold above surrounds him,\nflourishing with the double crown of war and of peace.\nAsk, I pray, that this day be serene for us with eternal peace;\nmay it be granted to rejoice when it returns again,\nand to pay here at your festivals yearly vows and songs,\nwith Christ's divinity appeased and calm.\nThis is our love, this our labour; receive these vows of your own\nand commend them to God, so that, when with diligent care\nour service has been paid to you over a long age,\nthen at last you may release your nurslings, pleasing by their godly labour,\nsending them on with your hand, and not refuse to carry\nthe souls of your own, placed before your face, in your fatherly bosom\nto the face of the shining Lord,\nwhom, kind in goodness but dreadful in majesty,\nentreat, that, gentle to your prayers and merits, he may forgive\nus our debts. When you also, a great part of the godly,\nFelix, accompany the reigning Lamb,\nask that we be set in the flock of sheep, so that the sentence of the highest\nJudge may give us to you again as this gift too,\nand not assign us to the left-hand goats, who have ill thanked him,\nbut rather place us on the right, in the portion of the godly,\nand gather us to the bountiful flock and the praised lambs.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 14.96 (CSEL 30:49lines 96–135–50; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/14-96)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/15.1":{"o":"Annua uota mihi remeant, simul annua linguae\ndebita, natalis tuus, o clarissime Christo\nFelix, natali proprio mihi carior, in quo\nquamlibet innumeris sint gaudia publica turbis,\nest aliquid speciale tuis, quod nos tibi Christus\nesse dedit, uiles caro largitus amico,\nnon quia tu dignus famulis tam uilibus esses,\naeternis dignante deo comes ire triumphis,\nsed quia nos inopes aequi indiguosque salutis\nsic uoluit ditare pater bonus, ut male dites\ncriminibus uersa in melius uice diuitiarum\npro cunctis opibus cunctisque affectibus et pro\nnobilibus titulis et honoribus omnia uanis\nFelicem caperemus opes patriamque domumque.\ntu pater et patria et domus et substantia nobis,\nin gremium translata tuum cunabula nostra,\net tuus est nobis nido sinus, hoc bene foti\ncrescimus inque aliam mutantes corpora formam\nterrena exuimur stirpe et subeuntibus alis\nuertimur in uolucres diuini semine uerbi.\nte releuante iugum Christi lene noscimus, in te\nblandus et indignis et dulcis Christus amaris.\nista dies ergo et nobis sollemnis habenda,\nquae tibi natalis, quia te mala nostra abolente\noccidimus mundo, nascamur ut in bona Christo.\nsurge igitur, cithara, et totis intendere fibris,\nexcita uis animae; tacito mea uiscera cantu,\nnon tacita cordis testudine dentibus ictis\npulset amor, linguae plectro lyra personet oris.\nnon ego Castalidas, natum phantasmata, Musas\nnec surdum Aonia Phoebum de rupe ciebo;","t":"My yearly vows return, and with them the yearly debts\nof my tongue: your birthday, O Felix, most illustrious to Christ,\ndearer to me than my own birthday; on which,\nhowever great the public joys of countless crowds,\nthere is something special for your own, because Christ has granted\nthat we be yours, bestowing worthless men on a dear friend;\nnot because you were worthy of such worthless servants,\nyou whom God deems worthy to go as a companion in eternal triumphs,\nbut because the good Father willed so to enrich us,\npoor in justice and needy of salvation, that we, wrongly rich\nin crimes, the course of our riches turned to the better,\ninstead of all wealth and all affections, and instead of\nnoble titles and vain honours, might take Felix as all\nour wealth, fatherland and home.\nYou are father and fatherland and home and substance to us;\nour cradle has been moved into your bosom,\nand your breast is our nest; well warmed in it\nwe grow, and, changing our bodies into another form,\nwe are stripped of our earthly stock, and as wings come on\nwe are turned into birds by the seed of the divine Word.\nAs you lighten the yoke, we know Christ's yoke is gentle; in you\nChrist is kind even to the unworthy and sweet to the bitter.\nSo this day must be held solemn by us too,\nyour birthday, because, as you abolished our evils,\nwe died to the world, that we might be born to good things in Christ.\nRise then, lyre, and be tuned with all your strings;\nawake, strength of my soul; let love strike my inmost being\nwith a silent song, and, on the tortoiseshell of the heart, not silent, with the teeth struck,\nlet the lyre of the mouth sound with the plectrum of the tongue.\nI shall not call the Castalian Muses, mere phantoms,\nnor deaf Phoebus from the Aonian rock;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 15.1 (CSEL 30:51lines 1–31–52; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/15-1)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/15.126":{"o":"tunc magis atque magis quaesito antistite Felix\nclaruit obpositus gladiis solusque fidei\ninuidia effectus, nec spectabatur honore;\nmaior honore fides, quia tantum causa fidei.\ntunc petitur, sua cum draco liuidus excitat arma,\nproruere id cupiens quo surgimus et cadit ipse.\nergo truces poenas fugiente antistite solus\nuel primus de plebe quasi de corpore uertex\nconpetitur Felix. hunc omnes uincere certant\net quasi praecelsam obsessis in moenibus arcem\nfacta mole petunt, cuius munimine uicto\ncetera iam facili cadat urbs prostrata ruina.\no digna infidis dementia! creditur uno\nextinguenda fides, totus quam credidit orbis.\nheu, misera inpietas, infernis caeca tenebris\nquo ruis? in quem tela moues? an credis in uno\nmortali constare deum et, si corpora soluas,\nuim simul et mentem diuinam posse aboleri?\nquae mundi per membra meat, qua nasceris ipse\nindignusque aleris, cuius de numine pendet\nuincere uel uinci, cuius uirtute uel unus\nfortior innumeris, pietate armatus inermi\narmatos ferro, sed inermes pectora Christo\nprosternit superante fide, quae conscia ueri\ncaelestis uitam praesenti morte futuram\nconparat et uicto uictricem corpore mentem\nlaeta deo referens gaudentibus inuehit astris.\nquid iuuat ergo pium tanta quod mole furoris\nFelicem, uesane, petis? manet intus operto,\nmens inuicta deo; nec iam tibi sola resistit\nterreni natura hominis; deus ipse repugnat\nquem petis, atque tuis, serpens antique, uenenis\nipse offert se per famulorum corpora Christus\nteque tuis nectens laqueis in caede suorum\nsternit, per mortis speciem de morte triumphans.","t":"Then, as the bishop was sought, Felix shone more and more,\nset against the swords, made alone the object of hatred for the faith;\nnor was he regarded for his rank:\nfaith was greater than rank, because the cause was faith alone.\nHe is sought then, when the livid dragon stirs up his arms,\ndesiring to overthrow that by which we rise and he falls.\nSo, as the bishop fled the cruel punishments, Felix alone,\nor first of the people, like the head of the body,\nis sought. All strive to conquer him,\nand as though he were a lofty citadel in besieged walls\nthey attack him with siege works, so that, its defence overcome,\nthe rest of the city may fall, laid low in easy ruin.\nO madness worthy of the faithless! They believe that by one man\nthe faith that the whole world has believed can be extinguished.\nAlas, wretched impiety, blind with infernal darkness,\nwhither do you rush? Against whom do you move your weapons? Do you believe\nthat God consists in one mortal, and, if you destroy bodies,\nthat the divine strength and mind can be abolished with them?\nIt goes through the members of the world; by it you yourself\nare born and, though unworthy, are fed; on its divinity\ndepend victory or defeat; by its strength even one man\nis stronger than countless men; armed with unarmed piety,\nit lays low those armed with iron but unarmed in heart,\nChrist conquering through faith, which, aware of the heavenly truth,\npurchases future life by present death,\nand, the body conquered, joyfully brings back to God the victorious mind\nand carries it up to the rejoicing stars.\nWhat good then is it, madman, that you attack godly Felix\nwith such a mass of fury? Within, hidden, remains\nhis mind unconquered for God; nor now does the nature of earthly man\nalone resist you; God himself fights back,\nwhom you attack, and against your poisons, ancient serpent,\nChrist himself offers himself through the bodies of his servants,\nand, binding you in your own snares, in the slaughter of his own\nlays you low, triumphing over death through the appearance of death.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 15.126 (CSEL 30:56lines 126–160–58; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/15-126)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/15.161":{"o":"sed fera corda suus stimulis furialibus error\nsanguinea flagrare siti sanctumque cruorem\nurgebat ueluti sceleris deposcere palmam.\nergo ubi sacrilegos excepit Nola furores\nintentosque piis expauit ciuibus enses,\nquaeritur excussa Felix uenerandus in urbe.\nnec refugit celso iam spirans sidera flatu\net tacitis acuens stimulis in proelia mentem,\ninpauidus trepidum seruabat pastor ouile,\nexemplo domini promptus dare pro grege uitam.\nergo alacer saeuos perstat quasi murus in hostes\net canis florente fide reuirescit in annis,\ntotus in astra animo, Christi memor, inmemor aeui,\ncorde deum gestans et plenus pectora Christo.\nnec iam se capit ipse, sacer maiorque uideri\nsidereumque oculis et honorem fulgere uultu.\nilicet arripitur gaudens saeuisque furentum\nprotrahitur manibus, sed, qui mos hostis iniqui,\ncui potior labor est animas quam corpora nostra\nperdere, dilatum gladio terroribus ante\ntemptat et in mortem surgit gradibus poenarum.\nprimus supplicii de carcere texitur ordo.\nferrea iunguntur tenebrosis uincula claustris;\nstat manibus colloque chalybs neruoque rigescunt\ndiducente pedes; sternuntur fragmina testae,\narceat ut somnum poenalis acumine lectus.\nnec requie tamen est uacuus nec luminis expers\nconfessor, cui iam sociatus in omnia Christus\nconpatitur, uirides grauior cui poena coronas\nmultiplicat, spatiante polum qui mente peragrat.\nseque ipsum, uincto quamuis in corpore, liber\nspiritus anteuolat summi in penetralia Christi\npraemeditante anima certis sua praemia uotis.","t":"But their own error, with frenzied goads, urged savage hearts\nto burn with a bloody thirst and to demand holy blood\nas if it were the palm of crime.\nSo when Nola received the sacrilegious fury\nand dreaded the swords aimed at its godly citizens,\nvenerable Felix is sought in the shaken city.\nNor did he flee; breathing the stars already with lofty breath,\nand sharpening his mind for battle with silent goads,\nthe fearless shepherd guarded the trembling fold,\nready, by the Lord's example, to give his life for the flock.\nSo, eager, he stands firm like a wall against the savage enemies,\nand in white-haired years grows green again with flourishing faith,\nwholly turned to the stars in mind, mindful of Christ, unmindful of his age,\nbearing God in his heart, his breast full of Christ.\nNor can he now contain himself; he seems holy and greater,\nand his eyes shine with a starry light and his face with honour.\nForthwith he is seized, rejoicing, and dragged forth by the savage\nhands of the raging men; but, as is the way of the wicked enemy,\nwhose greater labour is to destroy our souls rather than our bodies,\nhe puts off the sword and first tries him with terrors,\nand rises toward death by degrees of punishment.\nThe first stage of torment is woven of prison.\nIron chains are joined to the dark cells;\nsteel binds his hands and neck, and he stiffens in the stocks\nthat pull his feet apart; fragments of potsherd are strewn,\nso that a penal bed may keep off sleep with its sharpness.\nYet the confessor is not without rest nor deprived of light,\nhe with whom Christ, now joined to him in everything,\nsuffers, whose heavier punishment multiplies his green\ncrowns, who with ranging mind travels through the heavens.\nAnd, though in a bound body, his free\nspirit flies ahead of itself into the inner sanctuary of the most high Christ,\nhis soul anticipating its rewards with sure vows.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 15.161 (CSEL 30:58lines 161–193–59; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/15-161)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/15.194":{"o":"ergo beata sacris Felicem passio poenis\nurgebat grauibus uinclis et carcere caeco,\nquantasque ex homine induerat caro subdita poenas,\ntantas a Christo recipit patientia palmas.\nMaximus interea solis in montibus aeger,\ncontentus fugisse manus feraliaque ora\ncarnificum, diuersa at non leuiore ferebat\nmartyrium cruce, quam si ferro colla dedisset\nmembraque tormentis aut ignibus; acrior illum\ncura sui gregis urit et afficit; uritur igne\nfrigoris et gelido caeli de rore rigescit,\npanis inops tectique simul, noctemque diemque\nperuigil, intenta iungit prece tempus utrumque,\ndumosa prostratus humo conpungitur artus\nsentibus et mentem curis, intusque forisque\ndimicat et ruris spinas in corpore perfert,\ntristitiae patitur spinas in pectore maesto.\nduris dura tegens cruciatu mentis acerbo\nmembrorum tormenta leuat, sensumque doloris\ncorporei excludit mentis dolor. attamen aegra\nmateries terrae, licet inconcussa maneret\nuis animae spernente fide labentia carnis,\nuicta hieme atque fame duroque adtrita cubili\ndeficiente suam linquebat corpore mentem,\naltius et uacuis fessi senis hausta medullis\nfrigora pellebant glaciato sanguine uitam.\nmota patris summi pietas antistite tanto\nnon tulit obscuro consumi funere corpus.\nquamquam et ut Elian istum quoque pascere posset,\nesciferas uolucres ieiuna per auia mittens,\nposset et ut Mosen secreto operire sepulchro;","t":"So a blessed passion pressed Felix with holy penalties,\nwith heavy chains and a blind prison,\nand as many penalties as his subjected flesh had put on from men,\nso many palms did his patience receive from Christ.\nMeanwhile Maximus, sick in the lonely mountains,\ncontent to have fled the hands and deadly faces\nof the executioners, was bearing a different martyrdom,\nbut with a cross no lighter than if he had given his neck to the sword\nand his limbs to tortures or flames; a sharper care for his flock\nburns and afflicts him; he is burned by the fire\nof cold and stiffens with the icy dew of the sky,\nwithout bread and without roof, wakeful night and day,\nhe joins both times in intent prayer;\nprostrate on the thorny ground he is pricked in his limbs\nby briars and in his mind by cares; he fights within and without,\nand bears in his body the thorns of the countryside,\nand suffers in his sorrowful breast the thorns of sadness.\nCovering hard with hard, by the bitter torture of the mind\nhe lightens the torments of the limbs, and the mind's pain shuts out\nthe sense of bodily pain. Yet the sick\nmatter of earth, though the strength of the soul remained unshaken,\nits faith scorning the frailties of the flesh,\novercome by winter and hunger and worn by a hard bed,\nwas leaving its mind as the body failed,\nand the cold, drunk deep into the empty marrow of the weary old man,\nwas driving out life as his blood froze.\nThe kindness of the most high Father, moved for so great a bishop,\ndid not bear that his body be consumed in an obscure death.\nHe could indeed have fed him also as he fed Elijah,\nsending food-bearing birds through the hungry wilderness,\nand could have covered him in a secret grave like Moses;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 15.194 (CSEL 30:59lines 194–224–61; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/15-194)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/15.225":{"o":"sed soli hoc dederat deus uni munus amico\narcana tellure tegi, quia iure decebat\ntantus honos illud corpus, quod comminus ore\nfulserat et sermone dei, ut mortalia functus\niura deo tantum frueretur teste sepulchri.\nergo sacerdotem confessoremque sereno\nlumine respiciens tacitis tabescere siluis\nnon tulit ulterius mitis pater, et quia digno\ncondignum comitem meritis sociare parabat,\nFelicem numero de carceris eligit omni,\ncuius id adponat meritis opus, ut senis almi\nmembra leuet reuocetque animam reuehatque refotum\nadtonitisque ouibus cari solacia reddat\npastoris. uenit ergo micans iam nocte silenti\nangelus et tota uinctorum in plebe reorum\nFelicem solum, pietas cui sancta reatum\nfecerat, adloquitur; fugit atri carceris horror.\nuoce simul sacri Felix et luce ministri\nexcussus tremit et uerbum trahit aure fideli.\nac primum, ueluti ludentis imagine somni\naccipiat mandata dei, stupet anxius et se\ncausatur non posse sequi prohibente catena.\ninsuper et claustro simul et custode teneri\ncarceris obsessi. sed uox diuina morantem\nincrepitans iubet excussis adsurgere uinclis.\net subito ut molles manibus fluxere catenae,\nsponte iugo ceruix ferrato exuta leuatur\nprosiliuntque pedes laxato caudice nerui.\nmira fides! saluis reserato carcere claustris\nsopito custode fores interritus exit,\nperque ipsos uia fit, per quos uia clauditur; ibat\nangelus et tacitae per amica silentia noctis.","t":"but God had given this gift to one friend only,\nto be covered in hidden earth, because so great an honour\nrightly befitted that body which had shone face to face\nwith God's mouth and speech, so that, having fulfilled the laws of mortality,\nhe should have God alone as witness of his grave.\nSo the gentle Father, looking with serene light\non the priest and confessor, did not bear any longer that he waste away\nin the silent woods; and since he was preparing to join to his merits\na fully worthy companion,\nhe chose Felix from the whole number in the prison,\nto whose merits he would add this work: to lift the limbs\nof the kindly old man, call back his soul, bring him back revived,\nand restore to the astonished sheep the comfort of their dear\nshepherd. So there came, shining in the silent night,\nan angel, and among the whole crowd of bound prisoners\nhe speaks to Felix alone, whom holy piety had made\na prisoner; the horror of the black prison fled.\nFelix, roused at once by the voice and light of the sacred minister,\ntrembles and drinks in the word with faithful ear.\nAnd at first, as if he were receiving God's commands in the image\nof a mocking dream, he is dazed and anxious, and pleads\nthat he cannot follow, since the chain prevents him,\nand that he is held besides by the bar and the guard\nof the watched prison. But the divine voice, rebuking him\nas he delayed, bids him rise, his chains shaken off.\nAnd suddenly the chains flowed off his hands like soft things,\nhis neck, freed of its own accord from the iron yoke, is lifted,\nand his feet spring out, the block of the stocks loosened.\nWondrous faith! The prison unlocked, its bars intact,\nthe guard asleep, he goes out of the doors unafraid,\nand a way is made through the very men by whom the way is shut; the angel\nwent before, through the friendly silence of the quiet night.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 15.225 (CSEL 30:61lines 225–256–62; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/15-225)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/15.257":{"o":"lux et iter Felicis erat. nonne unus in omni\nChristus adest sancto? sicut uiget omnibus idem\nspiritus in Christo genitis, sic ipsa piorum\ngratia concordat. ueterem remeare recenti\nhistoria uideo speciem, qua iussus abire\nbisseno sublimis in agmine discipulorum\nPetrus sponte sua uinclis labentibus eque\ncarcere processit clauso, qua praeuius illum\nangelus Herodi praedam furatus agebat.\nsic meus educente deo geminata per atra\ncarceris et noctis reliquis obscura sed uni\ninlustrata sibi Felix inpune per ipsos\ncustodes constante premens uestigia passu\ncallibus ignotis directus iussa petebat.\net postquam emensus secretos auia saltus\nrura locum fessi senis inuenit, aegra trahentem\niam tenui cernit maestus suspiria flatu.\net primo ut cari cognouit membra parentis,\nfusus in amplexum dat uultibus oscula notis\net temptat gelidis reuocare fouendo calorem\nartubus et crebris adflatibus oris anheli\nreddere uiuentes tepefacto corpore sensus.\nsed neque clamatu est neque pulsu mobile corpus\niam simile exanimo, modicus tamen ultima uitae\nflatus et internae prodit trepidatio fibrae.\nanxius intuitu tali pia pectora Felix,\ndistrahit exsangues artus et lurida cernens\nora fame nec habens quicquam, quo rebus egenis\nferret opem, non igne procul neque comminus esca,\nut dape tabentem recrearet et igne rigentem.","t":"He was light and road for Felix. Is not the one Christ\npresent in every saint? As the same Spirit\nflourishes in all who are born in Christ, so the grace itself of the godly\nagrees. I see the ancient pattern return in a recent\nhistory, in which Peter, bidden to depart, exalted in the band\nof twice six disciples, came out, his chains slipping off\nof their own accord, and likewise out of the closed prison,\nwhere an angel, going before, led him, stealing Herod's prey.\nSo, God leading him out, my Felix, through the doubled darkness\nof prison and night, dark to the others but lit up\nfor him alone, with impunity through the very\nguards, pressing on his steps with steady pace,\ndirected along unknown paths, sought what he was bidden.\nAnd after crossing the secret, pathless woods\nhe found the country place of the weary old man, and sorrowfully sees him\ndrawing sick sighs, now with a feeble breath.\nAnd as soon as he recognized the limbs of his dear father,\nhe threw himself into his embrace, gave kisses to the familiar face,\nand tried by cherishing to call back warmth to the cold\nlimbs, and with frequent breaths of his panting mouth\nto restore living senses to the warmed body.\nBut the body was moved neither by calling nor by shaking,\nnow like one lifeless; yet a slight breath, the last of life,\nand a trembling of the inner fibres betrayed it.\nFelix, anxious at such a sight, is torn in his godly breast,\nseeing the bloodless limbs and the face pale\nwith hunger, and having nothing with which to bring help in their need,\nno fire far or food near,\nto revive the wasting man with food and the stiffened man with fire.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 15.257 (CSEL 30:62lines 257–286–64; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/15-257)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/15.287":{"o":"quaerenti et multa Christum prece conuenienti,\nquanam ope quaue uia iussum conplere ualeret\nseruitium, subitam omnipotens de sentibus uuam\nedidit et capiti iussit pendere propinquam,\nut facile adtiguo posset decerpere ramo\nnatum sponte cibum. diuinitus ergo refectus\nmente pia oblato laetatur munere Felix\ndemessumque manu morientis ad ora racemum\nadmouet, et quoniam strictis iam dentibus ille\net sentire negat dulces et sumere uictus,\nexprimit umentes acinos sucumque liquentem\ninstillat, digito diducens arida labra,\ndonec et adspirante deo conatibus aegris\net luctante manu rigidos paulisper hiatus\nlaxauit tenuemque aditum dedit oris aperti,\nquo rorem exiguum resoluta infunderet uua.\nhinc animae sensus, calor ossibus atque oculis lux\nuitaque tota redit, quaeque haeserat obsita siccis\nfaucibus exercet solitas iam lingua loquellas,\npostquam uocis iter patefecit lubricus umor.\nergo reuiuiscens notissima comminus ora,\nFelicis uidet ora sui amplexusque uicissim\nconqueritur tardum: nam te promiserat, inquit,\nadfore iamdudum dominus mihi, pars mea Felix;\npraecipuum, Felix, pignus mihi, quae rogo tantae\naut ubi te tenuere morae? si corpore cessi\nad tempus fragili, solido tamen esse fidelis\npectore duraui. docet et locus et status ipse,\nin quo me cernis uitae istius ima trahentem,\nnon mortis fugisse metu Christoque meam me\npraeposuisse animam; fugi non lucis amore,\nsed fragile hoc metuens infirmi corporis; atquin\ntecta petens alia uixissem tutus in urbe,\nsi mihi uile fides et carum haec uita fuisset.","t":"As he searched and approached Christ with much prayer,\nasking by what help or what way he could fulfil the service bidden,\nthe Almighty produced a sudden cluster of grapes from the briars\nand bade it hang close to his head,\nso that from the neighbouring branch he could easily pluck\nfood grown of its own accord. So, divinely refreshed,\nFelix rejoices with godly mind in the gift offered,\nand, plucking the cluster with his hand, brings it to the dying man's lips,\nand since he, his teeth now clenched,\ncannot taste or take sweet food,\nhe squeezes the juicy grapes and drips in the flowing juice,\nparting the dry lips with his finger,\nuntil, God breathing on the feeble efforts\nand the struggling hand, he loosened a little the stiff jaws\nand gave a narrow entry to the opened mouth,\nby which the pressed grape might pour in a little dew.\nThen sense returns to the soul, warmth to the bones, light to the eyes,\nand the whole of life, and the tongue, which had clung, crusted, to the dry\nthroat, now exercises its usual speech,\nafter the slippery moisture has opened the voice's path.\nSo, reviving, he sees close by that most familiar face,\nthe face of his Felix, and embracing him in turn\ncomplains that he is late: “For the Lord had long since promised,” he says,\n“that you would be with me, Felix, my portion;\nFelix, my chief pledge, what delays, I ask, held you so long,\nor where? If I gave way in my frail body\nfor a time, yet I have endured to be faithful with a solid\nheart. The place and the very state in which you see me\ndragging out the last of this life teach\nthat I did not flee from fear of death and that I put Christ\nbefore my own life; I fled, not from love of the light,\nbut fearing this frailty of a weak body; and yet,\nseeking shelter, I could have lived safe in another city,\nif faith had been cheap to me and this life dear.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 15.287 (CSEL 30:64lines 287–320–65; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/15-287)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/15.32":{"o":"carminis incentor Christus mihi, munere Christi\naudeo peccator sanctum et caelestia fari.\nnec tibi difficile, omnipotens, mea soluere doctis\nora modis, qui muta loqui, fluere arida, solui\ndura iubes. tu namque asinam reboare loquendo\nperfectamque tibi lactantes condere laudem\nfecisti et solidam soluisti in flumina rupem\net terram sine aqua subitis manare fluentis\niussisti, deserta rigans in spem populorum,\nin quorum arentes animas pia gratia fluxit,\nquos Christus uiuo manans petra fonte refecit.\nunde ego, pars hominum minima, isto munere fretus\nroris, Christe, tui uiuos precor aridus haustus.\nda uerbum de fonte tuo, tua non queo fari\nte sine; namque tui laus martyris et tua laus est,\nqui facis omnipotens homines diuina ualere\nfortiaque infirmis superas de carne triumphans,\naerios proceres uincens in corpore nostro.\nquare ades, ut duce te repetens ab origine pergam\nFelicem narrare tuum, cui nobile ductum\nex Oriente genus; nec enim magis altera tellus\nFelicis patriam decuit quam quae patriarchas\nquaeque pios tulerat, Christi sacra uasa, prophetas,\nunde et apostolicis fundens sua flumina linguis\ntotum euangelii sonus emanauit in orbem.\ndebitus inde deo Felix, genitore profecto\nItaliam necdum genitus, tamen in patre uenit,\nciuis ut affectu nostris oreretur in oris\nnec cuiquam natum nisi nobis se meminisset.\nsic pater Abraham domini praecepta secutus\nmutauit patrias externo cespite terras\ndeposuitque sacrum Chananaeis semen in aruis;","t":"Christ is the kindler of my song; by Christ's gift\nI, a sinner, dare to speak of a saint and of heavenly things.\nNor is it hard for you, Almighty, to loose my mouth\nin learned measures, you who bid the dumb speak, the dry flow, the hard\ndissolve. For you made a she-ass cry out in speech,\nand sucklings establish perfect praise for you,\nand you dissolved the solid rock into rivers\nand ordered the waterless land to stream with sudden floods,\nwatering the deserts in hope of the peoples,\ninto whose parched souls godly grace has flowed,\nwhom Christ, the rock, streaming with a living fountain, has refreshed.\nSo I, the least part of mankind, relying on that gift\nof your dew, O Christ, dry as I am, pray for living draughts.\nGive me a word from your fountain; I cannot speak of what is yours\nwithout you; for the praise of your martyr is your praise too,\nyou who, almighty, make men strong in divine things\nand overcome strong things through the weak, triumphing from the flesh,\nconquering the powers of the air in our body.\nSo be present, that with you as guide I may go back to the origin\nand tell of your Felix, whose noble stock was drawn\nfrom the East; for no other land better befitted\nas the homeland of Felix than that which bore the patriarchs\nand the godly prophets, sacred vessels of Christ,\nand from which, pouring out its rivers through the tongues of the apostles,\nthe sound of the gospel flowed forth into the whole world.\nSo Felix, owed to God from there, his father having set out,\ncame to Italy, not yet born, yet in his father,\nso that by affection he might be born a citizen of our shores\nand remember that he was born for none but us.\nSo father Abraham, following the Lord's commands,\nexchanged his native lands for foreign soil\nand laid down a sacred seed in Canaanite fields;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 15.32 (CSEL 30:52lines 32–63–53; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/15-32)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/15.321":{"o":"ignotos montes desertaque nuda petiui,\nin gremio domini dulcis mea colla reponens,\nipso ut deficerem teste aut ut pascerer ipso.\nnec frustra, ecce uides, fuit haec fiducia nobis;\nadfuit omnipotens et te mihi mittere legit,\nper quem dona mihi sua redderet; utere, fili,\npraeceptis pietatis opus mandantibus et me\nsuscipiens humeris commune ad ouile reporta.\ninpiger optato gauisus munere Felix\ncarum onus ut Christi pondus leue sumit et adfert\ntam uolucer cursu, tamquam magis ipse feratur\nnec ferat, et uere Christus fert ipse ferentem\net pedibus pietate citis deus addidit alas.\nnocte eadem pariter tot munera percipit unus\net simul exequitur Felix; sua rumpere iussus\nuincla sacerdotem reficit reuehitque refectum\ndeponitque sui tutum sub culmine tecti,\nunica quod seruabat anus; tam celsus et isto\nMaximus extabat merito confessor, ut illi\norba domus summa et census anus una maneret.\npulsatis foribus Felix hanc excitat; illa\nad primos stupefacta sonos, uix nota renoscit\nadloquia et dominum tectis adsumit apertis,\nuoce graduque tremens quatiente timore senectam.\ncui Felix: cape depositum hoc quod conscia mecum\nsidera noctis et angelicae sub principe Christo\nme tradente manus tradunt tibi; sume fideli\nhanc domini gemmam gremio, quam tempore summo\nincolumem nobis domino sub iudice reddas,\nquo nunc teste capis. subit istis Maximus orsis\nFelicemque suum reuocans: cape tu quoque, dixit,\nmuneris, o mi nate, uicem, quam me tibi iussit\nreddere conpositum, qui te mihi iussit adesse\ndeposito. tum deinde sacram Felicis amati\ninponit capiti dextram, simul omnia Christi\ndona petens, uelut ille patrum uenerabilis Isac\nrore poli natum et terrae benedixit opimo;\nFelicem Christo sic Maximus ore paterno\nore et apostolico benedicens et locupletans,\ninmarcescibilis redimiuit honore coronae\nperpetuisque opibus, quas et modo cernimus, auxit.","t":"I sought unknown mountains and bare deserts,\nlaying my neck in the bosom of the sweet Lord,\nto die with him as witness or to be fed by him.\nAnd not in vain, see, was this our trust;\nthe Almighty was present and chose you to send to me,\nthrough whom he might give me back his gifts; use, my son,\nthe precepts of piety that command the work, and,\ntaking me up on your shoulders, carry me back to our common fold.”\nTireless Felix, glad at the longed-for task,\ntakes up the dear burden as the light weight of Christ and carries it\nso swift in running that he seemed rather to be carried himself\nthan to carry; and truly Christ himself carries the carrier,\nand God added wings to feet swift with piety.\nIn the same night Felix alone receives so many gifts\nand carries them out together; bidden to break his own\nchains, he restores the priest and carries him back restored,\nand sets him down safe under the roof of his house,\nwhich one old woman alone was keeping; so lofty, and by this\nmerit, was Maximus a confessor, that of his\nbereft house and property one old woman alone remained to him.\nKnocking at the doors, Felix wakes her; she,\nastonished at the first sounds, barely recognizes the familiar\nvoice, and receives her master, opening the house,\ntrembling in voice and step, fear shaking her old age.\nFelix said to her: “Take this deposit, which the stars of the night,\nwitnesses with me, and the angelic hands under Christ as prince\nhand over to you as I hand it over; take with faithful\nbosom this jewel of the Lord, which at the last time\nyou are to return to us unharmed before the Lord as judge,\nwith whom as witness you receive it now.” Maximus follows these words,\nand calling back his Felix said: “You too take,\nmy son, a return for the gift, which he who bade you be present\nfor the deposit bade me, once restored, to give to you.”\nThen he places his sacred right hand on the head\nof his beloved Felix, asking at the same time all the gifts\nof Christ, as Isaac, venerable among the patriarchs,\nblessed his son with the dew of heaven and the richness of the earth;\nso Maximus, blessing Felix for Christ with a father's mouth\nand with an apostolic mouth, and enriching him,\ncrowned him with the honour of an unfading crown\nand increased him with everlasting riches, which we see even now.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 15.321 (CSEL 30:65lines 321–361–67; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/15-321)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/15.64":{"o":"unde peregrinas abeunte propagine terras\nmystica Felicem nobis transmisit origo,\nquem perfecta fides illa radice profectum\nprodidit, ut nobis esset pia uena fidei.\nFelix nunc etiam posita cum carne quiescit,\nspiritus in Christo uiuens, operantibus altae\nuirtutis meritis Abrahae semine mutat\nduritiam lapidum, quos suscitat in bona uitae.\nhac igitur genitore Syro generatus in urbe\ndilectam coluit patriae sub imagine Nolam\nsede beans placita multoque relictus in auro\ndiues opum uiguit quamuis non unicus heres.\nHermia cum fratre sui cognomine patris\nterrenas diuisit opes, caelestia solus\nobtinuit Felix; geminos sententia discors\ndiuisit fratres: Hermiam mundus abegit,\nFelicem Christus sibi sustulit; ille caduca\nmaluit, hic solida; praesentibus ille cohaesit,\niste solum caelo uertit, patrimonia regnis;\nille heres tantum proprii patris, iste coheres\nChristi. sed quis tam uariam miretur ab uno\nsanguine progeniem, ueterum inter sancta parentum\npignora qui relegat, populorum stirpe duorum\nfecundam pugnas uteri doluisse Rebeccam\nconquestamque deo grauidi luctamina uentris ?\ncum iam tunc fremeret sanctae intra uiscera matris\nquae nunc intra uterum mundi discordia saeuit,\nhispida Iudaeis hirti sectantibus Esau\nperfidiae, addictis populo seruire minori,\nat nobis lenem per lenia pacis Iacob,\nqua uia lucis agit, meliore sequentibus ortu.","t":"whence, as the line passed into foreign lands,\na mystic origin transmitted Felix to us,\nwhom that perfect faith brought forth, sprung from that root,\nso that he might be for us a godly vein of faith.\nFelix, even now, while he rests with his flesh laid aside,\na spirit living in Christ, by the working merits\nof lofty virtue changes into Abraham's seed the hardness\nof stones, which he raises up to the goods of life.\nSo, born in this city of a Syrian father,\nhe cherished beloved Nola as the image of a homeland,\nblessing it with his pleasing residence; and, left much gold,\nhe flourished rich in wealth, though not the sole heir.\nWith his brother Hermias, who bore his father's name,\nhe divided the earthly wealth; Felix alone obtained\nthe heavenly; a discordant judgment divided\nthe two brothers: the world drove Hermias away,\nChrist took Felix up to himself; the one preferred perishing\nthings, the other solid; the one clung to the present,\nthe other turned his soil to heaven, his patrimony to the kingdom;\nthe one was heir only of his own father, the other co-heir\nof Christ. But who would wonder at offspring so varied from one\nblood, who rereads, among the holy pledges of the ancient parents,\nthat Rebecca, fruitful with the stock of two peoples,\nsuffered the battles of her womb\nand complained to God of the struggles in her pregnant belly,\nsince already then there raged within the holy mother's womb\nthe discord that now rages within the womb of the world:\nrough for the Jews, who follow hairy Esau\nin faithlessness and are assigned to serve the younger people,\nbut gentle for us, who follow Jacob through the gentle ways of peace,\nwhere the way of light leads, by a better birth.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 15.64 (CSEL 30:54lines 64–94–55; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/15-64)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/15.95":{"o":"ergo pari dispar fratrum de sanguine sanguis\nHermias uelut asper Edom terrena secutus\nsqualuit in uacua captiuus imagine mundi\nduraque Idumaei praelegit iura parentis,\nin gladio uiuens proprio uanaeque laborem\nmilitiae sterilem tolerans, qua Caesaris armis\nsuccubuit, priuatus agens ad munia Christi.\nat meus aeterni satus arma capessere regis\nin patris Israel migrauit nomina Felix\nseseque a puero pia mens caelestibus edens\ninstituit seruire deo; nec gratia pauper\nadfuit, et quantum sitiebat corde capaci\nlucis hians animus, tam largiter influa traxit\ndona dei. primis lector seruiuit in annis.\ninde gradum cepit, cui munus uoce fideli\nadiurare malos et sacris pellere uerbis.\nquod quia perspicua meriti uirtute gerebat,\niure sacerdotis ueneranda insignia nanctus,\nmente loco digna meritum decorauit honorem.\nsed ne sola sacrum caput infula comeret illi,\nextitit et potior geminandae causa coronae,\ndira profanorum rabies exorta furorum,\ncum pia sacrilego quateretur eclesia bello\npraecipueque illos populo deposceret omni\ninpietas, quorum pietas insignior esset.\ntunc senior sanctis Nolanam legibus urbem\nMaximus et placido formabat episcopus ore,\npresbytero Felice potens, quem mente paterna\nconplexus ueluti natum sedisque uouebat\nheredem; subita sed tempestate fugatus\nnon cedente fide petiit deserta locorum.","t":"So, unlike blood from the same blood of brothers,\nHermias, like rough Edom, following earthly things,\ngrew squalid, a captive in the empty image of the world,\nand chose the hard laws of the Idumean ancestor,\nliving by his own sword, and bearing the barren labour\nof vain military service, in which he submitted to Caesar's arms,\nliving as a private man with no part in the duties of Christ.\nBut my Felix, born to take up the arms of the eternal King,\npassed over into the names of father Israel,\nand his godly mind, giving itself from boyhood to heavenly things,\nresolved to serve God; nor did grace come\npoor, and as much as his soul thirsted, gaping for light\nwith capacious heart, so lavishly did it draw in the inflowing\ngifts of God. In his first years he served as reader.\nThen he took the grade whose duty is with faithful voice\nto adjure evil spirits and drive them out with sacred words.\nBecause he did this with a clear power of merit,\nrightly gaining the venerable insignia of a priest,\nhe adorned the honour he had earned with a mind worthy of the rank.\nBut so that the fillet alone should not adorn his sacred head,\na stronger cause for a doubled crown arose:\nthe dire madness of profane frenzy broke out,\nwhen the godly church was shaken by sacrilegious war,\nand impiety demanded above all from the whole people\nthose whose piety was more notable.\nThen the aged Maximus, the bishop, was forming the city of Nola\nwith holy laws and a gentle mouth,\nstrong in Felix his presbyter, whom with a father's mind\nhe embraced as a son and destined as heir\nof his see; but, driven off by a sudden storm,\nwith his faith not yielding, he sought deserted places.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 15.95 (CSEL 30:55lines 95–125–56; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/15-95)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/16.1":{"o":"Tempora temporibus subeunt, abit et uenit aetas;\ncuncta dies trudendo diem fugit et rotat orbem;\nomnia praetereunt, sanctorum gloria durat\nin Christo, qui cuncta nouat, dum permanet ipse.\ntandem igitur, reuoluta dies, mihi nascere, toto\nexoptata dies anno, quae dulcia festa\net mea uota nouas, quae me sollemnia poscis\nmunera natalem referens, quo milia gaudent\ninnumeri populi, quo me specialia tangunt\ngaudia, quo famulae rata debeo munera linguae\nFelici libare meo, cui mente dicata\nin domino Christo sum deditus; hunc etiam oris\nobsequio celebrare per annua carmina sanctum\nfas mihi. dicam igitur merita et causas meritorum,\ne quibus obtinuit caelestum praemia laudum\naeternosque dies et magni nomen honoris.\niam prior hoc primos uobis liber edidit actus\nmartyris, unde domum uel qui genus et quibus altus\nin studiis, quo deinde gradu per sancta uocatus\nmunia maluerit Christo seruire perenni\nquam patrias errare uias per deuia mundi;\nnam pater emeritis sub Caesare uixerat armis.\ndiximus et taetro toleratas carcere poenas,\nquas confessor obit, mortem quoque ferre paratus,\nni deus anticipans gladios soluisset iniquis\nemissum uinclis aliosque uocasset ad actus,\nut prius ad sacram remearet episcopus aulam\nMaximus, in solis qui saltibus ultima uitae\naeger anhelabat grassante fugatus ab hoste,\nquem iussus proprio subuexit corpore Felix\npauperis et tecti delatum in sede locauit;","t":"Times follow times; age goes and comes;\neach day flees by pushing on the next and turns the world round;\nall things pass by; the glory of the saints endures\nin Christ, who makes all things new while he himself abides.\nAt last then, returning day, be born for me, day longed for\nthe whole year, which renews sweet festivities\nand my vows, which demand of me solemn\ngifts, bringing back the birthday in which thousands of countless\npeoples rejoice, in which special joys touch me,\nin which I owe the ratified gifts of a servant tongue\nto be offered to my Felix, to whom, with dedicated mind,\nI am devoted in Christ the Lord; it is right for me to celebrate\nthis saint also with the service of my mouth in yearly songs.\nI will tell, then, his merits and the causes of his merits,\nby which he obtained the rewards of heavenly praises,\neternal days, and the name of great honour.\nAlready the former book has told you the first acts\nof the martyr: whence his home, what his family, in what\nstudies he was raised, by what grade then, called through holy\nduties, he preferred to serve the everlasting Christ\nrather than wander along his father's ways through the byways of the world;\nfor his father had lived under Caesar, his military service completed.\nWe have told also the punishments he endured in a foul prison,\nwhich the confessor underwent, ready to bear death too,\nhad not God, forestalling the swords, released him\nfrom his chains and called him to other deeds,\nso that first Maximus the bishop might return to the sacred hall,\nwho in lonely woods was gasping out the last of his life,\nsick, driven out by the raging enemy,\nwhom Felix, as bidden, carried on his own body\nand set down in the dwelling of a poor house;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 16.1 (CSEL 30:67lines 1–31–69; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/16-1)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/16.127":{"o":"armatus pietate manus et pectora plenus\ncasta deo insignis meriti thorace tegebat.\no multis diuina modis sapientia diues,\nsemper ab infirmis confundens fortia mundi!\nuix populos altis defendunt moenia muris,\net fretos ualido munimine saepius hostis\nobprimit euersaeque obponunt mortibus urbes.\nnunc et ab armatis protexit aranea sanctum\ndefensante deo; teneris stetit hostis abactus\ncassibus; aerio cessit uis ferrea filo.\nuana salus hominum, uirtus mea non mihi uirtus,\nsi caream uirtute dei. quo uasta gigantum\nrobora? quo Pharii reges? ubi magna Hierico?\nomnibus exitii sua gloria, qua tumuerunt,\ncausa fuit, neque herois uirtutibus ista,\nsed magis infirmis diuina potentia fregit.\nille gigans pueri funda pastoris obiuit\nut canis; illam urbem sonitus soluere tubarum;\nlitorea iacuit rex ille superbus harena,\ndiuitias regni pendens in funere nudo.\nsic ubi Christus adest nobis, et aranea muro est;\nat cui Christus abest, et murus aranea fiet.\ndigressis igitur cum facta silentia turbis\nsecretoque fugae fidas nox alta tenebras\npraebuit, egreditur Felix mutatque latebras,\nilla canens domino: media si noctis in umbra\ningrediar, mala non metuam, quoniam tua mecum\ndextra; per infernum non expers luminis ibo.\nergo dei ductu capit in regione remota\nconpluuium angusto breuia inter tecta cubili,\nquo uetus arebat tecto cisterna profundo.","t":"Armed in his hands with piety and full in his chaste breast\nof God, he covered it with the breastplate of distinguished merit.\nO divine wisdom, rich in many ways,\nalways confounding the strong things of the world by the weak!\nWalls with high ramparts scarcely defend peoples,\nand the enemy often overwhelms those who trust in strong defences,\nand overthrown cities expose them to death.\nNow a spider protected the saint from armed men,\nwith God defending; the enemy stood, driven back by tender\nnets; iron force gave way to an airy thread.\nVain is the safety of men; my strength is no strength to me,\nif I lack the strength of God. Where is the vast strength\nof the giants? Where the kings of Pharos? Where great Jericho?\nFor all of them their own glory, by which they swelled,\nwas the cause of their destruction; nor did the virtues of heroes break them,\nbut rather the divine power broke them by weak things.\nThat giant fell like a dog by the sling of a shepherd boy;\nthe sound of trumpets broke down that city;\nthat proud king lay on the sand of the shore,\nweighing the riches of his kingdom in a naked death.\nSo when Christ is with us, even a spider is a wall;\nbut for him from whom Christ is absent, even a wall will become a spider's web.\nSo when the crowds had gone away and silence had fallen,\nand deep night gave darkness trustworthy for secret flight,\nFelix comes out and changes his hiding place,\nsinging this to the Lord: “If I walk in the midst of the shadow\nof night, I will fear no evil, since your right hand\nis with me; through hell I shall go, not without light.”\nSo, with God as guide, he takes, in a remote quarter,\na small room among low roofs around an open court,\nwhere an old cistern lay dry under a deep shelter.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 16.127 (CSEL 30:73lines 127–157–75; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/16-127)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/16.158":{"o":"propter in adtiguis habitabat femina tignis\nsancta deo mulier, quae confessoris operti\nnescia Felicem Christo quasi conscia pauit.\nmira canam, ingenium domini pascentis alumnum\nignara pascente suum. nunc sedula panes,\nnunc alias de more, sibi quas coxerat escas,\nmentis in excessu diuino facta paratu\ninportabat eo, Felix ubi teste latebat\nuelatus domino; sed nec cum tenderet illo,\nnouerat ingressum nec cum discesserat inde,\nintroitus erat illa sui memor; utque paratus\nintulerat satagens, propriis licet illa cibando\nseruiret manibus sancto, tamen inscia tanti\nmuneris hoc de corde suo nouisse nequibat,\nquod non mente sua sed Christi numine agebat,\nproque loco latebrae et structae super ora lacunae\nadpositos ingressa cibos linquebat, eosque\nse posuisse domi credens, ita semper abibat,\nponendae memor et positae mox inmemor escae.\no mulier benedicta deo, uelut una uolucrum,\nquae quondam mundo abductum pauere prophetam,\ntu quoque secreto pauisti martyra tecto,\nsicut auis domino parens, et nescia sancti\nconscia seruitii, quid gesseris et cui tandem\nseruieris, illo gaudens sub tempore nosces,\ncum deus ipse suo pro confessore coronam\niustitiae Christus reddet tibi; tunc tua Felix\nipse tibi referet sub iudice prandia Christo,\nquae deus ad dulces sacrati martyris usus\ntranstulit, ut quondam coctas messoribus escas\nangelica per inane manu pendente propheta\nmisit ieiuno rabida inter monstra prophetae;","t":"Nearby, in the adjoining building, lived a woman\nholy to God, who, not knowing of the hidden confessor,\nfed Felix for Christ as if she knew.\nI will sing wonders, the device of the Lord, who fed his nursling\nthrough one who unknowingly fed her own. Now diligently loaves,\nnow other food which, as was her custom, she had cooked for herself,\nin a rapture of mind, by divine arrangement,\nshe would carry there, where Felix lay hidden, with the Lord as witness,\nveiled by the Lord; but neither when she went there\ndid she know she had gone in, nor when she had left that place\nwas she mindful of her entrance; and though she had busily brought in\nwhat she had prepared, though she served the saint with her own hands\nin feeding him, yet, unaware of so great a service,\nshe could not know this from her own heart,\nsince she did it not by her own mind but by the power of Christ;\nand, entering the place of the hiding and the pit built above its mouth,\nshe would leave the food set out, and, believing\nshe had put it down at home, so she always went away,\nmindful of setting the food down and soon unmindful of having set it.\nO woman blessed by God, like one of those birds\nwhich once fed the prophet withdrawn from the world,\nyou too fed a martyr under a secret roof,\nlike a bird obeying the Lord, and, unaware of your holy\nservice yet sharing in it, what you did, and whom you\nserved, you will at last learn with joy in that time,\nwhen God himself, Christ, will give you for his confessor's sake\nthe crown of justice; then Felix himself will repay you\nyour meals, with Christ as judge,\nwhich God transferred to the sweet use of the consecrated martyr,\nas once he sent food cooked for the reapers,\nthe prophet hanging in the air by an angel's hand,\nto a fasting prophet among raging monsters;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 16.158 (CSEL 30:75lines 158–189–76; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/16-158)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/16.190":{"o":"non fera iam feritas, saeuos quia praeda leones\nsanctaque frenabant auidos ieiunia rictus.\nsex illum totos perhibent ex ordine menses\nexpertem coetus hominum uixisse sub illa\nculminis obscuri simul angustique latebra,\nnil opis humanae indiguum, solamine Christi\nsemper abundantem; qui tempore fertur in illo\nsaepe illum sermone suo dignatus adisse,\nsaepe sua pauisse manu caeloque dedisse\npocula non pluuialis aquae, quam nubila passim\nomnibus effundunt, sed quem specialiter uni\ngratia Felici defudit ab aethere rorem;\nnam nimiis, ut fit, tunc torrida solibus aestas\net puteum quoque siccarat, qui parca latenti\npocula praebuerat. sed ne sitis ureret illum\ncarnea, qui Christum sitiendo ferebat et istam\ncorporis adflicti poenam, delata sereno\ninque globum tenuem nubes collecta per artum\nconpluuii dulcem sitientis in ora liquorem\ninfudit quasi pressa manu, caeloque uocandum\nuelleris aetherii suco lactante refecit.\nquid mirum, si nunc terrena labe solutum\nChristus alat, positum quem in corpore sanctus alebat\nspiritus et cui panis erat uerbum deus ipse,\ncaelestum panis, quo uescitur angelus omnis?\ntempus ut hoc abiit, pax reddita condidit enses,\nFelicemque deus monuit prodire latebra,\nqui dudum placidas mundi clamoribus aures\nstruxerat, humanis ducens obliuia rebus.\nut nouus in lucem iam desperantibus exit\net patria tamquam rediuiuus in urbe uidetur\net multi dubitant agnoscere et ante rogantes,\nuerane, te, facies? aiunt, tunc ille beatus,\nredderis qui tanto nobis post tempore, Felix?","t":"no longer a wild ferocity, because their prey and holy fasting\nreined in the savage lions' greedy jaws.\nThey say that for six whole months on end he lived\nwithout the company of men under that hiding place\nof dark and narrow roof alike,\nneeding no human help, always abounding\nin the comfort of Christ; who at that time, it is said,\noften deigned to come to him with his speech,\noften fed him with his own hand and gave him from heaven\ndrinks, not of rainwater, which the clouds pour out\neverywhere for all, but a dew which grace poured out\nfrom the sky for Felix alone;\nfor at that time, as happens, summer was parched with too many suns\nand had dried up the well too, which had supplied\nsparing drinks to the hidden man. But lest bodily thirst\nshould burn him, who, thirsting for Christ, was bearing this\npenalty of an afflicted body as well, a cloud, brought from a clear\nsky and gathered into a small ball, through the narrow\nopening of the roof poured sweet liquid into the mouth of the thirsting man,\nas if squeezed by a hand, and refreshed him, intent on heaven,\nwith the milky juice of a heavenly fleece.\nWhat wonder if Christ feeds now one freed from earthly stain,\nwhom, while he was set in the body, the Holy Spirit fed,\nand for whom the bread was the Word, God himself,\nthe bread of heaven, on which every angel feeds?\nWhen this time had passed, restored peace sheathed the swords,\nand God warned Felix to come out of his hiding place,\nhe who had long since closed his calm ears to the clamour of the world,\ndrawing forgetfulness over human affairs.\nAs he comes out into the light, new to those already despairing,\nand is seen as if come back to life in his native city,\nmany hesitate to recognize him and first ask:\n“Is it truly your face? Are you that blessed one,” they say,\n“restored to us after so long a time, Felix?","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 16.190 (CSEL 30:76lines 190–223–78; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/16-190)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/16.224":{"o":"qua regione uenis? caelo datus an paradiso\nredditus in terras habitacula nostra reuisis?\nille fidem firmat coram se corpore adesse,\nseruatum uixisse deo; data gaudia cunctis,\nlaudibus et meritis populo celebratur ab omni.\nfunctus erat longum perfunctus episcopus aeuum\nMaximus, et pecudes ductu pastoris egebant.\nFelicis nomen totum balabat ouile,\nquem confessoris redimibat adorea Christo\nquemque salutiferum spondebat lingua magistrum\nuitaque doctrinae concors; sed ut hoc quoque palmam\niustitiae ferret, meritum sublime quieto\ncorde premens uelut indignus non audet honore\ncrescere testaturque seni mage debita Quinto,\nquod prior ille gradum socii meruisset honoris\npresbyter. haec septem distabat summa diebus.\nergo sub hoc etiam Felix antistite uixit\npresbyter et creuit meritis, quia crescere sede\nnoluit; ipse illum tamquam minor omnia Quintus\nobseruabat, et os linguam Felicis habebat.\nille gregem officiis, Felix sermone regebat.\nmulta aliis sanctum Christi uirtutibus auxit\ngratia Felicem, nec pace minora subegit\nproelia, quam ualidis confessor gesserat armis.\ncorpoream tristi sub tempestate salutem\nspreuerat, idem et opum simul et contemptor honorum\nsecura sub pace fuit. non ille tenendi\nsecurus meriti, sed cautior, ut bona uitae\nparta tueretur, postquam discrimina mortis\nuicerat, et scopulos inter tranquilla timebat.\ndiximus ut mortem calcarit et ambitionem;\nnunc aliam confessoris cognoscite palmam.","t":"From what region do you come? Were you given to heaven, or, returned\nfrom paradise to earth, do you revisit our dwellings?”\nHe confirms their belief that he is present before them in body,\nthat he has lived preserved by God; joy is given to all,\nand he is celebrated by all the people with praises and for his merits.\nMaximus the bishop had died, having lived out a long age,\nand the flock lacked the guidance of a shepherd.\nThe whole fold bleated the name of Felix,\nwhom the confessor's glory crowned for Christ,\nand whom his tongue and his life in harmony with his teaching\npromised as a saving teacher; but so that in this also he might bear\nthe palm of justice, pressing down his lofty merit with quiet\nheart, as if unworthy, he does not dare to grow in honour,\nand testifies that it is rather due to the old man Quintus,\nbecause he had earlier earned the grade of the shared honour\nas presbyter. The difference amounted to seven days.\nSo under this bishop too Felix lived as\npresbyter and grew in merits, because he would not grow in see;\nQuintus himself, as if the lesser, deferred to him in everything,\nand had Felix as his mouth and tongue.\nHe ruled the flock with his offices, Felix with his speech.\nThe grace of Christ increased holy Felix with many other\nvirtues, nor did he fight lesser battles in peace\nthan the confessor had waged with strong arms.\nIn the sad storm he had scorned bodily\nsafety; likewise he was a scorner of wealth and honours\nin secure peace. He was not secure in keeping his\nmerit, but more cautious, so as to guard the goods of life\nwon after he had overcome the dangers of death,\nand among the rocks he feared the calm waters.\nWe have told how he trampled on death and ambition;\nnow learn another palm of the confessor.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 16.224 (CSEL 30:78lines 224–255–79; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/16-224)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/16.256":{"o":"uicit auaritiam; nam praedia multa domusque\ndiuitiis locuples patriis possederat heres.\nconfessor proscriptus erat, sed pace reducta\net sua, si uellet, deposcere iura licebat;\nmaluit ille tamen uerbum curare magistri:\ncuncta licent, non cuncta iuuant. licito utile praefert\net quasi terrenae contagia ducere labis\nhorruit amissos in iura reposcere fundos.\nmulti obtundebant, prae cunctis nomine prisco\nArchelais, tam sancta fide quam nomine clara,\ndiues opum uidua et sanctum pietate fideli\nFelicem uenerans atque illi cara uicissim.\nhaec illum iuxta meritum uenerata colebat,\nutque ferunt, iunctum sibimet pro iure sodali\nusurpans animum, crebris pia corda querellis\nsaepe fatigabat, cur debita promptaque reddi\niura recusaret, quae dispensare recepta\nmercedis magnae cum fenore posset egenis.\nplurima de propriis quoque rebus munera saepe\nobtulit. ille pio contentus ad omnia sensu\nfemineam placido ridebat pectore curam,\ncaelestum sibimet sat conscius ipse bonorum,\nquae pro terrenis sibi conpensata tenebat.\nunde potens caris instantibus haec referebat:\ncogitis ut repetam terrena, perennia perdam?\npraestat, opes saluo desint quam uita opulento;\ndiues egebo deo, nam Christum pauper habebo.\ndiuitiis inopem ditabit gratia Christi.\nhunc retinens animum modici tria iugera ruris\nnec proprio sub iure tenens conducta colonus\nipse manu coluit famulo sine pauperis horti\npossessor; sed et has de cespite diues egeno\nin dominum confudit opes, cum paupere semper\ncollectum diuisit holus, cum paupere mensam.\nuna dies illi curam consumpsit habendi,\nunica uestis eum, saepe et uix unica texit.\nsi geminas habuit, nudum meliore refouit.\nsaepe nouo miseros uertit uelamine pannos,\nFelicisque habitu pauper mutatus ab atro\nenituit; contra mendici tegmine Felix\nsorduit, exornans inculto corpore mentem.\nhac uiuens pietate deo maturus et aeui\net meriti plenis clausit sua saecla diebus\nmutauitque piae, non clausit saecula uitae.","t":"He conquered avarice; for as heir he had possessed many estates\nand houses, rich with his father's wealth.\nThe confessor had been proscribed, but when peace was restored\nit was allowed him to claim back his rights, if he wished;\nyet he preferred to heed the word of the master:\n“All things are lawful, not all things help.” He prefers the useful to the lawful,\nand shuddered at reclaiming as his rights the lost farms,\nas though he would contract the contagion of earthly stain.\nMany pressed him, above all Archelais, of an ancient name,\nas illustrious in holy faith as in name,\na widow rich in wealth, revering holy Felix\nwith faithful piety and dear to him in turn.\nShe honoured him in reverence according to his merit,\nand, as they say, claiming a companion's right\nover a mind joined to her own, she often wearied his godly heart\nwith frequent complaints: why did he refuse rights owed and ready\nto be returned, which, once recovered, he could distribute\nto the needy with the interest of a great reward?\nShe also often offered very many gifts from her own\nproperty. He, content with a godly mind toward all things,\nsmiled with a calm breast at the woman's concern,\nwell aware himself of the heavenly goods\nthat he held as compensation for the earthly.\nSo, firmly, he answered his dear friends as they pressed:\n“Do you force me to seek earthly things again and lose the everlasting?\nIt is better that wealth be lacking to one saved than life to one rich;\nrich, I shall lack God; poor, I shall have Christ.\nThe grace of Christ will enrich one poor in riches.”\nKeeping this mind, he cultivated three acres of modest land,\nnot holding them as his own but renting them as a tenant,\nwith his own hand, without a servant, the occupier of a poor man's garden;\nbut even these riches from the soil he, rich, poured out\non the needy for the Lord, always dividing his gathered vegetables\nwith the poor, and his table with the poor.\nOne day used up his care of possessing;\none garment covered him, often scarcely even one.\nIf he had two, he clothed a naked man with the better.\nOften he changed the wretched rags of the poor for a new covering,\nand the poor man, changed by Felix's clothing, shone out from his black;\nwhereas Felix, in a beggar's covering,\nwas shabby, adorning his mind with an unkempt body.\nLiving with this piety, ripe for God both in age\nand merit, he closed his age with full days,\nand changed, not closed, the ages of his godly life.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 16.256 (CSEL 30:79lines 256–299–81; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/16-256)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/16.32":{"o":"pensatisque sibi sancto senis ore beati\nofficiis benedictus abit paucisque diebus\ndelituit proprii tacitus sub culmine tecti,\nnon tacita dominum caelestem mente fatigans,\nquem prece directa penetrans super astra propinquo\npulsabat merito, pacem procedere poscens.\ninterea fluxere dies, pax uisa reuerti.\ndeseruit latebram Felix tandemque sereno\nconfisus caelo laetis se reddere laetum\nfratribus et placidae committere coeperat urbi.\ngratabantur oues Christi pastore recepto.\nille gregem pauidum de tempestate recenti\nmulcebat monitis caelestibus et duce uerbo\nanxia corda regens firmabat amore fidei,\ncontemnenda docens et amara et dulcia mundo;\nnec concedendum terroribus obuiaque ipsis\nignibus aut gladiis promptos inferre monebat\npectora; et ipse suis addebat pondera uerbis,\nconfessor passus quae perpetienda docebat,\nomnibus eloquio simul exemploque magister.\nnon tulit haec malus ille diu; sed inhorruit atris\ncrinibus et rabidis inflauit colla uenenis\ninmisitque suum scelerata in pectora uirus,\nureret ut nigras Felicis gratia mentes.\ninseruit stimulos, et mentibus arsit iniquis\nuipereae furor inuidiae; petit inproba primum\nira domum; cunctis amor inpius in scelus ardet.\nFelicem sitit inpietas; sed ab aedibus absens\nforte suis media steterat securus in urbe,\nfraternis de more suo uallatus amicis\net pia uerba serens populi credentis in aures.","t":"and, blessed by the holy mouth of the blessed old man\nin return for his services, he departed, and for a few days\nhid in silence under the roof of his own house,\nwearying the heavenly Lord with a mind not silent;\npiercing above the stars with direct prayer, he\nknocked on him with his near merit, asking that peace might come forth.\nMeanwhile the days flowed by; peace seemed to return.\nFelix left his hiding place, and at last, trusting a serene\nsky, began to give himself back, glad, to the glad\nbrothers and to entrust himself to the calm city.\nThe sheep of Christ rejoiced that their shepherd was restored.\nHe soothed the flock, frightened by the recent storm,\nwith heavenly admonitions, and, guiding anxious hearts with the Word\nas leader, strengthened them with the love of faith,\nteaching that the bitter and the sweet of the world are to be scorned;\nhe warned them not to give way to terrors, but readily\nto offer their breasts to fires or swords themselves;\nand he himself added weight to his words,\na confessor who had suffered what he taught must be endured,\na teacher to all by word and example alike.\nThat evil one did not bear this long; but he bristled his black\nlocks and puffed up his neck with rabid poisons,\nand sent his venom into wicked breasts,\nso that the grace of Felix might burn black minds.\nHe planted goads, and the fury of viperous envy blazed\nin wicked minds; their shameless anger seeks first his\nhouse; impious desire for crime burns in all.\nImpiety thirsts for Felix; but, absent from his house,\nhe happened to be standing, unconcerned, in the middle of the city,\nsurrounded, as was his custom, by brotherly friends,\nsowing godly words in the ears of the believing people.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 16.32 (CSEL 30:69lines 32–62–70; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/16-32)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/16.63":{"o":"ecce et eum strictis quaerentes ensibus adsunt,\ncum subito aut illis corda hostibus aut huic ora\nuertuntur; notum non agnouere furentes\nFelicemque rogant. Felix ubi cernitur, et non\ncernitur; ipse nec ipse uir est; cum sit prope, longe est.\nignotus notusque suis fit ciuibus idem,\ndiscernente fide uultum credentibus ipse,\nhostibus alter erat. persensit et ipse fauentis\nconsilium Christi ridensque rogantibus infit:\nnescio Felicem quem quaeritis. ilicet illi\npraetereunt ipsum; discedit at ille platea\ninludente canes domino frustratus hiantes.\nnec longum emensis spatium et scitantibus omnes,\nqua Felix regione foret, quidam increpat et dat\nindicium, ignarus causae credensque furore\ndementes, qui non uidissent comminus ipsum,\nad quem contiguis fecissent uerba loquellis.\nperculsi nouitate doli grauiusque furentes\nmox redeunt perque ipsa uiri uestigia currunt.\niamque propinquabant, sed praecurrente tumultu\nurbis et adtoniti clamoribus undique uulgi\nadmonitus Felix instantia uulnera flexu\ndeclinat medioque procul se deuius aufert\ne spatio nanctusque locum, qui forte pauenti\npanditur effugium, celebri seductus ab urbe\nsic quoque non longinquus erat sectoribus atris,\nqui prope conspicuo subductus ab ore sequentum\ninfestos utcumque timens uitauerat enses;\net capiendus erat, quia nullius obice claustri\nille repellendis locus obsistebat iniquis.\nnam foribus nullis in publica rostra patebat\nsemiruti paries male fidus fragmine muri.","t":"Behold, seeking him with drawn swords, they arrive,\nwhen suddenly either the hearts of the enemies or his face\nare changed; raging, they did not recognize the man they knew,\nand they ask him for Felix. Felix, where he is seen, is not\nseen; he is himself and not himself; though near, he is far.\nThe same man becomes unknown and known to his fellow citizens,\nfaith distinguishing his face: to believers he was himself,\nto the enemies another. He himself perceived the plan\nof a favouring Christ and, smiling, said to those asking:\n“I do not know the Felix you seek.” Straightway they\npass him by; and he leaves the square,\nhaving baffled the gaping dogs as the Lord mocked them.\nThey had not gone far, and were asking everyone\nin what quarter Felix was, when someone rebuked them and gave\ninformation, not knowing the reason, and believing them out of their minds\nwith fury, since they had not seen the man himself close by,\nto whom they had spoken face to face.\nStruck by the strangeness of the trick and raging more fiercely,\nthey soon return and run along the very tracks of the man.\nAnd now they were drawing near, but, warned by the uproar of the city\nrunning before them and the shouts of the astonished crowd on every side,\nFelix by a turn avoids the threatening wounds,\nand, leaving the way, takes himself far off from the open\nspace, and, finding a place which happened to open\nas an escape to the frightened man, withdrawn from the crowded city;\neven so he was not far from the black pursuers,\nhe who, barely withdrawn from the sight of those following,\nhad somehow, fearing them, avoided the hostile swords;\nand he was about to be caught, because the place,\nwith no barrier of a bolt, could not keep off the wicked men;\nfor with no doors it lay open to the public street,\nthe untrustworthy wall of a half-ruined building, broken.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 16.63 (CSEL 30:70lines 63–94–71; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/16-63)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/16.95":{"o":"sed diuina manus sese sanctum inter et hostes\nobposuit miroque locum munimine saepsit,\nnon strue saxorum, neque ferratis data ualuis\nclaustra, per humanas quibus atria claudimus artes,\nrudere sed subito concreuit sordidus agger,\niussaque nutantes intendit aranea telas\net sinibus tremulis intutum struxit apertum\ndesertaeque dedit faciem sordere ruinae.\nquae simul occurrit minitantibus, obstipuerunt\ndefixoque gradu sibimet dixere uicissim:\nnonne furor temptare aditus aut credere quemquam\nhac intrasse hominem, minimi qua signa dedissent\nuermiculi? modicae rumpunt haec retia muscae,\nnos penetrasse uirum per clausa putamus inepti\net tenerum tanto non ruptum corpore textum?\nille magis nostris manibus modo debitus index,\nqui nos in deserta doloso callidus astu\ninduxit uersumque alio mentitus in isto\nFelicem latitare situ, quo nostra maligno\nuerteret arma dolo, capiti fugientis amicus.\nergo recedamus, nam stare diutius istic\nrisus erit uulgi demensque notabitur error\nscrutatum hac hominis latebras contendere gressum,\nqua uel mole putri uel araneolis obductis\nmonstrat inaccessos humus incalcata recessus.\nnec mora, discedunt propere in diuersa frementes;\nsed deus, ut scriptura canit, uesana minantes\ninridebat eos caelesti Christus ab arce\nFelicemque suum sacris uelauerat alis.\nqui domini tutus gremio candentia tela\ndiscutiebat ouans galea scutoque fidei\net gladium uerbi confessor in ore gerebat.","t":"But the divine hand placed itself between the saint and the enemies\nand fenced the place with a wondrous defence,\nnot with a pile of stones, nor bars put on iron-bound doors,\nby which, through human arts, we close our halls,\nbut suddenly a filthy mound of rubble grew together,\nand a spider, at command, stretched its swaying webs\nand with trembling folds built a barrier across the unprotected opening,\nand gave it the squalid look of a deserted ruin.\nAs soon as this met the threatening men, they were amazed,\nand, stopping in their tracks, said to one another in turn:\n“Is it not madness to try an entrance here, or to believe that any\nman has entered where tiny worms have left their signs?\nSmall flies break these nets;\ndo we foolishly think that a man has got in through what is closed\nand that the delicate web was not broken by so great a body?\nRather, that informer now deserves our hands,\nwho cunningly with crafty guile led us\ninto deserted places, and, turned elsewhere, falsely said\nthat Felix lay hidden in this spot, to divert our arms\nby malicious deceit, a friend to the life of the fugitive.\nSo let us withdraw, for to stand here longer\nwill be the laughter of the crowd, and it will be marked as a mad error\nto strive to step here searching for a man's hiding place,\nwhere, with rotten rubble or spiders' veils drawn over it,\nthe untrodden ground shows its recesses to be unentered.”\nWithout delay they go away hastily in different directions, raging;\nbut God, as Scripture sings, laughed at them in their mad\nthreats, Christ from his heavenly citadel,\nand had veiled his Felix with sacred wings.\nHe, safe in the bosom of the Lord, struck away the glowing\ndarts, triumphant, with the helmet and shield of faith,\nand the confessor carried the sword of the Word in his mouth.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 16.95 (CSEL 30:72lines 95–126–73; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/16-95)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/17.1":{"o":"Iamne abis et nos properans relinquis,\nquos tamen sola regione linquis\nsemper adnexa sine fine tecum\nmente futuros?\niamne discedis reuocante longe\nquam colis terra? sed et hic resistis,\nsancte Niceta, quoniam et profectum\ncorde tenemus.\ni memor nostri remaneque uadens\nspiritu praesens, animis uicissim\ninsitus nostris, trahe ferque tecum\nquos geris in\no nimis terra et populi beati,\nquos modo a nobis remeans adibis,\nquos tuo accedens pede uisitabit\nChristus et ore.\nibis Arctoos procul usque Dacos,\nibis Epiro gemina uidendus,\net per Aegeos penetrabis aestus\nThessalonicen.\nApulis sed nunc uia prima terris\nte uehet longo spatiosa plano,\nqua Canusino medicata flagrant\nuellera fuco.\nast ubi paulum uia proferetur,\ndet, precor, mites tibi Christus aestus\net leuis spiret sine nube siccis\naura Calabris.","t":"Are you leaving already, and in haste do you leave us,\nwhom yet you leave only in place,\nsince we shall always be bound to you\nin mind without end?\nAre you departing already, as the land where you dwell\ncalls you back far away? But you remain here too,\nholy Niceta, since even when you have set out\nwe hold you in our heart.\nGo, mindful of us, and, as you go, remain\npresent in spirit, planted in turn in our\nsouls; draw and carry with you\nthose you bear in …\nO land and peoples, too blessed,\nwhom, returning from us, you will now visit,\nwhom Christ will visit, coming with your foot\nand your mouth.\nYou will go far, to the northern Dacians,\nyou will go to be seen by twin Epirus,\nand through the Aegean tides you will make your way\nto Thessalonica.\nBut now the first road will carry you through Apulian lands,\nspacious on a long plain,\nwhere the fleeces dyed with Canusian dye\nglow.\nBut when the road has gone on a little,\nmay Christ, I pray, give you mild heat,\nand may a light breeze without cloud breathe\non the dry Calabrians.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 17.1 (CSEL 30:81lines 1–28–83; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/17-1)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/17.121":{"o":"undique adludent patulo uirentes\nore delphines, sine uoce quamquam\naemula humanis tamen eloquentur\ngaudia linguis.\nnam deo quid non sapit atque uiuit,\ncuius et uerbo sata cuncta rerum?\nhinc dei laudem maris ima noscunt\nmutaque clamant.\ntestis est nobis ueteris prophetae\nbelua ad nutum domini profundo\nexcita, ut mersum caperet deinque\nredderet haustum.\nsed modo ad nostrum ferus ipse uatem\nauribus tantum pia deuorabit\ncantica; inpastam saturabit aluum,\ncarmine pastus.\nqua libet pergas iter, et per undas\nperque tellurem licet et per hostes,\nibis armatus galea salutis,\nuertice Christo.\naduolet missus Raphael; ut olim\nTobiae Medis, ita prosequendo\nipse Nicetae comes usque Dacos\nangelus adsit.\nducat hunc aeque famulum suum dux\nille, qui quondam profugum superbi\nfratris a uultu deus in salutem\nduxit Iacob.\nnamque Niceta fugitiuus aeque est;\nquod semel fecit patriarcha, semper\nhic facit, mundo fugiens ad alti\nmoenia caeli;","t":"On all sides the dolphins will sport, glistening, with open\nmouths, and though without voice,\nthey will express joys that rival\nhuman tongues.\nFor what does not know and live for God,\nby whose word all things were sown?\nHence the depths of the sea know the praise of God,\nand the dumb cry out.\nWitness to us is the beast of the old prophet,\nroused from the deep at the Lord's nod,\nto swallow the sunken man and then\ngive back what it had swallowed.\nBut now that wild beast itself, toward our seer,\nwill devour with its ears only godly\nsongs; it will satisfy an unfed belly,\nfed by song.\nWherever you please to go your way, through the waves,\nthrough the land, even through enemies,\nyou will go armed with the helmet of salvation,\nChrist your head.\nLet Raphael fly to you, sent, as once\nto Tobias among the Medes; so let the angel\nhimself be present as Niceta's companion,\nescorting him all the way to the Dacians.\nLet that leader lead his servant likewise,\nGod, who once led Jacob in safety,\na fugitive from the face of his proud\nbrother.\nFor Niceta is likewise a fugitive;\nwhat the patriarch did once, this man always\ndoes, fleeing the world for the walls\nof high heaven;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 17.121 (CSEL 30:87lines 121–152–88; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/17-121)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/17.153":{"o":"et gradus illos, quibus ille uidit\nangelos uersa uice commeantes,\niste contendit superante nubes\nscandere uita,\nper crucis scalas properans in astra,\nqua deus nitens ad humum coruscis\ne thronis spectat uarios labores\nbellaque mentis.\ntuque, Niceta, bene nominatus\ncorporis uictor, uelut ille dictus\nIsrael, summum quia uidit alto\ncorde satorem,\nunde Nicetes meus adprobatur\nIsraelites sine fraude uerus,\nqui deum cernit solidae fidei\nlumine Christum.\nhic deus noster, uia nostra semper,\nsit comes nobis, sit et antecessor,\nsemitis lumen pedibusque nostris\nsermo lucerna,\nqua per obscuri uada caeca saecli\nluminis ueri face dirigamur,\ndonec optatos liceat salutis\ntangere portus,\nquos modo undosum petimus per aequor,\ndum uagae mentis fluitamus aestu,\nterreo tamquam fragili carina\ncorpore uecti.\nsed gubernaclo crucis hanc regente\nnunc ratem in nobis pia uela cordis\npandimus Christo referente laetos\nflamine dextro.","t":"and those steps, on which he saw\nangels passing up and down in turn,\nthis man strives, with a life that rises above the clouds,\nto climb,\nhastening to the stars by the ladder of the cross,\nfrom where God, leaning to the ground from flashing\nthrones, watches the varied labours\nand wars of the mind.\nAnd you, Niceta, well named\nvictor over the body, like him who was called\nIsrael, because he saw the highest\nBegetter with lofty heart:\nhence my Niceta is approved\na true Israelite without guile,\nwho sees God, Christ, with the light\nof solid faith.\nMay he, our God, our way always,\nbe our companion and go before us,\nlight for our paths, and for our feet\nthe word a lamp,\nby which through the blind shallows of this dark age\nwe may be guided by the torch of the true light,\nuntil we may touch the longed-for harbours\nof salvation,\nwhich we now seek over the wavy sea,\nwhile we float on the tide of a wandering mind,\ncarried as in a fragile hull,\nthe earthly body.\nBut with the cross's helm steering\nthis ship within us, we now spread to Christ\nthe godly sails of the heart, as he brings us back glad\nwith a favourable wind.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 17.153 (CSEL 30:88lines 153–184–90; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/17-153)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/17.185":{"o":"ergo dux idem modo prosequatur\nte uia, qua nunc properas reuertens\nire, Niceta, patrioque reddat\nlimine tutum.\nsed freto emenso superest uiarum\nrursus in terra labor, ut ueharis\nusque felices quibus es sacerdos\npraestitus oras.\ntu Philippeos Macetum per agros,\nper Tomitanam gradieris urbem,\nibis et Scupos patriae propinquos\nDardanus hospes.\no quibus iam tunc resonabit illa\ngaudiis tellus, ubi tu rigentes\nedoces Christo fera colla miti\nsubdere gentes!\nquaque Riphaeis Boreas in oris\nadligat densis fluuios pruinis,\nhic gelu mentes rigidas superno\nigne resoluis.\nnam simul terris animisque duri\net sua Bessi niue duriores\nnunc oues facti duce te gregantur\npacis in aulam.\nquasque ceruices dare seruituti\nsemper a bello indomiti negarunt,\nnunc iugo ueri domini subactas\nsternere gaudent.\nnunc magis diues pretio laboris\nBessus exultat; quod humi manuque\nante quaerebat, modo mente caelo\nconligit aurum.","t":"So may the same leader now accompany\nyou on the way by which you now hasten back,\nNiceta, and restore you safe\nto your native threshold.\nBut when the sea is crossed, there remains again\nthe labour of roads on land, as you are carried\nall the way to the happy shores for which you have been\ngiven as priest.\nYou will walk through the Philippian fields of the Macedonians,\nthrough the city of Tomi,\nand you will go to Scupi, near your homeland,\na Dardanian guest.\nO with what joys that land will then\nresound, where you teach stiff\npeoples to bow their wild necks\nto gentle Christ!\nAnd where, in the Riphaean regions, Boreas\nbinds the rivers with thick frosts,\nhere you melt minds stiff with frost\nwith fire from above.\nFor the Bessi, hard both in land and in mind,\nand harder than their own snow,\nnow made sheep, are gathered, with you as leader,\ninto the hall of peace.\nAnd the necks which, always untamed in war,\nthey refused to give to slavery,\nnow they rejoice to bow, subdued\nto the yoke of the true Lord.\nNow the Bessian exults, richer for the price\nof his labour; the gold that before he sought\nin the earth and with his hand, now he gathers\nwith the mind in heaven.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 17.185 (CSEL 30:90lines 185–216–91; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/17-185)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/17.217":{"o":"o uices rerum! bene uersa forma!\ninuii montes prius et cruenti\nnunc tegunt uersos monachis latrones\npacis alumnos.\nsanguinis quondam, modo terra uitae est,\nuertitur caelo pia uis latronum,\net fauet Christus supera occupanti\nregna rapinae.\nmos ubi quondam fuerat ferarum,\nnunc ibi ritus uiget angelorum,\net latet iustus quibus ipse latro\nuixit in antris.\npraeda fit sanctis uetus ille praedo,\net gemit uersis homicida damnis,\niure nudatus spoliante Christo\ncriminis armis.\ninterit casu satanae uicissim\ninuidus Cain, rediuiuus Abel\npascit effusi pretio redemptos\nsanguinis agnos.\neuge, Niceta, bone serue Christi,\nqui tibi donat lapides in astra\nuertere et uiuis sacra templa saxis\naedificare.\nauios saltus, iuga uasta lustras,\ndum uiam quaeris, sterilemque siluam\nmentis incultae superans in agros\nuertis opimos.\nte patrem dicit plaga tota Borrae,\nad tuos fatus Scytha mitigatur\net sui discors fera te magistro\npectora ponit.","t":"O changes of things! Form well turned!\nThe mountains, once pathless and bloody,\nnow shelter robbers turned into monks,\nnurslings of peace.\nOnce a land of blood, now it is a land of life;\nthe godly violence of robbers is turned toward heaven,\nand Christ favours the plunder that seizes\nthe kingdom above.\nWhere once there had been the way of wild beasts,\nthere now the rite of angels flourishes,\nand the just man lies hidden in the caves\nin which the robber himself lived.\nThat old plunderer becomes plunder for the saints,\nand the murderer groans at his losses turned against him,\nstripped by right, as Christ despoils him\nof the weapons of crime.\nBy Satan's fall in turn envious Cain\nperishes; Abel, alive again,\nfeeds lambs redeemed by the price\nof blood poured out.\nWell done, Niceta, good servant of Christ,\nwho grants you to turn stones into stars\nand to build sacred temples\nwith living stones.\nYou range through pathless forests, vast ridges,\nwhile you seek the way, and, overcoming the barren forest\nof the untilled mind, you turn it\ninto rich fields.\nThe whole region of the North calls you father;\nat your words the Scythian grows gentle,\nand, at odds with himself, with you as teacher\nlays aside his wild heart.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 17.217 (CSEL 30:91lines 217–248–92; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/17-217)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/17.249":{"o":"et Getae currunt et uterque Dacus,\nqui colit terrae medio uel ille\ndiuitis multo boue pilleatus\naccola ripae.\nde lupis hoc est uitulos creare\net boui iunctum palea leonem\npascere et tutis caua uiperarum\npandere paruis.\nnamque mansueto pecori coire\nbestias pulsa feritate suades,\nqui feras mentes hominum polito\ninbuis ore.\norbis in muta regione per te\nbarbari discunt resonare Christum\ncorde Romano placidamque casti\nuiuere pacem.\nsic tuo mitis lupus est ouili,\npascitur concors uitulus leoni,\nparuus extracto trucibus cauernis\naspide ludit.\ncallidos auri legulos in aurum\nuertis inque ipsis imitaris ipsos,\ne quibus uiuum fodiente uerbo\neruis aurum:\nhas opes condens domino perenni,\nhis sacrum lucris cumulans talentum,\naudies: intra domini perennis\ngaudia laetus.\nhis, precor, cum te domus alma sancto\nceperit fratrum numerosa coetu\nin choris, et nos pietate cari\npectoris adde.","t":"And the Getae run, and both Dacians,\nthe one who lives in the middle of the land, and he,\ncapped, a dweller on the bank\nrich in many cattle.\nThis is to produce calves from wolves,\nand to feed the lion with straw, yoked to the ox,\nand to open the holes of vipers safely\nto children.\nFor you persuade beasts, their wildness driven out,\nto join the gentle flock,\nyou who imbue the wild minds of men\nwith polished speech.\nIn the dumb regions of the world, through you,\nbarbarians learn to sound out Christ\nwith a Roman heart, and to live a chaste\nand peaceful life.\nSo the wolf is gentle in your fold,\nthe calf feeds in harmony with the lion,\nthe little child plays with the asp drawn out\nof its savage holes.\nThe cunning gold-gatherers you turn into gold,\nand in them you imitate them,\ndigging out from them living gold\nwith the Word for spade:\nstoring up these riches for the everlasting Lord,\nheaping up the sacred talent with these gains,\nyou will hear: “Enter, glad, into the joys\nof your everlasting Lord.”\nWith these, I pray, when the kindly house\nwith its numerous holy company of brothers\nreceives you in its choirs, add us too\nwith the piety of your dear heart.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 17.249 (CSEL 30:92lines 249–280–94; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/17-249)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/17.281":{"o":"nam deo grates, quod amore tanto\nnos tibi adstrinxit per operta uincla,\nuis ut internam ualeat catenam\nrumpere nulla.\nunde conplexi sine fine carum\npectus haeremus laqueo fideli,\nquaque contendas comites erimus\nmente sequaci.\ncaritas Christi bene fusa caelo\ncordibus nostris ita nectit intus,\nut nec abiuncto procul auferamur\norbe remoti.\nnulla nos aetas tibi, (nulla) labes\norbis aut alter neque mors reuellet;\ncorporis uita moriente uita\nuiuet amoris.\ndum graues istos habitamus artus,\nmente te semper memori colemus;\ntu, petes, simus simul in perenni\ntempore tecum.\nnamque te celsum meritis in altum\nculmen inponet pretiosa uirtus\ninque uiuentum super urbe magnis\nturribus addet.\nnos locis quantum meritis dirempti\neminus celsis humiles patronis\nte procul sacris socium cateruis\nsuspiciemus.\nquis die nobis dabit hoc in illa,\nut tui stemus lateris sub umbra\net tuae nobis requietis aura\ntemperet ignem?","t":"For thanks be to God, that with so great a love\nhe has bound us to you by hidden bonds,\nso that no force can avail to break\nthe inner chain.\nSo, embracing your dear heart without end,\nwe cling with a faithful noose,\nand wherever you go we shall be companions\nwith following mind.\nThe love of Christ, well poured from heaven\ninto our hearts, so knits us within,\nthat we are not carried far off, even when separated\nin a world apart.\nNo age, no fall of the world,\nno other world, no death will tear us from you;\nwhen the life of the body dies, the life\nof love will live.\nWhile we dwell in these heavy limbs,\nwe shall always cherish you with a remembering mind;\nyou will ask that we may be with you together\nin everlasting time.\nFor precious virtue will set you, lofty in merits,\non the high summit,\nand will add you to the great towers\nin the city of the living above.\nWe, as far separated in place as in merits,\nhumble, from afar, toward lofty patrons,\nshall look up to you far off, a companion\nof the sacred companies.\nWho will give us this on that day,\nthat we may stand in the shade of your side,\nand that the breeze of your rest\nmay temper the fire for us?","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 17.281 (CSEL 30:94lines 281–312–95; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/17-281)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/17.29":{"o":"sicut antiqui manibus prophetae\nper sacramentum crucis unda misso\ndulcuit ligno posuitque tristes\nmerra liquores,\nsic tibi caelum modo temperetur,\net leui sudo tenuatus aer\nflatibus puris placide salubres\nspiret in auras,\nqui solet flatu grauis e palustri\nanguium tetros referens odores\nsoluere in morbos tumefacta crasso\ncorpora uento,\nquem potens rerum dominus fugari\nsiue mutari iubeat suoque\nnunc sacerdoti bona sanitatis\nflabra ministret.\nsicut Aegypto pereunte quondam\nnoctis et densae tenebris operta,\nqua dei uiui sacra gens agebat,\nlux erat orbi,\nquae modo in toto species probatur\norbe, cum sanctae pia pars fidei\nfulgeat Christo, reliquos tenebris\nobruat error:\nsic meo, qua se feret actus ora,\ncuncta Nicetae dominus secundet,\ndonec optato patriam uehatur\nlaetus ad urbem.","t":"As at the hands of the ancient prophet,\nby the sacrament of the cross, the water grew sweet\nwhen the wood was cast in, and Marah\nput away its bitter waters,\nso may the sky now be tempered for you,\nand the air, thinned by light fair weather,\nbreathe with pure breaths gently into healthful breezes,\nthe air which, heavy with breath from the marshes,\nbringing back the foul smells of snakes,\nis wont to dissolve into diseases bodies\nswollen by the thick wind;\nmay the mighty Lord of things command it\nto be put to flight or changed, and now supply\nto his priest good breezes of health.\nAs once, when Egypt was perishing,\ncovered with the darkness of dense night,\nwhere the sacred people of the living God dwelt\nthere was light for the world,\na pattern now proved in the whole\nworld, when the godly part of the holy faith\nshines with Christ, and error buries the rest\nin darkness:\nso on my Niceta, along whatever shore his journey carries him,\nmay the Lord prosper all things,\nuntil he is carried, glad, to his longed-for\nnative city.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 17.29 (CSEL 30:83lines 29–56–84; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/17-29)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/17.313":{"o":"tunc, precor, nostri nimium memento\net patris sancti gremio recumbens\nroscido nobis digito furentem\ndiscute flammam.\nnunc abi felix, tamen et recedens\nsemper huc ad nos animo recurre;\nesto nobiscum, licet ad paternam\nueneris urbem.\nnon enim unius populi magistrum,\nsed nec unius dedit esse ciuem\nte deus terrae; patria ecce nostra\nte sibi sumit.\nnunc tuos aequa pietate utrisque\ndiuide affectus et amore nobis,\nciuibus uultu, gemina morare\nciuis in ora.\nforsan et maior patria haec habenda,\nnon manufactis ubi contineris\npectorum tectis hominesque uiuam\nincolis urbem.\nsicut antistes, ita dignus almi\nhospes es Christi, quia Christianis\nmentibus consors habitas erile\naccola templum.\niam uale nobis et in omne nostri\ndiligens aeuum bonus usque finem\nduc bonum cursum positamque iustis\nsume coronam.","t":"Then, I pray, remember us greatly,\nand, reclining in the bosom of the holy father,\nwith dewy finger scatter for us\nthe raging flame.\nNow go happily, yet, though departing,\nalways run back here to us in spirit;\nbe with us, though you have come\nto your father's city.\nFor God has given you to be teacher not of one people,\nnor yet citizen of one land; see, our homeland\ntakes you to itself.\nNow divide your affections with equal piety\nbetween both: with your love to us,\nwith your face to your citizens; abide, a citizen,\non twin shores.\nPerhaps this homeland is to be held the greater,\nwhere you are held in the dwellings of hearts,\nnot made with hands, and you inhabit\na living city of men.\nAs you are a bishop, so you are a worthy guest of kindly\nChrist, because, sharing in Christian\nminds, you dwell as an inhabitant\nin the Master's temple.\nNow farewell to us, and, loving us for all\ntime, good to the end,\nrun the good course and take\nthe crown laid up for the just.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 17.313 (CSEL 30:95lines 313–340–96; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/17-313)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/17.57":{"o":"perge, Niceta, bene qua recurris\nprosperos Christo comitante cursus,\nquem tui dudum populi fatigant\nnocte dieque\nte reposcentes, ut ager leuandis\ncum satis imbrem sitit utque molles\ncum suas matres uituli represso\nlacte requirunt.\nunde nos iustis precibus tuorum,\nqui suum recte repetunt parentem,\ncogimur uicto, licet inrepleti,\ncedere uoto.\net quia spes iam rapitur tenendi,\nurget affectus placitis fauere;\niam uias illas licet oderimus\nquae rapiunt te,\nodimus quamuis, sed easdem amamus.\nodimus quod te retrahunt, amamus\nquod tuum nobis procul adtulerunt\ncernere uultum.\nquas peradstricti superante amore\nnunc tibi sterni faciles precamur\npraeuio terris pelagoque summi\nnomine Christi.\nqui tibi factis iter omne campis\narduos montes reprimat cauasque\ninpleat ualles, salebras adaequet,\niungat hiatus.\nte per Hydruntum Lupiasque uectum\ninnubae fratrum simul et sororum\nambient uno dominum canentes\nore cateruae.","t":"Go on, Niceta, along the way you return well,\nwith Christ accompanying your prosperous course,\nChrist whom your peoples have long been wearying\nnight and day,\ndemanding you back, as a field thirsts\nfor rain to relieve its crops, and as tender\ncalves seek their mothers when their milk\nhas been held back.\nSo we, by the just prayers of your people,\nwho rightly seek back their own parent,\nare compelled, though unsatisfied, to yield,\nour wish overcome.\nAnd since the hope of keeping you is now snatched away,\naffection urges us to favour what pleases you;\nnow, though we may hate those roads\nwhich snatch you away,\nwe hate them, yet we love the same roads.\nWe hate them because they draw you back, we love them\nbecause they brought your face to us from afar\nto see.\nFor these, bound fast by overwhelming love,\nwe now pray that they may be laid easy for you,\nby land and sea, with the name of the most high Christ\ngoing before.\nMay he, making every road a plain for you,\npress down the steep mountains and fill\nthe hollow valleys, level the rough places,\njoin the gaps.\nAs you are carried through Hydruntum and Lupiae,\nunmarried troops of brothers and sisters together\nwill surround you, singing the Lord\nwith one mouth.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 17.57 (CSEL 30:84lines 57–88–85; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/17-57)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/17.89":{"o":"quis mihi pennas daret ut columbae,\nut choris illis citus interessem,\nqui deum Christum duce te canentes\nsidera pulsant?\nsed licet pigro teneamur aegri\ncorporis nexu, tamen euolamus\nmentibus post te dominoque tecum\ndicimus hymnos.\nnam tuis intus simul inplicati\nsensibus, uel cum canis ac precaris,\ncum tua de te prece cumque uoce\npromimur et nos.\ninde iam terris subeunte ponto\nstratus Hadriae sinus obsequetur,\nunda procumbet zephyroque leni\nuela tumescent.\nibis inlabens pelago iacenti\net rate armata titulo salutis\nuictor antemna crucis ibis, undis\ntutus et austris.\nnauitae laeti solitum celeuma\nconcinent uersis modulis in hymnos\net piis ducent comites in aequor\nuocibus auras.\npraecinet cunctis tuba ceu resultans\nlingua Nicetae modulata Christum,\npsallet aeternus citharista toto\naequore Dauid.\naudient Amen tremefacta cete\net sacerdotem domino canentem\nlaeta lasciuo procul admeabunt\nmonstra natatu.","t":"Who would give me wings like a dove,\nthat I might swiftly be among those choirs\nwhich, singing Christ God with you as leader,\nstrike the stars?\nBut though we are held by the sluggish bond\nof a sick body, yet we fly out\nafter you in mind, and with you we sing\nhymns to the Lord.\nFor, entwined within your\nfeelings, whether you sing or pray,\nwe too are brought forth with your prayer\nand with your voice.\nThen, as the sea takes the place of land,\nthe smooth gulf of the Adriatic will obey you,\nthe wave will lie down, and with the gentle west wind\nthe sails will swell.\nYou will go gliding over the lying sea,\nand in a ship armed with the sign of salvation\nyou will go victorious with the yard of the cross, safe\nfrom waves and south winds.\nThe glad sailors will sing their usual chant,\nits measures turned into hymns,\nand with godly voices will lead the breezes\nas companions over the sea.\nBefore all, like a resounding trumpet,\nthe tongue of Niceta will lead the singing, setting Christ to music;\nDavid, the eternal harper, will sing psalms over the whole\nsea.\nThe whales, trembling, will hear the Amen,\nand the glad monsters will swim up from afar\nwith playful swimming to the priest\nsinging to the Lord.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 17.89 (CSEL 30:85lines 89–120–87; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/17-89)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/18.1":{"o":"Lex mihi iure pio posita hunc celebrare quotannis\neloquio famulante diem, sollemne reposcit\nmunus ab ore meo, Felicem dicere uersu,\nlaetitiamque meam modulari carmine uoto\net magnum cari meritum cantare patroni,\nquod per iter durum, qua fert uia peruia paucis,\nalta per arta petens superas penetrauit ad arces.\nconcordate meis, precor, et conplaudite, fratres,\ncarminibus castoque animos effundite luxu.\ngaudia sancta decent et carmina casta fideles;\nnam cui fas hominum, cui Christus amorque timorque est,\nnon gaudere hodie et uacuum procedere uoti,\nqua quis possit ope ingenii linguaeque reique,\ncaelicolas Christo quando adgaudere ministros\nipsa etiam festo produnt elementa colore?\ncernite laetitiam mundi in splendore diei\nelucere sacris insignibus; omnia laetus\ncandor habet, siccus cineris a nubibus imber\nponitur et niueo tellus uelatur amictu,\nquae niue tecta, solum niue siluas culmina colles\ncompta senis sancti canos testatur honores;\nangelicaque docent et luce et pace potiri\nFelicem placida clarum in regione piorum, *\nlactea qua tacito labuntur uellera caelo.\nChriste deus Felicis, ades, da nunc mihi uerbum,\nsermo deus, da perspicuam, sapientia, mentem.\nnon opis humanae facundia dicere laudes\nposse tuas; tua namque tui sunt gloria sancti.\ncedo, alii pretiosa ferant donaria meque\nofficii sumptu superent, qui pulchra tegendis\nuela ferant foribus, seu puro splendida lino\nsiue coloratis textum fucata figuris.","t":"A law laid down for me by godly right, to celebrate this day\nevery year with the service of eloquence, demands\na solemn gift from my mouth: to tell of Felix in verse,\nto set my joy to a vowed song,\nand to sing the great merit of my dear patron,\nwho, by the hard road, where the way is passable for few,\nseeking the heights through narrow places, made his way into the citadels above.\nJoin in harmony with my songs, I pray, brothers, and applaud,\nand pour out your hearts in chaste festivity.\nHoly joys and chaste songs befit the faithful;\nfor what man, to whom Christ is love and fear, may rightly\nnot rejoice today, and come forth empty of his vow,\nwith whatever resource of wit and tongue and means he can,\nwhen even the elements with festal colour reveal\nthat the heavenly ministers rejoice with Christ?\nSee the gladness of the world shine out in the splendour of the day\nwith sacred insignia; glad whiteness holds all things;\na dry rain is laid down from ash-grey clouds,\nand the earth is veiled with a snowy mantle;\ncovered with snow, adorned with snow, the ground, the woods, the roofs, the hills\nbear witness to the white-haired honours of the holy old man,\nand they teach, as the angels do, that Felix, shining, possesses\nlight and peace in the calm region of the godly,\nwhere milky fleeces glide in the silent sky.\nChrist, God of Felix, be present, give me now a word,\nO Word who is God; O Wisdom, give me a clear mind.\nIt is not in the power of human eloquence to tell\nyour praises; for your saints are your glory.\nI yield: let others bring precious gifts and surpass me\nin the expense of their service, who bring beautiful\ncurtains to cover the doors, whether shining with pure linen\nor woven and dyed with coloured figures.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 18.1 (CSEL 30:96lines 1–32–98; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/18-1)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/18.127":{"o":"nec satis est uidisse semel, iuuat usque morari\nluminaque expositis et qua datur oscula membris\nfigere; dat meritam Christo plebs consona laudem\nmoliturque sacrum solii Felicis honorem.\nqua muris regio et tectis longinqua uacabat,\nfusus ibi laeto ridebat caespite campus\nuberius florente loco, quasi praescia iam tunc\nsemper honorandi mundo uenerante sepulchri\ngaudebat sacro benedici corpore seque\nueris amoena habitu, quo dignior esset humando\nmartyre, graminibus tellus sternebat odoris.\nast illum placido scandentem celsa uolatu\net casto adsumptum de corpore laeta piorum\nturba per aetherias susceperat obuia nubes;\nangelicique chori, septemplicis agmina caeli,\ntotis, qua caelum patet, occurrentia portis\nregis in aspectum summique parentis ad ora\nsidereo uolucrem laeti uexere triumpho.\ntum niuea sacrum caput ornauere corona\nsed tamen et roseam pater addidit iudice Christo\npurpureoque habitu niueos duplicauit amictus,\nquod meritis utrumque decus. nam lucida sumpsit\nserta quasi placido translatus in aethera leto,\nsed meruit pariter quasi caesi martyris ostrum\nqui confessor obit. tenet ergo et praemia passi,\nquod prompta uirtute fuit, nec pacis honore\nornatuque caret, quia non congressus obiuit.\nfacta igitur rata iusta, pium texere sepulchro\nfunus; at in sanctis diuinitus insita membris\ngratia non potuit cum carne morique tegique,\nilico sed positis ex ossibus emicuit lux,\nquae medicis opibus meriti dare signa potentis\nhactenus ex illo non umquam tempore parcit.","t":"Nor is it enough to have seen once; it delights to linger on\nand fix their eyes, and, where it is allowed, kisses on the exposed\nlimbs; the people in harmony give Christ deserved praise\nand build the sacred honour of the resting place of Felix.\nWhere a region far from walls and houses lay empty,\na field spread out smiled with glad turf,\nflowering more richly in that place, as if already then, foreknowing\nthe tomb always to be honoured by a venerating world,\nit rejoiced to be blessed by the sacred body, and the earth,\nlovely in spring's attire, so as to be more worthy of burying\nthe martyr, strewed itself with fragrant grasses.\nBut him, as he climbed the heights with calm flight,\ntaken up from his chaste body, the glad crowd of the godly\nhad come to meet and received through the heavenly clouds;\nand the angelic choirs, the ranks of the sevenfold heaven,\nrunning to meet him from all the gates where heaven opens,\ngladly carried the winged soul in starry triumph\ninto the sight of the King and before the face of the highest Father.\nThen they adorned his sacred head with a snow-white crown,\nbut the Father, with Christ as judge, added a rosy one too,\nand doubled the snowy robes with a purple garment,\nbecause each honour was his by merit. For he took the bright\ngarlands as one carried to heaven by a calm death,\nbut he earned equally the purple of a slain martyr,\nhe who died a confessor. So he holds the rewards of one who suffered,\nbecause he was ready in virtue, nor does he lack the honour and adornment\nof peace, because he did not die in combat.\nSo, the due rites performed, they covered the godly body\nin the tomb; but the grace divinely planted in the holy limbs\ncould not die or be covered with the flesh,\nbut at once from the laid bones a light flashed out,\nwhich from that time has never ceased until now\nto give signs of his mighty merit by healing powers.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 18.127 (CSEL 30:103lines 127–159–104; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/18-127)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/18.160":{"o":"et toto quo mundus erit fulgebit in aeuo\nlux eadem, sancti cineris per saecula custos.\nmartyris haec functi uitam probat, et bona Christi\nad tumulum Felicis agens diffundit in omnes\nFelicis late terras mirabile nomen,\ndignatam et tanto prae cunctis urbibus unam\nhospite nobilitat Nolam, quam gratia Christi\nFelicis meritis ita dilatauit, ut aucta\nciuibus ecce nouis et moenibus hic etiam urbs sit,\npauper ubi primum tumulus, quem tempore saeuo,\nreligio quo crimen erat minitante profano,\nstruxerat anguste gladios trepida inter et ignes\nplebs domini, ut seris antiqua minoribus aetas\ntradidit. ingentem paruo sub culmine lucem\nclauserat et tanti tantum sacer angulus olim\ndepositi possessor erat, qui lucis opertae\nconscius ut quidam fons aedibus extitit amplis\net manet in mediis quasi gemma intersita tectis,\nbasilicas per quinque sacri spatiosa sepulchri\natria diffundens, quarum fastigia longe\nadspectata instar magnae dant uisibus urbis.\nquae tamen, ampla licet, uincuntur culmina turbis,\nquod crescente fide superundat gratia Christi,\nquae populis medico Felicem munere praestat\nuiuere. qui perstans etiam post corporis aeuum\npraesidet ipse suis sacer ossibus; ossaque sancti\ncorporis e tumulo, non obsita puluere mortis,\narcano aeternae sed praedita semine uitae,\nuiuificum spirant animae uictricis odorem,\nquo medicina potens datur exorantibus aegris.","t":"And through all the age the world will last\nthe same light will shine, guardian of the holy ashes through the ages.\nThis proves the life of the dead martyr, and the good gifts of Christ,\nworking at the tomb of Felix, spread over all lands\nfar and wide the wondrous name of Felix,\nand ennoble Nola, alone above all cities deemed worthy\nof so great a guest, which the grace of Christ\nhas so enlarged by Felix's merits that, increased,\nsee, with new citizens and walls, here too there is a city,\nwhere at first there was a poor tomb, which, in a savage time,\nwhen religion was a crime under the threats of the profane,\nthe Lord's people had built cramped, trembling amid swords and fires,\nas the ancient age has handed down to later generations.\nA small roof had shut in an immense light,\nand once a sacred corner was the possessor of so great\na deposit; it, conscious of the hidden light,\nstood out like a fountain for ample buildings\nand remains in their midst like a jewel set among the roofs,\nspreading the spacious courts of the sacred tomb\nthrough five basilicas, whose summits, seen from afar,\noffer the eye the likeness of a great city.\nYet these roofs, ample as they are, are outdone by the crowds,\nbecause, as faith grows, the grace of Christ overflows,\nwhich grants the peoples to have Felix alive by his gift of healing.\nHe, enduring even after his bodily life,\nhimself presides over his own, holy in his bones; and the bones\nof his holy body in the tomb, not covered with the dust of death,\nbut endowed with the secret seed of eternal life,\nbreathe the life-giving fragrance of a victorious soul,\nby which mighty healing is given to the sick who pray.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 18.160 (CSEL 30:104lines 160–189–106; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/18-160)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/18.190":{"o":"quanta resurgentes uirtus et gloria cinget\nconiectare licet, cum gratia tanta sepultos\nambiat, et quanto rediuiua decore micabunt\ncorpora, in obscuris cum sit lux tanta fauillis!\nquid nobis minimis horum praestare coronae\nsufficient, quorum et cineres dant commoda uiuis?\ncernere saepe iuuat uariis spectacula formis\nmira salutantum et sibi quaeque adcommoda uotis\nposcentum; uideas etiam de rure colonos\nnon solum gremio sua pignora ferre paterno,\nsed pecora aegra manu saepe introducere secum\net sancto quasi conspicuo mandare licenter,\nmoxque datam sua confisos ad uota medellam\nexperto gaudere deo et iam credere sana\net uere plerumque breui sanata sub ipso\nlimine laeta suis iumenta reducere tectis.\nsed quia prolixum et uacuum percurrere cuncta,\nquanta gerit Felix miracula numine Christi,\nunum de multis opus admirabile promam\ninnumeris paribus, sed ab uno pende relicta,\nquae uirtus eadem gessit distantia causis.\npandite corda, precor, breuis est iniuria uobis,\ndum paucis magnum exiguisque opus eloquor orsis.\net memores uiduae primo sermone relatae,\nquam deus e pretio mentis, non munere cernens,\nantetulit multum mittentibus, omnia dantem,\nme quoque ferte leui dicentem magna relatu.\net mea namque illis sunt aemula uerba minutis,\nquis pretium pietas et uilibus aurea fecit.","t":"How great the power and glory that will surround the risen\none may guess, when so great a grace surrounds\nthe buried, and with what beauty the bodies restored to life will shine,\nwhen there is so great a light in their dark ashes!\nWhat will the crowns of these not suffice to grant to us, the least,\nwhose very ashes give benefits to the living?\nIt often delights to see the wonderful spectacles, in varied forms,\nof those who greet him, each asking for what suits\nhis prayers; you might see even farmers from the countryside\nnot only bringing their children in their fatherly bosom,\nbut often leading in sick cattle with them by hand\nand freely commending them to the saint as if he were visible,\nand soon, trusting that healing has been given to their prayers,\nrejoicing in God's help experienced, and now believing them well,\nand indeed often, healed quickly under the very\nthreshold, leading their animals back glad to their homes.\nBut since it is long and pointless to run through all\nthe miracles that Felix does by the power of Christ,\nI shall bring out one wonderful work of many,\nlike countless others; but judge from the one those left aside,\nwhich the same power did, differing in their occasions.\nOpen your hearts, I pray; the wrong to you is short\nwhile I tell a great work in few and slight words.\nAnd, remembering the widow told of at the start of my discourse,\nwhom God, judging by the value of the mind, not of the gift,\npreferred to those who sent much, since she gave all,\nbear with me too as I tell great things in a light account.\nFor my words also rival those mites,\nto which piety gave a golden value though they were cheap.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 18.190 (CSEL 30:106lines 190–218–107; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/18-190)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/18.219":{"o":"quidam homo re tenuis, plebeius origine, cultu\nrusticus, e geminis angustam bubus alebat\npauperiem mercede iugi, nunc subdere plaustris\nsuetus eos oneri pacta regione uehendo,\nnunc operae pretium sub aratra aliena locatis\npaupertatis habens reditum; spes anxia resque\ntota inopi par illud erat. non carior illi\nprogenies aut ipse sibi; sed pignora et ipsos\nducebat; neque cura minor saturare iuuencos\nquam dulces natos educere, parcior immo\nnatis quam pecori caro; non gramine uili\nillos aut sterili palea, sed tegmine aprico\nalgidus et de farre sibi natisque negato\nesuriens pascebat, egens sibi, diues in illis,\nquorum fecundus labor exsaturabat egentem.\nhos igitur, tam cara suae solamina uitae,\nnocte miser quadam somno grauiore sepultus,\namisit taciti furto praedonis abactos;\nexurgensque die reduci de more iugandos\ninfelix primo in uacuis praesepibus intus\nmoxque foris frustra notis quaesiuit in agris;\nilico sed fessus cassis erroribus ultro\natque citro, postquam nullis uestigia signis\ncerta uidet, spebus frustrata indage peremptis,\nhumanam desperat opem et pietate repletus\nadspirante deo depressam in pectore fracto\nerigit in caelum mentem; et mox corde refecto\npraesumente fide spem uotis conpotis haurit\nsanctaque Felicis rapido petit atria cursu\ningressusque sacram magnis cum fletibus aulam\nsternitur ante fores et postibus oscula figit\net lacrimis rigat omne solum, pro limine sancto\nfusus humi, et raptos nocturna fraude iuuencos\na Felice pio uelut a custode reposcit\nincrepitans miscetque precantia uerba querellis:","t":"A certain man of slender means, plebeian by origin,\nrustic in way of life, was supporting his narrow poverty from a pair\nof oxen by hiring out their yoke, now accustomed to put them under wagons\nto carry loads over an agreed route,\nnow having the return of his poverty from hiring them out\nfor work under others' ploughs; his anxious hope and his whole\nproperty, poor man, was that pair. His children were not dearer\nto him, nor he himself; but he counted them\nas his children and as himself; nor was his care less to fill his steers\nthan to bring up his sweet children; he was rather more sparing\nwith his children than with his dear cattle; not with cheap grass\nor barren chaff, but in a sunny shelter,\nhimself cold, and with the grain denied to himself and his children,\nhimself hungry, he fed them, needy for himself, rich in them,\nwhose fruitful labour fed the needy man to the full.\nThese, then, so dear a comfort of his life,\nthe wretched man, buried one night in heavier sleep,\nlost, driven off by the theft of a silent robber;\nand rising at the return of day to yoke them as usual,\nthe unhappy man first sought them in the empty stalls within,\nand then outside, in vain, in the familiar fields;\nbut soon, weary of fruitless wanderings to and fro,\nafter he sees that the tracks give no sure signs,\nhis hopes frustrated and his search come to nothing,\nhe despairs of human help, and, filled with piety,\nas God breathed on him, he lifted to heaven the mind cast down\nin his broken breast; and soon, his heart restored,\nwith faith anticipating, he drinks in hope that his prayers will be granted,\nand seeks the holy courts of Felix in a swift run,\nand, entering the sacred hall with great weeping,\nlies prostrate before the doors and fixes kisses on the doorposts\nand waters all the ground with tears, poured out on the ground\nbefore the holy threshold, and demands back the steers stolen by night's fraud\nfrom godly Felix as from their guardian,\nreproaching him, and mixes praying words with complaints:","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 18.219 (CSEL 30:107lines 219–253–108; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/18-219)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/18.254":{"o":"sancte deo Felix, inopum substantia, semper\npro miseris felix et semper diues egenis,\nte requiem fessis deus adflictisque leuamen,\nte posuit maestis ad saucia corda medellam;\npropterea tamquam gremio confisa paterno\nin te paupertas caput adclinata recumbit.\nFelix sancte meos semper miserate labores,\nnunc oblite mei, cur me rogo uel cute nudum\ndeseris? amisi caros, tua dona, iuuencos,\nsaepe tibi supplex quos commendare solebam,\nquos tua perpetuo seruabat cura fauore\npascebatque mihi. tua nam custodia saluos\ndextraque sufficiens illos praestabat opimos,\nquos misero mihi nox haec abstulit. heu quid agam nunc?\nquo deceptus eam? quem criminer? an tibi de te\nconquerar inmemoremque mei accusabo patronum,\nqui mihi sopito tam densum inrepere somnum,\nne mea sentirem perfringere claustra latrones,\npassus es et nullo fregisti dura pauore\npectora nec lucem tenebris furtoque dedisti?\naut ullis profugos curasti prodere signis?\nqua modo discurram? quo deferar? omnia caecis\nstructa mihi latebris; nunc et mea tecta uidentur\nclausa mihi, abductis ubi desolatus alumnis\nnil habeo, quod habere uelim, quod dulce uidenti,\ndulce laboranti non inrita gratia praestet,\noblectans inopem sensu fructuque peculi.\nhos ubi nunc quaeram miserandus ego? aut ubi quando\ninueniam tales aut unde parabo, repertos\nqui solos habui contentae rusticus illos\npaupertatis opes? ipsos igitur mihi redde,\nnolo alios. nec eos ulla regione requiram,\nhic mihi debentur; haec illos limina reddent,\nin quibus ipsum te subplex adstringo tibique\nhaereo. cur quaeram aut ubi quos ignoro latrones?","t":"“Felix, holy to God, substance of the needy, always\nfortunate for the wretched and always rich for the poor,\nGod has set you as rest for the weary and relief for the afflicted,\nas healing for the sorrowful, for wounded hearts;\ntherefore, as if trusting in a father's bosom,\npoverty lays its head on you and rests.\nHoly Felix, who have always pitied my labours,\nnow forgetful of me, why, I ask, do you desert me,\nstripped to the skin? I have lost my dear steers, your gifts,\nwhich as a suppliant I used often to commend to you,\nwhich your care kept with constant favour\nand fed for me. For your guardianship kept them safe,\nand your sufficient right hand made them fat,\nthe ones this night has taken from wretched me. Alas, what shall I do now?\nWhere shall I go, deceived? Whom shall I accuse? Or shall I complain\nto you about you and accuse my patron of forgetting me,\nyou who allowed so dense a sleep to creep over me in my slumber\nthat I should not feel robbers breaking my bolts,\nand did not break my hard heart with any fear,\nnor give light to the darkness and the theft?\nOr did you take care to betray the fugitives by any signs?\nWhere shall I run now? Whither shall I be carried? All things\nare built against me in blind hiding places; now even my own house seems\nclosed to me, where, desolate, my nurslings led away,\nI have nothing that I would wish to have, nothing that a grace not vain\nmight offer, sweet to see and sweet as I labour,\ndelighting a poor man with the sense and fruit of his little property.\nWhere shall I seek these now, pitiable as I am? Or where, or when\nshall I find such, or whence shall I procure them, if found,\nI, a rustic, who had them as the only riches\nof a contented poverty? So give me back those same ones;\nI want no others. Nor shall I seek them in any region;\nhere they are owed to me; these thresholds will give them back,\nin which as a suppliant I bind you yourself, and cling\nto you. Why should I seek robbers I do not know, or where?","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 18.254 (CSEL 30:108lines 254–288–110; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/18-254)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/18.289":{"o":"debitor hic meus est; ipsum pro fure tenebo\ncustodem. tu, sancte, reus mihi, conscius illis.\nteneo; tu scis ubi sint, qui lumine Christi\ncuncta et operta uides longeque absentia cernis\net capis includente deo, quo cuncta tenentur.\natque ideo occulti fures quacumque latebra\nnon tibi celantur nec de te euadere possunt,\nquos licet et manus una tenet. deus unus ubique,\nChristi blanda piis, sed iniquis dextera uindex.\nredde igitur mihi, redde boues et corripe furem.\nsed non quaero reos; abeant, non nescio mores,\nsancte, tuos; nescis male facta rependere, malis\nemendare malos uenia quam perdere poena.\nconueniat nobis igitur: sic diuide mecum\nquae tua, quae mea sunt; indemnis stet mea per te\nutilitas iuxtaque tuas clementia partes\nuindicet aequatoque tuum libramine constet\niudicium; tibi solue reos, mihi redde iuuencos.\necce tenes pactum, famuli iam nulla morandi\ncausa tibi; adcelera tantis me soluere curis.\nnam mihi certa manet sententia cedere nusquam,\ndonec subuenias, nec ab isto poste refigi;\nni properas, isto deponam in limine uitam,\nnec iam repperies cui reddas sero reductos.\ntalia uoce quidem querula sed mente fideli\nplorantem totoque die sine fine precantem\naudiuit laetus non blando subplice martyr\net sua cum domino ludens conuitia risit;\nposcentisque fide, non libertate dolentis\nmotus opem properat; paucis mora ducitur horis.\ninterea labente die iam uespere ducto\nnec precibus dabat ille modum nec fletibus; una\nuox erat adfixi foribus: non eruar istinc;","t":"My debtor is here; I shall hold the guardian himself\nin place of the thief. You, saint, are answerable to me, an accomplice of theirs.\nI hold you; you know where they are, you who by the light of Christ\nsee all things, even hidden ones, and see far-off absent ones,\nand grasp them, since God encloses all, by whom all things are held.\nAnd therefore the hidden thieves, in whatever hiding place,\nare not concealed from you, nor can they escape you,\nthough they be anywhere, since one hand holds them. God is one everywhere,\nthe right hand of Christ gentle to the godly, but an avenger to the wicked.\nSo give back to me, give back my oxen, and seize the thief.\nBut I do not seek the guilty; let them go; I am not ignorant of your ways,\nsaint; you do not know how to repay evil deeds; you prefer\nto amend the wicked by pardon rather than destroy them by punishment.\nSo let us agree: divide with me thus\nwhat is yours and what is mine; let my interest stand unharmed through you,\nand let mercy claim your share alongside,\nand let your judgment stand with balanced scale:\nrelease the guilty for yourself, give me back my steers.\nSee, you have the bargain; there is no longer any cause for you\nto delay your servant; hasten to release me from such great cares.\nFor my resolve stands sure never to give way\nuntil you help me, nor to be unfastened from this doorpost;\nunless you hasten, I will lay down my life on this threshold,\nand you will no longer find anyone to whom to return them, brought back too late.”\nSuch things he said with a complaining voice but faithful mind,\nweeping and praying all day without end;\nthe martyr heard him gladly, for the suppliant was not flattering,\nand, sporting with his Lord, laughed at his reproaches;\nand, moved by the faith of the one asking, not by the boldness of the one grieving,\nhe hastens help; the delay is drawn out a few hours.\nMeanwhile, as the day slipped away and evening came on,\nhe set no limit to prayers nor to tears; his one\ncry, fixed to the doors, was: “I will not be torn from here;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 18.289 (CSEL 30:110lines 289–321–111; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/18-289)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/18.322":{"o":"hic moriar, uitae nisi causam protinus istic\naccipiam. tandem tamen, ut iam plurima tutum\nnox secretum adytis fieri cogebat, et ille\ntemporis oblitus, damni memor, ostia prono\nore premens, toto prohibebat corpore claustra.\nsed multis frustra pulsantum uocibus aures\nadgreditur uiolenta manus tandemque reuellit\nturba reluctantem et sancta procul exigit aula.\npulsus ab aedituis flet amarius et sua lugens\ntecta petit, resonant plangore silentia noctis\nquestibus et magnis late loca sola resultant,\ndonec et inuitus peruenit. et atra silentis\ningrediens tuguri penetralia rursus ab ipso\nculminis introitu taciti, ut praesepia uidit\nnuda boum et nullos dare tintinnabula pulsus,\nexcussa ut ceruice boum crepitare solebant\nmollius aut lentis caua linguis aera ferire,\narmentum reduces dum gutture ruminat escas:\nhis grauius tamquam rescisso uulnere planctum\nintegrat, et quamquam neget aegro cura quietem,\net uigili tamen haec dat solamenta dolori,\nut bubus stabulata suis loca corpore fuso\npressa superiaceat; nec duro fracta cubili\nmembra dolent, iuuat ipsa iniuria; nec situs horret\nsordentis stabuli, quia notum reddit odorem\ndilecti pecoris, nec fetor fetet amanti.\nsi qua illi extremo tulerant uestigia gressu\naspicit et palpante manu calcata retractans\ningemit et refricat totis iam frigida membris\nsigna pedum; mentemque suam, licet eminus absit\ncorpore, sacratam Felicis mittit ad aulam,\nFelicem fletu, Felicem nomine clamans,\nnec desperat opem nec parcit fundere uota.","t":"here I will die, unless I receive at once, here,\na reason to live.” At last, however, when the deepening night\nwas now compelling the shrine to be made secure, and he,\nforgetful of time, mindful of his loss, pressing the doors\nwith his face down, was blocking the bars with his whole body,\nthe violent hands of those who had knocked at his ears in vain with many words\nset upon him, and at last the crowd tore him away\nstruggling and drove him far from the holy hall.\nPushed out by the sacristans, he weeps more bitterly and, mourning,\nmakes for his house; the silences of the night resound with his lament,\nand the lonely places echo far and wide with great complaints,\nuntil, unwilling, he arrived. And entering the black inner room\nof his silent hut, again, from the very entrance\nunder the roof, when he saw the bare stalls of the oxen\nand no bells giving their sound,\nas they used to rattle softly when the oxen shook their necks\nor struck the hollow bronze with slow tongues,\nwhile the herd chewed the cud in the throat,\nhe renews his lamentation more heavily, as if a wound had been reopened;\nand although care denies the sick man rest,\nyet it gives this comfort to his wakeful grief,\nthat he lies with his body stretched over the places where\nhis oxen had been stalled, pressing them; nor do his limbs ache, broken by the hard bed;\nthe very injury delights him; nor does he shudder at the filth\nof the dirty stall, because it gives back the familiar smell\nof his beloved cattle, and the stench does not stink to a lover.\nIf there were any footprints they had left with their last steps,\nhe looks at them, and with groping hand going over the trodden places\nhe groans and rubs with all his limbs the now cold\ntracks of their feet; and his mind, though he is absent\nin body far away, he sends to the consecrated hall of Felix,\ncalling Felix with weeping, Felix by name,\nnor does he despair of help or cease to pour out prayers.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 18.322 (CSEL 30:111lines 322–354–113; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/18-322)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/18.33":{"o":"hi leues titulos lento poliant argento\nsanctaque praefixis obducant limina lamnis.\nast alii pictis accendant lumina ceris\nmultiforesque cauis lychnos laquearibus aptent,\nut uibrent tremulas funalia pendula flammas.\nmartyris hi tumulum studeant perfundere nardo,\nut medicata pio referant unguenta sepulchro.\ncedo equidem et uacuo multis potioribus auro,\nquis grauis aere sinus releuatur egente repleto,\nqui locuplete manu promptaria ditia laxant\net uariis animam sponsantes dotibus adstant,\nmente pares, ope diuersi; nec segnius illi\nfercula opima cibis, ceras aulaea lucernas,\nlarga quidem sed muta dicant: ego munere linguae,\nnullus opum, famulor de me mea debita soluens\nmeque ipsum pro me, uilis licet hostia, pendo.\nnec metuam sperni, quoniam non uilia Christo\npauperis obsequii libamina, qui duo laetus\naera, piae censum uiduae, laudata recepit.\ntunc quoque multa deo locupletes dona ferebant,\ninplentes magnis aeraria sancta talentis;\nsed Christus spectator erat, qui corda ferentum\ninspiciens uiduae palmam dedit; illa diurni\nrem uictus, geminos, quod ei substantia, nummos\nmiserat in sacram nil anxia corporis arcam.\npropterea ex ipso uenturi iudicis ore\nante diem meruit facti praecerpere laudem\npraeferrique illis, quorum stipe uicerat aurum,\nmunere pauper anus, sed prodiga corda fideli.\nergo, boni fratres, quibus hic dignatio et istic\nconcessa est, placidis aduertite mentibus aures,\nnec qui, sed de quo loquar, exaudite libenter.","t":"Let these polish smooth inscriptions with pliant silver\nand cover the holy thresholds with plates fixed on them.\nAnd let others kindle lights in painted wax\nand fit many-holed lamps to the hollow ceilings,\nso that the hanging tapers may flicker with trembling flames.\nLet these be eager to drench the martyr's tomb with nard,\nso that they may carry back healing ointments from the godly tomb.\nI yield indeed, empty of gold, to many more powerful,\nwhose pockets, heavy with money, are lightened as the needy are filled,\nwho with rich hand open their wealthy storerooms\nand stand by, pledging their souls with various dowries,\nequal in mind, different in means; and not less zealously let them\ndedicate dishes rich with food, wax candles, hangings, lamps,\ngenerous indeed but dumb: I, with the gift of my tongue,\npossessing no wealth, serve, paying what I owe from myself,\nand weigh out myself for myself, though a cheap victim.\nNor shall I fear being scorned, since the libations of a poor man's service\nare not cheap to Christ, who gladly received with praise\nthe two coins, the fortune of the godly widow.\nThen too rich men were bringing many gifts to God,\nfilling the holy treasury with great talents;\nbut Christ was the spectator, who, looking into the hearts\nof the givers, gave the palm to the widow; she had put\nthe means of her daily food, two coins, all her substance,\ninto the sacred chest, with no anxiety for the body.\nTherefore, from the very mouth of the Judge who is to come,\nshe earned before the day to receive in advance the praise of her deed,\nand to be preferred to those whose gold her small coin had conquered,\na poor old woman in her gift, but with a heart lavish in faith.\nSo, good brothers, to whom favour has been granted here and there,\nturn your ears to me with calm minds,\nand hear gladly not who speaks, but of whom I speak.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 18.33 (CSEL 30:98lines 33–64–100; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/18-33)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/18.355":{"o":"nox medium iam uecta polum perfuderat orbem\npace soporifera, reticebant omnia terris;\nsolum illum sua peruigilem spes curaque habebat.\necce repente suis strepitum pro postibus audit\net pulsas resonare fores, quo territus amens\nexclamat, rursum sibi fures adfore credens:\nquid uacua incassum crudeles ostia uultis\nfrangere? iam nullus mihi bos; quid quaeritis ultra?\npraeuenere alii, mea tantum uita superstes,\nquae sociis uestris ut praedae cassa remansit.\ndixerat haec metuens; sed nullo fine manebat\nliminibus sonitus. quo crebrescente nec ulla\nrespondente sibi pulsantum uoce propinquat\nsuspensus cunctante gradu et dat postibus aurem\nsollicitam et rimis aciem per hiantia claustra,\nqua tenebris albus caeli color interlucet,\ninserit exploratque diu, nec adhuc sibi credit\nquid uideat; nec enim sublustri lumine noctis\npura fides oculis, dubio tamen ipsa per umbras\ncorpora pulsantum trepidos auferre pauores\nspemque boni coepere nouis promittere formis.\nnon homines pulsare uidet; sed quod uidet esse\nuerum, non audet sibi credere. magna profabor,\nquamquam parua deo miracula, cui sapit omne\nrerum animal sensu, quo iusserit ipse creator\nomnigenum pecus. ecce gerens duce numine mentem\npar insigne boum non nota per auia nocte\nuenerat ad notas nullis rectoribus aedes,\nsponte quasi, non sponte tamen, quia numinis actu\nereptos potiore manu praedonibus illos\negerat occultis Felix moderatus habenis.","t":"Night, having now passed the middle of the sky, had flooded the world\nwith sleep-bringing peace; all things were silent on the earth;\nonly his hope and care kept him wakeful.\nBehold, suddenly he hears a noise before his doorposts\nand the doors resound with knocking, at which, terrified, out of his mind,\nhe cries out, believing that thieves were at hand again:\n“Why do you cruelly wish to break empty doors\nin vain? I have no ox now; what more do you seek?\nOthers got here first; only my life survives,\nwhich has remained, worthless as booty, for your companions.”\nHe said this in fear; but the sound at the threshold continued\nwithout end. As it grew more frequent, and no\nvoice of the knockers answered him, he draws near\nin suspense with hesitant step, and puts an anxious ear\nto the doorposts, and his eye to the cracks through the gaping bars,\nwhere the white colour of the sky shines in amid the darkness,\nand he looks long and explores, and still does not trust himself\nas to what he sees; for in the dim light of night\nthere is no clear faith for the eyes; yet through the shadows\nthe very bodies of the knockers, though doubtful, began\nto take away his trembling fears and to promise hope of good by their shapes.\nHe does not see men knocking; but what he sees to be\ntrue he does not dare to believe. I will tell great things,\nthough small miracles for God, for whom every living creature\nhas sense, by which the Creator himself has ordered\ncattle of every kind. Behold, bearing a mind led by divine power,\nthe notable pair of oxen, through pathless places unknown at night,\nhad come to the known house with no drivers,\nas if of their own accord, yet not of their own accord, because Felix,\nguiding them with hidden reins, had driven them by divine action,\nsnatched by a stronger hand from the robbers.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 18.355 (CSEL 30:113lines 355–385–114; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/18-355)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/18.386":{"o":"et postquam adtigerant adsueti culmea tecti\nculmina gaudentes reditu expertasque timentes\nsat memori terrore manus, quasi pone timerent\ninstantem sibi raptorem, quatere ostia iunctis\nfrontibus et tamquam manibus sic cornibus uti,\nut dominum excirent sonitu. sed territus ille\nrursus ut hostili circum sua claustra tumultu\ntuta etiam timuit; rursus sapientia bruto\nadspirat pecori causam sentire morantis\natque intellectum domini reserare timentis.\nedere mugitum, de quo formidine pulsa\npanderet exclusis aditum securus alumnis.\nille inopina uidens diuini insignia doni\nhaeret adhuc, trepidumque etiam sua gaudia turbant.\ncredere non audet, metuit non credere; cernit\ncomminus et caligare putat; dum respicit ad se,\ndiffidit tantum sese potuisse mereri;\nsed contra reputans a quo sperauerit, audet\ncredere, cognoscens Felicis gesta patroni.\niamque rubescebant rumpente crepuscula mane\nnoctis et extremae fuga rarescentibus astris\nluce subobscura uel sublucentibus umbris\ncoeperat ambiguos rerum reserare colores.\ntunc demum nota specie sibi bubus apertis,\nut primum coepere oculis clarescere setae,\ncertior exultat remouens et pessula claustris\nostia laxato stridentia cardine soluit.\ndum facit hoc, iuncti simul inrupere iuuenci\net reserantis adhuc molimina praeuenerunt.","t":"And after they had reached the familiar straw roof\nof their house, rejoicing at their return and fearing the hands\nthey had experienced with lively remembering terror, as though they feared\nthe robber pressing on behind them, they began to shake the doors with their joined\nforeheads, and to use their horns as hands,\nto rouse their master by the sound. But he, terrified\nagain, as at a hostile uproar around his bolts,\nfeared even what was safe; again wisdom breathes on the brute\ncattle to sense the reason for his delay\nand to open the understanding of their fearful master:\nthey give a lowing, by which, his fear driven off,\nhe might securely open the way to his shut-out nurslings.\nHe, seeing the unexpected tokens of the divine gift,\nstill hesitates, and even his joys trouble the trembling man.\nHe does not dare to believe, he fears not to believe; he sees them\nclose by and thinks his eyes are dim; while he looks at himself,\nhe distrusts that he could have deserved so much;\nbut, reflecting on the other hand on him from whom he had hoped, he dares\nto believe, recognizing the deeds of Felix his patron.\nAnd now the twilight was reddening as morning broke\nthe night, and with the flight of its last part, the stars thinning,\nin a half-dark light or with shadows glimmering,\nit had begun to unlock the doubtful colours of things.\nThen at last, the oxen plainly shown to him in their familiar look,\nas soon as their bristles began to grow clear to his eyes,\nnow more certain, he exults, and removing the bolts from the bars\nhe opens the doors, creaking on their loosened hinge.\nWhile he does this, the yoked steers burst in together\nand forestalled the efforts of the one still unbolting.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 18.386 (CSEL 30:114lines 386–414–116; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/18-386)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/18.415":{"o":"dimoto faciles cesserunt obice postes,\noblatumque sibi mox ipso in limine regem\ncognoscunt hilares laetum lambuntque uicissim\nmulcentem labrisque manus palpantis inudant\natque habitum totum spumosa per oscula foedant,\ndum conplectentis domini iuga cara benignum\nmolliter obnixi blanda uice pectus adulant.\nillum dilecti pecoris nec cornua laedunt\net conlata quasi molles ad pectora frontes\nadmouet, et manibus non aspera lingua uidetur,\nquae lambens etiam siluestria pabula radit.\nsed tamen haec inter non uano corde fidelis\nrusticus officii meminit, neque curat anhelos\nante boues stabulis inducere postque laborem\natque famem recreare cibo, quam ducere secum\nilluc, unde suos meruit. uenit ergo reductos\nducens nec tacitis celat sua gaudia uotis\net referens densas trahit ad sua uerba cateruas\ningrediturque sacras cunctis mirantibus aedes.\nquos miser hesterno amissos deflerat, eosdem\npraesentes hodie ducit sanctique triumphum\nmartyris ostentat populis; ducuntur et ipsi\nper medios coetus, modo furum praeda, iuuenci,\net modo Felicis spolium; dat euntibus ingens\nturba locum et muto celebratur gloria Christi\nin pecore. ille autem, qui tanti muneris alto\ncausa fuit domino, mediis in milibus extans\nflensque iterum sed laetitia modo debita sancto\nuota refert, non aere graui nec munere surdo,\nmunere sed uiuo linguae mentisque profusus,\nuoce pia largum testatur pauper amorem\ndebitor et Christo satis isto pignore soluit,\ninmaculata suae cui sufficit hostia laudis:","t":"The doorposts yielded easily as the barrier was moved,\nand the oxen, glad, recognize their master, presented to them\non the very threshold, and lick him in turn\nas he strokes them, and wet his feeling hands with their lips,\nand befoul his whole clothing with foamy kisses,\nwhile, pushing softly against the kindly breast of their master\nwho embraces their dear yoke, they caress it in turn.\nNor do the horns of his beloved cattle hurt him,\nand he draws their foreheads to his breast as if they were soft,\nand the tongue that scrapes even wild fodder as it licks\ndoes not seem rough to his hands.\nBut even amid these things the faithful rustic, with no vain heart,\nremembered his duty, and does not care to lead his panting\noxen first into the stalls, and, after their labour\nand hunger, refresh them with food, before leading them with him\nto the place from which he had earned them back. So he came, leading them\nback, and does not hide his joys in silent vows,\nand as he tells it he draws dense crowds to his words\nand enters the sacred house as all marvel.\nThose whom the wretched man had wept as lost yesterday, the same\nhe now leads present today and shows the people the triumph\nof the holy martyr; and the steers themselves are led\nthrough the midst of the gatherings, lately the thieves' plunder\nand now Felix's spoil; the huge crowd makes way for them\nas they go, and the glory of Christ is celebrated in dumb\ncattle. But he, who had been the cause of so great a gift\nfrom the high Lord, standing out among thousands\nand weeping again, but now with joy, pays the vows due to the saint,\nnot with heavy money nor with a dumb gift,\nbut pouring out the living gift of tongue and mind;\nthe poor debtor testifies with godly voice his abundant love,\nand pays Christ enough with this pledge,\nfor whom the spotless sacrifice of his praise suffices:","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 18.415 (CSEL 30:116lines 415–447–117; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/18-415)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/18.448":{"o":"captiuos en, sancte, tuos tibi plebe sub omni\nuictor ago et uictos iterum tibi mando tuendos;\nconserua reduces dignatus reddere raptos.\nsed tamen in me nunc ipsum, bone, respice, martyr;\nnamque uides quod agas tibi adhuc superesse, sed in me,\nqui prope caecatis oculis tua comminus adsto\nlimina; nam multo mersi mea lumina fletu,\nnon solum damno sed et inter gaudia plorans.\ndempsisti causam lacrimarum, tolle modo orta\nuulnera de lacrimis; miseratus, sancte, meorum\ndamna boum, miserare itidem modo damna oculorum.\ndonasti reduces pecudes mihi, rursus et illis\nredde meos oculos. nam quid iuuat esse reductos,\nsi languente acie praesens praesentibus absim?\ntalia praesentes populi risere querentem.\nsed procul admotae secreti martyris aures\nsuscepere pias ab inepto subplice uoces,\nmoxque refecta sacram senserunt lumina dextram.\ninde domum gaudens oculis bubusque receptis\nconlaudante deum populo remeabat, et illum\nlaeta sequebatur gemini uictoria uoti.","t":"“See, saint, your captives, before all the people,\nI lead as victor to you, and again entrust the conquered to you to guard;\npreserve those brought back, you who have deigned to return the stolen.\nBut now look upon me myself, good martyr;\nfor you see that something still remains for you to do, but in me,\nwho stand close at your threshold with eyes almost blinded;\nfor I have drowned my eyes in much weeping,\nlamenting not only in loss but also amid joys.\nYou have removed the cause of tears; remove now the wounds\nborn of the tears; having pitied, saint, the loss of my\noxen, pity likewise now the loss of my eyes.\nYou have given me back my cattle; in turn, for them,\ngive back my eyes. For what good is it that they are brought back,\nif, with my sight failing, though present I am absent from them present?”\nThe people present laughed at him complaining so.\nBut the ears of the hidden martyr, turned to him from afar,\nreceived the godly words of the simple suppliant,\nand soon his restored eyes felt the sacred right hand.\nThen, rejoicing, with his eyes and his oxen recovered,\nhe went home as the people praised God, and the glad victory\nof a twofold prayer followed him.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 18.448 (CSEL 30:117lines 448–468–118; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/18-448)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/18.65":{"o":"despicienda quidem, tamen et miranda profabor,\ndespicienda meo ingenio, miranda beati\nFelicis merito, quod dicere non sine Christi\nlaude licet, quia quicquid in hoc miramur ab illo est,\nunde piis uirtus et per quem uita sepultis.\npraeteritis cecini patriam genus acta libellis\net tota sanctum repetens ab origine dixi\nFelicem, donec perfectae tempora uitae\nclauderet et posito desertis corpore terris\ntenderet aeterni merita ad consortia regni.\nsed quia non idem tumuli qui membra piorum\net merita occultant, animarum uita superstes\ncorporibus functis quaesitos corpore fructus\net post corporeos obitus non mortua sentit\nlaeta bonos, cruciata malos, quos rursus in ipsum\ntempore uenturo corpus reuocata remixto\ncorpore communi metet indiscreta receptu.\nlonga igitur mihi materies; quantumque erit aeui,\ntantum erit et uerbi super hoc, cui dicere gesta\nFelicis pateat, si copia tanta sit oris,\nquanta operum meritique manet. nam tempore ab illo,\nquo primum ista dies Felicem fine beato\ncondidit et carnem terris, animam dedit astris,\nex illo prope cuncta dies operante uidetur\nconfessore dei, probat et sine corpore uiuum\nChristus, ut ostendat maiorem in morte piorum\nuirtutem quam uim in uita superesse malorum.\necce uides tumulum sacra martyris ossa tegentem\net tacitum obtento seruari marmore corpus;\nnemo oculis hominum qua corpore cernimus extat,\nmembra latent positi, placida caro morte quiescit,\nin spem non uacuam rediuiuae condita uitae.","t":"I shall speak of things to be despised and yet to be wondered at:\nto be despised for my talent, to be wondered at for the merit of blessed\nFelix, which may not be told without the praise of Christ,\nsince whatever we wonder at in him is from Christ,\nfrom whom the godly have their power, and through whom the buried have life.\nIn past little books I have sung his homeland, family and deeds,\nand, going back to the very origin, I told of holy\nFelix, until he closed the times of his perfect life\nand, laying down his body on the deserted earth,\nwent on to the merits of fellowship in the eternal kingdom.\nBut since tombs do not hide the merits of the godly\nas they do their limbs, the life of souls, surviving\nwhen their bodies are done, experiences the fruits sought in the body,\nand after bodily death, not dead, it feels\nthe good with joy and the evil with torment; and, recalled\nin time to come into the same body, mingled again with it,\nit will reap them in common with the body, received back undivided.\nSo my material is long; as much as there will be of time,\nso much will there be to say on this, for anyone free to tell the deeds\nof Felix, if his speech were as abundant\nas his works and merit remain. For from that time\nwhen this day first laid Felix to rest with a blessed end\nand gave his flesh to the earth, his soul to the stars,\nfrom that day almost everything is seen to be done by the working\nof God's confessor, and Christ proves him alive even without the body,\nto show that there is greater power in the death of the godly\nthan the force remaining in the life of the wicked.\nBehold, you see the tomb covering the martyr's sacred bones\nand the silent body kept under the marble drawn over it;\nno one appears to human eyes in the way we see with the body;\nthe limbs of the one laid to rest are hidden; the flesh rests in a calm death,\nburied in a hope not empty of life restored.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 18.65 (CSEL 30:100lines 65–96–101; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/18-65)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/18.97":{"o":"unde igitur tantus circumstat limina terror?\nquis tantos agit huc populos? quaenam manus urget\ndaemonas inuitosque rapit frustraque rebelli\nuoce reclamantes conpellit adusque sepulchrum\nmartyris et sancto quasi fixos limite sistit?\nrespicio hanc aliquando diem, quam maesta relicto\norbe fuit, quam laeta polo, cum Christus amicam\nadsumens animam casto deus hausit ab ore.\naddidit ornatum caelis nec pignore terras\norbauit; superi Felicis mente fruuntur,\ncorpore nos; animaeque potentis spiritus illic\nuiuit et hic meritum. sed totum funeris almi\npraesentare iuuat quem Nola inpendit honorem.\nnamque sacerdotem sacris annisque parentem\nperdiderat, sed eum caelis habitura patronum\nurbs deuota pium; spe solabatur amorem.\ntotis ergo quibus stipatur conflua turbis\ncurrit in obsequium populos effusa fideles.\ntunc dolor et pietas coeunt in pectora cunctis;\nadmixta pietate fides gaudetque doletque.\net licet accitum Christo super aethera tolli\nFelicem credat, tanto tamen ipsa relinqui\npraeceptore dolet; quodque unum in funere sancto\ninter et exequias restat solamen amoris,\npostquam depositum tumulandi in sede feretrum,\ncertatim populus pietatis circumfusus\nundique denseto coetu sita membra coronat,\nreligiosa pie pugna exercetur amantum.\nquisque alium praestans propior consistere certat\nreliquiis corpusque manu contingere gaudet.","t":"Whence, then, does such great awe surround the threshold?\nWho drives such great peoples here? What hand presses\nthe demons and seizes them against their will, and, as they cry out\nin vain with rebellious voice, drives them all the way to the martyr's\ntomb, and halts them as if fixed at the holy boundary?\nI look back to this day long ago, how sorrowful it was\nfor the world left behind, how glad for heaven, when Christ, God,\ntaking up the friendly soul, drew it from his chaste mouth.\nHe added an ornament to the heavens, nor did he bereave\nthe earth of its pledge; those above enjoy the mind of Felix,\nwe his body; the spirit of his mighty soul lives\nthere, and here his merit. But it delights to present\nthe whole honour that Nola spent on the kindly funeral.\nFor the city had lost a priest in sacred things and a parent in years,\nbut, devoted, it would have him as a godly patron in heaven;\nit consoled its love with hope.\nSo with all the crowds that pack it, flowing together,\nit runs, pouring out its faithful peoples in service.\nThen grief and piety come together in all hearts;\nfaith, mixed with piety, rejoices and grieves.\nAnd though it believes that Felix, summoned by Christ, is raised\nabove the heavens, yet it grieves to be left by so great\na teacher; and what alone remains in a holy funeral\nand its rites as a consolation of love:\nafter the bier had been set down at the place of burial,\nthe people, pouring around in a rivalry of piety,\nfrom every side crown the laid-out limbs with a dense gathering,\nand a religious fight of lovers is fought in godliness.\nEach strives, outdoing another, to stand nearer\nthe relics, and rejoices to touch the body with his hand.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 18.97 (CSEL 30:101lines 97–126–103; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/18-97)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/19.1":{"o":"Sidera si caelo possunt, si gramina terris\ndefore, mella fauis, aqua fontibus, uberibus lac,\nsic poterunt linguis laudes cessare piorum,\nin quibus et uitae uirtus et gloria mortis\nipse deus, pro quo uitam uoluere pacisci\net moriendo piam sancire fidem populorum\nmercarique sacrum pretioso sanguine regnum,\nsanguine quo totum spargentes martyres orbem\ngentibus innumeris semen caeleste fuerunt.\nhorum de numero procerum confessor in ista\nurbe datus Felix longe lateque per orbem\nnominis emicuit titulo. sed Nola sepulti\nfacta domus tamquam proprio sibi sidere plaudit.\nomnis enim quacumque iacet mandatus in ora\nmartyr stella loci simul et medicina colentum est.\nnamque tenebrosum ueteri caligine mundum\nlanguentesque animas miseratus in orbe creator\nsic sacra disposuit terris monumenta piorum,\nsparsit ut astrorum nocturno lumina caelo.\net licet una fides, par gratia et aemula uirtus\nmartyribus cunctis maneat, tamen omnibus isdem\ndissimiles operum formas extare uidemus.\natque alibi tacitis meritum sublime sepulchris\nexcolimus memores, alibi clamantia signa,\nconspicuas miramur opes. ubi, credo, mali plus\ndurior inpietas retinet, maiorem ibi morbus\nposcit opem grauior, uel adhuc ubi caecior altam\nperfidiae noctem trahit error et aegra laborat\nin populo titubante fides, ibi lumina prorsus\naccendi maiora decet mundique tenebras\ninlustrante deo perimi mentesque retusis\nadtonitas oculis trepidasque intendere ad ipsos\ndiuini ueri radios, caligine taetra","t":"If the stars can be absent from heaven, if grass from the earth,\nhoney from the combs, water from the springs, milk from the udders,\nso will the praises of the godly be able to cease from tongues;\nin them the strength of life and the glory of death\nis God himself, for whom they willed to pledge their lives,\nand by dying to ratify the godly faith of peoples,\nand to purchase the sacred kingdom with precious blood,\nthe blood with which the martyrs, sprinkling the whole world,\nbecame heavenly seed for countless nations.\nFrom the number of these chiefs, Felix, the confessor given to\nthis city, shone far and wide through the world by the renown\nof his name. But Nola, made the home of the buried saint,\napplauds herself as for her own star.\nFor every martyr, on whatever shore he lies entrusted,\nis at once the star of the place and the medicine of its worshippers.\nFor the Creator, pitying the world dark with ancient gloom\nand the languishing souls in it,\nso arranged the sacred monuments of the godly on earth\nas he scattered the lights of the stars in the night sky.\nAnd though one faith, equal grace, and rival virtue\nremain for all the martyrs, yet in all of them\nwe see unlike forms of works stand out.\nIn some places we remember and honour lofty merit in silent tombs,\nin others we marvel at crying signs, conspicuous powers. Where, I believe,\na harder impiety holds more evil, there a graver disease\ndemands greater help; or where a blinder error still\ndraws out the deep night of faithlessness, and faith labours, sick,\nin a wavering people, there it is altogether fitting that greater\nlights be kindled, and that the darkness of the world\nbe destroyed as God illumines it, and that minds, astonished,\nwith their eyes dazzled, and trembling, should turn toward the very\nrays of divine truth, from the foul gloom","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 19.1 (CSEL 30:118lines 1–33–119; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/19-1)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/19.129":{"o":"ergo dea est Isis? mulier dea? si dea, corpus\nnon habet, et sexus sine corpore uel sine sexu\npartus abest. unde ergo illi quem quaerit Osirim?\natque ubi quaerat eum nescit dea? sed dea numquam\nesse potest mater nec femina. nam deus unus,\nuirtus trina, deus pater unus et unus in ipso\nfilius, ex ipso simul unus cum patre uerbi\nspiritus; haec tria sunt deus unus nomina semper.\nsola dei natura deus, quod filius et quod\nspiritus et pater est; sed filius ex patre natus,\nspiritus ex patre procedens. nihil hic habet ulla\ncommune aut simile in rebus natura creatis.\nat Carthago potens Cypriano martyre floret,\ncuius et ore simul profusi et sanguine fontes\nfecundauerunt Libyae sitientis harenas.\nnec procul inde Vticam conlatis candida massa\nmartyribus magno uenerandae caedis aceruo\nextulit; unus enim benedicti caespitis agger\ncorpora multa tegens alte caput extulit aruis\net meritis altos testatur monte sepulchri.\ninde deo dudum iam fertilis Africa Christo\nmultiplicat largas tanto de semine fruges\net parit egregios uerboque fideque magistros.\nnec minor occiduis effulsit gratia terris.\nAmbrosius Latio, Vincentius extat Hiberis.\nGallia Martinum, Delphinum Aquitania sumpsit.\nmultaque praeterea per easdem largiter oras\nsemina sanctorum positis diffusa sepulchris\ninlustrant totum superis uirtutibus orbem\net toto antiquum detrudunt orbe draconem,\nqui genus humanum per nomina mille deorum,\nquae tamen ex obitis mortalibus et sibi sumpsit\nipse suisque dedit coluber, quatit arte nocendi,\nprinceps in uacuo taetrum gerit aere regnum\ndaemonibusque caput nobis inimicus oberrat.","t":"So is Isis a goddess? A woman a goddess? If a goddess, she has\nno body, and without a body there is no sex, or without sex\nno childbirth. Whence then does she have the Osiris she seeks?\nAnd does a goddess not know where to seek him? But a goddess can never\nbe a mother nor a woman. For God is one,\nthreefold power: God the Father one, and one in him\nthe Son, and from him at the same time, one with the Father, the Spirit\nof the Word; these three names are always one God.\nThe nature of God alone is God, which the Son and\nthe Spirit and the Father are; but the Son is born of the Father,\nthe Spirit proceeds from the Father. Nothing here has any\nnature among created things in common or like it.\nBut mighty Carthage flourishes with Cyprian the martyr,\nwhose fountains, poured out at once from his mouth and his blood,\nmade fruitful the sands of thirsty Libya.\nNot far from there the White Mass raised Utica up\nwith martyrs gathered in a great heap of venerable slaughter;\nfor one mound of blessed turf, covering many bodies,\nhas raised its head high over the fields,\nand testifies to lofty merits by the mountain of its tomb.\nHence Africa, long since fruitful for God and Christ,\nmultiplies abundant harvests from so great a seed\nand bears excellent teachers in word and faith.\nNor did less grace shine out in the western lands.\nAmbrose stands out for Latium, Vincent for the Iberians.\nGaul took Martin, Aquitaine Delphinus.\nAnd many other seeds of saints besides, abundantly spread\nthrough the same regions in the tombs laid there,\nilluminate the whole world with heavenly powers\nand thrust the ancient dragon out of the whole world,\nwho shakes the human race with the art of harming\nthrough the thousand names of gods, which he, the snake,\ntook from dead mortals for himself and gave to his own;\na prince, he holds his foul kingdom in the empty air,\nand wanders about as head of the demons, our enemy.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 19.129 (CSEL 30:123lines 129–163–124; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/19-129)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/19.164":{"o":"sic itaque et nostra haec Christi miserantis amore\nFelicis meruit muniri Nola sepulchro\npurgarique simul, quia caecis mixta ruinis\norbis et ipsa etiam moriens in nocte iacebat\nsaxicolis polluta diu cultoribus, in qua\nprostibulum Veneris simul et dementia Bacchi\nnumina erant miseris, foedoque nefaria ritu\nsacra celebrabat sociata libido furori.\net quis erat uitae locus hic, ubi nec pudor usquam\nnec metus ullus erat? quis enim peccare timeret\nhic, ubi sanguineus furor atque incesta libido\nreligionis erant? et erat pro numine crimen\nhis, qui crediderant esse ullum in crimine numen,\natque erat in toto quasi sanctior agmine cultor,\nqui Veneris sacris pollutius incaluisset,\nplenus ut ille deo reliquisque beatior esset,\nqui magis infuso sibi daemone saeuius in se\ndesipiens propriisque litans furialia sacra\nuulneribus sanam meruisset perdere mentem.\no caecis mens digna animis et numina digna!\nauersis seruire deo Venus et nemus illis\nsint deus; ebrietas demens, amor inpius illos\nsanctificent; abscisa colant miserumque pudorem\nerroris foedi matris mysteria dicant.\ndigna fides illis, quibus almo in lumine ueri\nlegibus et castis et magno nomine Christi\nnulla fides et nullus amor, ideoque nec ullum\nindignae pretium uitae est in sanguine Christi.","t":"So therefore this our Nola too, by the love of merciful Christ,\ndeserved to be fortified and at the same time purified by the tomb of Felix,\nbecause, mingled with the blind ruins of the world,\nit also lay dying in the night,\nlong polluted by worshippers of stones, in which\nthe brothel of Venus and the madness of Bacchus were\ndeities to the wretched, and lust, joined to frenzy,\ncelebrated wicked rites with a foul ceremony.\nAnd what place was there here for life, where there was no shame anywhere\nnor any fear? For who would fear to sin\nhere, where bloody frenzy and incestuous lust\nwere religion? And crime was in place of a deity\nfor those who had believed that there was any deity in crime,\nand in the whole throng the worshipper was held as it were holier\nwho had grown hot more pollutedly in the rites of Venus,\nso that he was full of the god and more blessed than the rest,\nhe who, with the demon poured more into him, raving more savagely against himself\nand offering frenzied rites with his own wounds,\nhad deserved to lose a sound mind.\nO mind worthy of blind souls, and deities worthy of them!\nLet those who turn away from serving God have Venus and the grove\nas god; let mad drunkenness and impious love\nsanctify them; let them worship what is cut off and call\nthe wretched shame of foul error the mysteries of the Mother.\nFitting faith for those who, in the kindly light of truth,\nhave no faith and no love for chaste laws and the great name of Christ,\nand therefore there is no value in the blood of Christ\nfor an unworthy life.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 19.164 (CSEL 30:124lines 164–191–125; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/19-164)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/19.192":{"o":"sit deus his uenter uel cetera gaudia carnis,\nquis deus ipse deus non est, quibus in cruce Christi\ngloria nulla subest, quia non dignatur adire\ndegeneres animos uirtus crucis. inde beatus\nFelix, ut reliqui diuerso martyres orbe\nNolanis medicus fuit, estque perennis ope ista,\nnec modo Nolanis sed et omnibus, a quibus idem\ninploratus erit, dabit isto iure salutem,\nsi crucis alma fides in pectore supplicis adsit.\nista fides genus humanum curatque piatque;\nhaec ubi defuerit medicina, morabitur illic\nomne mali regnum, nec in illo desinet umquam\nCypris adulteriis, furiis regnare Lyaeus,\nin quo defuerit Christi pudor et crucis ardor.\nignis enim diuinus inest, ubi uis crucis intus\nardescente fide cruciat male conscia corda\nuiuificatque animam uitiis in carne peremptis.\nhostibus his obtrita diu corruptaque tantis\npestibus ingentem poscebat Nola medellam,\natque ideo pensante deo discrimen opemque\nFelicem accepit medicum, qui uinceret omnem\nquamlibet antiquam miserorum in cordibus atris\nperniciem et meriti uirtute potentior altis\nuulneribus ductum super ulcera putria callum\nscinderet, ut saniem suffusa labe coactam\nexprimeret sinibus ruptis ac deinde lacunam\nuulneris expleret plana cute ducta cicatrix.\nergo ubi Nolanis Felix ut stella tenebris\nfulsit ab ore dei ueniens uerbumque medendi\nore gerens, tamquam uenturo sole serenus\nin matutino laetum iubar exserit ortu\nPhosphorus occiduisque nouus praefulget in astris\nnuntius instantis cessura nocte diei:","t":"Let their belly be god to them, or the other joys of the flesh,\nthose for whom God himself is not God, for whom there is no glory\nin the cross of Christ, because the power of the cross does not deign to approach\ndegenerate souls. Hence blessed\nFelix, like other martyrs in different parts of the world,\nwas a physician to the people of Nola, and is so for ever with that help,\nand not only to the people of Nola but to all by whom he\nis implored, he will give health by this right,\nif the kindly faith of the cross be present in the suppliant's breast.\nThat faith heals and expiates the human race;\nwhere this medicine is lacking, there will linger\nthe whole kingdom of evil, nor will the Cyprian goddess ever cease\nto reign in him with adulteries, nor Lyaeus with frenzies,\nin whom the shame of Christ and the ardour of the cross are lacking.\nFor a divine fire is present where the power of the cross within,\nas faith burns up, torments guilty hearts\nand gives life to the soul, the vices in the flesh being killed.\nLong crushed by these enemies and corrupted by such great\npests, Nola needed a huge remedy,\nand therefore, God weighing the danger and the help,\nshe received Felix as physician, to overcome every\nruin, however ancient, in the black hearts of the wretched,\nand, more powerful by the strength of his merit, to cut open\nthe callus drawn over the rotten ulcers in deep wounds,\nso as to squeeze out from the opened folds the pus gathered by the spreading corruption,\nand then a scar drawn with smooth skin might fill the hollow\nof the wound.\nSo when Felix shone for the people of Nola like a star in the darkness,\ncoming from the mouth of God and bearing the word of healing\nin his mouth, as serene Phosphorus, before the sun's coming,\nputs forth his glad radiance at the morning rising,\nand, new among the setting stars, shines forth\nas herald of the approaching day, as night gives way:","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 19.192 (CSEL 30:125lines 192–224–126; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/19-192)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/19.225":{"o":"sic iam euangelio totum radiante per orbem\net propiante deo cunctis mox iudice terris\naduentus uexilla sui praetendit ubique\nperque suos Christus sua signa coruscat amicos.\nex quibus hac uoluit sibi praelucere sub ora?\nFelicem, ut nostras isto decerperet umbras\nsidere et antiquos ista quoque pelleret urbe\ndaemonas, ut pulsis hominum de corde colonis\ntalibus intraret puras deus incola mentes,\net uice mutata nobis pietate solutis\nnostra prius nostros premerent modo uincla leones\nfrustra in oues Christi uincta feritate frementes.\net manet haec nobis etiam nunc gratia, quae nos\npeccatis prece sanctorum exorante resoluit\natque isdem sanctis ultoribus adligat illos\ndiscruciatque hostes, qui nos uincire solebant.\nhi modo ut inlato deprensi lumine fures\natque in uincla dati, nunc ignea flagra piorum,\nut meruere, ferunt, aut iam infernis male trusi\ncarceribus trepidant, uicinum instare fatentes\niudicium domini solis sibi triste suisque\nomnibus, in Satanae partem quos scaeua uoluntas\nuerterit et Satanae sociauerit aemula uita,\nistic nequitiae socios homines, ibi poenae.\necce dies accepta deo, modo uera salutis\nlux micat, omnia iam nobis bene uersa uidemus;\ndiffugere doli, cecidit Bel, interit error,\nquique colebantur totis quasi numina templis\ndaemones, hi per templa dei torquentur inermes,\net qui diuinos audebant sumere honores,\nhi modo ab humana plectuntur lege subacti.","t":"so now, as the gospel shines over the whole world,\nand as God draws near, soon to be judge of all lands,\nChrist holds out everywhere the standards of his coming\nand flashes his signs through his friends.\nWhich of them did he wish to shine before him on this shore?\nFelix, so that by this star he might pluck away our shadows\nand drive the ancient demons out of this city too,\nso that, when such colonists were expelled from the hearts of men,\nGod might enter as dweller into pure minds,\nand, the roles reversed, with us released by kindness,\nour former chains might now press on our lions,\nraging in vain against Christ's sheep with their bound ferocity.\nAnd this grace still remains for us even now, which releases us\nfrom sins through the entreating prayer of the saints,\nand, with the same saints as avengers, binds them\nand torments the enemies who used to bind us.\nThese now, like thieves caught when a light is brought in\nand put in chains, now bear the fiery whips of the godly,\nas they deserved, or, wretchedly thrust into the infernal\nprisons, they tremble, confessing that the Lord's judgment\nis near at hand, grim only for themselves and for all their own,\nwhom a sinister will has turned to Satan's side,\nand a life that copies Satan's has joined to Satan,\nmen who are their companions here in wickedness, there in punishment.\nBehold the day acceptable to God; now the true light of salvation\nflashes; we see all things now turned well for us;\ndeceits have fled, Bel has fallen, error perishes,\nand the demons who used to be worshipped as deities in whole temples\nare tormented, unarmed, throughout the temples of God,\nand those who dared to take divine honours\nare now punished, subdued under a human law.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 19.225 (CSEL 30:126lines 225–255–127; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/19-225)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/19.256":{"o":"namque isti, quos nunc celebri Felicis in aula\ntorqueri clamare rapi per capta uidemus\ncorpora, corporibus uincti retinentur in ipsis,\nin quae se trusere ipsi, poenamque uolentes\nhumanam inuenere suam. nunc ergo reorum\npersonae exululant poenis, qui numine falso\ndi fuerant, et qui mentito numine uiuos\nante dei cultum sibi nil caeleste uidentes\ndediderant homines, hi nunc, ubi lumine Christi\nuera fides patuit, non possunt ferre sepultos.\nsed magis ut pateat quia nunc hi, qui cruciantur\ndaemones ante fores aut ante sepulchra piorum,\nidem sint illi, quibus olim serua litabat\ngens hominum et sacros demens libabat honores,\nipsa docet uocum species; nam saepius illa\nuoce gemunt, solitum ut noscas clamore furorem.\nsic plerumque uelut resoluto laxius ore\ndente fremunt, spumant labris horrentque capillis,\nutque manu prensante comam excutiuntur in altum\net pede pendentes stant crinibus; interea illic\nsacrorum memores ueterum, quibus exta solebant\nlambere caesarum pecudum aut libamine pasci\nlasciuosque choros hederatis ducere pompis,\nnunc etiam sua testantes sacra illa fuisse,\nin quibus insanos dabat ebria turba tumultus,\neuhoe, Bacchi sonum, fractis imitantur anheli\nuocibus et lento iactant sua colla rotatu.","t":"For these, whom now in the crowded hall of Felix\nwe see tormented, crying out, snatched about through the bodies they have captured,\nare held bound in those very bodies\ninto which they thrust themselves, and of their own will they found\nthat their punishment was human. So now, in the persons of the accused,\nthey howl in their punishments, those who by false divinity\nhad been gods, and who, with feigned divinity,\nhad given living men over to themselves, men who before the worship of God\nsaw nothing heavenly; these now, when by the light of Christ\ntrue faith has been revealed, cannot bear the buried saints.\nBut to make it clearer that those demons who are now tormented\nbefore the doors or before the tombs of the godly\nare the same as those to whom once the slavish race of men sacrificed\nand madly poured out sacred honours,\nthe very manner of their voices teaches; for more often they groan\nwith that voice, so that you may recognize the familiar frenzy in the shouting.\nSo often, as if with mouth loosed more widely,\nthey gnash their teeth, foam at the lips, bristle with their hair,\nand, as if a hand grasped their hair, they are jerked up into the air\nand stand hanging by their hair, feet aloft; meanwhile there,\nremembering their old rites, in which they used to lick\nthe entrails of slaughtered cattle or feed on libations\nand lead lascivious choruses in ivy-wreathed processions,\neven now bearing witness that those rites were theirs,\nin which a drunken crowd made mad uproars,\npanting, they imitate with broken voices “euhoe,” the cry of Bacchus,\nand toss their necks in slow rotation.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 19.256 (CSEL 30:127lines 256–282–128; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/19-256)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/19.283":{"o":"sed quia non poterat mortalis (et) unius aetas\nsufficere, ut longo contagia tempore tracta\ndilueret paucis quos corpore uiueret annis\nconfessor Felix et presbyter, ore magister,\nelogio martyr, merito officioque sacerdos,\nomnipotens dominus finitum corporis aeuum\nFelici potiore uia persistere fecit,\ncontinuans medicos operosi martyris actus,\nuirtutes ut eas idem celebraret humatus,\nquas in carne manens Christi uirtute gerebat,\natque ita susceptae nec mortuus aforet urbi\ncorpore, cum tantum positi sanator adesset\nspiritus et desideriis latitaret amantum\nad tempus cari facies subtracta patroni,\nprompta sed aegrorum semper medicina saluti\nadforet. inde perennis honos et gloria sanctum\nFelicem meritis sine fine uirentibus ambit;\net licet a ueteri tumulis absconditus aeuo,\nqua mortalis erat, lateat telluris operto,\nuiua tamen uegetante deo membrisque superstes\ngratia diuinum spirantia martyris ossa\nclarificat populis merito uiuente sepulti,\net magni solium breue confessoris adorat\niugiter e uariis conferta frequentia terris.\nsed deus ut cunctorum hominum sator, omnibus istam\nde sanctis indulsit opem procedere terris,\nut iam de tumulis agerent pia dona beati\nmartyres et uiuos possent curare sepulti.\nnec satis hoc donum domino fuit, ut sua tantum\nnomine siue opibus loca martyres inlustrarent;","t":"But since the life of one mortal could not\nsuffice to wash away contagions drawn out over a long time\nin the few years which Felix lived in the body,\nconfessor and presbyter, teacher by word,\nmartyr by title, priest in merit and office,\nthe almighty Lord made the bounded age of his body\ncontinue for Felix in a better way,\ncontinuing the healing acts of the hard-working martyr,\nso that, buried, he might perform the same works of power\nwhich, while he remained in the flesh, he did by Christ's power,\nand so that, though dead, he might not be absent in body from the city\nthat had received him, since the healing spirit of the one laid to rest\nwas present, and though the face of the dear patron, withdrawn\nfor a time, lay hidden from the longings of those who loved him,\na ready medicine was always present for the health\nof the sick. Hence everlasting honour and glory surround holy\nFelix, with merits flourishing without end;\nand though, hidden in his tomb from long ago,\nhe lies in the covering of the earth as far as he was mortal,\nyet a living grace, God quickening it, surviving in his limbs,\nglorifies for the peoples the martyr's bones, which breathe the divine,\nas the merit of the buried lives,\nand a crowd thronging from various lands continually\nreveres the small throne of the great confessor.\nBut God, as the sower of all men, granted that this help\nshould go forth from the saints to all lands,\nso that now from their tombs the blessed martyrs might perform godly gifts\nand, buried, might heal the living.\nNor was this gift enough for the Lord, that martyrs should\nilluminate only their own places by their name or powers;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 19.283 (CSEL 30:128lines 283–312–129; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/19-283)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/19.313":{"o":"ex isdem tumulis etiam monumenta piorum\nmultiplicans multis tribuit miserator eosdem\ngentibus. et referam uarias ab origine causas,\nex quibus haec orta est uariis benedictio terris.\nnam quia non totum pariter diffusa per orbem\nprima fides ierat, multis regionibus orbis\nmartyres afuerant, et ob hoc, puto, munere magno\nid placitum Christo nunc inspirante potentes,\nut Constantino primum sub Caesare factum est,\nnunc famulis retegente suis, ut sede priori\nmartyras accitos transferrent in noua terrae\nhospitia; ut sancto non olim antistite factum\nnouimus Ambrosio, qui fultus munere tali,\npostquam ignoratos prius et tunc indice Christo\ndetectos sibimet mutata transtulit aula,\nreginam prompta confudit luce furentem.\nnam Constantinus proprii cum conderet urbem\nnominis et primus Romano in nomine regum\nchristicolam gereret, diuinum mente recepit\nconsilium, ut quoniam Romanae moenibus urbis\naemula magnificis strueret tunc moenia coeptis,\nhis quoque Romuleam sequeretur dotibus urbem,\nut sua apostolicis muniret moenia laetus\ncorporibus. tunc Andream deuexit Achiuis\nTimotheumque Asia; geminis ita turribus extat\nConstantinopolis, magnae caput aemula Romae,\nuerius hoc similis Romanis culmine muris,\nquod Petrum Paulumque pari deus ambitione\nconpensauit ei, meruit quae sumere Pauli\ndiscipulum cum fratre Petri. iam quanta per istam\nsanctorum per longa uiam diuortia terrae\ncreuerit utilitas ad nostrae munia uitae,\nipsa docent hodieque loca, in quibus illa beati\nrheda capax oneris posita statione resedit\nomnibus in spatiis, quacumque aut mansio sanctis\ncorporibus requiesque fuit uectantibus illos\nsacratos cineres, miris clamantia signis.","t":"the merciful one, multiplying the monuments of the godly even from the same\ntombs, granted the same saints to many nations. And I shall relate\nfrom the beginning the various causes\nfrom which this blessing arose for various lands.\nFor since the first faith had not gone out equally spread\nthrough the whole world, martyrs had been absent from many regions\nof the world, and for this reason, I think, by a great gift\nChrist was pleased, now inspiring the powerful,\nas was first done under Constantine Caesar,\nnow revealing them to his servants, that they should transfer\nmartyrs summoned from their former seat to new\nlodgings on earth; as we know was done not long ago\nby the holy bishop Ambrose, who, supported by such a gift,\nafter he had transferred to his own hall, changing their place,\nsaints before unknown and then discovered with Christ as informant,\nconfounded the raging queen with ready light.\nFor when Constantine was founding a city of his own\nname, and was the first among the kings of the Roman name\nto bear the worship of Christ, he received in his mind a divine\ncounsel, that, since he was then building walls rivalling the walls of the Roman city\nwith magnificent undertakings,\nhe should follow the city of Romulus in these endowments too,\nand gladly fortify his walls with apostolic\nbodies. Then he carried Andrew from the Achaeans\nand Timothy from Asia; so with twin towers stands\nConstantinople, the rival head of great Rome,\nmore truly like the Roman walls in this eminence,\nthat God compensated it for Peter and Paul with equal ambition,\nsince it deserved to receive the disciple of Paul with the brother of Peter.\nHow great a benefit for the needs of our life\nhas grown along that road through the long divides of the earth,\nthe very places teach even today, in which that carriage\nof the blessed, able to bear its load, rested at a halt\nin all the stretches, wherever there was a stopping place for the holy\nbodies and rest for those carrying those\nconsecrated ashes; they cry out with wondrous signs.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 19.313 (CSEL 30:129lines 313–349–130; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/19-313)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/19.34":{"o":"soluere collyrioque medentis inungere Christi.\nquod per apostolicas curandis sensibus artes\ncote pia teritur, quia lene iugum et leue Christi\nest onus ad Christum puro iam lumine uersis\natque euangelico suffusis pectora suco,\nquo bene purgantur nebulae, quibus interiorem\nobducunt aciem mundi fallentis amores,\nqui magnum per inane uagos sine remige sensus\ncircumagunt hebetantque graui caligine captos\nmollibus inlecebris, ut frangant robora uitae\nsectenturque cauas per gaudia lubrica pompas.\nhos igitur nobis cupiens auertere morbos\nomnimedens dominus, sanctos mortalibus aegris\nper uarias gentes medicos pietate salubri\nedidit; utque suam diuina potentia curam\nclarius exereret, potioribus intulit illos\nurbibus, et quosdam licet oppida parua retentent\nmartyras, at proceres deus ipsos moenibus amplis\nintulit et paucas functos diuisit in oras,\nquos tamen ante obitum toto dedit orbe magistros.\ninde Petrum et Paulum Romana fixit in urbe,\nprincipibus quoniam medicis caput orbis egebat\nmultis insanum uitiis caecumque tenebris.\nsed potiore deo nostram reparare salutem\nquam Satana captos etiam nunc fraude tenere\nrarescunt tenebrae mundi, et iam paene per omnes\npraeualuit pietas et mortem uita subegit.\ncrebrescente fide uictus dilabitur error,\net prope iam nullis sceleri mortique relictis\ntota pio Christi censetur nomine Roma,\ninridens figmenta Numae uel fata Sibyllae.","t":"to loose them and anoint them with the eye-salve of Christ the healer.\nThis salve is ground on a godly whetstone by apostolic arts\nfor healing the senses, because Christ's yoke is gentle and his burden light\nfor those turned to Christ with a now pure light\nand with their breasts suffused with the gospel's juice,\nby which the mists are well purged with which the loves of the deceiving world\ncover the inner sight,\nloves that drive the wandering senses round through the great void without an oarsman,\nand dull them, captured by heavy fog,\nwith soft enticements, so that they break the strength of life\nand follow hollow pomps through slippery pleasures.\nSo, desiring to turn these diseases away from us,\nthe all-healing Lord, with saving kindness, gave forth saints as physicians\nto sick mortals through various nations;\nand so that divine power might show its care\nmore clearly, he brought them into the more powerful\ncities; and though small towns keep some\nmartyrs, yet God brought the chief ones themselves into ample walls\nand distributed them, when dead, in a few regions,\nthe very ones whom before their death he had given as teachers to the whole world.\nHence he fixed Peter and Paul in the Roman city,\nsince the head of the world needed chief physicians,\nmad as it was with many vices and blind with darkness.\nBut since God is more powerful to restore our salvation\nthan Satan is to keep his captives even now by deceit,\nthe darkness of the world grows thin, and now piety has prevailed\nthrough almost all, and life has subdued death.\nAs faith grows thicker, error, defeated, slips away,\nand with almost none now left to crime and death,\nall Rome is enrolled under the godly name of Christ,\nlaughing at the fictions of Numa and the fates of the Sibyl.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 19.34 (CSEL 30:119lines 34–64–120; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/19-34)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/19.350":{"o":"nam diuina manus medica uirtute per omnes\nest illic operosa uias, qua corpora sancta\ninpressere sacro uestigia uiua meatu.\ninde igitur suadente fide data copia fidis\ntunc comitum studiis, quaedam ut sibi pignora uellent\nossibus e sanctis merito decerpere fructu,\nut quasi mercedem officii pretiumque laboris\npraesidia ad priuata domum sibi quisque referrent.\nex illo sacri cineres quasi semina uitae\ndiuersis sunt sparsa locis, quaque osse minuto\nde modica sacri stipe corporis exiguus ros\ndecidit in gentes, illic pia gratia fontes\net fluuios uitae generauit gutta fauillae.\ninde in nos etiam stillauit copia Christi\ndiues et in minimis; nam hoc quoque sumpsimus istic,\ncarnis apostolicae sacra pignora puluere paruo,\nquae sanctus nostri dominusque paterque cubilis\net custos animae nostrae et tutela salutis\nFelix uicina sibi comminus aede recepit,\nquae reliquis eius aetate recentior aulis\nexiguos cineres et magnos seruat honores\nseruaturque magis custodibus ipsa patronis;\nabsit enim, ut seruari umquam uideantur egere\nqui seruare solent tamen et curare suorum\ncommoda alumnorum patrio dignantur amore\natque dicatorum sibi tutamenta locorum\ndiligere; hoc sanctis studium pietatis inesse\nspiritibus miranda fide documenta dederunt.\nunde recens etiam paucis opus eloquar orsis;\ndignum etenim sancti Felicis munera in ipso\nnatali eiusdem gratantibus edere uerbis.\nnon peregrina locis neque tempore prisca profabor;","t":"For the divine hand is at work there with healing power\nalong all the ways where the holy bodies\nimprinted living tracks in their sacred passage.\nHence, then, as faith persuaded, the opportunity was given\nto the zeal of the faithful companions to wish to take for themselves certain pledges\nfrom the holy bones, a deserved fruit,\nso that each might bring home, as the wages of service and the price of labour,\nprotection for private use.\nFrom that time the sacred ashes, like seeds of life,\nhave been scattered in various places, and wherever, from a tiny bone,\na slight dew from a small portion of a sacred body\nfell upon the nations, there godly grace produced fountains,\nand a drop of ash produced rivers of life.\nHence the abundance of Christ, rich even in the least things,\nhas dripped on us too; for this also we have received here:\nsacred pledges of apostolic flesh in a little dust,\nwhich holy Felix, lord and father of our dwelling,\nguardian of our soul and protection of our salvation,\nreceived in the building nearby, close to himself,\nwhich, more recent in age than his other halls,\nkeeps slight ashes and great honours,\nand is itself rather kept by its patrons as guardians;\nfor far be it that those should ever seem to need keeping\nwho are wont to keep; yet they deign to care for the interests of their\nnurslings with fatherly love\nand to cherish the protection of places dedicated to them;\nthat this zeal of piety is in the holy spirits\nthey have given proofs of wondrous faith.\nSo I shall tell in a few words a recent work;\nfor it is fitting to set forth the gifts of holy Felix on his very\nbirthday in thankful words.\nI shall not speak of things foreign in place or ancient in time;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 19.350 (CSEL 30:130lines 350–381–131; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/19-350)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/19.382":{"o":"finibus in nostris et in ista sede patratum\nnuper opus referam, quod forte renoscere nobis\npromptum erit, in medio quoniam res lumine gesta est.\ncredo ex hoc numero uestrum prope nullus in isto\nsit nouus auditu, quia per longinqua remotis\nfama uolans ierit. certe adfueritis in ista\nurbe aliqui per idem tempus, quo contigit, ut fur\ninlicitis animo stimulis agitatus auaras\nmitteret in sacra dona manus et ab omnibus unam\ninprobus et demens uenerandae insignibus aulae\neligeret praedae speciem crucis, inscius illam\nindicio sibi, non spolio fore, quam uelut hamum\npiscis edax hausit capta capiendus ab esca.\nquis, rogo, latronem tam grandi spiritus auso\ninpulit armauit caecauit praecipitauit,\nut nec ad excubias uigilum nec ad ipsa, quod est plus,\nquae cineres reuerenda tegunt altaria sacros\npulueris et sancti uirtutem halantia fragrant,\ncorde repercusso fugeret neque numine tantum,\nsed specie simul et pretio praestantia ferret?\nmulta etenim suberant alia, ut nouistis, in ipso\nornamenta loco quae sumeret, ut crucis auro\nparceret; intus enim latitabant mystica uasa\nsumendis mandata sacris. sed praeter et aulae\nipsius in spatio uariis insignia formis\nmunera erant de more sita haec, quae cernitis illic\nomni prompta die uel circumfixa per omnes\nordine dimenso quasi candelabra columnas,\ndepictas exstante gerunt quae cuspide ceras,\nlumina ut inclusis reddantur odora papyris.","t":"I shall relate a work done lately in our borders and in this seat,\nwhich you will perhaps readily\nrecognize, since the matter was done in the open light.\nI believe that of this number hardly anyone of you\nwill be new to hearing it, since flying report has gone far\nto distant people. Certainly some of you were present in this\ncity at the time when it happened that a thief,\ndriven in mind by unlawful goads, put greedy\nhands on the sacred gifts, and, shameless and mad, out of all the insignia\nof the venerable hall chose one as booty: the form of the cross,\nnot knowing that it would be his betrayal, not his spoil,\nwhich, like a greedy fish swallowing a hook,\nhe gulped down, to be caught by the bait he had taken.\nWho, I ask, drove the robber to a venture of so great a spirit,\narmed him, blinded him, threw him headlong,\nso that neither from the watch of the guards nor, what is more, from the very\naltars which cover the revered sacred ashes\nand breathe the power of the holy dust,\ndid he flee with a struck heart, and that he took the object outstanding\nnot only in divine power but also in beauty and value?\nFor there were many other ornaments, as you know, in that very\nplace which he could take, sparing the gold of the cross;\nfor within lay hidden the mystic vessels\nentrusted for receiving the sacraments. But besides, in the\nspace of the hall itself there were gifts notable in various forms,\nplaced according to custom, which you see there\nready every day, or fixed round all the columns\nin measured order, like candelabra,\nwhich carry painted candles on a projecting spike,\nso that fragrant lights may be given by the papyrus wicks enclosed.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 19.382 (CSEL 30:131lines 382–411–132; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/19-382)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/19.412":{"o":"at medio in spatio fixi laquearibus altis\npendebant per aena caui retinacula lychni,\nqui specie arborea lentis quasi uitea uirgis\nbracchia iactantes summoque cacumine rami\nuitreolos gestant tamquam sua poma caliclos\net quasi uernantes accenso lumine florent\ndensaque multicomis imitantur sidera flammis\ndistinguntque graues numerosa luce tenebras\net tenerum igniculis florentibus aethera pingunt,\ndumque tremunt liquidos crines crebrumque coruscant,\nadsiduis facibus sparsa caligine noctis\nambiguam faciem miscent lucem inter et umbras\net dubium trepidis conspectibus aera turbant.\nergo iste haec licet in patulo sibi prompta uideret\ntutius et furanda sibi, quoniam minus esset\ncriminis et pretii suspensam altaris ab ora\nlongius argentoque leuem amandare lucernam,\nsed miser ambitiosus et ipsa in fraude superbus\ntamquam uile nefas argentea sumere furto\nspreuit et audacem porrexit in aurea dextram,\nquae simul e uariis scite distincta lapillis\nuiderat, et magnis inflarat pectora uotis,\nut pariter gemmis gauderet diues et auro.\nsed tantum sceleris magni cumulatus iniquo\npondere peccato mansit grauis et lenis aere;\nsacrilegum sua poena manet, sua praeda latronem\ndeseruit. spolio furti, non crimine nudus\nuiuit inops fructu, sed uulnere fraudis abundans.\nquamquam illum non hoc magno sine numine Christi\nconsilioque putem permissum crimen adisse,\nut, quia uel quicquam de sacris tollere rebus\nmente recepisset, sineretur ad illa uenire,\nin quibus admissi inpietas insignior esset.","t":"And in the middle space, fixed to the high ceilings,\nhollow lamps hung on bronze chains,\nwhich, in the shape of trees, as if like vines, throwing out\narms with pliant rods, carry on the highest tip of the branch\nlittle glass cups as their fruits,\nand as if blossoming with kindled light they flower\nand imitate the dense stars with many-haired flames,\nand pick out the heavy darkness with numerous lights,\nand paint the tender air with flowering little fires,\nand while they tremble their liquid hair and flash frequently,\nthe gloom of night scattered by constant torches,\nthey mingle an uncertain face between light and shadow\nand confuse the doubtful air for trembling eyes.\nSo although this man saw these ready for him in the open,\nand safer for him to steal, since there would be less\ncrime and less value in carrying off a light lamp of silver, hanging\nfarther from the edge of the altar,\nyet the wretch, ambitious and proud even in fraud,\nscorned to take silver by theft as a cheap crime,\nand stretched his bold right hand to the golden things,\nwhich he had seen skilfully set off with various little stones,\nand had puffed up his breast with great wishes,\nto rejoice, rich, in gems and gold together.\nBut he remained heavy only with the unjust weight\nof a great crime, and light in money;\nhis punishment awaits the sacrilegious man, his booty\ndeserted the robber. Stripped of the spoil of theft, not of the crime,\nhe lives poor in fruit, but abounding in the wound of fraud.\nYet I would think that he was permitted to approach the crime\nnot without the great will and counsel of Christ,\nso that, since he had admitted into his mind to take anything\nfrom the sacred things, he was allowed to come to those things\nin which the impiety committed would be more notable.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 19.412 (CSEL 30:132lines 412–444–133; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/19-412)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/19.445":{"o":"ante dies paucos idem confugerat illuc\nmilitiam simulans fugere et susceptus amice\nhospes ab aedituis sacram curantibus aulam.\ntoto paene latens ubi mense cubilia somnos\ntempora custodum simul explorauerat et cum\ncepisset placitas meditati criminis horas,\nnocte nefas tacita arripuit nulloque labore\nnec strepitu foribus clausis inclusus ut unus\nseruantum, quibus hospes erat, primos ubi somnos\nnon uigiles uigiles coepere silentibus umbris\ncarpere et oppressis obliuia ducere curis,\nille locum sumens sceleri, qua nouerat usu\nadpositam lychnis per noctem ex more parandis\nmachinulam gradibus scalas praebere paratis\net male securo sibi iam custode relictam,\nqua crucis instar erat, quod et est modo, perpete uirga\ndirectum geminos transuerso limite gestans\ncantharulos, unum de calce catenula pendens\nsustinet. in tribus his scyphulis inserta relucent\nlumina, cum fert festa dies; tunc uero sine usu\nluminis ad speciem tantum suspensa manebat.\nsed paulo crucis ante decus de limite eodem\ncontinuum scyphus est argenteus aptus ad usum.\nhunc inportuno sibi lumine praedo micantem\nprotinus extinguit; namque id quoque nouerat idem\nsaepe solere mori, cum stuppa perarida longam\nconderet in noctem consumpto lumen oliuo,\nnec miraturum uigilem, si forte tenebras\ncerneret obducto subducere culmina lychno,\nmore putaturus noctem, non crimine factam.","t":"A few days before, the same man had fled there for refuge,\npretending to flee military service, and was received in friendly fashion\nas a guest by the sacristans who looked after the sacred hall.\nLying hidden there almost a whole month, he had explored the beds, the sleep,\nand the times of the guards, and when he had seized on\nthe hours suitable for his planned crime,\nhe committed the wickedness in the silent night, with no labour\nor noise, shut in behind closed doors as if one\nof the guards, whose guest he was; when the watchmen,\nno longer watchful, began to snatch their first sleep in the silent shadows\nand draw forgetfulness over their weighed-down cares,\nhe took the place for the crime, where he knew from practice that\na little machine, placed there for tending the lamps through the night as usual,\noffered a ladder with steps ready,\nleft there by a guard ill secure for himself,\nwhere there was the likeness of a cross, as there is now too: an upright\ncontinuous rod carrying on a crossbar two\nlittle cups; a small chain hanging from its foot\nsupports one. In these three little cups lights set in them shine\nwhen a festal day brings it; but then, without use\nof light, it hung only for show.\nBut a little in front of the glory of the cross, on the same line,\nthere is a silver cup fitted for use.\nThis, shining with a light inconvenient to him, the robber\nat once puts out; for he also knew\nthat it often used to go out, when the very dry tow\nburied the light in the long night with the oil used up,\nand that the watchman would not wonder if he happened to see\nthe darkness take away the roof as the lamp was covered,\nthinking the night made by custom, not by crime.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 19.445 (CSEL 30:133lines 445–474–134; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/19-445)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/19.475":{"o":"non igitur quasi fur, quod erat latro, sed quasi custos\naufert inlicitam securus praedo rapinam,\nnec fugit inpauidusque manet. tegit una latentem\ncellula de multis, quae per latera undique magnis\nadpositae tectis praebent secreta sepultis\nhospitia. harum una fur abditur; atque ubi mane\nclaustra patere uidet, reserata prosilit aula\net latebram linquens portat scelus; ire parabat\nRomuleam, ut post iam captus narrabat, ad urbem,\nillic infandae acturus commercia fraudis.\ninterea ignaris nostris nox illa diesque\ntotus obit; sero solitum iam uespere munus\ncurantes posuere gradus; ut scandere coepit\nfacturus lychnum, nihil inuenit; orba manebat\nuirga crucis solitae pulchro spoliata monili.\npallescunt miseri neque damnum criminis audent\nprodere, noscentes etiam sibi iure reatum\nconpetere. abscedunt trepidi fugiuntque latronem\nsectantes profugum. nusquam uestigia lapsi\nulla legunt. omnes adeunt diuersa uiarum\nscrutanturque sitos diuerso litore portus.\neffluxere dies frustra quaerentibus octo\nsiue decem et cunctis uacua iam indage reuersis;\nunus quaerentum puer inritus ipse laboris\nin cassum fusi longa regione redibat,\net prope iam Nolam ueniens subsistit in ipso\naggere et ingenti gemitu fletuque profuso\nFelicem clamans praesumit corde fideli\nnon remeare domum nisi cum cruce; moxque peractum\npromptus iter relegit. fit et ilicet obuius illi\nquidam homo, qui furem non furem sed quasi ciuem\nnorat. eum noster primus rogat unde uiator\nadforet; ille refert. rursus de fure rogatur,\nsi uidisset eum; respondit at ille propinquis\ninde locis agere, et regio illa (indicta) prope ipsos,\ndum loquerentur, erat monti coniuncta Veseuo,\nquintus ab urbe lapis Nola. sed uesperis ortus\nconsilium differt. placet ut lux crastina rursus\niungat utrumque sibi. fit mane, reuertitur index;","t":"So not as a thief, which, as a robber, he was, but as a guardian,\nthe robber carries off the unlawful plunder securely,\nand does not flee, and stays fearless. One little cell of many\nhides him, of those which, set along the sides on every side by the great\nroofs, give secret lodgings to the buried.\nIn one of these the thief is hidden; and when in the morning\nhe sees the bars open, he springs out of the unlocked hall\nand, leaving his hiding place, carries off his crime; he was preparing to go\nto the city of Romulus, as he later told when caught,\nto carry on there the trade of his unspeakable fraud.\nMeanwhile, while ours knew nothing, that night and the whole\nday passed; late in the evening, attending to their usual duty,\nthey set up the steps; when one began to climb\nto light the lamp, he found nothing; the rod of the cross remained\nbereft, stripped of its usual beautiful ornament.\nThe wretched men grow pale and do not dare to disclose the loss\nby the crime, knowing that the guilt rightly\nfell on them. They go off trembling and hurry after the robber,\npursuing the fugitive. Nowhere do they find any traces\nof the one who had slipped away. All go to different roads\nand search the harbours on different shores.\nEight or ten days slipped by for the vain searchers,\nand when all had returned with an empty search,\none boy among the searchers, himself frustrated in a labour\nspent in vain over a long region, was returning,\nand, coming now near to Nola, he stops on the very\nroad, and with a great groan and pouring tears,\ncalling on Felix, he resolves with faithful heart\nnot to return home except with the cross; and soon he readily\nretraced the journey he had finished. And straightway there meets him\na certain man, who knew the thief, not as a thief, but as a citizen.\nOur boy first asks him whence he came\nas a traveller; he tells him. Again he is asked about the thief,\nwhether he had seen him; and he answered that he was staying\nin places near there, and that region (which he named) was near them,\nas they spoke, joined to Mount Vesuvius,\nthe fifth milestone from the city of Nola. But the onset of evening\ndelays the plan. They agree that the next day's light should again\njoin them together. Morning comes, the informer returns;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 19.475 (CSEL 30:134lines 475–513–136; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/19-475)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/19.514":{"o":"perducit nostros, capitur fur, praeda refertur.\nforte sacrata dies inluxerat illa beati\nnatalem Prisci referens, quem et Nola celebrat\nquamuis ille alia Nucerinus episcopus urbe\nsederit. ecce ipsam sancti Felicis in aulam,\nquam tunc sollemni populus stipauit honore,\npost sacra iam soluente pios antistite coetus\ntempore prouiso diuinitus egredientis\nplebis in occursum subito introducitur ille\nfuraces post terga manus nodata reuinctus.\nlaetitia populus, formidine praedo repletur,\nutque nouum ad monstrum tota concurritur urbe.\nturba furens odiis popularibus ibat in illum,\nlaetitia incertos miscebat et ira tumultus.\npertimui, fateor, ne forte diabolus illa\nqua solet inuidia uiolaret sanguine pompam\net peiore prius curaret uulnere uulnus.\neripitur populo cellaque includitur ipsa,\nquod sic forte reo capto tunc accidit, in qua\ndelituit rapta cruce; qua post ipse reperta\nclauditur, ut uiuat. tunc ergo ut mente recepta\nipse suum facinus reus atque obstacula coepit\nmirandis narrare modis, fassusque per illos\nocto decemue dies, quibus ire parauerat urbem\nRomuleam, inplicitis ita se pedibus retroactum,\nsemper ut ire parans, semper retrahente rediret\nnescio quo rursusque illam remearet ad oram\nVeseui, qua iussus erat quasi carcere claudi\nangelica nectente manu; tamen ille putabat\narbitrii miser esse sui, quod corpore liber\nesse uidebatur, quem non extante catena\nfortior arcanis retinebat dextera uinclis.","t":"he leads our men there, the thief is caught, the booty brought back.\nIt happened that the holy day had dawned that brought back\nthe birthday of blessed Priscus, whom Nola also celebrates,\nthough he was bishop of Nuceria, another city.\nSee, into the very hall of holy Felix,\nwhich then the people packed with solemn honour,\nwhen the bishop was now dismissing the godly assemblies after the sacred rites,\nat a time divinely provided, to meet the people\nas they came out, he is suddenly brought in,\nhis thieving hands tied behind his back.\nThe people are filled with joy, the robber with fear,\nand the whole city runs together as to some strange monster.\nThe crowd, raging with popular hatred, went at him;\njoy and anger mixed uncertain uproars.\nI was greatly afraid, I confess, that the devil, with that envy\nhe is wont to have, might violate the procession with blood,\nand treat one wound first with a worse wound.\nHe is snatched from the people and shut in the very cell,\nas it happened, now that the guilty man was caught, in which\nhe had hidden when he snatched the cross; the cross recovered,\nhe himself is shut in, that he may live. Then, having recovered his mind,\nthe guilty man began to tell of his crime and its obstacles\nin wondrous ways, and confessed that through those\neight or ten days, in which he had prepared to go to the city\nof Romulus, he had been driven back with his feet entangled,\nso that, always preparing to go, he always came back, something\ndrawing him back, and returned again to that region\nof Vesuvius, in which he had been ordered to be shut up as in a prison,\nan angelic hand binding him; yet he thought,\nwretch, that he was in his own power, because he seemed to be free in body,\nhe whom, with no chain visible, a stronger right hand\nheld with hidden bonds.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 19.514 (CSEL 30:136lines 514–545–137; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/19-514)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/19.546":{"o":"ultor eum digno Felix errore ligabat\net tali amentem uertigine circum agitabat,\nsemper ut abscedens nusquam discederet et cum\nprosiliente gradu coepisset abire, rediret.\nmira fides! ibat stando, remanebat eundo,\nnescius hoc ipso, pro quo fugitare parabat,\nne fugeret fieri et secum sua uincla manere\ninruptamque sibi proprium scelus esse catenam.\nnamque sinu clausae mandauerat insita praedae\npondera, et hinc auidus quasi captus mente latebram\nquaerens, luce tamen campis errabat apertis\nseque latere putans extabat in aequore claro.\nconscia sic mentem inpietas caecauerat, ut nec\neffugeret fugiens nec celaretur aberrans.\nsensibus aduersis metus hinc, stupor inde nocentem\nmiscuerant animam; uitabat strata uiarum,\nsecretos metuebat iners accedere saltus,\nipsa etiam in siluis sibi forte silentia tantum\nclamatura nefas metuens aut tristia formis\noccursura putans ultricum monstra ferarum.\ninde miser celebri seductus ab aggere iuxta\ndemus in quodam spatiabatur sibi rure\nsecurum ignaris simulans, sed corde timorem\nut facinus sub ueste premens; nam uestis in altum\nsuccinctae sinibus clausum mandauerat aurum.\nnam neque uel tacitae furtum committere terrae\nausus erat specubusue cauis de more latronum,\nindicium metuens, credendae fraudis auarus.\ninde suae tantum tunicae sua furta nefandus\ncrediderat, qua restrictum nodarat amictum\nsuspendens fluidam nudato poplite uestem.","t":"Felix, the avenger, bound him with a fitting wandering\nand drove the madman round in such a whirling\nthat, always going away, he went away nowhere, and when\nhe had begun to leave with springing step, he came back.\nWondrous faith! He went while standing, remained while going,\nnot knowing that by that very thing for which he was preparing to flee\nit was brought about that he did not flee, and that his chains stayed with him,\nand that his own crime was an unbroken chain for him.\nFor he had entrusted the weight of his booty to the closed fold of his garment,\nand hence, greedy, as if captured in mind, seeking\na hiding place, he still wandered in broad daylight in open fields,\nand, thinking he was hidden, stood out on the clear plain.\nGuilty impiety had so blinded his mind that neither\ndid he escape by fleeing nor was he concealed by wandering.\nWith opposing feelings, fear on one side and stupor on the other\nhad confused his guilty soul; he avoided the paved roads,\nhe feared, sluggish, to approach the secret woods,\nfearing that even in the woods the very silence might\ncry out his crime, or thinking that grim monsters of avenging beasts\nwould meet him in their shapes.\nThen the wretch, withdrawn from the busy highway, was wandering\nnear some houses in a certain countryside,\npretending to be at ease to those who did not know, but pressing fear in his heart\nas he pressed his crime under his clothing; for his garment, girded up high,\nhad stored the gold shut in its folds.\nFor he had not dared to entrust his theft to the silent earth\nor to hollow caves as robbers do,\nfearing betrayal, too greedy to entrust his fraud.\nSo the wicked man had entrusted his thefts only to his tunic,\nwhere he had knotted his garment, tied back,\nhanging his flowing clothing up above a bare knee.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 19.546 (CSEL 30:137lines 546–576–138; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/19-546)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/19.577":{"o":"hanc sibi praedo penum sceleris tunc semet in ipso\nstruxerat, et digne tali est formidine uinctus,\ncrederet ut nullis miseri consortia furti,\nut sceleris tanti contagia solus haberet\net sinus illius fieret custodia furti,\ncuius sacrilegam fuerat manus ausa rapinam,\nipse suum sibi ferret onus solumque grauaret\npollueretque suae letalis sarcina praedae,\nut nihil ex illo uacuum inpietate maneret,\nqui spolium sceleris sacris ex aedibus actum\nincludens habitu cincto constringeret ipsum\natque suis signum praetenderet ipse catenis.\nnamque breui captus mutauit cingula uinclis,\nutque aurum sinibus discincta ueste solutis\ndecidit, ex ipsa fuerat qua cinctus habena\nuinctus eas quas in sacra dona tetenderat audax\npraedo manus, proprii captus nodamine lori,\nretulit et praedae uacuas et reste repletas.\nuerum si penitus totam spectare uelimus\nordinis exacti seriem magis ac magis omni\nin specie, uel qua latuit scelus atque reclusum\nclaruit, admiranda dei cernemus operta\nFelicem gessisse manu. iam plurima retro\ndiximus, ut fugiens non fugerit utque redactis\npassibus emensos sua per uestigia cursus\nin cassum totiens uoluente relegerit orso\nlonginquis exclusus et ad uicina recussus.\nnunc aliud Felicis opus, quod dextera Christi\nedidit, ut meritum cari monstraret alumni,\ncommemorabo, pari specimen mirabile signo,\nquod reus ipse tremens confesso prodidit auso.","t":"This storehouse of crime the robber had then built for himself in his own\nperson, and he was fittingly bound by such fear\nthat he would trust no one with a share in the wretched theft,\nso that he alone would have the contagion of so great a crime,\nand the fold of the one whose hand had dared the sacrilegious\nplunder should become the guardian of that theft,\nthat he should carry his own burden himself, and the deadly\npack of his booty should weigh down and pollute him alone,\nso that nothing of him should remain free of impiety,\nhe who, enclosing the spoil of crime taken from the sacred building,\nbound himself with his girdled garment\nand himself displayed the sign of his chains.\nFor, soon caught, he exchanged his girdle for bonds,\nand as the gold fell from the loosened folds of his ungirded clothing,\nthe robber, bound with the very strap with which he had been girded,\nthe bold hands he had stretched out to the sacred gifts\ncaught by the knot of his own strap,\nbrought them back emptied of booty and filled with rope.\nBut if we wish to look deeply at the whole\nseries of the order of events, more and more in every\naspect, both where the crime lay hidden and where, disclosed,\nit became clear, we shall see that Felix did wondrous hidden things\nby God's hand. We have already told many things before:\nhow fleeing he did not flee, and how, his steps driven back,\nhe retraced along his own tracks the courses he had covered,\nso many times in vain, his undertaking turning round,\nshut out from distant places and beaten back to near ones.\nNow I shall recall another work of Felix, which the right hand of Christ\nproduced to show the merit of his dear nursling,\na wondrous proof with an equal sign,\nwhich the guilty man himself, trembling, disclosed when he confessed his venture.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 19.577 (CSEL 30:138lines 577–607–139; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/19-577)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/19.608":{"o":"ante tamen, quia res ita postulat, ipsius instar\nenarrabo crucis, qualem et pictura biformem\nfingere consueuit, baculo uel stante bicornem\nuel per quinque tribus dispensam cornua uirgis.\nforma crucis gemina specie conponitur: et nunc\nantemnae speciem naualis imagine mali\nsiue notam Graecis solitam signare trecentos\nexplicat existens, cum stipite figitur uno,\nquaque cacumen habet, transuerso necte iugatur;\nnunc eadem crux dissimili conpacta paratu\neloquitur dominum tamquam monogrammate Christum.\nnam nota, qua bis quinque notat numerante Latino\ncalculus, haec Graecis chi scribitur, et mediat rho,\ncuius apex et sigma tenet, quod rursus ad ipsam\ncuruatum uirgam facit o uelut orbe peracto.\nnam rigor obstipus facit, quod in Hellade iota est.\ntau inde breui stilus ipse retro a(que) cacumine ductus\nefficit, atque ita sex, quibus omni nomine nomen\ncelsius exprimitur, coeunt elementa sub uno\nindice, et una tribus formatur littera uirgis.\nsex itaque una notas simul exprimit, ut tribus una\nsignificet uirgis dominum simul esse ter unum,\net deus in Christo est, quem sumpto corpore nasci\npro nobis uoluit trinae concordia mentis.\nidque sacramenti est, geminae quod in utraque uirgae\nut diducta pari fastigia fine supinant,\ninfra autem distante situ parili pede constant\nadfixaeque sibi media conpage cohaerent\net paribus spectant discreta cacumina summis.","t":"But first, since the matter requires it, I shall describe\nthe likeness of the cross itself, which painting is accustomed to represent\nin two forms, either two-horned on an upright staff,\nor with its horns distributed in five points over three rods.\nThe form of the cross is composed in a twofold appearance: now,\nstanding up, it shows the appearance of the yard on the image of a ship's mast,\nor the sign that the Greeks use to mark three hundred,\nwhen it is fixed with one upright\nand, where it has its top, is joined with a crosspiece;\nnow the same cross, put together with a different arrangement,\nexpresses the Lord Christ as by a monogram.\nFor the sign by which Latin reckoning marks twice five\nin counting, the Greeks write as chi, and rho is in its middle,\nwhose top also holds sigma, which, bent back to the rod itself,\nmakes o as if a circle were completed.\nFor the stiff upright makes what in Greece is iota.\nThen the stroke itself, drawn back a little from the top,\nmakes tau, and so the six letters, by which the name above every name\nis expressed, come together under one\nsign, and one letter is formed of three rods.\nSo one sign expresses six at once, so that one sign with three\nrods may signify that the Lord is at once three and one,\nand that God is in Christ, whom the concord of the threefold mind\nwilled to be born for us, taking a body.\nAnd there is a sacrament in this, that in each of the two rods\nthe tips, as if spread apart, slope back at an equal end,\nbut below, set apart in equal position, they stand on equal foot,\nand, fixed to one another, they cohere in a central joint,\nand their separate tops look out at equal heights.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 19.608 (CSEL 30:139lines 608–636–140; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/19-608)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/19.637":{"o":"has inter medio coeuntibus insita puncto\nuirga quasi sceptrum regale superbius extat,\nsignificans regnare deum super omnia Christum,\nqui cruce dispensa per quattuor extima ligni\nquattuor adtingit dimensum partibus orbem,\nut trahat ad uitam populos ex omnibus oris.\net quia morte crucis cunctis deus omnia Christus\nextat in exortum uitae finemque malorum,\nalpha crucem circumstat et ω, tribus utraque uirgis\nlittera diuersam trina ratione figuram\nperficiens, quia perfectum est mens una, triplex uis.\nalpha itidem mihi Christus et o, qui summa supremis\nfinibus excelsi pariter conplexus et imi\nuictor et inferna et pariter caelestia cepit\neffractisque abysis caelos penetrauit apertos,\nuictricem referens superata morte salutem.\nutque illum patriae iunxit uictoria dextrae,\ncorporeum statuit caelesti in sede tropaeum\nuexillumque crucis super omnia sidera fixit.\nilla igitur species, quam fur agitatus auaris\nin cassum furiis pendente refixerat unco\npollutaque manu sancta amandauerat aula,\nhoc opere est perfecta, modis ut consita miris\naeternae crucis effigiem designet utramque,\nut modo, si libeat spectari comminus ipsam,\nprompta fides oculis; nam reddita fulget in ipso\nquo fuerat prius apta loco et uelamine clausi\naltaris faciem signo pietatis adornat.\nergo eadem species formam crucis exerit illam,\nquae trutinam aequato libratam stamine signat\nsubrectoque iugum concors temone figurat,\nsiue superciliis a fronte iugantia uultum\nlumina transuersis imitatur cornibus arbor\nardua, qua dominus mundo trepidante pependit\ninnocuum fundens pro peccatore cruorem.","t":"Between these, set in at the central meeting point,\na rod stands out more proudly like a royal sceptre,\nsignifying that Christ, God, reigns over all things,\nwho, with the cross extended through the four extremities of the wood,\ntouches the world measured in four parts,\nto draw peoples to life from all shores.\nAnd since by the death of the cross Christ, God, is all things to all,\nfor the rising of life and the end of evils,\nalpha and omega stand around the cross, each\nletter completing a different figure with three rods in a threefold manner,\nbecause the perfect is one mind, a threefold power.\nAlpha and o likewise is Christ to me, who, embracing equally the highest\nends of the heights and of the depths,\nas victor took both the infernal and the heavenly,\nand, the abysses broken, penetrated the open heavens,\nbringing back victorious salvation, death overcome.\nAnd as victory joined him to the Father's right hand,\nhe set up a bodily trophy in the heavenly seat\nand fixed the standard of the cross above all the stars.\nSo that ornament, which the thief, driven by greedy furies,\nhad in vain unfastened from its hanging hook\nand with polluted hand removed from the holy hall,\nis so made that, set in wondrous ways,\nit designs both forms of the eternal cross,\nas now, if you wish to view it close at hand,\nfaith is ready for the eyes; for, restored, it shines in the very\nplace where it was fitted before, and adorns the face\nof the altar enclosed by its veil with the sign of piety.\nSo the same ornament displays that form of the cross\nwhich marks a balance weighed with an even beam\nand in harmony figures a yoke with a pole set upright,\nor, as the brows join the eyes across the forehead,\nthe tall tree imitates the face with crosswise horns,\non which the Lord hung as the world trembled,\npouring out innocent blood for the sinner.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 19.637 (CSEL 30:140lines 637–671–141; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/19-637)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/19.65":{"o":"cumque sacris pia turba refert pastoribus Amen\nper numerosa dei regnantis ouilia laetum.\nlaudibus aeterni domini ferit aethera clamor\nsanctus et incusso Capitolia culmine nutant.\nin uacuis simulacra tremunt squalentia templis\nuocibus icta piis inpulsaque nomine Christi.\ndiffugiunt trepidi desertas daemones aedes.\nliuidus incassum serpens fremit ore cruento\nlugens humanam ieiuna fauce salutem\nseque simul pecudum iam sanguine defraudatum;\npraedo gemens frustra siccas circumuolat aras.\nsic deus et reliquis tribuens pia munera terris\nsparsit ubique loci magnas sua membra per urbes.\nsic dedit Andream Patris Ephesoque Iohannem,\nut simul Europam atque Asiam curaret in illis\ndiscuteretque graues per lumina tanta tenebras.\nParthia Matthaeum conplectitur, India Thomam,\nLebbaeum Libyes, Phryges accepere Philippum,\nCreta Titum sumpsit, medicum Boeotia Lucam.\nMarcus, Alexandria, tibi datus, ut boue pulso\ncum Ioue nec pecudes Aegyptus in Apide demens\nin Ioue nec ciuem coleret male Creta sepultum,\nnec Phryges exsectis agerent Cybeleia Gallis\ninpuram foedo solantes uulnere matrem,\net tandem castis fronderet montibus Ida\nintactas referens securo uertice pinus,\nuana nec ulterius mutos iam Graecia Delphos\nconsuleret spernensque suum calcaret Olympum\naltius in Sion gradiens, ubi collis alumni\nlene iugum celso fastigat uertice Christus.\nfugit et ex Epheso trudente Diana Iohanne\ngermanum comitata suum, quem nomine Christi\ninperitans Paulus pulso Pythone fugauit.","t":"And when the godly crowd answers its holy shepherds with a glad Amen\nthroughout the numerous folds of the reigning God,\na holy shout strikes the sky with praises of the eternal Lord,\nand the Capitol nods, its summit shaken.\nThe squalid images tremble in the empty temples,\nstruck by godly voices and driven by the name of Christ.\nThe demons flee trembling from their deserted shrines.\nThe livid serpent rages in vain with bloody mouth,\nmourning human salvation with hungry jaw,\nand himself cheated now also of the blood of cattle;\nthe plunderer, groaning, flies in vain around the dry altars.\nSo God, granting godly gifts to the other lands also,\nscattered his members everywhere through great cities.\nSo he gave Andrew to Patrae and John to Ephesus,\nthat he might heal Europe and Asia together in them\nand dispel heavy darkness through such great lights.\nParthia embraces Matthew, India Thomas,\nLibya Lebbaeus, the Phrygians received Philip,\nCrete took Titus, Boeotia Luke the physician.\nMark, Alexandria, was given to you, so that, the ox driven out,\nmad Egypt might no longer worship cattle in Apis together with Jupiter,\nnor Crete wrongly worship in Jupiter a citizen buried there,\nnor the Phrygians perform the rites of Cybele with their gelded Galli,\nconsoling the impure mother with a foul wound;\nand so that at last Ida might bloom with chaste mountains,\nbringing back untouched pines on a carefree summit,\nand vain Greece might no longer consult dumb Delphi\nand, scorning it, might trample its Olympus,\nwalking higher on Zion, where Christ, the gentle yoke,\ncrowns the hill of his nurslings with a lofty summit.\nDiana too fled from Ephesus, as John drove her out,\naccompanying her brother, whom Paul, commanding\nin the name of Christ, put to flight when he drove out the Python.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 19.65 (CSEL 30:120lines 65–97–121; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/19-65)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/19.672":{"o":"huic autem, solido quam pondere regula duplex\niungit, in extrema producti calce metalli\nparua corona subest uariis circumdata gemmis.\nhac quoque crux domini tamquam diademate cincta\nemicat aeterna uitalis imagine ligni.\nhanc fur ille sui toto de corpore furti\nintactam ferro, quo cetera fregerat, unam\nliquit, et ut capto tunc discinctoque refusis\nuestibus elapsae ceciderunt fragmina praedae,\nuisa rei species tunc inuentoribus ipsis\nancipiti motu confudit pectora. gaudent\ninuentis, sed fracta dolent; cum quaerere causam\nincipiunt, cautum simul audacemque latronem\nmirantes, caecum fractis cautumque relictis,\ntunc ille adtonitis crimen numenque fatetur;\nmente etenim totum conciderat, hoc tamen unum\nnumine seruarat, quo crux inclusa uetabat\nquamlibet audacem segni uirtute latronem.\nipse fatebatur mentis scelus atque crucis uim\ncontestans, quotiensque manus armasset in illam\nin cruce consertam socia conpage coronam,\nceu fractas totiens ictu cecidisse recusso\nbrachiaque aegra sibi neruis stupuisse solutis.\nhic libet in miserum paucis insurgere furem:\ninfelix, quae tanta tuam dementia mentem\nuerterat, ut tanto reprehensus lumine ueri\nnon festinares omnem praeuertere cursu\nindagem reuolans, ut furtum sponte referres?\ntantane uis animum tenebris oppressit auarum,\nauderes illam ut gremio tibi condere partem,\nquam totiens arcente deo uiolare timebas?","t":"But below this cross, which a double bar joins in solid weight,\nat the lowest end of the extended metal,\nthere is a little crown surrounded with various gems.\nWith this too the Lord's cross, girded as with a diadem,\nshines out with the eternal image of the life-giving wood.\nThis alone, of the whole body of his theft, that thief\nleft untouched by the iron with which he had broken the rest;\nand when, as he was caught and ungirded, his clothing undone,\nthe fragments of the booty slipped out and fell,\nthe sight of the thing then confused the hearts of the finders themselves\nwith mixed feelings. They rejoice at what is found,\nbut grieve at what is broken; when they begin to seek the reason,\nmarvelling at the robber, cautious and bold at once,\nblind in what he broke and cautious in what he left,\nthen he confesses to the astonished men his crime and the divine power;\nfor he had cut up everything, in his mind, but this one thing\nhe had kept by divine power, in that the cross enclosed in it forbade\nthe robber, however bold, with a power that made him sluggish.\nHe himself confessed the crime of his mind and, bearing witness to the power of the cross,\nsaid that as often as he had armed his hands against that\ncrown joined to the cross in close fitting,\nthey had fallen as if broken, the blow recoiling,\nand his sick arms had grown numb, their sinews loosened.\nHere it pleases me to rise up briefly against the wretched thief:\nUnhappy man, what madness had so turned your mind\nthat, caught by so great a light of truth,\nyou did not hasten to forestall every search,\nflying back, to bring back your theft of your own accord?\nDid so great a force crush your greedy mind with darkness\nthat you dared to hide in your bosom that part\nwhich, as God kept you off, you so often feared to violate?","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 19.672 (CSEL 30:141lines 672–702–142; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/19-672)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/19.703":{"o":"dic mihi, qua pauor ille tuus fugiebat et unde\nrursus, ut intrepidum praeceps audacia sensum\ntam male durabat, pauidus contemptor et idem\neiusdem sceleris speciem diuersus abibas\nperfidiaeque fidem diuiso pectore miscens?\nuirtutem crucis et signum inuiolabile Christi\ncredebas metuendo idem contingere ferro\net quod noscebas metuens portando negabas?\nsed tamen inpietas tua nec tibi profuit, et nos,\nstultitiam confesse tuam diuinaque signa,\nfecisti magno crucis exultare triumpho.\nergo relinquamus captum iam incessere furem,\ncui satis ad poenam est spoliatae fraudis egestas.\nnunc ad te, ueneranda dei crux, uerto loquellas\ngratantesque tua concludam laude profatus:\no crux magna dei pietas, crux gloria caeli,\ncrux aeterna salus hominum, crux terror iniquis\net uirtus iustis lumenque fidelibus. o crux,\nquae terris in carne deum seruire saluti\ninque deo caelis hominem regnare dedisti;\nper te lux patuit ueri, nox inpia fugit.\ntu destruxisti credentibus eruta fana\ngentibus, humanae concors tu fibula pacis\nconcilians hominem medii per foedera Christi.\nfacta hominis gradus es, quo possit in aethera ferri.\nesto columna piis tu semper et anchora nobis,\nut bene nostra domus maneat, bene classis agatur\nin cruce nixa, fide et de cruce nancta coronam.","t":"Tell me, where did that fear of yours flee, and whence\ndid it return, so that headlong boldness so badly hardened\nyour fearless sense? A fearful scorner, you went away\nboth the same and different toward the same form of crime,\nmixing faith with faithlessness in a divided heart.\nDid you believe in the power of the cross and the inviolable sign of Christ\nby fearing to touch it with iron, and deny\nby carrying it off what you knew in fearing?\nBut your impiety did not profit you, and you,\nhaving confessed your folly and the divine signs,\nhave made us exult in a great triumph of the cross.\nSo let us now leave off attacking the captured thief,\nfor whom the poverty of a fraud stripped of its spoils is punishment enough.\nNow to you, venerable cross of God, I turn my words,\nand, having spoken, I shall end with thanks in your praise:\nO cross, great kindness of God, cross, glory of heaven,\ncross, eternal salvation of men, cross, terror to the wicked,\nstrength to the just, and light to the faithful. O cross,\nyou who granted that God in the flesh should serve salvation on earth\nand that man in God should reign in heaven;\nthrough you the light of truth was opened, impious night fled.\nYou destroyed the shrines, overturned for the believing\nnations; you are the harmonious clasp of human peace,\nreconciling man through the covenants of Christ the mediator.\nYou have become a ladder for man, by which he can be carried to heaven.\nBe always a pillar for the godly and an anchor for us,\nso that our house may stand firm and our fleet sail well,\nresting on the cross, gaining by faith a crown from the cross.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 19.703 (CSEL 30:142lines 703–730–143; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/19-703)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/19.98":{"o":"fugit et Aegypto Satanas, ubi mille figuras,\nnomina mille sibi uariis adcommoda monstris\nsumpserat, ut Serapi sanctum formaret Ioseph,\nnomine ferali abscondens uenerabile nomen,\ncum tamen ipsa fidem simulacri forma doceret,\nqua modius capiti superest, quia frugibus olim\nante famem domino sic inspirante coactis\ninnumeras gentes Aegypti ex ubere pauit\net steriles annos annis saturauit opimis.\nsed ne ultra sanctus coleretur honore profano,\nmens arcana dei deuotae pectora plebis\ninmissis acuit stimulis cultumque nefandi\ndaemonis euerso fractoque Serapide clausit.\nnon Pelusiacis uaga saltibus Isis Osirim\nquaerit aruspicibus caluis, qui pectore tunso\ndeplorant aliena suo lamenta dolore,\nmoxque itidem insani sopito gaudia planctu\nuana gerunt eadem mentiti fraude repertum,\nqua non amissum sibi quaesiuere uagantes.\nheu quo stultitiae merguntur gurgite mentes\nluce dei uacuae! nam quid, rogo, caecius illis,\nqui non amissum quaerunt nusquamque manentem\ninueniunt, planguntque alii quod non dolet ipsis?\nelige quid facias, miser error. quid colis aut quid\nplangis? non coeunt quae iungis; luctus honorem\nnon sequitur, lamenta colis lugendaque credis\nquae diuina putas. si di sunt, nec miseri sunt;\naut si sunt miseri, di non sunt atque homines sunt\net miseri. miserare igitur mortalia passos\naut laetos uenerare deos; nam caecus aperte est\nhic furor aut miseros colere aut lugere beatos.","t":"Satan fled from Egypt too, where he had taken\na thousand shapes, a thousand names fitted to his various monsters,\nso that he shaped holy Joseph into Serapis,\nhiding a venerable name under a deadly name,\nwhen yet the very form of the image taught the truth,\nin that a measure sits on its head, because once,\nwhen grain had been gathered before the famine as the Lord inspired,\nhe fed countless nations from the breast of Egypt\nand filled the barren years from the fat years.\nBut so that the saint might no longer be worshipped with profane honour,\nthe secret mind of God sharpened the breasts of the devout people\nwith goads sent in, and closed the worship of the unspeakable\ndemon by overturning and breaking Serapis.\nNo longer does wandering Isis seek Osiris in the Pelusian forests\nwith bald soothsayers, who, beating their breasts,\nlament others' laments with their own grief,\nand then likewise, mad, their lament put to rest,\ncarry on vain rejoicings, pretending with the same fraud that he is found\nwhom, wandering, they sought though he was not lost to them.\nAlas, into what a whirlpool of folly minds sink\nthat are empty of God's light! For what, I ask, is blinder than those\nwho seek one not lost, and find one who remains nowhere,\nand some lament what does not grieve themselves?\nChoose what you are doing, wretched error. What do you worship, or what\ndo you lament? The things you join do not go together; grief does not follow\nhonour; you worship laments and believe things to be mourned\nwhich you think divine. If they are gods, they are not wretched;\nor if they are wretched, they are not gods, but are men,\nand wretched. So pity those who suffered mortal things,\nor worship glad gods; for this madness is plainly blind,\neither to worship the wretched or to mourn the blessed.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 19.98 (CSEL 30:122lines 98–128–123; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/19-98)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/2.1":{"o":"Pauperis ut placeat carum tibi munus amici,\nmunera ne reputes quae mittis ditia nobis.\nnam tibi quid dignum referam pro piscibus illis,\nquos tibi uicinum locupleti gurgite litus\nsuppeditat miros Specie formaque diremptos.\nat mihi uix alto uada per saxosa profundo\nrarus in obscura generatur sphondylus alga.\nhinc te participans bis quinque et bis tibi ternas\ntransmisi aequoreo redolentes nectare testas,\nquas uiscus praedulce replet bicolore medulla.\noro libens sumas nec uilia dedigneris,\nquae sunt parua modo magno metitus amore.","t":"That the gift of a poor friend may please you as dear,\ndo not reckon up the rich gifts that you send us.\nFor what worthy return can I make you for those fish\nwhich the neighbouring shore supplies you from its wealthy waters,\nmarvellous and distinct in look and shape?\nBut for me, scarcely, in the shallows over the rocky deep,\nis a rare sphondylus born in the dark seaweed.\nSharing from this, I have sent you twice five and twice three\nshells, fragrant with the nectar of the sea,\nwhich their very sweet flesh fills with a two-coloured marrow.\nI pray you, take them gladly and do not scorn humble things,\nwhich are small in measure but measured by great love.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 2.1 (CSEL 30:2lines 1–12; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/2-1)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/20.1":{"o":"Saepe boni domini caris famulantur alumnis\nmente pia, patrio subiecta tuentur amore\nmancipia hisque fauent cura propiore fouendis,\nquos magis indiguos opis et uirtute carentes\naffectu rimante uident. et si quis eorum,\nmoris ut humani sollemnis postulat usus,\nuotum aliquod celebrare uelit neque possit egenis\nid patrare opibus, studio curatur erili\nseruus inops, cui diues opum, qua pauper egebat,\ncontulerit dominus cumulandae inpendia mensae.\nhaec mihi condicio est data sub Felice patrono;\nnulla mihi ex me sint, ut sint mihi cuncta per illum;\nnamque ad natalem nunc ipsius, ut quidem et ante\npraeteritis quibus ista dies mihi floruit annis,\nnon erat unde epulum uotis sollemne pararem,\ninstabatque dies, nec adhuc mihi prompta facultas\nex aliquo suberat; subito ecce patronus abundans\nunde dapem largam struerem geminos dedit una\ncum iunice sues, quorum de carne cibatis\npauperibus nos materiam ex animalibus isdem\nsumpsimus, egregiis quoniam miracula signis\nper pecudes ipsas nuper deus edidit, alta\ndestimulans ratione homines adtendere Christo\nnec desiderium carnis praeferre fidei;\nnamque ad auaritiae nostrae lacrimabile probrum\nper pecora humanae rationis egentia summum\nsigna dedisse deum, series recitanda docebit.\nnon adficta canam, licet arte poematis utar.\nhistorica narrabo fide sine fraude poetae;\nabsit enim famulo Christi mentita profari.\ngentibus hae placeant ut falsa colentibus artes;","t":"Good masters often serve their dear nurslings\nwith godly mind, protect their subject slaves with fatherly love,\nand favour with closer care those to be cherished\nwhom, with searching affection, they see more in need of help\nand lacking strength. And if one of them,\nas the solemn custom of human usage demands,\nwishes to celebrate some vow and cannot\naccomplish it with his needy resources, the poor slave\nis cared for by his master's zeal, and the master, rich in wealth,\ngives him what the poor man lacked, the expense of a heaped table.\nThis is the condition given to me under Felix as patron;\nlet nothing be mine from myself, so that all things may be mine through him;\nfor at his birthday now, as indeed before\nin past years in which this day flowered for me,\nI had no means to prepare a solemn feast for my vows,\nand the day was pressing, and no ready means\nwas yet at hand from anywhere; suddenly, behold, my abundant patron\ngave me the means to set out a lavish banquet: two\npigs along with a heifer; and with their flesh we fed\nthe poor, and we took the material for our song\nfrom these same animals, since God lately produced\nmiracles with remarkable signs through these very animals,\ngoading men by deep reason to attend to Christ\nand not to prefer the desire of the flesh to faith;\nfor the sequence I must tell will teach that God has given\nthe highest signs through cattle lacking human reason,\nto the lamentable shame of our avarice.\nI shall not sing fictions, though I use the art of poetry.\nI shall tell with historical faithfulness, without a poet's deceit;\nfor far be it from a servant of Christ to utter falsehoods.\nLet these arts please the nations, as they worship false things;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 20.1 (CSEL 30:143lines 1–31–144; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/20-1)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/20.124":{"o":"parte alia stratus nullo seruante sequentum\nhospitis ante fores etiam nunc carne suilla\nstabat onustus equus, neque quisquam notior illi\nadstiterat, cui cura foret releuare grauatum\nfasce suo et notis reducem subducere tectis.\nille tamen uelut humana ratione repletus\nquaerentique suos et protinus opperienti\nadstiterat similis, certo uestigia seruans\nfixa loco, simul aure micans et naribus efflans\nadsuetorum hominum notos quaerebat odores.\nmirum erat hospitibus, quaenam fuga, qui status ille\nesset equi, notumque animal faciebat amicis\nambiguum noua forma rei, neque quisquam erat index\naccidui, cunctis illum stipantibus intus,\nqui fuerat manibus sanctam portatus in aulam\nmartyris, aeger ubi sancto pro limine fusus,\ncorpore proiecto et complexis postibus haerens,\noscula figebat supplex fletuque lauabat\nseque recognoscens proprii caput esse doloris,\ntales sese ipsum dabat accusando querellas:\no mihi, qui talem merui desumere poenam\nhac in sede miser, qua, si miser adueniat quis,\nefficitur felix! sed iustum parque maligno\nme fateor merito exitium cepisse patique,\nut reus ipsa inter modo limina puniar ardens\nexurente pedes simul et stringente dolore,\nin quibus, heu demens! oblati munera uoti\nfraude fidem uiolans conuerti in damna salutis.\nest tamen, est aliquid, fateor, quod dicere possim\niam mihi mutari grata uice tristia laetis\natque ipsas animo iam prosperiora tuenti\ninfractis coepisse malis dulcescere poenas,\nex quibus haec nunc ipsa mihi bene gratia uenit,\nqua factum est mihi nunc, ut tam cito tangere rursus\nlimina Felicis misero ueneranda liceret.","t":"Elsewhere, with none of the followers to watch it, the horse,\nstill laden with the pork, stood before the doors of the host,\nnor had anyone well known to it stood by, who had the care to relieve\nit of its burden and lead it, returned, into the familiar stable.\nYet it, as if filled with human reason,\nstood like one looking for his own and waiting for them at once,\nkeeping its tracks fixed in one place, twitching its ear\nand blowing through its nostrils, seeking the known smells of the men it was used to.\nThe hosts wondered what flight, what state of the horse\nthis was, and the strangeness of the thing made the familiar animal\ndoubtful to friends, and there was no one to tell\nwhat had happened, since all were crowding round inside\nthe man who had been carried by hands into the holy hall\nof the martyr, where the sick man, poured out before the holy threshold,\nhis body thrown down and clinging to the embraced doorposts,\nfixed kisses as a suppliant and washed them with weeping,\nand, recognizing himself to be the source of his own pain,\nuttered such complaints, accusing himself:\n“Woe is me, who have deserved to take such a punishment,\nwretch that I am, in this seat, in which, if any wretch arrives,\nhe is made happy! But I confess that I have received and suffer a just ruin,\nequal to my malicious desert,\nso that, a guilty man, I am now punished amid these very thresholds, burning,\nwith a pain that both burns and binds my feet,\non which, alas, mad that I was, violating faith by fraud,\nI turned the gifts of my offered vow into the loss of my salvation.\nYet there is, there is something, I confess, that I can say:\nthat now the sad things are changed for me into glad by a welcome turn,\nand that, as my mind looks to better things, with the evils broken,\nthe very punishments have begun to grow sweet,\nfrom which this very grace now comes well to me,\nby which it has come about that so soon I, wretch, am allowed\nto touch again the venerable threshold of Felix.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 20.124 (CSEL 30:147lines 124–158–148; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/20-124)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/20.159":{"o":"nam mihi si nullus uel si leuis iste fuisset\ncasus, ut adreptum possem pertendere cursum,\ntunc magis infelix de prosperitate fuissem,\nmansisset quia culpa nocens neque uulnus adactum\nintus in ossa animae sensissem carne rebelli.\noccultasset enim meriti discrimen iniquo\ncorporis inlaesi uigor et uinxisset inertem\nmens durata reum, nisi lapsum poena ligasset.\nergo potens medice in domini tu nomine Christi\nFelix, iam satis hoc tibi sit dominoque potenti,\nquod non ira mihi, pietas sed amica saluti\nsupplicium peperit, deuinctum ut corpore culpa\nsolueret. ecce malum seruum refugamque uoracem\niure retraxisti iniectis pro crimine uinclis.\ndebitor infelix teneor constringor aduror,\npropositus cunctis diuini forma timoris.\nmentibus haec omnes trepidis adtendite, quae nunc\nme miserum reliquis documento ferre uidetis.\nnumquid enim hoc errore carent aliqui? sed in uno\nexemplum fieri placuit, quo sit mea poena\net praeiudicium quibus emendatio non est.\nsed iam parce tuo misero, precor, optime Felix,\nparce libens, succurre fauens; dolor ultimus urget\nclamosas iterare preces; festinus adesto,\nne mors praeueniat medicum festina morantem.\nsed scio quod domini manus haec, quae uerberat et quae\nparcet in ore tuo; mihi tantum tu modo fesso\niamque fatiscenti propera laxare catenam,\nquam tu, sancte, uides, ego sentio; sicut operto\nclam tacitus uinclo fugitiui membra ligasti,\nsic inuisibili medicina solue reuersum.","t":"For if this fall had been none, or slight,\nso that I could carry on the course I had seized,\nthen I would have been more unhappy from my prosperity,\nbecause the guilt would have remained harmful, and I would not have felt\nthe wound driven inward into the bones of the soul, with the flesh rebellious.\nFor the vigour of an unharmed body would have hidden\nthe danger of my unjust desert, and a hardened mind would have bound\nthe guilty man inert, had punishment not bound the fallen one.\nSo, mighty physician in the name of Christ the Lord,\nFelix, let this now be enough for you and for the mighty Lord,\nthat not anger but kindness, friendly to salvation,\nproduced my punishment, so that, bound in body, I might be released from guilt.\nBehold, the bad servant, the greedy runaway,\nyou have rightly dragged back with chains put on him for his crime.\nAn unhappy debtor, I am held, bound, burned,\nset before all as a model of divine fear.\nAll of you, attend with trembling minds to these things which now\nyou see me, wretch, bear as a lesson to the rest.\nFor are some free of this error? But it pleased God that the example\nbe made in one, so that my punishment may be\na warning to those for whom there is no amendment.\nBut now spare your wretched one, I pray, best Felix,\nspare willingly, help with favour; extreme pain urges me\nto repeat my clamorous prayers; be present quickly,\nlest hastening death forestall the physician who delays.\nBut I know that this is the Lord's hand, which strikes and which\nwill spare at your word; only hasten for me, weary\nand now failing, to loosen the chain,\nwhich you, saint, see, and I feel; as you secretly and silently\nbound the fugitive's limbs with a hidden bond,\nso release the returned one with invisible medicine.”","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 20.159 (CSEL 30:148lines 159–189–149; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/20-159)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/20.190":{"o":"talia clamantem, dum postibus haeret in ipsis\nFelicis sancti lambensque per oscula tergit,\nadtonitis illum pia turba et cernit et audit\ncoetibus; ipse iacens etiam nunc erigitur spe\nincrepitatque moras omnes et tarda suorum\nobsequia. adferri porcum totasque iubet mox\npauperibus reddi partes, sibi uiuere tantum\nconcedi petit atque inopum saturamine pasci.\ncertatim socii cito iussa fidelia curant.\nitur ad hospitium notum, deponitur illic\nsarcina iumento, carnes in frustra secantur,\net diuisa coquit spumantibus ignis aenis.\ncocta inportantur patulis numerosa catinis.\nexsaturata fames inopum gratantia reddit\nuerba deo et ueniam petit ut placata datori.\nnec mora, confestim uoti ratione soluta\ndebitor ille intus meritae conpage catenae\nsoluitur et pedibus domino miserante refectis\ntamquam liber equus uel ruptis cassibus ales\neuolat et cerui salientis imagine currit.\nmira fides oculis obtenditur. omnia gaudent\ntam facili pietate dei tantumque ualenti\nFelicis merito, ut coram adsit Christus in illo,\npro meritis hominum moderans in utroque potenter,\nut resipiscenti medicus sit et ultor iniquo.\ncernite enim, quantae fuit illa iniuria fraudis,\nqua miser ille prius diuiserat inter egentes\nseque suem atque istic, ubi totum reddere uotum\ndebuerat, solum caput intestinaque porci\ncarpserat et reliquam toto sibi corpore partem\nfecerat inprudens atque inprobus, et tamen ipsa,\nqua miser extiterat, factus mox fraude beatus\ncommutante deo pietatis uerbere culpam.","t":"As he cried such things, clinging to the very doorposts\nof holy Felix and wiping them with kisses as he licked them,\nthe godly crowd both sees and hears him in astonished\ngatherings; he himself, lying there, is even now raised up by hope\nand rebukes all delays and the slow services\nof his own people. He orders the pig to be brought and soon all its parts\nto be given back to the poor; he asks only that life\nbe granted him, and that he be fed by the filling of the needy.\nHis companions quickly carry out the faithful orders, vying with one another.\nThey go to the familiar lodging; there the load is taken\noff the beast, the meat is cut into pieces,\nand the fire cooks it, divided, in foaming bronze pots.\nCooked, it is brought in, in many wide dishes.\nThe hunger of the needy, filled, returns thankful\nwords to God and, appeased, asks pardon for the giver.\nWithout delay, at once, the account of the vow being paid,\nthat debtor is loosed within from the bond of the chain he deserved,\nand, his feet restored as the Lord pitied him,\nlike a free horse or a bird whose net is broken\nhe flies out and runs in the likeness of a leaping deer.\nA wondrous proof is held before the eyes. All rejoice\nat so ready a kindness of God and at the so powerful\nmerit of Felix, that Christ is present in person in him,\ngoverning powerfully in both ways according to men's merits,\nso as to be physician to the repentant and avenger to the wicked.\nFor see how great was the wrong of that fraud,\nby which the wretch had first divided the pig between the needy\nand himself, and there, where he ought to have paid the whole vow,\nhad taken only the head and intestines of the pig\nfor them, and had made the remaining part, the whole body, his own,\nimprudent and shameless; and yet, by that very fraud\nby which he had been wretched, he was soon made blessed,\nGod changing the guilt by the scourge of kindness.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 20.190 (CSEL 30:149lines 190–222–150; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/20-190)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/20.223":{"o":"talis enim censura dei est, sic temperat alti\npondera iudicii deus arbiter et pater et rex,\nomnibus ut placidam moderato examine libret\niustitiam, et leuior mixta bonitate potestas\nante reos moneat stimulo quam fulmine perdat,\nut si profuerit praemissi uerberis ictus,\nsalua salus homini redeat commissa pigenti.\nat si quis sacri monitus terrore flagelli\nnoluerit sentire plagam, incuratus abibit\nseruatusque neci perfectam sentiet iram.\nille igitur miser ante, dehinc mox ipse beatus\ntali sanatus carnemque animamque medella.\nsed quia cognouit causam agnoscensque iacenter\npaenituit, meritum curae sibi semet in ipso\nrepperit inque breui est expertus utrumque, quod omnes\niusta lege manet diuinae pacis et irae\nius et opus, maneat uindex ut iure superbos\npoena reos, pietas seruet miserata fatentes.\nergo relaxatis alacer uestigia uinclis\nidem ex incolumi cito debilis et cito liber\nex modo captiuo laeta cum uoce redibat,\ninsultans uelut ille olim, quem matris ab aluo\nclaudentem in uerbo domini Petrus atque Iohannes\niusserunt ualidis in saltum exsurgere plantis.\ndignus et hic pauper speciosae limine portae,\nquem deus ipse, Petri deus et Felicis, eadem\nnunc uerbi uirtute sui sanauit apud nos\nde casu claudum modo, qua sanauerat olim\nex utero claudum, qua nunc ope laetus abibat;\nquique preces maestas in uulnere fuderat intus,\necce foris sano reddebat corpore grates:\nquidnam ego Felici possim redhibere patrono?","t":"For such is God's judgment; so God, judge and father and king,\ntempers the weights of his lofty judgment,\nthat he weighs out a calm justice for all with a moderate balance,\nand his power, lighter, mixed with goodness,\nwarns the guilty first with a goad rather than destroy them with a thunderbolt,\nso that, if the stroke of the lash sent ahead has helped,\nsalvation may return safe to the man who repents his misdeeds.\nBut if anyone, warned by the terror of the sacred scourge,\nrefuses to feel the blow, he will go away uncured,\nand, kept for death, will feel the full wrath.\nSo that man, wretched before, then soon himself blessed,\nwas healed in flesh and soul by such a remedy.\nBut because he recognized the cause, and, recognizing it as he lay there,\nrepented, he found in himself the merit of being cured,\nand in a short time experienced both: that by a just law\nthe right and work of divine peace and wrath await all,\nso that avenging punishment may rightly await proud\noffenders, and kindness may pity and save those who confess.\nSo, his bonds loosened, he was returning, eager in step,\nthe same man who had quickly become weak from sound and quickly free\nfrom captive, with glad voice,\nleaping like that man once, lame from his mother's womb,\nwhom Peter and John commanded at the word of the Lord\nto rise up into a leap on strong soles.\nThis poor man too was worthy of the threshold of the Beautiful Gate,\nwhom God himself, the God of Peter and of Felix, by the same\npower of his word has now healed among us,\nlame from a fall just now, as he had once healed\none lame from the womb; by that help he was now going away glad;\nand he who had poured out sorrowful prayers within, in his wound,\nsee, outside, with a sound body, was returning thanks:\n“What can I repay to Felix my patron?","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 20.223 (CSEL 30:150lines 223–254–152; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/20-223)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/20.255":{"o":"quas illi referam tanto pro munere digne\ntam cito de tanto sanatus uulnere grates?\nnon pretium statui medico aut fastidia lecti\ntristia sustinui, neque per scalpella uel ignes\naut male mordaces uario de gramine sucos,\nsaeuior et morbis et uulneribus medicina\nin corpus grassata meum est, uelut accidit illis,\nquos humana manus suspecta uisitat arte\nsemper et incerto trepidos solamine palpat.\nen ego per breue nunc spatium perlatus ad ipsum\nFelicis sancti solium et proiectus in ipso\nlimine tam gelido quam duro in marmore fractus\natque dolens iacui, et solus mihi sermo precandi,\nsola fides medicina fuit; nullum adfore uidi\net sensi medicum. quisnam hic medicus nisi Christus\nipse uel a Christo Felix de nomine Christi\net uirtute potens? neutrum illo in tempore sensi,\net tamen ipse fuit praesens in utroque, uel ut me\npeccantem argueret cito sanaretque dolentem.\npar modus in specie uaria mihi castigantis\nparcentisque fuit domini. sanator et ultor\nluminibus latuit, poena atque medella refulsit.\nnunc ego iam pleno perfectis ordine notis\nibo domum gaudens medico tutusque patrono\naeternum Felice mihi; non iam ulla uerebor\noccursura mihi uelut ante pericla uiarum;\nnamque periclum aberit, quia causa soluta pericli est.\nnon resoluta fides me uinxerat, et modo soluit\nrite soluta fides; tamen alliget, oro, tuus me\nsemper amor, Felix. istam mihi necte catenam,\nqua tibi me numquam nec mors nec uita resoluat.","t":"What thanks shall I worthily return to him for so great a gift,\nhealed so quickly of so great a wound?\nI set no fee for a physician nor bore the sad\nweariness of a sickbed; nor did medicine, more savage than diseases\nand wounds, attack my body with scalpels or fires\nor painfully biting juices of various herbs,\nas happens to those whom a human hand visits with suspect art\nand always strokes, trembling, with uncertain comfort.\nSee, I, carried in a short space to the very\nthrone of holy Felix and thrown down on the very\nthreshold, broken on marble as cold as it was hard,\nlay in pain, and my only speech was prayer,\nfaith alone was my medicine; I saw no physician present,\nand I felt one. Who was the physician here but Christ\nhimself, or Felix, made mighty by Christ in the name of Christ\nand by his power? I perceived neither at that time,\nand yet he was present in both, either to rebuke me\nquickly as a sinner or to heal me as I suffered.\nEqual was the way, in different form, of the Lord\nchastising and sparing me. The healer and the avenger\nlay hidden from the eyes; the punishment and the healing shone forth.\nNow, with signs completed in full order,\nI shall go home rejoicing, safe with Felix as my physician\nand eternal patron; no longer shall I fear any\ndangers of the road that might meet me as before;\nfor danger will be absent, because the cause of danger has been loosed.\nFaith not kept had bound me, and now faith\nduly kept has loosed me; yet may your love, Felix,\nI pray, always bind me. Tie this chain on me,\nby which neither death nor life may ever release me from you.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 20.255 (CSEL 30:152lines 255–285–153; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/20-255)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/20.286":{"o":"uerum omnes, quicumque meos uidere dolores\ninque tuo merito magnis insignibus altam\nconspexere manum Christi, cognoscere debent,\nquantum illis mea poena boni prouiderit, ut iam\npraecaueant de terrenis sibi parcere rebus\net, lucra dum captant, adquirere damna salutis.\nnam si de uili pecudis mihi carne alimentum\npauperibus fraudasse malo fuit, ecquid in illis,\nqui male diuitias uano amplectuntur amore\ndefossisque suo pariter cum corde metallis\nincubitant atque haec latitare superflua produnt,\nquae proprio longe secreta tuentur ab usu?\nquid facient? quidnam pro se tibi, Christe, loquentur,\ntantorum qui partem inopum inuasere nec ullam\napposuere sibi de re superante salutem?\nunus abit missus. nunc mensae grata secundae\nfercula ponemus; sed quamuis rursus eandem\ndiuerso carnem conditam iure feremus.\nnamque aliud uobis iterum, quod de sue mirum\nlusit opus Felix, mira nouitate retexam.\ntempore res prior est; sed nostris ante libellis\npraeterita, in praesens tempus seruata canetur.\nnec refert, quod opus quo sit sub tempore gestum,\nunus erit quoniam uariis operator in annis,\nqui diuersa facit sanctorum in laude suorum\nomnibus in terris rerum miracula Christus.\nagricolae quidam de nostris longius oris\nApula trans urbem Beneuentum rura colentes\nde grege setigero multis a fetibus unum\nlactea adhuc tenero pulsantem sumina rostro\nexcerpsere sibi et curatum tempore multo\npauerunt in uota suem, et coepere paratum\nducere sacratam sancti Felicis ad aulam,\ncorpore de magno ut multos mactatus egenos\npasceret et saturo gauderet paupere martyr.","t":"But all, whoever have seen my pains\nand in your merit beheld the lofty hand of Christ in great signs,\nought to recognize how much good my punishment has provided for them,\nso that now they may beware of sparing earthly things for themselves\nand, while they grasp at gain, acquiring the loss of salvation.\nFor if it was evil for me to defraud the poor of food\nfrom the flesh of a cheap animal, what of those\nwho wrongly embrace riches with vain love,\nand brood over metals buried along with their heart,\nand show that these superfluous things lie hidden,\nwhich they guard, far withdrawn from their own use?\nWhat will they do? What will they say for themselves to you, Christ,\nthey who have seized the share of so many poor and have provided\nno salvation for themselves from their superfluous property?”\nOne dish has been served. Now we shall set out the welcome\ncourses of a second table; but we shall bring the same\nmeat again, though seasoned with a different sauce.\nFor I shall unfold for you, with wondrous novelty, another\nwonderful work that Felix played concerning a pig.\nThe event is earlier in time; but, passed over before in our\nlittle books, it has been kept to be sung at the present time.\nNor does it matter at what time a work was done,\nsince there is one worker in various years,\nChrist, who does various miracles in praise of his saints\nin all lands.\nCertain farmers far from our regions,\ntilling Apulian fields beyond the city of Beneventum,\nfrom their bristly herd chose for themselves one of many piglets\nwhile it was still pushing at the milky teats with its tender snout,\nand, caring for it a long time, they fed the pig for a vow, and began,\nwhen it was ready, to lead it to the consecrated hall of holy Felix,\nso that, slaughtered, it might feed many needy with its great body,\nand the martyr might rejoice in the poor man filled.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 20.286 (CSEL 30:153lines 286–320–154; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/20-286)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/20.32":{"o":"at nobis ars una fides et musica Christus,\nqui docuit miram sibimet concurrere pacem\ndisparis harmoniae quondam, quam corpus in unum\ncontulit adsumens hominem, qui miscuit almum\ninfusa uirtute deum, ut duo conderet in se\ndistantesque procul naturas redderet unum;\nut deus esset homo, deus est homo factus ab ipso\nqui deus est genitore deo, cui gratia non est,\nsed natura, quod est summi patris unicus heres,\nsolus habens proprium, quod munere praestat habere\nhis, quibus alma fides dederit diuina mereri.\nille igitur uere nobis est musicus auctor,\nille Dauid uerus, citharam qui corporis huius\nrestituit putri dudum conpage iacentem,\net tacitam ruptis antiquo crimine chordis\nadsumendo suum dominus reparauit in usum,\nconsertisque deo mortalibus omnia rerum\nin speciem primae fecit reuirescere formae,\nut noua cuncta forent, cunctis abeunte ueterno.\nhanc renouaturus citharam deus ipse magister,\nipse sui positam suspendit in arbore ligni\net cruce peccatum carnis perimente nouauit.\natque ita mortalem numeris caelestibus aptam\nconposuit citharam uariis ex gentibus unam,\nomnigenas populos conpingens corpus in unum.\ninde lacessitis fidibus de pectine uerbi\nuox euangelicae testudinis omnia conplet\nlaude dei; toto Christi chelys aurea mundo\npersonat innumeris uno modulamine linguis,\nrespondentque deo paribus noua carmina neruis.\nsed referam ad mea coepta pedem; nam tempus et hora est\npromissas offerre dapes, adponere uobis\nprandia sollicitas caste sumenda per aures.","t":"but for us the one art is faith, and our music is Christ,\nwho taught a wondrous peace of once discordant harmony\nto come together in himself, the harmony he brought together into one body\nby taking up man, he who mingled kindly God with man\nby infusing his power, to establish the two in himself\nand to make natures far apart into one;\nso that God might be man, God was made man, made so by himself,\nwho is God from God his Begetter, to whom it is not by grace\nbut by nature that he is the only heir of the highest Father,\nalone having as his own what by gift he grants to have\nto those whom kindly faith has given to merit divine things.\nHe, then, is truly the author of our music,\nhe is the true David, who restored the lyre of this body,\nlying long with its rotten frame,\nand, when it was silent with its strings broken by the ancient crime,\nthe Lord repaired it for his own use by taking it up,\nand, joining mortals to God, made all things\nflourish again in the likeness of their first form,\nso that all things might be new, as old decay departs from all.\nTo renew this lyre, God himself, the master,\nhimself hung his own lyre, once laid aside, on the tree of the wood,\nand renewed it by the cross that kills the sin of the flesh.\nAnd so he composed one mortal lyre, fitted to heavenly\nmeasures, out of various nations,\njoining peoples of every kind into one body.\nThen, the strings struck by the plectrum of the Word,\nthe voice of the gospel lyre fills all things\nwith the praise of God; Christ's golden lyre in the whole world\nsounds through countless tongues in one melody,\nand new songs answer God on matched strings.\nBut I shall turn my foot back to what I began; for it is time and the hour\nto offer the promised dishes, to set before you\na meal to be taken chastely through attentive ears.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 20.32 (CSEL 30:144lines 32–64–145; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/20-32)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/20.321":{"o":"sed grauis aruina porcus superante pedum uim\nnon potuit se ferre diu primoque uiarum\nlimine succubuit sibimet neque deinde moueri\nuoce manu stimulis potuit. liquere iacentem\nhospitibusque suis commendauere relictum\nmaerentes domini. mens anxia nutat in anceps;\nnam uoti reuocare uiam pia pectora nolunt;\nrursum Felicis ueneratum limina longe,\nire pudet uacuos deuoti muneris. ergo\nambiguis talis sententia mentibus haesit,\nut totidem lectos eadem de gente minores\nad sua uota legant, quot erat prouectus in annos\nille, sua pressus qui mole manebat iners sus,\nquod deuota fides obstricti debita uoti\nmaturare parans tali ratione putauit,\npluribus ut modicis unum pensaret opimum.\nergo sacrum huc uenere locum uotisque patratis\nhospitium rediere suum non comminus istinc.\nnam tum forte domos, quae circa martyris aulam,\ninplerat solitis denseta frequentia turbis.\npropterea procul hinc secreto in rure remotam\ncontenti subiere casam, qua mane parabant\nad reditum proferre pedem, cum prima ruberet\nparturiens aurora diem. tuguri fore aperta\nhospes homo egreditur tecto notumque suem uir\nconspicit ante fores mirando adstare paratu.\ntamquam se missum domino loqueretur adesse\natque salutanti similis uestigia lambit\ngaudentis domini et gestu subgrunnit alumno\nblandus et olfaciens motando dat oscula rostro\nseque quasi uotum debere agnoscat erile,\ningerit et tardos inuitat gutture cultros.","t":"But the pig, heavy with fat that outweighed the strength of its feet,\ncould not carry itself long, and at the first threshold\nof the road it collapsed of itself, and then could not be moved\nby voice, hand or goads. Its sorrowing masters left it lying\nand commended it, abandoned, to their hosts.\nTheir anxious minds wavered in doubt;\nfor their godly hearts would not call back the journey of the vow;\nagain, to go to venerate the threshold of Felix far away\nempty of the vowed gift shamed them. So\nthis decision settled in their doubtful minds:\nthat they should choose for their vows as many smaller pigs\nof the same stock as the years to which that pig had grown,\nwhich remained inert, weighed down by its own bulk;\nfor their devoted faith, preparing to hasten the payment\nof the binding vow, thought by such a reckoning\nto make up for one fat animal with several modest ones.\nSo they came to this sacred place, and when their vows were fulfilled\nthey returned to their lodging, not close by;\nfor at that time the dense crowd with its usual throngs\nhad happened to fill the houses around the martyr's hall.\nTherefore, content, they went into a cottage far from here\nin a secluded countryside, from which in the morning they were preparing\nto set out on their return, when the first dawn\nreddened, giving birth to the day. When the door of the hut was opened,\ntheir host goes out of the house, and the man sees the familiar pig\nstanding before the doors in wondrous readiness,\nas if it were saying that it was present, sent by the Lord,\nand like one greeting them it licks the tracks\nof its rejoicing master, and grunts softly with a gesture to its keeper,\nfawning, and, sniffing, gives kisses with moving snout,\nand, as if it recognized that it owed the master's vow,\npresses forward and invites the slow knives with its throat.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 20.321 (CSEL 30:154lines 321–352–155; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/20-321)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/20.353":{"o":"quo duce, quaeso, uias ignotis finibus egit\nquosue pedes, tam longe ut posset currere, sumpsit,\nqui breuibus spatiis in primo fine uiarum\ndefecit fluidae depressus mole saginae?\ncerte nulla manus tantum pecus aggere longo\nnec sinus aduexit nec mens sua tam spatiosam\nignota regione uiam penetrare subegit,\nquando homines etiam et mentis ratione uigentes\nperque ignota regi faciles interprete lingua,\nsi tamen hi careant duce, quo uia luceat illis,\ncaecus in externis regionibus inplicat error.\nquisnam igitur direxit iter suis? unde uoluntas,\nqua dominos sequeretur, ei uel sensus, ut esset\nconscius ad uotum se longa aetate paratum?\nunde haec cura fuit pecori, quae rara fideles\nexcitat, ut, tamquam proprio culpabilis actu\npigra remansisset, sancto sus icta timore\ncontractam remanendo sibi ueniendo piare\ncuraret culpam et uitium pensaret inertis\ndesidiae, quamuis sero comitata profectos\nobsequio dominos? patet admirabile monstrum\ncaelesti dicione datum tanto suis auso,\nsolus ut iret iter longum, tantoque fuisse\ningenio porcum, ignotis ut tramite recto\ndirigeret spatiis. quid et hoc quam grande, quod illum\nTransbeneuentanis huc finibus aduenientem,\npublica seu medii se strata per aggeris audax\nmiserit, occursus nusquam cepere frequentes,\nsiue per occultos egit uestigia saltus,\nnulla manus ferro, fera uel fuit obuia morsu.\nquae solum duxit manus aut protexit euntem?","t":"Under what guide, I ask, did it travel roads through unknown territories,\nor what feet did it take up, to be able to run so far,\nthat pig which, within short spaces, at the very start of the roads,\ngave out, weighed down by the bulk of its flowing fat?\nCertainly no hand carried so large an animal along the long highway,\nnor any fold of a garment, nor did its own mind compel it to make its way\nthrough so long a road in an unknown region,\nsince even men vigorous in the reason of the mind,\nand easily guided through unknown places with a tongue to interpret,\nif they lack a guide to make the way clear to them,\nare entangled by blind error in foreign regions.\nWho then directed the pig's way? Whence its will\nto follow its masters, or its sense to be aware\nthat it had been prepared for a vow over a long time?\nWhence did the beast have this care, which rarely stirs\nthe faithful, that, as if it had stayed behind sluggishly, guilty by its own act,\nthe pig, struck with holy fear, should take care to expiate\nby coming the fault it had incurred by staying behind, and atone\nfor the vice of inert sloth, though it accompanied\nits departed masters with its service late? A wondrous portent is plain,\ngiven by heavenly command to so great a venture of a pig,\nthat it went alone on a long road, and that the pig had\nso great a mind as to direct itself by a straight path\nthrough unknown spaces. And how great is this too, that as it came\nhere from the territory beyond Beneventum,\nwhether it boldly took the public paved roads of the highway,\nno frequent encounters caught it anywhere,\nor whether it made its tracks through hidden woods,\nno hand with iron, no beast with its bite met it.\nWhat hand led it alone or protected it on its way?","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 20.353 (CSEL 30:155lines 353–383–156; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/20-353)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/20.384":{"o":"nempe oculos aliqua celatus nube fefellit\naere uel raptus uento mage quam pede uenit\net subita hospitium domini delapsus ab aura\nconstitit ignoto pro limine quadrupes hospes.\ndicam aliud prope uicini mirabile signi.\nnam genere abiunctam, pecus armentale, iuuencam\nquidam homines aeque longinqua huc sede profecti\nsecretam primo lactantis ab ubere matris\nnutrierant nostris uotiuo munere pactam\npauperibus, magna quos istic plebe coactos\nlarga ope multorum Felicis gratia pascit.\nergo ubi iam membris uitula exultabat adultis,\nfacta per excretum iam corpus idonea uoto,\npromouere domo; sed, qui mos esse uidetur\npersoluenda piis longe sua uota ferentum\nmartyribus plaustro subiungere, quo ueherentur,\nadgressi hanc uoluere iugo subiungere, quamuis\ninsuetam, tamen ut mitem iam mente subacta\nusibus humanis, quibus illam e congrege coetu\nsustulerant domini paruam et tectisque cibisque\nmiscuerant; hinc ut domita feritate putantes\nsub iuga se facilem docili ceruice daturam,\nsollicitant palpante manu et conantur in artum\nducere; at illa sibi solitos adludere tactus\ncredula consentit primum sequiturque uocantes.\nuerum ubi iam propiata iugo conspexit habenas\nceruicique suae persensit lora parari,\nindignata dolis et permutata repente\nfit fera, nec ceruice iugum nec uincula collo\nsuscipit et uictis manibus lorisque recussis\nprosilit a coetu retinentum et deuia longe\nrara petit, fugiens dominos adsuetaque tecta.","t":"Surely, hidden by some cloud, it escaped eyes,\nor, snatched through the air, it came by wind rather than by foot,\nand, slipping down from a sudden breeze to its master's lodging,\nit stood, a four-footed guest, before the unknown threshold.\nI shall tell another wonder, a sign near to this one.\nFor a heifer, of a different kind, from the herd,\ncertain men, who had likewise set out from a distant home,\nhad separated at first from the breast of its suckling mother\nand reared, pledged as a votive gift for our\npoor, whom, gathered here in a great crowd,\nthe grace of Felix feeds with the generous help of many.\nSo when the calf was already frisking with grown limbs,\nmade fit for the vow by its developed body,\nthey set out from home; but, as seems to be the custom of those\nwho bring their vows from far away to be paid to the godly martyrs,\nto yoke the animal to the wagon in which they were to ride,\nthey set about yoking it, though it was unaccustomed,\nyet as if gentle, its mind already subdued\nto human uses, for which its masters had taken it, small,\nfrom the herd and had made it share their house and food;\nthinking therefore that its wildness was tamed,\nand that it would give itself easily under the yoke with teachable neck,\nthey coax it with stroking hand and try to lead it\ninto the narrow space; and it, trusting that the touches were\nthe usual ones playing with it, at first agrees and follows those who call.\nBut when, brought near the yoke, it saw the reins\nand felt the straps being prepared for its neck,\nindignant at the trick and suddenly changed,\nit becomes wild, and takes neither yoke on its neck nor bonds on its throat,\nand, the hands overcome and the straps shaken off,\nit springs away from the group holding it and seeks far-off,\nlonely places, fleeing its masters and its familiar house.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 20.384 (CSEL 30:156lines 384–415–157; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/20-384)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/20.416":{"o":"nec procul ex oculis hominum de more ferino\nse rapit et caecis fugitiuam saltibus abdit;\nnam fugiens dominos abeuntes eminus adstans\nsic fugit, ut non se patiatur rure relinqui.\ndenique ubi iunctum gemino boue tendere plaustrum\nconspicit, humanum sapit et quasi conscia uoto\ndeberi sese, comes incipit esse profectis.\nnec longe comes est, tardis comes orbibus ire\nspernit, et excursu uelut insultante gementes\npraeteruecta rotas lenti moliminis agmen\nrespicit anteuolans nec iam timet ad iuga cogi,\ninuisoque prius fit amica et praeuia plaustro,\ndonec sacratam uentum Felicis ad aulam.\nillic sponte gradum sistit seseque uocanti\nadplicat et tamquam uoti rea gaudet in ipso\nstare loco, propriam cui debet uictima caedem.\nilla rebellis et humanis non subdita uinclis\nducitur ad placidam nullo luctamine mortem;\nintemerata iugis submittens colla securi,\npauperibus factura cibos de corpore caeso,\nlaeta suum fundit dominorum in uota cruorem.\nquorsum istaec? numquid pecudum est, ut apostolus inquit,\ncura deo? sed qui propter nos omnia fecit,\nomnia pro nobis operatur in omnibus auctor\natque per ignaras pecudes operantia nobis\nsigna facit, brutas per clara insignia mentes\nsollicitans firmare fidem et confidere uero,\nut dominum dociles linguis in uerba solutis\nnon taceant homines, quem signis muta loquuntur.","t":"Yet it does not rush far from the sight of men in the manner of wild beasts\nand hide itself as a fugitive in blind woods;\nfor, fleeing its masters, standing off at a distance as they departed,\nit so fled that it did not allow itself to be left behind in the countryside.\nFinally, when it sees the wagon, yoked with a pair of oxen, setting out,\nit understands as a human does, and, as if aware that it was owed\nto the vow, begins to be a companion to those who had set out.\nNor is it a companion for long; it scorns to go as companion of slow wheels,\nand, with an excursion as if mocking them, passing the groaning\nwheels, it looks back at the column of slow effort\nas it flies ahead, and no longer fears being forced to the yoke,\nand becomes friendly to the wagon it hated before and goes in front of it,\nuntil they came to the consecrated hall of Felix.\nThere it stops its step of its own accord and comes\nto the one who calls it, and, as if bound by the vow, rejoices to stand\nin the very place to which the victim owes its own slaughter.\nThat rebellious one, not subject to human bonds,\nis led to a calm death with no struggle;\nsubmitting to the axe its neck, unspoiled by yokes,\nto make food for the poor from its slain body,\nit gladly pours out its blood for the vows of its masters.\nTo what end are these things? Is it for cattle, as the apostle says,\nthat God cares? But he who made all things for our sake,\nas author works all things for us in all things,\nand through unknowing cattle makes signs that work for us,\nstirring brute minds through clear tokens to strengthen their faith\nand to trust the truth,\nso that men, teachable, their tongues loosed into words,\nmay not be silent about the Lord, of whom dumb beasts speak by signs.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 20.416 (CSEL 30:157lines 416–444–158; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/20-416)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/20.65":{"o":"non ueteri repetam quae sum dicturus ab aeuo;\nante dies paucos istic spectata profabor.\nuenerat huc quidam placitum sibi soluere uotum\nurbis Abellinae de finibus aduena nostris\nsedibus. hic porcum studio curante paratum\ndilatumque diu, ut simul annis atque sagina\ncresceret, huc illinc perduxerat; atque ubi uenit,\npingue pecus uoti iugulat de more uouentum.\nfama suis magni per egentum accenderat acrem\nora famem et cuncti magnae spe partis hiantem\ntendebant ad opima senes conuiuia faucem.\ninterea largitor inops non partibus aequis\ndiuidit incisas carnes, medium suis aufert\nsinciput et tantum secti coquit intima uentris\nsolaque pauperibus caesi uitalia porci\ndiuidit ac totum sibi corpus habere relinquit,\net uotum conplesse putat laetusque redire\nincipit, ausus eas iumento inponere secum\nreliquias, et in his placiti se pignora uoti\nsancta referre domum male credulus, in quibus idem\ndamnum animae nodumque uiae portabat auarus.\ndenique mox nec mille uiam permissus abire\npassibus elucente die simul aggere plano,\nnon tenebris pauitante nec offendente salebris,\nlapsus equo et quasi fixus humi se tollere rursus\nad consistendum reparato robore surgens\nnon potuit coepitque pedes clamare ligatos\nidque probare iacens plantis quasi conpede iunctis.\nhic aliud mirum casu sociatur in ipso;","t":"I shall not fetch from an ancient age what I am about to tell;\nI shall speak of things seen here a few days ago.\nA certain man had come here to pay a vow that pleased him,\na stranger to our seats from the territory of the city of Abellinum.\nHe had brought from there a pig prepared with careful attention\nand long kept back, so that it might grow in years and fatness alike;\nand when he came,\nhe slaughtered the fat animal of his vow, as is the custom of those who vow.\nReport had kindled keen hunger for great portions in the mouths\nof the needy, and all the old men, in hope of a large share,\nstretched their gaping throats toward the rich feast.\nMeanwhile the needy giver divides the cut meat\nin unequal parts: he takes away for his own the middle\nflitch, and cooks only the innards of the cut belly,\nand distributes only the vitals of the slaughtered pig to the poor,\nand leaves himself the whole body,\nand thinks he has fulfilled his vow, and gladly begins\nto return, daring to put those remains on his beast of burden with him,\nand wrongly believing that in them he was carrying home holy pledges\nof the vow that pleased him, in which the same miser was carrying\nthe loss of his soul and a knot for his road.\nIn short, he had soon gone not even a thousand\npaces on the way, in bright daylight and on a level road,\nwith no darkness to frighten nor rough places to trip him,\nwhen he slipped from his horse, and, as if fixed to the ground,\nhe could not rise again, trying to stand with renewed strength,\nand began to cry that his feet were bound,\nand to prove it, lying there, with his soles joined as by a fetter.\nHere another wonder is joined to the same event;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 20.65 (CSEL 30:145lines 65–93–146; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/20-65)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/20.94":{"o":"nam dum illum tanta cum debilitate iacentem\nmaesta propinquorum circumstat turba suorum,\niumentum, cui sola oneri porcina manebat,\nascensore sui uacuum et ductore relictum\nsponte sua sese nullo flectente refrenans,\ntamquam offendiculi causam cognosceret ultro\naut aliquem prohibere uiam, qua coeperat ire,\nuidisset, sic fugit, iter cursumque retorsit,\net properante gradu recucurrit ad hospita tecta\nomnibus anteuolans, quos lapsi attenta tenebat\ncura uiri, qua paulatim quasi corpore fracto\nnitentem et genibus rigidis prodire negantem\ncaecaque uincla pedum pariter meritumque ruinae\nillius et poenae lacrimosa uoce fatentem\nluce palam, manibus graue subuectentibus aegri\ncorpus, fida cohors sanctas referebat in aulas,\norantem medici Felicis ad ipsa reduci\nlimina, mox illic certum reperire medellam.\nillum homines interque manus interque cateruas\nin sacra uectetum mirantibus atria turbis\ndispositi trino per longa sedilia coetu\nobstipuere senes, inopum miserabile uulgus\net socio canae residentes agmine matres.\npraeterea multi, sua quos deuotio sanctis\naedibus attulerat diuersis eminus oris,\nuiderunt insigne pium, cum tempore eodem,\nimmo die, tam mira foret mutatio rerum.\nidem homo, qui paulo ante suo digressus ab isdem\nliminibus gressu, nunc ipse redux alienis\ninfertur pedibus, subuecto corpore pendens.","t":"for while the sorrowful crowd of his relatives stands around\nhim lying there in such weakness,\nthe beast of burden, which still had only the pork as its load,\nleft empty of its rider and driver,\nof its own accord, with no one turning it, reining itself in,\nas if it knew the cause of the stumbling,\nor had seen someone forbidding the road on which it had begun to go,\nfled, turned back its path and course,\nand ran back with hastening step to the house of its hosts,\nflying ahead of all those whom attentive care\nfor the fallen man held, as little by little the faithful company\ncarried him in broad daylight back into the holy halls,\nthe sick man's heavy body borne up by their hands;\nhe was straining as if with a broken body, his stiff knees refusing to walk,\nconfessing with tearful voice the blind bonds of his feet\nand at the same time the deserving cause of his fall and punishment,\nand praying to be brought back to the very threshold of Felix the physician,\nto find sure healing there soon.\nAs he was carried by hands and through the crowds\ninto the sacred courts, the throngs marvelling,\nthe old men set out on long benches in a threefold company\nwere astonished, the pitiable common crowd of the needy,\nand the white-haired mothers sitting with them in their ranks.\nBesides, many whom their devotion had brought to the holy\nbuildings from various distant shores\nsaw the godly sign, since at the same time,\nindeed on the same day, there was so wonderful a change of things.\nThe same man who a little before had left the same\nthreshold on his own feet now, brought back, is carried in\non others' feet, hanging, his body borne up.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 20.94 (CSEL 30:146lines 94–123–147; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/20-94)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/21.1":{"o":"Candida pax grata nobis uice temporis annum\npost hiemes actas tranquillo lumine ducit\nsignatamque diem sancti Felicis honore\nsecuris aperit populis. gaudere serenis\nmentibus abstersa diri caligine belli\nsuadet ouans Felix, quia pacis et ipse patronus\ncum patribus Paulo atque Petro et cum fratribus almis\nmartyribus regem regum exorauit amico\nnumine Romani producere tempora regni\ninstantesque Getas ipsis iam faucibus urbis\npellere et exitium seu uincula uertere in ipsos,\nqui minitabantur Romanis ultima regnis.\nnunc igitur pulsa formidine ut imbribus actis\nrespicere expulsas nubes, praesentia rerum\npraeteritis conferre iuuat. quam taetra per istos,\nqui fluxere dies, elapso nox erat anno,\ncum furor accensus diuinae motibus irae\ninmisso Latiis arderet in urbibus hoste!\nnunc itidem placidi spectate potentia Christi\nmunera; mactatis pariter cum rege profano\nhostibus Augusti pueri uictoria pacem\nreddidit, atque annis tener idem fortis in armis\npraeualuit uirtute dei et mortalia fregit\nrobora sacrilegum Christo superante tyrannum.\nsed quid ego hinc modo plura loquar, quod non speciale\nesse mei Felicis opus res publica monstrat?\npluribus haec etenim causa est curata patronis,\nut Romana salus et publica uita maneret.","t":"White peace, by a welcome turn of the times, leads the year\non with tranquil light after the winters have passed,\nand opens to secure peoples the day marked\nby the honour of holy Felix. Triumphant Felix urges us\nto rejoice with serene minds, now that the darkness\nof dread war has been wiped away, because he too, a patron of peace,\ntogether with the fathers Paul and Peter and with the kindly brothers,\nthe martyrs, has entreated the King of kings with friendly\ndivinity to prolong the times of the Roman empire,\nand to drive back the Goths who were pressing upon the very jaws of the city,\nand to turn destruction or chains back upon them,\nwho were threatening the last end to the Roman realms.\nSo now, with fear driven off, as after rains are over\nit delights to look back at the clouds driven away, so it delights to compare\npresent things with past. How foul was the night\nthrough those days that have flowed by, as the year slipped away,\nwhen frenzy, kindled by the motions of divine anger,\nburned in the Latin cities with the enemy let loose!\nNow likewise behold the gifts of gentle Christ's power;\nthe enemies slaughtered together with their profane king,\nthe victory of the boy Augustus has restored peace,\nand, tender in years, the same man, strong in arms,\nprevailed by the power of God and broke the mortal\nstrength of the sacrilegious tyrant, as Christ overcame.\nBut why should I say more here now, since the commonwealth shows\nthat this is not a work special to my Felix?\nFor this cause was cared for by many patrons,\nso that Roman safety and public life might remain.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 21.1 (CSEL 30:158lines 1–28–159; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/21-1)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/21.129":{"o":"quare beatos martyras, quos extulit\nperfecta uirtus in coronam caelitem,\niustis honoris debiti praeconiis\ncelebramus omnes nos eorum posteri\nconfessione Christiani nominis,\nquibus profuso sanguine ob sanctam fidem\nproseminarunt frugis aeternae bonum,\nut, si ambulemus martyrum uestigiis,\nparibus parentum perfruamur praemiis.\nhinc ergo sanctis siue confessoribus\nseu consecratis passione testibus\ndies sacratos, in quibus functi diem\nmortalis aeui morte uitali suum\nde labe mundi transierunt ad deum,\npopuli fideles gaudiis sollemnibus\nhonore Christi gratulantes excolunt,\nut iste sancti pace Felicis dies,\nquo clausit olim corporis uitam senex,\nconfessionis ante functus proelia,\nsed incruento consecratus exitu,\npost bella uictor pacis adsumptus die\nuocante Christo liquit exultans humum\net in supernas transitum fecit domos,\nnon defraudatus a corona martyris,\nquia passionis mente uotum gesserat.\nnam saepe agonem miles intrauit potens\nuictoque semper hoste confessor redit;\nsed praeparata mente contentus deus\nseruauit illum, non coronam martyris\nnegans, sed addens et coronam antistitis,\nut incruento palmam adeptus proelio\net proeliati possideret praemium\nconfessionis purpurante laurea,\nuittaque pacis in sacerdotis stola\nredimitus idem bis coronatus foret\nconfessor atque presbyter Felix dei.","t":"Therefore the blessed martyrs, whom perfect virtue\nhas raised to the heavenly crown,\nwe all, their descendants in the confession\nof the Christian name, celebrate with just proclamations\nof the honour due them,\nwho by shedding their blood for the holy faith\nsowed the good of eternal fruit,\nso that, if we walk in the footsteps of the martyrs,\nwe may enjoy rewards equal to our fathers'.\nHence, then, the days consecrated to the saints, whether confessors\nor witnesses consecrated by suffering, the days on which,\nhaving finished the day of mortal life,\nthey passed by a life-giving death from the stain of the world to God,\nthe faithful peoples observe with solemn joys,\ngiving thanks in honour of Christ,\nlike this day of holy Felix in peace,\non which the old man once closed the life of his body,\nhaving first fought the battles of confession,\nbut consecrated by a bloodless end;\nvictor after wars, taken up on a day of peace,\nat Christ's call he left the earth exulting\nand made his passage into the dwellings above,\nnot cheated of the martyr's crown,\nbecause he had borne the vow of suffering in his mind.\nFor often the mighty soldier entered the contest,\nand always, the enemy overcome, the confessor returned;\nbut God, content with a prepared mind,\nkept him, not denying him the martyr's crown,\nbut adding also the priest's crown,\nso that, having gained the palm in a bloodless battle,\nhe might also possess the reward of one who fought,\nwith the purpling laurel of confession,\nand, wreathed with the fillet of peace on a priest's stole,\nthe same Felix, God's confessor and presbyter,\nmight be twice crowned.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 21.129 (CSEL 30:162lines 129–164–163; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/21-129)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/21.165":{"o":"hic ergo, uotis quem recolimus annuis,\nnon est agonis, sed sepulturae dies,\nquo separata ab inuicem substantia\nanimae uolauit ad deum, in terram caro\nreuersa tumulo conquieuit abdita.\net merito sanctis iste natalis dies\nnotatur, in quo lege functi carnea\nmortalitatis exuuntur uinculis\net in superna regna nascuntur deo\nsecumque laetam spem resurgendi ferunt.\nego semper istum sic honoraui diem,\nmagis hunc putarem ut esse natalem mihi,\nquam quo fuissem natus in cassum die.\nlugendus etenim est ille dignius mihi\ndies, in istud quo creatus saeculum\npeccator utero peccatricis excidi\nconceptus atris ex iniquitatibus,\nut iam nocentem pareret me mater mea.\nmaledictus ergo sit dies, quo sum miser\nad iniquitates ex iniquis editus.\nbenedictus iste sit natalis et mihi,\nquo mihi patronus natus in caelestibus\nFelix ad illam exortus est potentiam,\nqua me ualeret faece purgatum mea\nlaxare uinclis et redemptum absoluere\nde luctuosa morte natalis mei.\neadem recurrit semper haec cunctis dies\nacto per orbem circulis anno suis;\nuerum quotannis innouante gratia\ndiuersitatem munerum, quae dat suo\nChristus sodali, donet ut Felix mihi,\nmutatur et non ipsa quae cunctis uenit,\nuarias meorum carminum causas ferens.","t":"This day, then, which we recall with yearly vows,\nis not the day of his contest, but of his burial,\non which, the two substances separated from each other,\nthe soul flew to God, while the flesh, returned to earth,\nrested hidden in the tomb.\nAnd rightly this is marked as the birthday\nof the saints, on which, having done with the law of the flesh,\nthey are stripped of the chains of mortality\nand are born to God into the kingdoms above,\nand bring with them the glad hope of rising again.\nI have always honoured this day in such a way\nthat I would think it more my birthday\nthan the day on which I was born in vain.\nFor that day is more fittingly to be mourned by me,\non which, created into this world,\nI, a sinner, fell from the womb of a sinful woman,\nconceived out of black iniquities,\nso that my mother bore me already guilty.\nCursed, then, be the day on which I, wretched,\nwas brought forth from the iniquitous into iniquities.\nBlessed be this birthday for me too,\non which Felix, born in heaven as my patron,\nrose to that power\nby which he could, having purged me of my dregs,\nloose me from chains and, redeemed, release me\nfrom the mournful death of my birth.\nThis same day always recurs for all\nas the year runs round the world in its circles;\nbut since every year grace renews\nthe diversity of gifts which Christ gives\nto his companion, that Felix may give them to me,\nit is changed, and is not the same day that comes to all,\nbringing the varied themes of my songs.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 21.165 (CSEL 30:163lines 165–197–164; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/21-165)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/21.198":{"o":"uideamus ergo, quid mihi hoc anno nouum\nattulerit, unde uocibus uernem nouis.\nnon ibo longe, nec procul sumam mihi\npraeterita tempore aut locis absentia.\nadsunt, tenentur ipsa dona comminus;\nuidetis omnes munera hoc anno data\nnobis in uno iuncta Felicis sinu,\nmancipia Christi, nobiles terrae prius,\nnunc uero caelo destinatos incolas,\nquos Christus ipse, qui crearat diuites,\nhoc pauperauit saeculo, in regnum ut suum\nterreni honoris arce deiectos uehat:\nApronianum Turciae gentis decus,\naetate puerum, sensibus carnis senem,\nueteri togarum nobilem prosapia\nsed clariorem Christiano nomine,\nqui mixta ueteris et noui ortus gloria\nuetus est senator curiae, Christo nouus.\nhuic propinquat socius aequali iugo\naeuo minore Pinianus, par fide,\net ipse prisco sanguine inlustris puer,\nin principe urbe consulis primi genus.\nValerius ille consulari stemmate\nprimus Latinis nomen in fastis tenens,\nquem Roma pulsis regibus Bruto addidit,\nValeri modo huius Christiani consulis\nlonge retrorsum generis auctor ultimus.\no uena felix! ille gentili licet\nerrore functus hoc suae stirpis bonum\nnon capiat atro mersus inferni lacu,\nsed nos fideli contuentes lumine\nretroacta uel praesentia humani status\nmiramur opera conditoris ardui\net praeparatos a uetustis saeculis\nsuccessionum mysticarum lineis\npios stupemus inpiorum filios;","t":"So let us see what new thing this year has brought me,\nfrom which I may flower with new words.\nI shall not go far, nor take for myself from afar\nthings past in time or absent in place.\nThey are present, the gifts themselves are held close at hand;\nyou all see the gifts given us this year,\njoined in the one bosom of Felix:\nslaves of Christ, once nobles of the earth,\nbut now inhabitants destined for heaven,\nwhom Christ himself, who had created them rich,\nhas made poor in this world, so that he may carry them into his kingdom,\ncast down from the citadel of earthly honour:\nApronianus, the glory of the Turcian family,\na boy in age, an old man in mastery of the flesh's senses,\nnoble by an ancient lineage of the toga,\nbut more illustrious by the Christian name,\nwho, with the glory of old and new birth mixed,\nis an old senator of the curia, new to Christ.\nNear him is a companion under an equal yoke,\nyounger in age, Pinianus, equal in faith,\nhimself a boy illustrious by ancient blood,\nof the family of the first consul in the chief city:\nthat Valerius who, by consular lineage,\nholds the first name in the Latin Fasti,\nwhom Rome, the kings expelled, added to Brutus,\nis the ultimate founder, far back, of the family\nof this Valerius, now a Christian consul.\nO happy vein! Though that man, having died\nin pagan error, does not grasp this good of his stock,\nsunk in the black lake of hell,\nyet we, beholding with faithful light\nthe past and present works of the lofty Creator in the human state,\nmarvel, and are amazed at the godly sons of the impious,\nprepared from ancient ages\nby the lines of mystical successions;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 21.198 (CSEL 30:164lines 198–233–165; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/21-198)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/21.234":{"o":"tamen in tenebris inpiarum mentium\nlucis uidemus emicasse semina\nin tempore ipso noctis antiquae sitis,\nquibus probata quamlibet gentilibus\nmens et uoluntas lege naturae fuit.\nhinc in quibusdam nunc eorum posteris\nueterum subinde uena respondet patrum;\nut ille quondam Piniani nunc mei\nauctor supremus in libertatem suis\npost regna dura uindicandis ciuibus\nlectus nepotis huius ortum praetulit,\nqui mente auita persequens superbiam\npotiore causa seruitutem depulit\na semet ipso, corporis uictor sui,\npulsoque regno diaboli e membris suis\niam spiritali pace peccati iugum\nfidelis animae casta libertas terit,\net in hoc parentis aliquid illius refert\npuer iste Christi consulatum militans,\nquod liberandis consulens munus pium\nredemptionis opere dispensat deo,\nprisci parentis aemulator hactenus,\nquod seruitute liberat domesticos,\nut ille ciues. sed quod ille gesserat\nin urbe et una et paruula primis adhuc\nRomae sub annis, hic modo in multis agit\ndiuerso in orbe constitutis urbibus,\npassim benignus et suis et exteris.\nnam et liberorum plurimis ceruicibus\nseruile sanctis opibus expellit iugum,\nquos aere uinctos in tenebris carceris\nabsoluit auro de catena fenoris.","t":"yet in the darkness of impious minds\nwe see that seeds of light flashed out\nin the very time of the ancient night,\nthose in whom, though pagans, mind and will\nwere approved by the law of nature.\nHence in some of their descendants now\nthe vein of the ancient fathers answers from time to time;\nas that man, the remotest ancestor of my Pinianus now,\nchosen to set his fellow citizens free into liberty\nafter the hard rule of kings,\nforeshadowed the rise of this descendant,\nwho, pursuing pride with his ancestral mind,\nfor a better cause drove slavery\nfrom himself, conqueror of his own body,\nand, the kingdom of the devil driven from his members,\nthe chaste liberty of a faithful soul now\ntramples the yoke of sin in spiritual peace;\nand in this the boy, serving as a soldier in the consulship of Christ,\nreproduces something of that ancestor,\nthat, taking counsel to set free, he dispenses to God\nthe godly office in the work of redemption,\nthus far emulating his ancient ancestor,\nin that he frees his household from slavery,\nas that man freed citizens. But what that man had done\nin one city, and that small, in the first years\nof Rome, this man now does in many cities\nset in different parts of the world,\nkind everywhere to his own and to strangers.\nFor he drives the servile yoke from the necks of very many\nfree men with his holy wealth,\nreleasing with gold from the chain of interest\nthose bound by debt in the darkness of prison.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 21.234 (CSEL 30:165lines 234–265–166; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/21-234)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/21.266":{"o":"hos ergo Felix in suo sinu abditos\nmandante Christo condidit tectis suis\nmecumque sumpsit sempiternos hospites.\nhis nunc utrimque laetus adiutoribus\ntrium sub una uoce uotum dedico,\nuno loquente spiritu affectu trium.\nmagnificate deum mecum et sapienter honestis,\nunanimes pueri, psallite carminibus.\nut decachorda sonant pulsis psalteria neruis\net paribus coeunt dissona fila modis,\nsic pia conpagis nostrae testudo resultet,\ntamquam uno triplex lingua sonet labio.\ntres etenim numero sumus, idem mentibus unum,\net plures coeunt in tribus his animae,\nquarum caelestis liber indita nomina seruat:\nprima chori Albina est cum pare Therasia;\niungitur hoc germana iugo, ut sit tertia princeps\nagminis hymnisonis mater Auita choris.\nmatribus his duo sunt tribus uno pignora sexu,\nflos geminus, Melani germen et Eunomia.\nhaec eadem et nobis maribus sunt pignora; nam quos\ndiscernit sexus, consociat pietas.\ncum patre Paulino pater aeque Turcius iste est,\nsed me aetas, suboles hunc facit esse patrem.\ndiuerso ex uena sociamur nomen in unum,\net non ambo senes, sed tamen ambo patres.\nergo cohors haec tota simul, tria nomina matres,\nquattuor in natis, in patribus duo sunt.\nnam puer hinc Melani coniunx in corpore Christi,\ncui deus a pinu nomen habere dedit,\nnatus ut aeternae uitae puer arbore ab illa\nsusciperet nomen, quae sine fine uiret.","t":"These, then, Felix, hidden in his bosom,\nhas housed in his dwellings at Christ's command,\nand has taken them with me as everlasting guests.\nGlad now in these helpers on both sides,\nI dedicate a vow of three under one voice,\none spirit speaking with the affection of three.\nMagnify God with me, and in wise and honourable songs,\nboys of one mind, sing psalms.\nAs the ten-stringed psalteries sound when their strings are struck,\nand discordant strings come together in equal measures,\nso let the godly lyre of our frame resound,\nas if a threefold tongue sounded from one lip.\nFor we are three in number, yet one in minds,\nand more souls come together in these three,\nwhose names, set down, the heavenly book keeps:\nfirst of the choir is Albina with her equal Therasia;\na sister is joined to this yoke, so that the third, the leader\nof the band with her hymn-singing choirs, is the mother Avita.\nThese three mothers have two children of one sex,\na twin flower, Melania, Albina's offspring, and Eunomia.\nThese same are children to us men too; for those whom\nsex divides, piety joins together.\nWith father Paulinus, this Turcius is equally a father,\nbut age makes me a father, offspring makes him one.\nFrom different veins we are joined in one name,\nnot both old men, yet both fathers.\nSo this whole company together: three names are mothers,\nfour are in the children, in the fathers two.\nFor here is the boy, Melania's husband in the body of Christ,\nto whom God gave to take his name from the pine,\nso that the boy, born for eternal life, might take\nhis name from that tree which flourishes without end.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 21.266 (CSEL 30:166lines 266–297–168; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/21-266)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/21.29":{"o":"hic Petrus, hic Paulus proceres, hic martyres omnes,\nquos simul innumeros magnae tenet ambitus urbis\nquosque per innumeras diffuso limite gentes\nintra Romuleos ueneratur eclesia fines,\nsollicitas simul inpenso duxere precatu\nexcubias. Felix meus his uelut unus eorum,\nin precibus pars magna fuit; sed summa petiti\nmuneris ad cunctos, nulli priuate refertur.\nergo pedem referam; sat enim mihi pauca locuto,\nunde nihil proprium meritis Felicis adesset;\nnec reticere tamen potui, quia portio laudis\nhinc quoque Felici suberat, quod summa potestas\nrexque potens regum Christus deus omnibus una\nadnuerat sanctis, quibus in grege supplice mixtum\nFelicem parili audiuit pietate benignus.\nparcam igitur propriis adiungere publica donis\nmunera priuatosque canam Felicis honores,\nquaeque suis proprie gerit hic in sedibus, edam.\nunde igitur faciam texendi carminis orsum?\nquae bona Felicis referam? quae multa per omnes\npassim agit, expediam magis, anne domestica dicam\nmunera, quorum ego sum specialis debitor illi?\nhaec potius repetam, mihi quae conlata meisque\nsat memini; et quia praeteritis magis illa libellis\ndicta mihi, quae partim aliis permixtaque nobis\npraestitit, ex his nunc opibus, quas largiter in nos\ncontulit, hunc animo texam gratante libellum,\net contra solitum uario modulamine morem,\nsicut et ipse mihi uarias parit omnibus annis\nmaterias, mutabo modos serieque sub una,\nnon una sub lege dati pede carminis ibo.","t":"Here Peter, here Paul, the chiefs, here all the martyrs,\nwhom the circuit of the great city holds, countless together,\nand whom, through countless nations with its boundaries spread,\nthe church venerates within the bounds of Romulus,\nkept anxious vigils together with earnest prayer.\nMy Felix was among these as one of them,\na great part in the prayers; but the sum of the gift\nasked is credited to all, to none privately.\nSo I shall turn back my foot; for I have said enough\non a matter in which nothing was Felix's own by merit;\nyet I could not keep silent, because a portion of praise\nfrom this too belonged to Felix, in that the highest power,\nthe mighty King of kings, Christ God, had assented\nto all the saints together, among whom, mingled in the suppliant flock,\nhe kindly heard Felix with equal goodness.\nI shall refrain, then, from adding public gifts to his own,\nand I shall sing the private honours of Felix,\nand set forth what he does properly here in his own seat.\nWhence, then, shall I begin the song to be woven?\nWhich good deeds of Felix shall I relate? Shall I rather unfold the many he does\neverywhere for all, or tell the domestic gifts\nfor which I am his special debtor?\nThese rather I shall recall, which I remember well were bestowed on me\nand mine; and since in past little books I have told more\nof those which he granted partly to others and partly mixed with us,\nnow from those riches which he has bestowed abundantly on us\nI shall weave this little book with grateful mind,\nand, against my usual habit, with varied measure,\nas he himself produces varied material for me every year,\nI shall change my metres, and in one series\nI shall go, not under one law of the foot of a given song.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 21.29 (CSEL 30:159lines 29–59–160; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/21-29)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/21.298":{"o":"pinus enim semper florente cacumine perstans,\nsemper amans celsis alta comare iugis,\nnon mutat speciem cum tempore (namque sub aestu\net niue par sibimet stat uiridante coma)\nfertilis et fructu ualidae nucis intus ad escam\nlac tenerum crispo tegmine mater habet,\npinguis odoratum desudat taeda liquorem,\nut nec in ipso arbor robore sit sterilis.\nhaec igitur typus est aeterni corporis arbor,\npulchra ferax uiuax ardua odora uirens.\nistius instar erit domino puer iste beatus\narboris, ut maneat gratia perpes ei.\niamque deo plantatus agit sanctoque profectu\nfructiferum adtollit pinus ut alta caput.\neminet hic proprio mihi filius in grege primus;\nast aliud mihi par lumen in Asterio est,\nquem simul unanimes uera pietate parentes\ninfantem Christo constituere sacrum,\nut tamquam Samuel primis signatus ab annis\ncresceret in sanctis uotus alente deo.\nprima parens Christi sub nomine murmura soluit,\net domini nomen prima loquella fuit,\niamque parente deo regnis caelestibus ortus\nsidereo pariter nomine et ore micat.\nhunc puerum et fratrem fecit pia gratia patri;\nnam pariter sancto flumine sunt geniti.\nquos natura gradu diuiserat, hos deus almo\nmunere germanos in sua regna uehet.\nergo nouem cuncti socia cum prole parentes\npectore concordi simus ut una chelys;\nomnes ex nobis cytharam faciamus in unum\ncarmen diuersis conpositam fidibus.","t":"For the pine, always standing with flourishing crown,\nalways loving to set its lofty foliage on high ridges,\ndoes not change its appearance with the seasons (for under heat\nand snow it stands like itself with green foliage),\nand, fruitful, as a mother it holds within, for food, the tender milk\nof a strong nut under its crinkled covering,\nand its rich wood sweats out fragrant resin,\nso that the tree is not barren even in its timber.\nThis tree, then, is a type of the eternal body,\nbeautiful, fruitful, long-lived, lofty, fragrant, green.\nThis blessed boy will be for the Lord like this\ntree, so that grace may remain everlasting for him.\nAnd now, planted for God, he lives, and with holy progress\nraises his fruitful head like the tall pine.\nHe stands out for me as the first son in my own flock;\nbut I have another equal light in Asterius,\nwhom his parents, of one mind in true piety,\nestablished sacred to Christ as an infant,\nso that, like Samuel, marked from his first years,\nhe might grow up vowed among the saints, God nourishing him.\nHe first loosed his babblings under the name of Christ,\nand the Lord's name was his first speech,\nand now, born for the heavenly kingdoms with God as parent,\nhe shines alike with a starry name and face.\nGodly grace made this boy also the brother of his father;\nfor they were born together from the holy stream.\nThose whom nature had divided by generation, God, by his kindly\ngift, will carry as brothers into his kingdom.\nSo let all nine of us, parents with our offspring together,\nbe like one lyre with harmonious breast;\nlet us all make of ourselves a lyre into one\nsong, composed of different strings.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 21.298 (CSEL 30:168lines 298–329–169; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/21-298)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/21.330":{"o":"Aemilius ueniat decimus. tunc denique pleno\nconcinet in nobis mystica lex numero.\nhoc etenim numero capitum in testudine pacis\nuiua salutiferum chorda loquetur opus.\nhuic cytharae plectrum Felix erit. hoc decachordam\nChristus ouans cytharam pectine percutiet.\nquae cythara in nobis Christo modulante sonabit\nplena perfectis sensibus armonia,\nsi pax nostra deo totis sit consona fibris,\nsimus ut uniti corpore mente fide.\ntalis enim cytharam sanctis homo legibus inplet,\nomnibus ad uitam conpositus numeris,\ncuius uita sacrae concordat ad omnia legi;\nomnis enim inrupto stamine chorda canet.\nnunc ad te, uenerande parens, aeterne patrone,\nsusceptor meus et Christo carissime Felix,\ngratificas uerso referam sermone loquellas.\nmulta mihi uariis tribuisti munera donis;\nomnia, praesentis uitae rem spemque futurae\nquae pariunt, tibi me memini debere, cui me\nmancipium primis donauit Christus ab annis.\nsi mihi flumineis facundia curreret undis\noraque mille forent centenis persona linguis,\nforte nec his opibus conlato fonte refertus\nomnia Felicis percurrere munera possem,\nquanta suo dominus donauit Christus amico\net mihi confessor famulo transfudit alumno.\nquae quibus anteferam? donis diuersa, sed aequis\ngrandia ponderibus concurrunt multa, nec ex his\nquid potius memorare legam, discernere possim;\niudicii facilis discrimen copia turbat.","t":"Let Aemilius come as tenth. Then at last, with the number\nfull, the mystic law will sound in us together.\nFor with this number of persons, on the tortoiseshell of peace,\nthe living string will speak the saving work.\nFelix will be the plectrum of this lyre; with this plectrum\nChrist, triumphant, will strike the ten-stringed lyre.\nThis lyre will sound in us, as Christ makes the music,\na harmony full of perfect senses,\nif our peace is in tune with God in all its strings,\nso that we may be united in body, mind, and faith.\nFor such a man fills out the lyre with holy laws,\ncomposed in all measures for life,\nwhose life agrees with the sacred law in all things;\nfor every string will sing with unbroken thread.\nNow to you, revered parent, eternal patron,\nmy sponsor, Felix, most dear to Christ,\nI shall turn my speech and render thankful words.\nYou have bestowed many gifts on me with varied presents;\nall things that produce the substance of the present life and the hope of the future\nI remember owing to you, to whom Christ gave me\nas a slave from my first years.\nIf eloquence ran for me with the waves of a river,\nand I had a thousand mouths sounding with a hundred tongues,\nperhaps not even, filled with these riches from a gathered fountain,\ncould I run through all the gifts of Felix,\nthe great gifts the Lord Christ gave to his friend,\nwhich the confessor poured over to me, his servant and nursling.\nWhich shall I put before which? Many great things meet together,\ndifferent in gift but equal in weight, nor among them\ncan I distinguish what I should choose to mention first;\nabundance confuses the ready distinction of judgment.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 21.330 (CSEL 30:169lines 330–360–170; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/21-330)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/21.361":{"o":"si prima repetens ab origine cuncta reuoluam,\nquae pietate pari, uario mihi praestitit aeuo,\nante queam capitis proprii numerare capillos\nquam tua circa me, Felix bone, dona referre.\ntu mihi caelestum, si possem adtingere, rerum\nprima salutiferis iecisti semina causis.\nnam puer occiduis Gallorum aduectus ab oris,\nut primum tetigi trepido tua limina gressu,\nadmiranda uidens operum documenta sacrorum\npro foribus feruere tuis, ubi corpore humato\nclauderis et meritis late diffunderis altis,\ntoto corde fidem diuini nominis hausi\ninque tuo gaudens adamaui lumine Christum.\nte duce fascigerum gessi primaeuus honorem\nteque meam moderante manum, seruante salutem,\npurus ab humani sanguis discrimine mansi.\ntunc etiam primae (puerus) libamina barbae\nante tuum solium quasi te carpente totondi;\niam tunc praemisso per honorem pignore sedis\nCampanis metanda locis habitacula fixi,\nte fundante tui uentura cubilia serui,\ncum tacita inspirans curam mihi mente iuberes\nmuniri sternique uiam ad tua tecta ferentem\nadtiguumque tuis longo consurgere tractu\nculminibus tegimen, sub quo prior usus egentum\nincoluit. post haec geminato tegmine creuit\nstructa domus, nostris quae nunc manet hospita cellis;\nsubdite pauperibus famulatur porticus aegris,\nquae nos inpositis super addita tecta colentes\nsustinet hospitiis inopumque salubria praestat\nuulneribus nostris consortia sede sub una,\ncommoda praestemus nobis ut amica uicissim,\nfundamenta illi confirment nostra precantes,\nnos fraterna inopum foueamus corpora tecto.","t":"If I unroll everything, going back to the first beginning,\nall that you granted me with equal kindness at various ages,\nI could sooner count the hairs of my own head\nthan relate your gifts toward me, good Felix.\nYou first cast for me, by saving causes, the seeds\nof heavenly things, if I could but attain them.\nFor as a boy, brought from the western shores of the Gauls,\nas soon as I touched your threshold with trembling step,\nseeing the wondrous proofs of sacred works\nteeming before your doors, where you are enclosed with buried body\nand are spread far and wide by lofty merits,\nI drank in with my whole heart faith in the divine name,\nand, rejoicing in your light, I came to love Christ.\nWith you as guide, in early youth, I bore the honour of the fasces,\nand with you governing my hand and keeping my soul safe,\nI remained pure of the danger of human blood.\nThen also, as a youth, I cut the first offerings of my beard\nbefore your throne, as if you were clipping it;\nalready then, the pledge of a dwelling sent ahead through my office,\nI fixed a dwelling to be measured out in Campanian places,\nyou founding the future lodgings of your servant,\nwhen, breathing on me with silent mind, you bade me take care\nthat the road leading to your house be fortified and paved,\nand that a roof rise in a long stretch adjoining\nyour buildings, under which the needy first\ndwelt. After this the house, built with a doubled roof,\ngrew, which now remains hospitable for our cells;\nthe portico below serves the sick poor,\nand bears us, living in the roofs added above,\nin lodgings set upon it, and provides wholesome fellowship\nwith the needy for our wounds under one dwelling,\nso that we may provide friendly benefits to one another in turn:\nthey, praying, may strengthen our foundations,\nwe may shelter the brotherly bodies of the needy under a roof.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 21.361 (CSEL 30:170lines 361–394–171; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/21-361)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/21.395":{"o":"ergo ubi bis terno dicionis fasce leuatus\ndeposui nulla maculatam caede securim,\nte reuocante soli quondam genitalis ad oram\nsollicitae matri sum redditus. inde propinquos\ntrans iuga Pyrenes adii peregrinus Hiberos.\nillic me thalamis humana lege iugari\npassus es, ut uitam commercarere duorum\nperque iugum carnis duplicata salus animarum\ndilatam unius posset pensare salutem.\nex illo quamuis alio mihi tramite uita\ncurreret atque alio colerem procul absitus orbe,\nqua maris Oceani circumsona tunditur aestu\nGallia: mente tamen numquam diuulsus ab ista\nsede fui semperque sinu Felicis inhaesi\ninque uicem sensi Felicem adsistere nostris\nrebus in omne bonum per cuncta domique forisque\nconficienda. mihi res et defensio rerum\nunus erat Felix placato numine Christi,\nsemper et auertens aduersa et prospera praestans.\ntu Felix semper felix mihi, ne miser essem,\nperpetua pater et custos pietate fuisti.\ncumque laborarem germani sanguine caesi\net consanguineum pareret fraterna periclum\ncausa mihi censumque meum iam sector adisset,\ntu mea colla, pater, gladio, patrimonia fisco\neximis et Christo domino mea meque reseruas.\nnam quo consilio rebus capitique meo tunc\nChristus opem tulerit, Felicis cura potenter\nadfuerit, docuit rerum post exitus ingens,\nquo mutata meae sors et sententia uitae\nabiurante fide mundum patriamque domumque.","t":"So when, relieved of the twice-three bundle of rule,\nI laid down the axe stained by no slaughter,\nyou called me back, and I was restored to my anxious mother\non the shore of my native soil. Then, as a pilgrim,\nI went across the ridges of the Pyrenees to the neighbouring Iberians.\nThere you allowed me to be joined in marriage by human law,\nso that you might purchase the life of two together,\nand through the yoke of the flesh the doubled salvation of souls\nmight make up for the delayed salvation of one.\nFrom that time, although my life ran by another path,\nand I lived far away in another world,\nwhere Gaul, sounding round, is beaten by the tide of the Ocean sea,\nyet in mind I was never torn away from this seat,\nand I always clung to the bosom of Felix,\nand in turn I felt Felix stand by my affairs\nfor every good, in all things to be done at home and abroad.\nMy property and the defence of my property\nwas Felix alone, with Christ's divinity appeased,\nalways averting adversity and granting prosperity.\nYou, Felix, always fortunate for me, lest I be wretched,\nwere father and guardian with constant kindness.\nAnd when I was in trouble over the blood of my murdered brother,\nand my brother's case brought me the danger of his kinship,\nand the confiscator was already approaching my property,\nyou, father, rescued my neck from the sword, my patrimony from the treasury,\nand kept me and mine for Christ the Lord.\nFor with what counsel Christ then brought help to my affairs\nand to my life, and how mightily the care of Felix was present,\nthe great outcome of things afterward taught,\nby which the lot and purpose of my life was changed,\nmy faith renouncing the world, fatherland, and home.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 21.395 (CSEL 30:171lines 395–425–172; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/21-395)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/21.426":{"o":"prodita diuersis egit commercia terris\nportandamque crucem distractis omnibus emit.\nres igitur terrae regni caelestis emit spem;\nspes etenim fidei carnis re fortior. haec spes\nperpetuam, quae nixa deo est, rem parturit; at res\ncarnea caelestem perimit spem, quae tamen et rem,\nsi superet uincente fide, non protinus aufert,\nsed bene mutatam diuino iure reformat,\nde fragili aeternam referens terrisque remotam\nin caelis statuens, ubi fidus credita custos\nChristus habet; neque tantum isto quo sumpserit istinc\ndepositum numero seruat, sed multiplicato\nhis qui crediderint commissa talenta rependet\nfenore seque ipsum credentibus efficiet rem.\net quae res hac re poterit pretiosior esse?\nsi totus mundus mihi res priuata fuisset,\nnum potior domino foret haec possessio Christo?\net quis me tantae uel spe modo possessorem\npraestitit esse rei? quis me rem conpulit istam\nspernere pro Christo, ut Christum mihi uerteret in rem?\nquis nisi tu, semper mea magna potentia, Felix\npeccatis inimice meis et amice saluti?\ntu mihi mutasti patriam meliore paratu,\nte mihi pro patria reddens. tu carnea nobis\nuincula rupisti. tu nos de labe caduci\nsanguinis exemptos terrae genitalis ab ora\nad genus emigrare tuum et caelestia magnis\nfecisti spirare animis. tu stemmata nostra\nmutans de proauis mortalibus inter amicos\ncaelestis domini et libro signata perenni\nnomina translato mortalis originis ortu\ndeleri facies morti, transcripta saluti.","t":"Faith carried on an exchange of the goods given up in various lands,\nand, everything sold off, bought a cross to be carried.\nSo the property of earth bought the hope of the heavenly kingdom;\nfor the hope of faith is stronger than the property of the flesh. This hope,\nresting on God, brings forth an everlasting property; but fleshly\nproperty destroys heavenly hope; yet that hope, if it prevails\nwith faith conquering, does not at once take away the property,\nbut reforms it, well changed by divine right,\nbringing back an eternal property from a fragile one, and, removing it from earth,\nsetting it in heaven, where Christ, the faithful guardian, holds\nwhat is entrusted; nor does he keep the deposit only in the amount\nin which he took it from here, but will repay the talents entrusted\nmultiplied with interest to those who have believed,\nand will make himself the property of believers.\nAnd what property can be more precious than this property?\nIf the whole world had been my private property,\nwould this possession be better than the Lord Christ?\nAnd who granted me to be, even in hope, the possessor\nof so great a property? Who compelled me to scorn that property\nfor Christ, so that he might turn Christ into my property?\nWho but you, Felix, always my great power,\nenemy to my sins and friend to my salvation?\nYou changed my fatherland for a better provision,\ngiving yourself to me in place of my fatherland. You broke\nour fleshly chains. You made us, freed from the stain of perishing\nblood, migrate from the shore of our native land\nto your family and breathe heavenly things\nwith great souls. You, changing our lineage\nfrom mortal ancestors, will make our names, among the friends\nof the heavenly Lord and signed in the everlasting book,\nwith the birth of our mortal origin transferred,\nblotted out for death and transcribed for salvation.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 21.426 (CSEL 30:172lines 426–457–173; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/21-426)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/21.458":{"o":"quid simile his habui, cum dicerer esse senator,\nqualia nunc istic habeo, cum dicor egenus?\necce mihi per tot benedicti martyris aulas\net spatiis amplas et culminibus sublimes\net recauis alte laquearibus ambitiosas\ninriguas et aquis et porticibus redimitas,\nundique ubique simul, quodcumque per ista beati\nnomine Felicis colitur celebratur habetur,\nomnibus in spatiis domus est mea. nec locus ullus\naedibus illius coniunctus et insitus extat,\nqui mihi non quasi res pateat mea. sed quid in isto\nmunere me iactem, si rem Felicis amati\nuisibili lapidum tecto uernaculus hospes\npossideam? quanto plus est mihi, quod mihi Felix\nipse dei dono domus est, in quo mea uiuam\nuita domum nullis lapsuram possidet annis?\nnam quod Felicis domus et mea sit domus, ipso\npermittente sui licitas mihi iuris habenas,\nhis etiam probat officiis audacia nostra,\nhospita quod socios in tecta recepimus et nunc\nomnes iure pari Felicis iura tenemus\nFelicisque patris gremio coniuncta fouemur\npignora, quae nostis, quos cernitis et modo in ipsis\nFelicis tectis mecum metata tuentes\nhospitia, oblitos ueterum praecelsa domorum\nculmina et angustis uicino martyre cellis\ntutius in paruo spreta ambitione manentes.\nChristus enim iuxta est modicis, auertitur altis\npauperis et tuguri magis arta tegilla frequentat\nquam praecelsa superbarum fastigia rerum.\nergo ut conponam quae nunc colo tecta relictis\nculminibus, quae nunc habeo aut habuisse recordor,\nsi placet, arbitriis sibimet conponite iustis.","t":"What had I like these, when I was called a senator,\nsuch as I now have here, when I am called needy?\nSee, throughout the many halls of the blessed martyr,\nample in space and lofty in roofs\nand showy with deeply hollowed coffered ceilings,\nwatered with fountains and wreathed with porticoes,\neverywhere, on every side alike, whatever through these places\nis cultivated, celebrated, held in the name of blessed Felix,\nin all these spaces is my house. Nor is there any place\njoined to and set in his buildings\nwhich does not lie open to me as my property. But why should I boast\nof this gift, if, a home-born guest, I possess the property\nof beloved Felix under a visible roof of stones? How much more is it for me\nthat Felix himself, by God's gift, is my house, in whom my life\nlives and possesses a house that will fall in no years?\nFor that Felix's house is also my house, he himself\ngranting me the lawful reins of his right,\nour boldness proves even by these services:\nthat we have received companions under the hospitable roofs, and now\nall of us with equal right hold the rights of Felix,\nand are cherished in the bosom of father Felix as joined\nchildren: those whom you know, whom you see even now in the very\nroofs of Felix, guarding the lodgings marked out with me,\nforgetting the lofty roofs of their old houses,\nand remaining more safely in narrow cells near the martyr,\nin a small place, ambition scorned.\nFor Christ is near to the modest, turns away from the lofty,\nand frequents the narrow roofs of a poor man's hut\nmore than the lofty pinnacles of proud estates.\nSo, as I compare the roofs I now dwell in with the summits left behind,\nwhat I now have with what I remember having had,\njudge, if you please, with just verdicts among yourselves.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 21.458 (CSEL 30:173lines 458–490–174; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/21-458)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/21.491":{"o":"quae tam pulchra domus, quis ager fertilis umquam\nin re mortali fuerit mihi, quam modo in ista\npauperie tribuit Christus, per quem mihi abundat\ndiues inexhausto reditu possessio Felix?\nut uero ex ueteri relegam mea praedia censu,\nquicquid erat magnum quondam mihi qualibet in re,\nterra erat et uacuae species uentosa figurae;\nsiue aurum gemmaeue forent, erat illa supellex\nuile bonis pretium, pretiosum uirus auaris.\nat modo cassus opum, nec opum sed uerius expers\ndamnatorum onerum, secura liber habendi\npaupertate fruor, nec habent inimica segmentum\nuincula quo teneant nudum. facili leuis exit\ncorpore quem nullis suffocat amoribus illex\nper uarias species mundi fallentis imago.\no ueneranda mihi et toto pretiosior orbe\npauperies Christi! thesauro caelite ditas\nquos spolias opibus, terrae quasi rudere purgas,\ndestruis in nobis terrena, aeterna uicissim\nconstruis, in pretium uitae dispendia terrae\nuertis iure nouo, uersa uice detrimenti\natque lucri, ut nobis seruata pecunia damnum,\nnon seruata lucrum faciat; sed more sinistro\nfusa eadem damno est. nec enim nisi nomine Christi\npraeceptoque dei cuiquam sua fundere prodest;\nnam uere pereunt uitiis inpensa profanis.\nluxus et ambitio in magno discrimine morbi\ncrimen auaritiae pensant, quia par in utroque\ncausa subest mortis, quam sic maculosa libido\nperficit ut rerum mundi malesuada cupido.","t":"What house so beautiful, what field so fertile ever\nwas mine in mortal property, as Christ has now given me\nin this poverty, through whom Felix abounds for me,\na rich possession with inexhaustible revenue?\nIf I go back over my estates from my old census,\nwhatever once was great for me in any matter\nwas earth, and the windy appearance of an empty shape;\nor if it was gold or gems, that furniture was\na cheap price to the good, a precious poison to the greedy.\nBut now, empty of riches, or rather more truly free\nof condemned burdens, I enjoy a poverty carefree of having,\nnor do hostile chains have a fringe by which to hold\none who is stripped. He goes out lightly, with an easy body,\nwhom the enticing image of the deceiving world\ndoes not choke with any loves through its varied appearances.\nO poverty of Christ, revered by me and more precious than the whole world!\nYou enrich with heavenly treasure those you strip of wealth;\nyou purge them as of the rubble of earth,\nyou destroy earthly things in us, and in turn you build\neternal ones; you turn the losses of earth into the price of life\nby a new right, reversing loss and gain,\nso that money kept makes loss for us,\nand money not kept makes gain; but in a sinister way\nthe same money poured out is loss. For it profits no one to pour out\nhis goods except in the name of Christ and by God's precept;\nfor what is spent on profane vices truly perishes.\nLuxury and ambition, in the great danger of disease,\nequal the crime of avarice, because in both there lies\nan equal cause of death, which shameful lust\naccomplishes as does the evil-counselling desire for worldly things.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 21.491 (CSEL 30:174lines 491–520–175; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/21-491)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/21.521":{"o":"his me diuitiis inopem cupis, optime Felix,\nut facias uitae locupletem et paupere cultu\nexortem reddas mortis sine fine luendae\ndiuitibus mundi, quibus auri letifer usus\nparturit aeternos sociis cum uermibus ignes.\nnon solis tibi nos iunctos uis degere tectis,\nquos et in aeternae tibimet consortia uitae\nenutrire paras et ad illam ducere formam,\nquam tu sub domini perfectus imagine Christi\ngessisti in terris, homo quondam ex diuite pauper.\nnam cui paupertas tua, quam pro nomine sancto\nproscriptis opibus gaudens confessor adisti,\nignorata iacet, et qua praeditus usque senectam\nconducto, Felix, coluisti semper in horto?\npropterea similes tibi niteris efficere omnes\npaupertate pia, quos suscipis hospite tecto;\ndissimilis nec enim tibi posset forma coire.\nquantum etenim discors agno lupus et tenebris lux,\ntantum dispescunt uia diuitis et uia Christi\nnam uia lata patet, quae prono lubrica cliuo\nuergit in infernum, quae dites urget auaros,\nmolibus inpulsos propriis in tartara ferri.\nat uia, quae Christi est, quae confessoribus almis\nmartyribusque patet, paucis iter ardua pandit.\nnon capit ergo uia haec farsos, excludit onustos.\npropterea famulum sectatoremque beati\nmartyris adstringi decet exutumque molestis\nconpedibus tenuem de paupertate salubri\natque lenem fieri, ut portam penetrare per artam\npossit et excelsum domini conscendere montem.\nsed quid ego inprudens discernere pondera rerum\npro magnis haec pono tuis, pater optime, donis?","t":"In these riches you want me poor, best Felix,\nso that you may make me rich in life, and by a poor man's way of life\nmake me exempt from the endless death to be paid\nby the rich of the world, for whom the deadly use of gold\nbrings forth eternal fires along with the worms.\nYou want us joined to you not only by living under your roofs,\nwe whom you are preparing to nourish for yourself into the fellowship\nof eternal life too, and to lead to that form\nwhich you, made perfect in the image of Christ the Lord,\nbore on earth, once a man made poor from rich.\nFor to whom does your poverty lie unknown, which, rejoicing,\nas a confessor you took on for the holy name, your wealth proscribed,\nand in which, until old age, you always\ntilled a rented garden, Felix?\nTherefore you strive to make all whom you receive under your hospitable roof\nlike yourself in godly poverty;\nfor an unlike form could not come together with you.\nFor as far as the wolf is discordant with the lamb and light with darkness,\nso far apart are the way of the rich man and the way of Christ;\nfor the broad way lies open, which, slippery, on a downward slope,\ntends to hell, which drives the greedy rich,\npushed by their own masses, to be carried into Tartarus.\nBut the way which is Christ's, which lies open to kindly confessors\nand martyrs, opens a steep road to few.\nThis way, then, does not take in the stuffed; it shuts out the laden.\nTherefore it befits the servant and follower of the blessed\nmartyr to be pulled tight, and, stripped of troublesome\nfetters, to become thin by wholesome poverty\nand smooth, so that he may pass through the narrow gate\nand climb the lofty mountain of the Lord.\nBut why do I, imprudent in weighing things,\nset these things down in place of your great gifts, best father?","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 21.521 (CSEL 30:175lines 521–552–176; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/21-521)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/21.553":{"o":"quamlibet haec quoque sint mihi grandia, parua tamen sunt,\nsi potiora loquar. quota portio namque tuorum est\nerga nos operum reputatio muneris huius,\nquod terram hospitio dederis habitandaque tecta\ncondere praestiteris, cum tu, pater, et tua nobis\nuiscera praebueris? nam quid nisi uiscera nobis\nintima prompsisti, quibus interiora sepulchri,\nsancte, tui excitis ab operto puluere causis\npandere dignatus, speciali nos tibi amore\ninsertos tanto uoluisti prodere signo,\nut tacitam et fixam per tot retro saecula sedem\ncorporis, alme, tui subito existente fauilla\npulueris in nostro reserari tempore uelles?\nergo illas Felicis opes in laudibus eius\ntranscursu properante legam quasi dona minora,\nmulta suo nobis quae iam gremio susceptis\nsedulus adtribuit, neque parcet prodigus in nos\niugiter afluere innumeris ope diuite donis.\nnon ea suppeditans tantum, quibus indiget usus\ncorporis, illa etiam, quibus et nunc gratia laudis\nquaeritur et post (nos) retinetur nomen honoris,\naddidit, ut tantis numquam retro conditus aeuis\nnostro opere extructas adcrescere uel renouari\nporticibus domibusque suas permitteret aulas.\nille etiam proprii nobis secreta sepulchri\nsancta reuelauit. paucis uenerabile munus\neloquar, ut magnae pietatis luceat instar,\nqua nos indignos tanto dignatus amore est,\nut prope ad arcanum permittens nostra uerendum\nlumina ceu propriis sua proderet ossa medullis.\nergo suam toto nobis loquar ordine causam,\nqua tribuit uicina suis nos cernere membris\natque ipsam positi contingere corporis arcam.","t":"However great these things are for me too, yet they are small,\nif I speak of greater things. For what fraction of your works\ntoward us is the reckoning of this gift,\nthat you gave land for lodging and granted us to build\nhouses to live in, when you, father, offered us even your\ninmost being? For what else but your inmost being did you bring forth for us,\nwhen, holy one, you deigned to open the inner parts of your tomb,\nreasons having been raised from the hidden dust,\nand willed by so great a sign to show us inserted\ninto you by a special love,\nso that the seat of your body, silent and fixed through so many ages past,\nkindly one, you willed to be opened in our time,\nas the ash of the dust suddenly came forth?\nSo I shall run over those riches of Felix in his praises\nwith hastening passage, as lesser gifts,\nthe many he has diligently assigned to us, now received in his bosom,\nnor will he, prodigal, cease to flow toward us\ncontinually with countless gifts of rich help.\nNot only supplying those things which the use of the body needs,\nhe has added also those for which even now the favour of praise\nis sought and after us the name of honour is kept,\nso that he, buried through so many ages past,\nallowed his halls to grow or be renewed with porticoes and houses\nbuilt by our work.\nHe also revealed to us the holy secrets of his own tomb.\nI shall tell the venerable gift in a few words, so that it may shine\nas a pattern of the great kindness\nwith which he deemed us, unworthy as we are, worthy of so great a love,\nthat, letting our eyes come almost to the awful secret,\nhe disclosed his bones as if to his own marrow.\nSo I shall tell you in full order the reason\nby which he granted us to see things near his limbs\nand to touch the very chest of his body laid to rest.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 21.553 (CSEL 30:176lines 553–585–177; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/21-553)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/21.586":{"o":"nota loci facies cunctis manet, ut super ipsum\nmartyris abstrusi solium claudente sepulchri\ncancello latus in medio sit pagina quaedam\nmarmoris, adfixo argenti uestita metallo.\nista superficies tabulae gemino patet ore\npraebens infuso subiecta foramina nardi.\nquae cineris sancti ueniens a sede reposta\nsanctificat medicans arcana spiritus aura,\nhaec subito infusos solito sibi more liquores\nuascula de tumulo terra subeunte biberunt,\nquique loco dederant nardum, exhaurire parantes,\nut sibi iam ferrent, mira nouitate repletis\npro nardo uasclis cumulum erumpentis harenae\ninueniunt pauidique manus cum puluere multo\nfaucibus a tumuli retrahunt. noua res mouet omnes\net studium accendit subiti disquirere causam\nprodigii. placet ergo diem condicere certam\nscrutari et penitam submoto marmore sedem.\nhoc etenim, fateor, nimis anxia cura timebat,\necquid forte pio de corpore puluis haberet,\nquem manus e tumulo per aperta foramina promptum\nhauserat et uaria concretum sorde ferebat\ncum ossiculis simul et testis cum rudere mixtis.\ninde metus hominum per mutua uerba putabant,\nne fortasse sacram sancta de carne fauillam\nbestiola occultis aliqua interclusa cauernis\naltius expueret, sicut deserta per agros\nmonstra solent terram rostris fodere intus acutis\net foueas circum cumulos effundere nigros,\nsic et ab interno sancti Felicis operto.\nquo magis hoc mirum foret, interualla dierum\nfecit congestae miranda eruptio terrae.","t":"The appearance of the place remains known to all: above the very\nthrone of the hidden martyr, with the railing enclosing the tomb,\nthere is in the middle a broad slab\nof marble, clothed with fixed silver metal.\nThe surface of this slab opens with a double mouth,\nproviding openings below for nard poured in,\nwhich the spirit, coming from the seat where the holy ash is laid,\nsanctifies, healing with a secret breath.\nThese little vessels, which had drunk the liquids poured in as usual,\nsuddenly, as earth rose up from the tomb,\nand those who had put nard in the place, preparing to draw it out\nto carry away for themselves, find, with wondrous novelty,\ninstead of nard, the little vessels filled with a heap of bursting sand,\nand, frightened, draw back their hands with much dust\nfrom the jaws of the tomb. The new thing moves all\nand kindles zeal to inquire into the cause of the sudden\nportent. So it is agreed to fix a day\nand, the marble removed, to search the inner seat.\nFor this, I confess, a too anxious care feared:\nwhether perhaps the dust held something of the godly body,\nwhich the hand had drawn up, ready, out of the tomb through the open holes,\nand was carrying, clotted with various dirt,\nmixed with little bones together with sherds and rubble.\nHence men's fears, in talk among themselves, supposed\nthat perhaps some little animal, shut in hidden holes,\nwas spitting out the sacred ash of the holy flesh\nfrom deeper down, as wild monsters in deserted fields\nare wont to dig the earth within with sharp snouts\nand pour out black heaps around their pits,\nso also from the inner hiding place of holy Felix.\nWhat made this more wondrous was that the marvellous eruption\nof heaped earth came at intervals of days.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 21.586 (CSEL 30:177lines 586–617–178; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/21-586)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/21.60":{"o":"nam quasi fecundo sancti Felicis in agro\nemersere noui flores, duo germina Christi,\nTurcius ore pio, florente Suerius aeuo,\net pariter sanctae matres similesque puellae,\nAlfia qualis erat soror illa Philemonis olim\nnobilis, in titulo quam signat epistola Pauli,\net simul Eunomia aeternis iam pacta uirago\nin caelo thalamis, quam matris ab ubere raptam\nfestino placitam sibi Christus amore dicauit\nunguentoque sui perfudit nominis, unde\ntincta comas animae et mentis caput uncta pudicum\nspirat eo sacros sponsi caelestis odores;\nhaec Melani soror est simul et quasi filia, cuius\nhaeret ouans lateri germanum nacta magistrum.\nquae simul astrictae diuinis dotibus ambae\nuirtutum uarias ut uiua monilia gemmas\nmentibus excultis specioso pectore gestant.\nhas procerum numerosa cohors et concolor uno\nuellere uirgineae sequitur sacra turba cateruae.\nEunomiam hinc Melani doctam sub principe uoce\nformantem modulis psalmorum uasa modestis\nauscultat gaudens dilecto Christus in agno,\nquod modulante deo benedictas paruula princeps,\nsanctorum comites, casto regat ore choreas.\nhaec igitur mihimet meditanti congrua suasit\ngratia multimodis inluso carmine metris\ndistinctum uariis imitari floribus hortum,\nsicut Felicis gremium florere repletum\nlumine diuerso quasi rus admiror opimum\nhospitibus multis in eum Christo duce missis\nFelicique patri denso simul agmine natis\npignoribus, subito ut totis habitacula cellis\nper fines creuisse suos et sobria castos\ntecta sonare modos tandem sibi uocibus aptis\ngaudeat hospitiisque suis et corpore et ore\nipse sinu pleno dignos miretur alumnos\net uirtute pares animas in dispare sexu;","t":"For as if in the fruitful field of holy Felix\nnew flowers have sprung up, two shoots of Christ,\nTurcius with godly face, Suerius in flourishing age,\nand likewise holy mothers and girls like them,\nsuch as was Apphia, that noble sister of Philemon long ago,\nwhom Paul's letter marks in its address,\nand with them Eunomia, a maiden already betrothed\nto the eternal bridechambers in heaven, whom Christ, snatched from her mother's breast,\ndedicated with swift love as pleasing to himself,\nand poured over her the ointment of his name, from which,\nher soul's hair dyed and the chaste head of her mind anointed,\nshe breathes the sacred perfumes of the heavenly bridegroom;\nshe is the sister of Melania and as it were her daughter,\nat whose side she clings exultant, having gained a sister as teacher.\nBoth together, bound by divine dowries,\nwear on their beautiful breasts, with cultivated minds,\nthe varied jewels of virtues like living necklaces.\nThese a numerous troop of nobles follows, and the holy crowd\nof a virgin company, of one colour in one fleece.\nHere Christ, in the beloved Lamb, gladly listens\nto Eunomia, taught under Melania as leader by her voice,\nforming the vessels of the psalms with modest measures,\nbecause, as God gives the measure, the little leader\nwith chaste mouth guides the blessed dances, companions of the saints.\nSo this grace persuaded me, as I meditated, of a fitting thing:\nwith a song played in many kinds of metres\nto imitate a garden picked out with various flowers,\nas I marvel that the bosom of Felix flowers, filled\nwith varied light like a rich countryside,\nwith many guests sent to him with Christ as guide,\nand with children in a dense band as pledges to father Felix,\nso that he rejoices that his dwellings have suddenly grown\nthrough his bounds with cells everywhere, and that sober roofs\nat last sound chaste measures with voices fitted to them,\nand he himself, with full bosom, marvels at nurslings worthy of his\nlodgings both in body and in speech,\nand souls equal in virtue in unequal sex;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 21.60 (CSEL 30:160lines 60–96–161; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/21-60)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/21.618":{"o":"ergo die placita multis opus utile rebus\narripitur. cunctos transmittit episcopus ad nos\npresbyteros. his fabra manus spectantibus instat\niussa sacerdotum facere; et primus labor illis\ncancellos remouere loco curaque sequenti\nhaerentes tabulas resolutis tollere clauis.\nuerum ubi depressam sub tegmine marmoris arcam\nuidimus inrupta solii conpage manentem,\ntunc secura fides dubio de corde periclum\nerroris pepulit, cum tactu oculoque probaret,\nincolumi solio nusquam rimante sepulchro,\nundique uallatum ualido munimine corpus\nmartyris emeriti nullis patuisse piaclis\net dignum retinere suae pia carnis honorem\nossa, quibus sanctos numquam desistit adesse\nspiritus, unde piis stat gratia uiua sepulchris,\nquae probat in Christo functos sine morte sepultos\nad tempus placido sopiri corpora somno.\nergo reformato Felicis honore sepulchri\nomnia sollicite munita relinquimus, ut iam\nusque diem domini, quo debita principe Christo\nexcitis pariter radiabit gloria sanctis,\ninconcussa suo requiescant ossa cubili,\nquaeque animam sanctam manet in regione superna\npax, eadem in terra teneat uenerabile corpus.\nquid superest quod adhuc referam? quasi uero uel ipsa\nquae cecini digne ediderim uel cuncta profusi\nmunera retulerim pleno sermone patroni.\nmulta latent numero, memori tamen omnia nobis\npectore fixa sedent, et plurima iam memorata,\nplura etiam memoranda manent. sed maxima multis\nexcerpenda monet moderandi regula libri.","t":"So on the agreed day the work, useful in many respects,\nis taken up. The bishop sends all the presbyters\nto us. While they watch, the craftsman's hand sets to\ndoing the priests' orders; and their first labour\nwas to remove the railings from the place, and with following care\nto lift the clinging slabs, their nails loosened.\nBut when we saw the chest set down under the covering of marble\nremaining with the joining of the throne unbroken,\nthen secure faith drove the danger of error from the doubtful heart,\nsince it proved by touch and eye\nthat, the throne unharmed and the tomb nowhere cracked,\nthe body of the veteran martyr, walled round on every side with strong defence,\nhad lain open to no sacrilege,\nand that his godly bones kept the worthy honour of his flesh,\nbones to which holy spirits never cease to be present,\nwhence a living grace abides at godly tombs,\nwhich proves that the bodies of those who died in Christ, buried without death,\nsleep for a time in calm sleep.\nSo, the honour of Felix's tomb restored,\nwe leave everything carefully secured, so that now,\nuntil the day of the Lord, when the due glory will shine\non the saints raised together under Christ as leader,\nthe bones may rest undisturbed in their bed,\nand the same peace that awaits the holy soul in the region above\nmay keep the venerable body on earth.\nWhat remains for me still to tell? As if indeed I had worthily\nset forth what I have sung, or had told all the gifts\nof my lavish patron in full speech.\nMany lie hidden in their number, yet all of them sit fixed\nin our remembering breast, and very many have already been recalled,\nand more still remain to be recalled. But the rule of governing a book\nwarns that the greatest must be picked out from the many.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 21.618 (CSEL 30:178lines 618–649–179; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/21-618)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/21.650":{"o":"omnibus extructis operum quae arte uidentur\ndiuersis exstare modis, excelsa per aulas\net per uestibula extentis circumdata late\nporticibus, solum simul omnia munus aquarum\ntecta uidebantur maestis orare colonis.\nipsum etiam, fateor, querula iam uoce solebam\nFelicem incusare meum, quasi segniter istis\ninstaret uotis, quod aquae consortia nobis\ntam longum socia pateretur ab urbe negari.\nuerum inconsulta properantes mente trahebat\nconsilio potiore moras in tempora nectens\ncongrua; sic etenim iusta ratione petebat\nordo operum, prior esset ut his perfectio coeptis,\nquae circa sanctas uenerandi martyris aulas\nsedula multiiugo molimine cura parabat,\ncumque manum summam factis diuina dedisset\ngratia, tunc pleno finitis ordine uotis\ncondita perductos riuaret in atria fontes.\ndenique ut inpleto stetit hic opus omne paratu,\nnon est tracta diu nostri sitis arida uoti,\nmoxque uolente deo populi prius aspera corda\nconsensum facilem procliui corde dederunt.\ndicam igitur modo munus aquae. da nunc mihi, Felix,\na domino exorans uerbo mihi currere uerbum\ntam facili eloquio quam largo flumine fontes\nin tua uestibula atque domos manare dedisti.\nomnia, quae nobis te suffragante benignus\ncontribuit dominus, tali decorauit et auxit\nmunere, quo fontes sitientibus intulit aruis.","t":"When all the works had been built that are seen to stand\nby art in various ways, lofty through the halls,\nand surrounded far and wide through the forecourts by extended\nporticoes, all the buildings together seemed to beg only for the gift\nof water for their sorrowful inhabitants.\nI myself even, I confess, used now with complaining voice\nto accuse my Felix, as if he were pressing on sluggishly\nwith these prayers, because he allowed the sharing of water\nto be denied us so long by the allied city.\nBut he was drawing out delays for those hurrying with unconsidered mind,\nby a better counsel, linking them to fitting times;\nfor thus the order of the works rightly required\nthat the completion of these undertakings come first,\nwhich diligent care was preparing with many-sided effort\naround the holy halls of the venerable martyr;\nand when divine grace had put the finishing hand to the works,\nthen, the vows ended in full order,\nit would channel the fountains, led into the built courts.\nIn short, as soon as all the work here stood in finished preparation,\nthe dry thirst of our vow was not drawn out long,\nand soon, God willing, the people's hearts, harsh before,\ngave easy consent with ready heart.\nI shall tell, then, the gift of water. Grant me now, Felix,\nby entreating the Lord, that speech may run for me in words\nwith as easy eloquence as the fountains you have granted\nto stream with abundant flow into your forecourts and houses.\nAll the things which the kindly Lord, through your intercession,\nhas given us, he has adorned and increased with such a gift,\nby which he brought fountains to the thirsty fields.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 21.650 (CSEL 30:179lines 650–678–180; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/21-650)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/21.679":{"o":"illa pio rursus petra Christus ab ubere auxit,\nantiquae referens donum pietatis, ut omnem\ninsolito siccam prius inroraret harenam\net terram sine aqua subitis manare fluentis\nefficeret sanctasque sui Felicis in aulas\nhospitibus populis diuersa gente coactis\nper puteos simul atque lacus conchasque capaces\nlargiter infusis noua currere pocula riuis.\nquis mea te, fons summe, daret deserta rigare\npumiceumque mei cordis perrumpere saxum\ninque petra fundare domum et de te bibere undam,\nquae pareret uiuam mihi sicco in pectore uenam\naeternum salientis aquae? sed et haec mihi gutta\neloquii tenuis, quo te loquar, inde profecto\nducitur, unde etiam fluuiis exundat origo.\nnam quis uel modico te, summa potentia summi\nChriste patris, fari sine te queat? ipse tuus te\nspiritus inspirat dici, quo lumine lumen\net patris et nati par cernimus, ut duce sancto\nadspirante deum fateamur cum patre Christum.\nsed quia, dum uiui fontis gero nomen in ore,\ngutta meum stillauit in os de flumine uerbi,\nforte aliquem referent ex hinc mea labra saporem,\net nunc munus aquae non siccis faucibus arens\nlingua, sed uberius uelut umectata loquetur.\nomnibus instructis operum quae multa uidentur,\npostulat iste locus deuotae nomen Abellae\nindere uersiculis; nam digna uidetur honore\nnominis huius, ut in laudem Felicis et ipsa\nlaudetur, quia pro Felicis honore laborem\nsponte sibi sumpsit, quo desudare sub aestu\nrupibus abruptis requiem pretiumque putauit.","t":"That rock, Christ, flowed again for the godly from his breast,\nbringing back the gift of ancient kindness, so that he might moisten\nwith unaccustomed water all the sand that was dry before,\nand make the waterless land stream with sudden floods,\nand that into the holy halls of his Felix,\nfor the guest peoples gathered from various nations,\nthrough wells and pools and capacious basins alike,\nnew drinks might run from streams poured abundantly.\nWho would grant me, highest fountain, that you water my deserts,\nand break through the pumice rock of my heart,\nand that I found my house on the rock and drink from you the water\nthat would produce in my dry breast a living vein\nof water springing up eternally? But even this drop\nof slender eloquence, with which I speak of you, is surely drawn\nfrom there, whence also the source overflows into rivers.\nFor who could speak of you even slightly without you, Christ,\nhighest power of the highest Father? Your Spirit himself\ninspires you to be spoken of, the light in which we see the light\nof Father and Son as equal, so that, with the Holy One as guide\nbreathing on us, we may confess Christ as God with the Father.\nBut since, while I bear the name of the living fountain in my mouth,\na drop has dripped into my mouth from the river of the Word,\nperhaps my lips will bring some taste from here,\nand now my tongue, not parched with dry throat,\nbut as if more richly moistened, will speak of the gift of water.\nAmong all the works built, which are seen to be many,\nthis place requires me to set the name of devoted Abella\ninto my little verses; for she seems worthy of the honour\nof this name, so that she too may be praised in the praise of Felix,\nbecause for Felix's honour she took on herself of her own accord\na labour, sweating at which in the heat\namong sheer rocks she thought rest and reward.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 21.679 (CSEL 30:180lines 679–710–181; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/21-679)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/21.711":{"o":"parua quidem haec muris, sed sancto magna feretur\nurbs opere hoc. nostrae hinc sex milibus absita Nolae\naltiiugos montes inter iacet, ex quibus ortas\ncomminus haurit aquas et in unam suscipit aream,\nunde per insertos calices sibi prima fluentum\nuindicat et reliquo Nolanam profluit urbem\nflumine, multa rigans et in agris praedia passim.\nsed redeam ad grates operis pro munere habendas;\nnamque operas ad aquaeductum, quem longa uetustas\nruperat, ad sua uasa iterum formasque uocandum\npraebuit ubertim gratis operis. locus altis\ninsertus scopulis nullo neque calle uiarum\niumentis etiam penetrabilis esse negabat,\nunde etiam mercede manum reperire paratam\ndifficile inmensi faciebant ardua montis;\nquo maior mercedis honor locupletat Abellam,\nquod prompte famulata sacro Felicis honori\neffusa pietate manus inpendit inemptas.\ncernere erat trepidas tota de plebe cateruas\nordinis et populi simul una mente coactas\nmane nouo excitos ad opus concurrere laetos\ncertatimque alacres in summa cacumina ferri\net sub fasce graui cophini ceruice subacta\ncaementisque simul dumosa per ardua uectis\nsole sub ardenti crebros iterare recursus\net totam, quam longa dies aestate moratur,\ntendere ab aurora seras in uesperis horas,\nperuigilesque animis modica uix nocte refectis\ncorporibus rursum ante diem fabrilia ad arma\nsurgere nec sentire deo uegetente laborem.","t":"Small in walls, but this town will be reported great\nfor this holy work. Six miles from our Nola\nit lies among high-ridged mountains, from which it draws\nclose at hand the waters that rise there and receives them into one basin,\nwhence, through inserted pipes, it claims for itself the first of the flow\nand with the rest of the stream flows to the city of Nola,\nwatering many estates here and there in the fields as well.\nBut let me return to the thanks owed for the work as a gift;\nfor she gave labour abundantly and freely for calling back\nthe aqueduct, which long age had broken,\nto its vessels and channels again. The place, set among high\nrocks, with no path of roads,\nwould not admit even pack animals,\nso that the heights of the immense mountain made it hard\nto find labour ready even for pay;\nhence a greater honour of reward enriches Abella,\nbecause, readily serving the sacred honour of Felix,\nwith lavish piety she spent unpaid hands.\nOne could see eager throngs from the whole people,\ncouncil and populace driven together with one mind,\nroused at new morning, running gladly to the work,\nand eager, vying with one another, carried to the highest peaks,\nand, with necks bowed under the heavy load of a basket\nand with rubble carried along over the bushy heights,\nrepeating frequent returns under the burning sun,\nand stretching the whole day, as long as the long day lingers in summer,\nfrom dawn to the late hours of evening,\nand, wakeful, their bodies barely refreshed by a short night,\nrising again before day to their workmen's tools,\nand, God quickening them, not feeling the labour.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 21.711 (CSEL 30:181lines 711–740–182; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/21-711)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/21.741":{"o":"denique sic operis processit gratia magni,\nut tamquam ludo paucis opus omne diebus\nsumeret explicitum perfecto munere finem,\nformaque longinquis a montibus agmine farso,\nqua fuerat longo prius interrupta ueterno,\nundique fonticulis diuersa ex rupe receptis\ncollectam reuocaret aquam sitientibus olim\nurbibus, et pleno per milia multa uiarum\ntramite formarum et nostri Felicis inundans\ntecta, nouum calicem Sumo superante repleret.\net quod diuini documentum muneris egit,\nlargior aestiuis huc mensibus unda cucurrit,\nquam prius hibernis ex imbribus ire solebat.\nhic ego te modo iure ream, mea Nola, patrono\ncommuni statuam et blandae pietatis ab ira\nmente manens placida motum simulabo patronum,\nfiliolam increpitans ueteris sub uoce querelae.\nnam mihi, Nola, tui consortia iusta petenti\nfontis, quo turbata metu quasi dura negabas\nhospitium communis aquae? diuinaque iura\nrespicere oblita humanis mea uota putabas\nusibus et mihi te, Felicem oblita, daturam\ncredebas ac, si tribuisses, mox tibi siccam\nsubducto patriam potu fore maesta gemebas\nidque etiam moto clamabas saepe tumultu,\nnescia diuinis opibus promptos fore fontes,\nsicut et experta es. nam mox deus ipse creator\narguit ignauas Christo diffidere mentes,\ncum tibi post placitam pacem iam fluminis usum\nFelici consorte pie partita teneres,\nquo magis exuperante tuam bonitate querellam\nargueret. non, ut metuebas, ille sitire\ndiuisa te fecit aqua, sed ut auctor et altor\nrerum hominumque simul, qui condidit omnia uerbo,\nostendit tibi rem esse suam, quam tu eius amico\nut propriam, domino rerum diffisa, negabas;","t":"In short, the grace of the great work went forward so\nthat, as if in play, in a few days the whole work\nreached its end, completed with the task perfected,\nand the channel, from the distant mountains, in a packed column,\nwhere before it had been interrupted by long decay,\nreceiving little springs from different rocks on every side,\ncalled back the gathered water to cities once thirsty,\nand, overflowing along the full course of the channels for many miles of road\nand through the buildings of our Felix,\nfilled a new basin, with the Summus overflowing.\nAnd what gave proof of the divine gift:\nthe water ran here more abundantly in the summer months\nthan it used to flow before from winter rains.\nHere, my Nola, I will now rightly set you as defendant before our\ncommon patron, and, keeping a calm mind amid the anger of gentle piety,\nI will play the part of a roused patron,\nrebuking his little daughter in the words of the old complaint.\nFor when I sought, Nola, a just share in your\nspring, why, troubled by fear, did you harshly refuse\nthe hospitality of shared water? Forgetting to respect divine rights,\nyou thought my wishes were for human\nuses, and, forgetting Felix, you believed you would be giving to me,\nand you groaned sadly that, if you granted it, your homeland\nwould soon be dry, its drink taken away,\nand you often shouted this in a stirred-up uproar,\nnot knowing that fountains would be ready through divine resources,\nas you also experienced. For soon God the Creator himself\nrebuked minds sluggish to trust Christ,\nwhen, after the peace agreed, you held the use of the stream\ndutifully divided with Felix as partner,\nso as to rebuke your complaint the more with surpassing goodness. He did not,\nas you feared, make you thirst by dividing the water,\nbut, as author and nourisher of things and of men together,\nwho founded all things by his word, he showed you that the thing was his\nwhich you, distrusting the Lord of things, denied to his friend\nas if it were your own;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 21.741 (CSEL 30:182lines 741–776–183; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/21-741)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/21.777":{"o":"uidisti certe, nam te res ipsa fateri\nconpulit, aeterni sublimia iura parentis\nFelicis(que) potens meritum, cum larga sub aestu\nproflueret damnoque pio, quo martyris aulis\ntradideras partem, subitos creuisse meatus\nlaxatoque suis in faucibus ubere fontis\niussa fluenta tibi cum fenore reddita multo\nmoenibus influxisse tuis; et tempore in ipso,\nquo totiens (tuae) aquae possessor egere solebas,\nin multum referente deo quod sumpserat a te\nfluxit abunda tuis aqua potibus atque lauacris.\nquodnam igitur tanto pro munere munus, Abella\npauper opum, referam tibi? saltem carmine nostro\nobsequium nomenque tuum dum praedico signans,\nhoc pensabo tibi pretium mercedis honore,\nFelicis sancti scribaris ut addita semper\nlaudibus et tanti memoreris alumna patroni,\ncuius donorum (tibi) maxima portio facta est.\nnunc tuus iste labor, quo te Felicis adegit\nspiritus, ut tota tibi plebe uel ordine concors\nadgredereris opus magno sudore parandum,\ntempore et aestiuo durum duplicante laborem,\nmolis ut antiquae per iniqua cacumina formam\npraeteritis notam saeclis, iam uero sine usu\ndeficientis aquae, superactis undique multa\ncongerie siluis inter iuga uasta latentem\nexuis aggeribus densis oblitaque dudum\nmunia restituis sparsasque per auia uenas,\npumiceis alte quae sorbebantur harenis,\ncolligis et sua quamque sequi uestigia rursus\ncogis aquam et reducem formae matricis in ora\ninuehis et dudum uacuos cessante meatu\nexundare facis fluctu remeante canales\natque diu querulam subductis fontibus urbem\niam desperato perfundis Summe Nolam,\nquae fruitur Felicis aquis, quia copia non est\nhaec ipsi sua nunc urbi, quam nuper adepta est\nFelicis studio, modicae pro munere guttae\nex ope diuina largis ditata fluentis.","t":"you certainly saw, for the fact itself compelled you to confess,\nthe sublime rights of the eternal Father\nand the mighty merit of Felix, when the water flowed abundantly\nin the heat, and by the godly loss by which you had given part\nto the martyr's halls, sudden courses grew,\nand, as the abundance of the spring was loosed at its mouth,\nthe ordered streams, returned to you with much interest,\nflowed into your walls; and at the very time\nwhen so often you, the possessor of your water, used to be in want,\nGod returning much more than he had taken from you,\nwater flowed abundantly for your drinking and your baths.\nWhat gift, then, shall I return to you for so great a gift, Abella,\npoor in wealth? At least, while I proclaim your service and name,\nmarking them in our song,\nI shall repay you this price in the honour of reward:\nthat you may always be written as added to the praises of holy Felix\nand be remembered as the nursling of so great a patron,\nof whose gifts the greatest portion has been made for you.\nNow this labour of yours, to which the spirit of Felix drove you,\nthat, with your whole people and council in harmony,\nyou undertook a work to be achieved with great sweat,\nwith the summer season doubling the hard labour,\nso that the channel of the ancient structure across unfavourable heights,\nknown to past ages but now without use\nsince the water failed, lying hidden among vast ridges under great\npiles of woods heaped up on every side,\nyou strip of thick mounds, and restore its long-forgotten\nservice, and gather the veins scattered through pathless places,\nwhich were sucked deep into the pumice sands,\nand compel each water again to follow its own tracks,\nand bring it back into the mouth of the mother channel,\nand make the long-empty channels, their course having ceased,\noverflow with returning flood,\nand now, Summus, you flood Nola with water,\nlong complaining with its springs taken away,\nwhich enjoys Felix's waters, because this abundance is not\nthe city's own now, which it has lately obtained\nby the zeal of Felix, enriched with abundant streams from divine help\nin return for the gift of a modest drop.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 21.777 (CSEL 30:183lines 777–815–185; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/21-777)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/21.816":{"o":"ergo et tu mecum paruam quasi mater Abellam,\nNola, foue, quoniam, ut cognoscis, et ipsa tuarum,\nfilia cum tua sit, tamen est tibi mater aquarum,\ncuius ab indigenis tibi montibus adfluet omnis\ncopia, qua fueras felicibus ante superba\net qua post studio meliore ministra fuisti.\ngaude igitur, mea Nola, tibi et gratare, profusis\nuiribus exultans Christo, qui te per amicum\ndilectumque suum Felicem finxit, et auxit\nnatura famulante tuum manus alta decorem.\ncerne tuam faciem, qua nunc noua praenituisti,\nut noscas, dederisne aliquid Felicis honori\nan magis a Felice dei cumulata colaris?\nasper ubi nudis arebat calculus aruis,\nnunc mutata uiret madefactis gratia glebis.\nnon istos tantum fontes tibi, Nola, profudit\nFelicis merito diues tibi gratia Christi;\ncaelifluos etiam fontes huc ad tua duxit\nmoenia Felicisque sinu gaudente locatos\ndiffluere in multas effusis amnibus urbes\nurbe tua iussit. famulos Christi loquor istos,\npar inlustre deo, (par) nobile nomine Christi,\nAlbina cum matre tuis modo finibus ortos,\npignora cunctorum sanctorum et gaudia caeli,\nPiniadem Melani cum foedere par benedictum.\nhos deus et natos Felicis et ubera fecit,\nubera diuinae bonitatis proflua lacte,\ne quibus omnis inops alimenta fluentia sumit,\nomnis item diues documenta salubria sumit.\nhi sunt ecce pio Christi de flumine fontes,\nqui non uisibili per terram gurgite manant,\nde uiua miserantis aqua pietatis abundant.\nhos tu, Christe, tibi praesta ubertate perenni\nscaturire tui Felicis in ubere fontes.\net numquam has ullo tenuari sidere uenas.\ninflue pectoribus semper tibi, Christe, dicatis\nFelicique tuo de peccatoribus ipsi\nmandatis tribue, ut numquam pietas tua nostris\nuisceribus fontem huius opis subducat et ipse\nfons a fonte tuo Felix nos largus inundet,\nsemper ut in nobis saliat, rex Christe, tuus fons,\net nos de miseris et egenis sorte sui iam\nnominis obtineat felices uiuere Felix.","t":"So you too, Nola, cherish little Abella with me as a mother,\nsince, as you know, though she is your daughter,\nshe is yet the mother of your waters,\nfrom whose native mountains all abundance will flow to you,\nin which you had been proud before among the fortunate,\nand of which afterwards, with better zeal, you were the minister.\nRejoice, then, my Nola, and congratulate yourself, exulting\nwith all your strength in Christ, who fashioned you through his friend\nand beloved Felix; and his lofty hand increased\nyour beauty, with nature serving.\nLook at your face, in which you now shine out new,\nso that you may know whether you gave something to Felix's honour,\nor are rather cultivated, enriched by God through Felix.\nWhere the rough pebble was dry in bare fields,\nnow grace, changed, grows green in watered clods.\nNot only these fountains, Nola, has the rich grace of Christ\npoured out for you by the merit of Felix;\nit has also led heaven-flowing fountains here to your\nwalls, and, placed in the rejoicing bosom of Felix,\nbade them flow out from your city into many cities\nwith streams poured out. I speak of those servants of Christ,\na pair illustrious to God, a pair noble in the name of Christ,\nlately risen within your borders with their mother Albina,\npledges of all the saints and joys of heaven,\nPinianus with Melania, a pair blessed in their covenant.\nGod has made them both children of Felix and breasts,\nbreasts of divine goodness flowing with milk,\nfrom which every poor man takes flowing nourishment,\nand every rich man likewise takes wholesome teaching.\nThese, see, are fountains from the godly river of Christ,\nwhich do not stream through the earth in a visible flood,\nbut abound in the living water of merciful kindness.\nGrant, Christ, that these fountains may well up for you\nwith everlasting abundance in the breast of your Felix,\nand that these veins may never be thinned by any star.\nFlow always into hearts dedicated to you, Christ,\nand grant to your Felix, to whom you have entrusted us sinners,\nthat your kindness may never withdraw the fountain of this help\nfrom our inmost being, and that Felix himself, an abundant\nfountain from your fountain, may flood us,\nso that your fountain, Christ the King, may always spring up in us,\nand that Felix may obtain that we, from wretched and needy,\nmay by the lot of his name live happy.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 21.816 (CSEL 30:185lines 816–858–186; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/21-816)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/21.97":{"o":"sicut oliuarum fecundo in colle nouellas\nlaetatur senior diuino a semine Christi\nplantator cernens inter sua rura colonos.\nfloreat ergo nouo mihi carminis area prato\nlaudibus et domini, qui conditor oris et artis\nomnimodae est, uario famulans pede musica currat.\niamque intertextis elegus succedat iambis,\nsit caput herous fundamentumque libello.\ncastis agendus gaudiis et hostiis\ndies refulsit laude Felicis sacer.\nquod laude' dixi, morte' dictum discite,\nquia mors piorum iure laus uocabitur,\npretiosa domino quae deo rependitur.\nunde et propheta dicit in uerbo dei\nuitae probatae in exitu laudem dari,\net ante mortem praedicandum neminem\nSalomonis ore sermo diuinus docet,\nlaudanda quamuis quidam in hac uita gerant\nnec possit alibi quam sub isto saeculo\nlaus praeparari, quae canenda in exitu est.\nsed credo, quoniam tota res uitae istius\nfluitans et anceps lubrico pendet statu,\nbreuique nostram uertit aetatem rota\nsurgens cadensque per salebrosas uias,\nquibus huius aeui cursus explicandus est:\niccirco nos magistra prouidentia\nmonet ante finem nec sibi nec alteri\ndebere quemquam plaudere et confidere;\nquamuis honesta rectus incedat uia,\ntamen timere semper offensam pedis,\ndonec peractis usque metam cursibus\npalmam petitae conprehendat gloriae.","t":"as on a fruitful hill of olives the old planter\nrejoices, seeing new shoots from the divine seed of Christ\nas settlers among his fields.\nSo let the threshing floor of my song flower for me with a new meadow,\nand, in praise of the Lord, who is the founder of the mouth and of every\nart, let music run, serving with varied foot.\nAnd now let the elegiac follow, with iambics woven in;\nlet the heroic hexameter be the head and foundation of the little book.\nA sacred day, to be spent in chaste joys and sacrifices,\nhas shone forth with the praise of Felix.\nLearn that what I have called “praise” is said for “death,”\nbecause the death of the godly will rightly be called praise,\nbeing precious to the Lord, repaid to God.\nHence the prophet too says in the word of God\nthat praise is given to a proven life at its end,\nand the divine word teaches by the mouth of Solomon\nthat no one is to be praised before death,\nalthough some do praiseworthy things in this life,\nand praise, which is to be sung at the end,\ncannot be prepared anywhere but in this age.\nBut I believe that since the whole matter of this life,\nfluctuating and doubtful, hangs in a slippery state,\nand the wheel turns our age in a short time,\nrising and falling through rough roads,\nby which the course of this age must be unrolled,\ntherefore Providence our teacher warns us\nthat before the end no one ought to applaud himself or another,\nor be confident;\nthough one walk upright in an honourable way,\nyet he should always fear the stumbling of the foot,\nuntil, his courses finished all the way to the goal,\nhe grasps the palm of the glory he has sought.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 21.97 (CSEL 30:161lines 97–128–162; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/21-97)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/22.1":{"o":"Iam mihi polliceor sacris tua carmina libris\ncondere teque dei flammatum numine Christi\nora soluturum summo facunda parenti.\nincipe diuinis tantum dare pectora rebus\nsubrectosque deo sensus adtollere terra.\nmox oculis caelo noua lux orietur aperto\nintrabitque sacer tacito per operta meatu\nspiritus et laeto quatiet tua uiscera flatu.\nheia age tende chelym, fecundum concute pectus,\nmagna monens; abeat solitis inpensa facultas\ncarminibus, maior rerum tibi nascitur ordo.\nnon modo iudicium Paridis nec bella gigantum\nfalsa canis. fuerit puerili ludus in aeuo\niste tuus quondam; decuerunt ludicra paruum.\nnunc animis grauior, quantum prouectior annis,\naspernare lenes maturo corde Camenas,\net qualem castis iam congrua moribus aetas\natque tui specimen uenerabile postulat oris,\nsuscipe materiam, diuinos concipe sensus.\nsi decus e falsis aliquod nomenque tulisti\nde uacuis magnum rebus, cum ficta uetustis\ncarminibus caneres uel cum terrena referres\ngesta, triumphantum laudans insignia regum:\nnon equidem ex illis tu laudem sumere dignus,\nquos magis ornabas opulenti munere uerbi.\nquanto maior ab his cedet tibi gloria coeptis,\nin quibus et linguam exercens mentem quoque sanctam\nerudies laudemque simul uitamque capesses?\ndumque leges catus et scribes miracula summi\nuera dei, propior disces et carior ipsi\nesse deo, quem dum credens miraris, amare\nincipies et amando deum redamabere Christo.","t":"Already I promise myself to store your songs in sacred books,\nand that you, inflamed by the divinity of Christ God,\nwill loose your eloquent mouth to the highest Father.\nOnly begin to give your breast to divine things\nand to lift your senses, raised up to God, from the earth.\nSoon a new light will rise for your eyes as heaven opens,\nand the sacred Spirit will enter by a silent passage through hidden ways\nand shake your inmost being with glad breath.\nCome, then, stretch the lyre, strike your fruitful breast,\ntelling of great things; let the skill spent on your usual songs\ndepart; a greater order of things is born for you.\nNot now do you sing the judgment of Paris or the false wars\nof the giants. That play of yours may have been\nfor a boyish age once; trifles befitted the small boy.\nNow, graver in mind as you are more advanced in years,\nspurn the light Camenae with mature heart,\nand, as an age now fitted to chaste ways\nand the venerable appearance of your face require,\ntake up the material, conceive divine thoughts.\nIf you have won any glory from falsehoods and a great name\nfrom empty things, when you sang fictions in ancient\nsongs or told earthly deeds,\npraising the insignia of triumphing kings,\nyou were not worthy to take praise from those\nwhom you rather adorned with the gift of rich speech.\nHow much greater glory will come to you from these undertakings,\nin which, exercising your tongue, you will also train your mind\nto holiness and grasp praise and life together?\nAnd while, skilful, you read and write the true miracles\nof the highest God, you will learn to be nearer and dearer\nto God himself, whom, while believing you marvel at him, you will begin\nto love, and by loving God you will be loved in return by Christ.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 22.1 (CSEL 30:186lines 1–32–187; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/22-1)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/22.126":{"o":"dicant, quaeso, ubi tunc rapidas nascentibus horas\nponebant et quae quibus ibant sidera signis,\ncum pius Ezechias fidei uirtute precatus\nuerteret astrorum cursus caelique meatus\nturbaret iussis retroacto lumine solis?\nuel ducis imperio sancti cum sisteret idem\ndilata sol nocte diem, ut uictoria sacri\nprofligaretur populi, stetit orbe recurso\nlibra poli, ut magnos caperet lux aucta triumphos.\nquid soboles uirtusque dei et sapientia Christus,\nnonne satis uanis curas erroribus aufert?\nnosque simul monitis et factis edocet unum\ncuncta deum regere, et nihil ut sine mente putemus\nprincipis esse dei, dicens non arbore frondem,\naere non uolucrem sine iussu decidere? et cum\nomnipotens uerbo sternit mare uel pede calcat\net uerbo morbos abigit uel daemonas urget\naut reduces animas in corpora functa remittit\niamque diu exanimos tumulis iubet ire reclusis\nintegratque putres uita remeante sepultos,\nnonne potestatem propriam satis indicat auctor\nqui solus naturam omnem uitamque gubernat?\nhis, precor, his potius studiumque operamque legendis\nscribendisque uoue; cane grandia coepta tonantis,\nscribe creatarum uerbo primordia rerum\net chaos ante diem primaeque crepuscula lucis,\nquaeque dehinc uariis elementa per omnia saeclis\ndicta uel acta deo per sancta uolumina disces,\nquae docuit tabulis legalibus indita Moyses\naut euangelici quae lex noua testamenti\nsignat, operta prius retegens mysteria Christi.\ntunc te diuinum uere memorabo poetam\net quasi dulcis aquae potum tua carmina ducam,\ncum mihi nectareos summis a fontibus haustus\npraebebunt dominum rerum recinentia Christum\natque tuam pollere deo testantia mentem,\nut simul oris opes a te mentisque capessam\net quem cognatum iunctum mihi foedere laetor\ngratuler et sancta sub religione propinquum,\nnec cum mortali soluendis corpore uinclis\nperpetuo sanctum conplectar pignore fratrem.\nlege felix, Ioui, in Christo Iesu domino nostro.","t":"Let them say, I ask, where they then placed the swift hours\nfor those being born, and which stars went with which signs,\nwhen godly Hezekiah, praying by the power of faith,\nturned the courses of the stars and disturbed the passages of heaven\nby his commands, the light of the sun driven back?\nOr when the same sun, at the command of a holy leader,\nheld back the day, night delayed, so that the victory of the sacred\npeople might be completed: the balance of the sky stood still,\nthe world's turning checked, so that the increased light might take in great triumphs.\nWhat of Christ, the offspring and power and wisdom of God,\ndoes he not sufficiently remove our cares from vain errors?\nAnd he teaches us both by warnings and by deeds that one\nGod rules all things, so that we should think nothing to be without the mind\nof God the ruler, saying that not a leaf falls from the tree,\nnor a bird from the air, without his command? And when\nthe Almighty calms the sea by his word or treads it with his foot,\nand drives away diseases by his word or presses demons,\nor sends souls back into dead bodies,\nand bids those long lifeless come out of opened tombs,\nand restores the rotten buried as life returns,\ndoes he not sufficiently show his own power as the author\nwho alone governs all nature and life?\nTo these, I pray, to these rather vow your study and labour\nof reading and writing; sing the great undertakings of the Thunderer,\nwrite the beginnings of things created by the Word,\nand the chaos before day and the twilight of the first light,\nand whatever, through all the elements in various ages since,\nyou will learn was said or done by God through the holy volumes,\nwhich Moses taught, set on the tablets of the law,\nor which the new law of the gospel testament\nmarks, revealing the mysteries of Christ, hidden before.\nThen I shall truly call you a divine poet,\nand shall drink your songs like a draught of sweet water,\nwhen they offer me nectar-draughts from the highest fountains,\nsinging back Christ the Lord of things\nand testifying that your mind is strong with God,\nso that I may take from you at once riches of mouth and mind,\nand may congratulate the kinsman whom I rejoice to have joined to me by covenant,\nand near to me under holy religion,\nand, with bonds not to be dissolved with the mortal body,\nmay embrace you as a holy brother with an everlasting pledge.\nRead happily, Jovius, in Christ Jesus our Lord.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 22.126 (CSEL 30:192lines 126–167–193; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/22-126)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/22.33":{"o":"hactenus illa tuae uanos tuba uocis in usus\npersona, diuinos modo celsius intonet actus,\nnosse moues causas rerum et primordia mundi:\nne uagus innumeros, Epicuri somnia, mundos,\nquos atomis demens per inane parentibus edit,\ninritus in uacuum spatiato pectore quaeras.\nlegifer antiquo uenerandus nomine Moyses,\nconpositum prima referens ab origine mundum\ninstituente deo, curas tibi soluet inanes,\nformatumque hominem limo et spiramine sacro\nadflatum referens, cuius sis munere cunctis\ncelsior in terra spirantibus, ipse docebit.\nnec te ceu lapides Pyrrhae argillamue Promethei\ncontemnas, quam summa manus uultuque animoque\nsublimem et propria dignatus imagine finxit.\ncognosces itidem, ne pergas tradere fatis\narbitrium nostri, quae nos sententia leto\nuinxerit et cuius uitam sub lege trahamus.\nsi mentem caelo iacis altius et super astra\nscire cupis quid sit uel quid fuerit prius aeuo,\net mundo et saeclis docet ulteriora Iohannes.\nprincipio uerbum, inquit, erat; deus obside uerbo\ngaudebat uerbumque dei simul et deus idem\nuerbum erat. hoc uerbum est, sine quo nihil, omnia per quod\nfacta uigent, quod cuncta regit, cui subdita parent\nomnia et aeterno natura omnis famulatu\nstrata deo geniti nomen genitoris adorat.\ncunctaque per gentes in maiestate paterna\nregnantem dominum iam lingua fatetur Iesum,\nnomine quo fundata salus stat nostra fidesque\nnititur, aeternae tendens in saecula uitae.","t":"Hitherto that trumpet of your voice has sounded for vain uses;\nnow let it thunder more loftily the divine acts.\nYou are stirred to know the causes of things and the beginnings of the world:\nlest, wandering, with your mind spread out into the void, you vainly seek\ninnumerable worlds, the dreams of Epicurus,\nwhich, mad, he brings forth through the void from atoms as parents,\nthe lawgiver Moses, venerable by his ancient name,\ntelling of the world composed from its first origin\nby God's establishing, will release you from empty cares,\nand, telling of man formed from clay and breathed into\nwith the sacred breath, he himself will teach you by whose gift you are higher\nthan all that breathe on earth.\nNor should you despise yourself as the stones of Pyrrha or the clay of Prometheus,\nyou whom the highest hand deigned to fashion lofty\nin face and soul and in his own image.\nYou will learn likewise, lest you go on handing over\nour free will to the fates, what sentence bound us\nto death and under whose law we drag out life.\nIf you cast your mind higher than heaven and above the stars,\nand desire to know what is, or what was before time,\nJohn teaches what lies beyond both the world and the ages.\n“In the beginning,” he says, “was the Word”; God rejoiced\nin the Word as his pledge, and the Word was of God and at the same time\nthe same Word was God. This is the Word without which nothing was made, through which all things\nwere made and flourish, which rules all things, to which all things,\nsubjected, obey, and all nature, laid low in eternal service\nto the begotten God, adores the name of the Begetter.\nAnd every tongue through the nations now confesses that Jesus\nis Lord, reigning in the Father's majesty,\nby whose name our salvation stands founded and our faith\nrests, reaching toward the ages of eternal life.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 22.33 (CSEL 30:188lines 33–63–189; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/22-33)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/22.64":{"o":"huius diuino mortales munere fulti\nadsequimur fragilem castis euincere factis\nnaturam et rigidae disrumpere uincula mortis\net non corporeis in corpore legibus uti,\nsectantes diuina dei uestigia Christi,\nmente animam corpusque sacris moderante sub armis,\nmens quoniam subiecta deo capit arma salutis\ninque animam carnemque suam regnum obtinet, et fit\niure potens homo quisque sui, qui deditus uni\naeternum domino proprios regnator in artus\nefficitur, uitiis inuictus et osor iniqui,\nfortior aduersis uirtutibus, ordine iusto\nuerus homo, quia mente potens, in qua rationis\nlumen habet, famulos nullo certamine sensus\ntemperat et placidis sua pectora flectit habenis.\ntu, cui mens generosa superni seminis igne\nardet, in aetherios animo conscende recessus\net gremio domini caput insere; mox inhianti\nproflua lacte sacro largus dabit ubera Christus\ndiuinoque tuam perfundet lumine mentem,\nut uideas pulsa caligine magna tremendi\niura dei, quibus omniparens sapientia Christus\nin sese ipse manens semper nouat omnia rerum.\natque ut uult, operum deus arbiter ipse suorum,\ncontinet et mutat species et tempora uitae\nporrigit aut retrahit, caelum mare sidera uentos\nqua fecit uirtute regens (docet exitus ingens\nAegypti mersusque mari refluente tyrannus,\net prius ipse graues elementa per omnia motus\nexpertus), quem cuncta tremant, cui cuncta ministrent.\ntempore namque uno tellus communis habebat\nIudaeos, quae sola deo tunc lecta fuit gens;","t":"Supported by his divine gift, we mortals\nmanage to overcome our fragile nature by chaste deeds\nand to break the chains of rigid death,\nand in the body not to follow bodily laws,\nfollowing the divine footsteps of Christ God,\nwith the mind governing soul and body under sacred arms,\nsince the mind subjected to God takes up the arms of salvation\nand obtains a kingdom over its own soul and flesh; and each man\nbecomes rightly master of himself, who, given to the one\nLord for ever, is made ruler over his own limbs,\nunconquered by vices and a hater of wickedness,\nstronger than adversities by virtues, in just order\na true man, because, mighty in mind, in which he has the light\nof reason, he tempers the servant senses with no struggle\nand bends his breast with calm reins.\nYou, whose noble mind burns with the fire of heavenly seed,\nclimb in spirit into the heavenly recesses\nand lay your head in the bosom of the Lord; soon, as you gape for it,\nChrist will generously give breasts flowing with sacred milk\nand will flood your mind with divine light,\nso that, the fog driven off, you may see the great laws\nof the dread God, by which Christ, the all-begetting Wisdom,\nabiding in himself, always renews all things.\nAnd as he wills, God, himself the judge of his works,\nholds and changes forms and lengthens or shortens\nthe times of life, ruling heaven, sea, stars, winds\nby the power by which he made them (the great exodus\nfrom Egypt teaches it, and the tyrant drowned in the returning sea,\nwho had himself before experienced heavy upheavals through all the elements),\nhe whom all things fear, whom all things serve.\nFor at one time a common land held\nthe Jews, then the only nation chosen by God;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 22.64 (CSEL 30:189lines 64–95–190; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/22-64)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/22.96":{"o":"et tamen illa dei grauis hostibus ira superbis\npermixtos inter populos discreta cucurrit.\niam scio, non dicis, quod fors incerta procellis\net mare casus agat, mare cum discedere iussum\ndiscessisse legas siccamque rigentibus undis\ninter aquas patuisse uiam rursusque solutum\naequor ad imperium sancti uirgamque prophetae\nin liquidos remeasse sinus. in utroque maris uis\nparuit, ut sanctis iter et uindicta daretur.\nquid profugus Tharsum uates, quem sorte pericli\nin mare deiectum spatioso belua rictu\ncepit et innocuum uasta eructauit ab aluo?\nnonne docet dicione dei mare et astra moueri?\nnamque deum frustra fugiens, quem cuncta tenentem\nnemo fugit, mouit caeli simul et maris iras.\nomnipotentis enim domini natura rebellem\ncognoscens timuit per se quasi conscia tutum\nferre reum et uentis fugitiuum uinxit et undis.\niste propheta deo lectus terrere minaci\npeccantes monitu populos, postquam graue dixit\nexitium fregitque reos auertit et iras\nnuminis, inpenso lauit sua crimina fletu,\nextremumque diem fugit bene uersa Niniue.\nnum rex ille habuit fatum, qui morte propinqua\norauit dominum, quem leges nouerat unum\nflectere posse suas, consumptum ut tenderet aeuum\nlongius, et meruit tria ducere lustra, superstes\nannis ipse suis, et non sua uiuere saecla?\nnunc tria miremur texentem fata Platonem\naut Arati numeros aut picta Manethonis astra?","t":"and yet that heavy anger of God against the proud enemies\nran distinct among the mingled peoples.\nNow I know you do not say that uncertain chance drives\nthe sea with storms, when you read that the sea, bidden to part,\nparted, and a dry way lay open between the waters\nwith the waves stiffened, and again the loosened\nsea, at the command and rod of the holy prophet,\nreturned into its liquid bays. In both the power of the sea\nobeyed, so that a way was given to the saints and vengeance.\nWhat of the prophet fleeing to Tarshish, whom, thrown into the sea\nby the lot of danger, a beast caught with its wide jaws\nand belched out unharmed from its vast belly?\nDoes he not teach that sea and stars are moved by God's command?\nFor, fleeing God in vain, whom, as he holds all things,\nno one escapes, he stirred the wrath of sky and sea together.\nFor nature, knowing him a rebel against the almighty Lord,\nfeared, as if aware, to carry the guilty man safely by itself,\nand bound the fugitive with winds and waves.\nThis prophet was chosen by God to terrify sinful peoples\nwith threatening warning; after he spoke of heavy destruction\nand broke the guilty and turned away the wrath\nof divinity, Nineveh washed its crimes with lavish weeping,\nand, well turned, escaped its last day.\nDid that king have a fate, who, with death near,\nprayed to the Lord, who he knew alone could\nbend his own laws, to stretch his spent age\nfurther, and earned to draw out three lustra, outliving\nhis own years, and to live ages not his own?\nShall we now admire Plato weaving three fates,\nor the numbers of Aratus, or the painted stars of Manetho?","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 22.96 (CSEL 30:190lines 96–125–192; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/22-96)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/23.1":{"o":"Ver auibus uoces aperit, mea lingua suum uer\nnatalem Felicis habet, quo lumine et ipsa\nfloret hiems populis gaudentibus; et licet atro\nfrigore tempus adhuc mediis hiberna pruinis\nducat, concretum terris canentibus annum,\nista luce tamen nobis pia gaudia laetum\nuer faciunt. cedit pulsis a pectore curis\nmaeror, hiems animi; fugiunt a corde sereno\nnubila tristitiae. sicut cognoscit amicos\nmitis hirundo dies et pinnis candida nigris\nales et illa piae turtur cognata columbae,\nnec nisi uere nouo resonant acalanthida dumi,\nquaeque sub hirsutis mutae modo saepibus errant\nmox reduci passim laetantur uere uolucres,\ntam uariae linguis quam uersicoloribus alis:\nsic et ego hunc agnosco diem, quem sancta quotannis\nfesta nouant iusto magni Felicis honore.\nnunc placidum mihi uer gaudente renascitur anno,\nnunc libet ora modis et carmina soluere uotis\nuocibus et uernare nouis. deus, influe cordi,\nChriste, meo et superis sitientem fontibus exple.\nsed de te uel gutta meis aspersa medullis\nflumen erit. quid enim mirum, si rore pusillo\ntu minimam repleas animam, qui corpore paruo\nfactus homo aeterno conplesti semine mundum\net totum gutta seruasti sanguinis orbem?\nadnue, fons uerbi, uerbum deus, et uelut illam\nme modo ueris auem dulci fac uoce canorum,\nquae uiridi sub fronte latens solet auia rara\nmultimodis mulcere modis linguamque per unam\nfundere non unas mutato carmine uoces,\nunicolor plumis ales, sed picta loquellis.","t":"Spring opens voices for the birds; my tongue has its spring\nin the birthday of Felix, by whose light winter itself\nflowers for rejoicing peoples; and though with black\ncold the season still draws out its wintry quarters amid frosts,\nthe year congealed on whitening lands,\nyet on this day godly joys make\na glad spring for us. Grief, the winter of the mind, yields,\nits cares driven from the breast; the clouds of sadness flee\nfrom the serene heart. As the gentle swallow\nrecognizes friendly days, and the white bird with black wings,\nand that turtledove, kin of the godly dove,\nand the thickets resound with goldfinches only in new spring,\nand the birds which only lately wandered mute under bristling hedges\nsoon rejoice everywhere as spring returns,\nas varied in their tongues as in their many-coloured wings:\nso I too recognize this day, which holy festivals\nrenew every year with the just honour of great Felix.\nNow a calm spring is reborn for me as the year rejoices;\nnow it delights to loose my mouth in measures and songs in vows,\nand to flower with new voices. God, flow into my heart,\nChrist, and fill me, thirsty, from heavenly fountains.\nBut even a drop from you, sprinkled on my marrow,\nwill be a river. For what wonder is it if with a little dew\nyou fill the smallest soul, you who, made man in a small body,\nfilled the world with eternal seed\nand saved the whole world with a drop of blood?\nNod assent, fountain of the Word, God the Word, and make me now\nmelodious with sweet voice like that bird of spring\nwhich, hiding under green foliage, rare in pathless places,\nis wont to soothe with many kinds of measures and through one tongue\npour out more than one voice in changing song,\na bird of one colour in plumage, but painted in its songs.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 23.1 (CSEL 30:194lines 1–32–195; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/23-1)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/23.129":{"o":"funditus albet aqua, super undam flauet oliuo.\nstat liquor in liquido, subiecto lubricus umor\nfonte natat, neque iuncta coit mixtura fluoris.\net mirum, quod pingue natat; neque densa solutum\nrumpit materies elementum, sed leue crassum\nsustinet, ut solido dilutior unda fluento,\nsubsistensque oleo liquidis aqua fundamentum est.\ntantaque confusis intus discordia sucis\nlucet, ut admixtos uideas distare liquores,\ncommunique sinu calicis discrimine claro\nquaeque sui laticis seruat natura colorem.\nmergitur in medio plumbum tripes, et cauus illo\nextat apex uncti stipatus fomite lini.\nstuppa madens liquidum tenui face concipit ignem,\net circumfusum spatio stagnantis oliui\nin uitreis exile uadis funale coruscat\net tremulo uibrans a uertice lumen acutum\nleniter umbrosam iacit in penetralia lucem\net placido densas aperit splendore tenebras.\nhoc tamen emensa fuerat iam nocte remotum,\nproductas quoniam pueris uigilantibus horas\nconsumpto bibulum defecerat unguine lumen.\nsed puer, extincto abstulerat qui lumine lychnum,\nquem deponendo funem laxarat, eundem\nneglexit solito adductum restringere nodo.\nlaxior hinc humili fluitabat linea tractu\ngratae lucis inops et caeci plena pericli.\nnam laquei summum dentata minantibus uncis\narmabatur, et his male tunc fuit obuia fratri,\npaene male aut nutu Christi bene, qui bene uertit\nferalem nobis memoranda in gaudia casum.","t":"At the bottom it is white with water, above the water yellow with oil.\nLiquid stands on liquid; the slippery moisture swims\non the fountain below, and the mixture of fluids does not come together though joined.\nAnd it is wondrous that the fat floats; nor does the dense\nmatter break through the loose element, but the light supports\nthe thick, so that the water, thinner than the solid flow,\nstaying beneath the oil, is the foundation for liquids.\nAnd so great a discord shines within among the mixed juices\nthat you may see the liquids mixed yet apart,\nand in the common bosom of the cup, with clear distinction,\nthe nature of each liquid keeps its colour.\nA three-footed lead is sunk in the middle, and its hollow\ntip stands out, packed with the kindling of oiled flax.\nThe wet tow catches liquid fire in a slender flame,\nand the slender wick flashes in the glass shallows,\nsurrounded by the space of the standing oil,\nand quivering from its trembling tip a sharp light\nsoftly casts shadowy light into the inner rooms\nand opens the dense darkness with calm splendour.\nThis, however, had been removed when the night was already far spent,\nsince, the hours being prolonged by the wakeful boys,\nthe thirsty light had failed with its oil consumed.\nBut the boy who had taken away the lamp when the light went out,\nand had loosened the rope in taking it down,\nneglected to draw it up and tie it back with the usual knot.\nHence the line, looser, swung low,\nwithout the welcome light and full of blind danger.\nFor the top of the noose was armed with toothed, threatening hooks,\nand these then met my brother badly,\nalmost badly, or rather well by Christ's nod, who turned well\ninto memorable joys an event deadly for us.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 23.129 (CSEL 30:198lines 129–159–200; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/23-129)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/23.160":{"o":"ergo (uidete manum Christi) male pendulus ille\nper tenebras solito funis submissior infra\naeris adsuetum spatium pendebat; et inde\ne capitis regione pari libramine factus,\nut status huius erat, securam heu! cuspide trina\nexcepit faciem uenientis et induit unco\noccurrens oculum teneroque per intima lapsus\nmucro salit cilio, qua uix solet arte medendi\ncauta manus leuem trepido moderamine melen\nducere palpebramque leui suffundere tractu.\npercussus subito tam duri uerberis ictu\nexclamat trepidasque manus turbatus ad ipsum\nfert oculum; et pariter clausum cum lumine ferrum\ncontinet, ut reprimat uel, si cadat, ut labentem\nexcipiat globulum, qui luminis intima seruans\nintra folliculum teretem liquido interfuso\nsub uitrea nigri latet albus imagine pupi.\nhic ueluti radix oculum subeunte medulla\nfulcit et umecto uenarum fomite pascit,\ndum parili fontes oculorum sidere constant.\nat si forte graui morbo disrupta uel ictu\nheu! male dissiliat membrana fluentis ocelli,\nprosilit iste globus sucoque relictus alente\ndeserit arentem uacuata luce lacunam.\ninterea puer excussus clamore dolentis\nadcurrit stratum somno fugiente relinquens\naccensamque manu praetendit ad ora lucernam.","t":"So (see the hand of Christ) that rope, wrongly hanging\nthrough the darkness lower than usual, hung below\nits accustomed space in the air; and thence,\nmade level with the region of his head,\nas his height was, alas, with its triple point\nit caught the face of the unsuspecting man as he came and put a hook into\nhis eye as it met him, and the point, slipping through to the inmost,\nleaped under the tender eyelid, where the cautious hand of the healing art\ncan scarcely guide a light probe with trembling control\nand draw it under the eyelid with a light touch.\nStruck suddenly by the blow of so hard a stroke,\nhe cries out and, disturbed, brings his trembling hands\nto the eye itself; and he holds the iron shut in together with the eye,\nto restrain it, or, if it should fall, to catch\nthe slipping little ball, which, keeping the inmost parts of sight,\nlies white within a round bag with liquid poured between,\nunder the glassy image of the black pupil.\nThis, like a root, supports the eye with marrow beneath\nand feeds it with the moist fuel of the veins,\nwhile the fountains of the eyes stand firm in an equal star.\nBut if, by heavy disease or blow, alas, the membrane\nof the flowing little eye is torn and bursts,\nthat ball leaps out and, left by the nourishing juice,\ndeserts the drying hollow emptied of light.\nMeanwhile the boy, roused by the cry of the sufferer,\nruns up, leaving his bed as sleep flees,\nand holds a lit lamp with his hand to his face.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 23.160 (CSEL 30:200lines 160–186–201; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/23-160)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/23.187":{"o":"clauserat hic manibus uultus et fronte supina\ncontigero similis iuueni spectabat in altum,\nut daret inmotum librato corpore funem,\nuulneris arbitrio trepidantia membra gubernans,\ndum timet aduerso uulnus diducere motu,\ncaptiuique oculi ex uno, quo liber agebat,\nlumine discrimen sociali parte cauebat,\nnec tamen audebat ducendum adtingere ferrum,\nne simul haerentem ductu mucronis et orbem\nextraheret, neque iam poterat sub lumine fixi\nferre moram teli. sed desperante medellam\nex ope mortali diuina mox ope Felix\ninploratus adest, quem tanto in uulnere pendens\naduocat et tali depromit uoce querellam:\nei mihi! quanta meos urgent peccata labores,\nqui tantam merui plagam Felice patrono\nuicinoque simul Felicis et insuper ipso\nnatali miser excipere? heu! magno reus ingens\ncrimine, quem tunc poena ferit, cum soluere sueuit.\nsancte, precor, succurre tuo; scio, proximus adstas\net de contigua missis huc auribus aede\naudisti, Felix, fletum infelicis alumni;\nsiue modo excelso lateri coniunctus adhaeres\nante thronum magni regis confessor amicus,\npauperis hanc, uenerande, tui trans nubila uocem\naccipis aure dei neque temnis, sed petis illic\nquam mihi deportes Christo miserante salutem.\nergo ueni, Felix animaeque perenne patronus,\nnunc pro corporeo medicus mihi curre periclo.\ncurre, precor, sanctasque manus oppone minanti\nlapsum oculo et fixum quod conspicis erue ferrum,\nquod propria reuocare manu non audeo, ne me\nlumine despoliem, dum conor soluere telo.","t":"He had covered his face with his hands and, with his forehead turned upward,\nlike one transfixed, was looking up,\nto keep the rope unmoving, his body balanced,\ngoverning his trembling limbs by the requirements of the wound,\nwhile he feared to tear the wound open by a contrary movement,\nand with the one eye that was still free\nhe guarded the captured eye from danger by its companion's help,\nand yet did not dare to touch the iron to draw it out,\nlest by drawing the point he should draw out the clinging\nball as well, nor could he any longer bear the delay of the weapon\nfixed beneath his sight. But, as he despaired of healing\nfrom mortal help, soon Felix, implored, is present\nwith divine help; hanging in so great a wound,\nhe calls on him and brings out his complaint in such words:\n“Woe is me! How great are the sins that press my labours,\nwho have deserved, wretch, to receive so great a blow with Felix as patron,\nand near Felix too, and moreover on his very\nbirthday? Alas, guilty of great crime,\nwhom punishment strikes at the time when he is wont to release.\nHoly one, I pray, help your own; I know you stand nearest,\nand from the adjoining building, with your ears turned here,\nyou have heard, Felix, the weeping of your unhappy nursling;\nor if you cling now, joined to the lofty side,\nbefore the throne of the great King as a friendly confessor,\nyou receive this voice of your poor man, revered one, across the clouds\nwith the ear of God, and do not scorn it, but there you ask\nfor the health that you may bring me, Christ pitying.\nSo come, Felix, everlasting patron of my soul,\nnow run to me as physician in bodily danger.\nRun, I pray, and set your holy hands against the fall\nthreatening my eye, and pull out the fixed iron you see,\nwhich I do not dare to draw out with my own hand, lest I\nrob myself of sight while I try to free myself from the weapon.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 23.187 (CSEL 30:201lines 187–219–202; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/23-187)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/23.220":{"o":"sic etenim penitus mihi sentio fulmen adactum\ninserto sub operta oculi penetralia clauo.\ntu tantum, diuina manus, quae condidit ipsos\nin nobis oculos, quae te quoque dextra potentem\nsanifera uirtute dedit, qua daemonas atros\nexcruciando domas, qua corporis omne caduci,\npellere tormentum potes alto nomine Christi,\nomnipotente potens domino; quo praesule nunc me\nsuscipe sanandum. nec te mea crimina uincant,\nsed magis a te uicta cadant. nam dignior isto\nuulnere sum, fateor, placidi quam munere Christi.\nsed domini ipsius uerbum factumque memento,\nqui peccatoris uitam ueniendo redemit.\niustitiae si iure uelis decernere mecum,\nnon sum uno tantum sed lumine dignus utroque\nmultari, ut talis facie sim, qualis et intus\ncorde tenebroso, de quo male uisibus utor\ncorporeis, caecus iustis, oculatus iniquis,\net peccatorem luscum fateor decet esse,\nsi deceat talem esse tuum. quocumque ligatus\ncrimine fit dignus uenia, iam si tuus esse\ncoeperit, ut dudum coepi pars esse tuorum,\nquos ego non patriae telluris amore secutus\nsed desiderio, quo me tibi, sancte, dicaram,\nper maris et terrae contempta pericula ueni;\nexemploque boni cognatae uincula terrae,\nut tibi seruirem, rupi, consortibus illis,\ncum quibus et me iacto tuum; quod in hac ope monstra,\nne perdam tanto confixum uulnere lumen.","t":"For so I feel the bolt driven deep into me,\nthe nail inserted under the covered inner parts of the eye.\nOnly you, divine hand, which made the very eyes\nin us, the right hand which made you too mighty\nwith healing power, by which you tame the black demons\nby tormenting them, by which you can drive out every torment\nof the perishing body by the lofty name of Christ,\nmighty through the almighty Lord: with him as protector, now\ntake me up to be healed. And let not my sins conquer you,\nbut rather let them fall, conquered by you. For I am worthier of this\nwound, I confess, than of the gift of gentle Christ.\nBut remember the word and deed of the Lord himself,\nwho by his coming redeemed the life of the sinner.\nIf you wish to judge with me by the right of justice,\nI am worthy to be punished not in one eye only but in both,\nso that I might be such in face as I am also within,\nin my dark heart, by which I make ill use of my bodily\nsight, blind to just things, sharp-eyed for wicked ones,\nand I confess that the sinner ought to be one-eyed,\nif it is fitting that such a man be yours. Bound by whatever\ncrime, he becomes worthy of pardon if he now begins\nto be yours, as I long ago began to be part of your own,\nto whom I came, not following love of my native land,\nbut with the desire by which I had dedicated myself to you, holy one,\ndespising the dangers of sea and land;\nand, by the example of the good, I broke the bonds of my kindred land\nto serve you, together with those companions\namong whom I boast myself yours; show it in this help,\nthat I may not lose my sight, pierced with so great a wound.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 23.220 (CSEL 30:202lines 220–248–203; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/23-220)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/23.249":{"o":"da, precor, indigno famulo tam nobile munus\nin laudem domini, praesta hoc insigne diei,\nsancte, tuo, ut, confessa tibi quem gloria Christi\nluminis aeterni natalem in saecula fecit,\nhunc habeam natalem oculi pariterque celebrem\nFelicem et lumen mihi de Felice receptum.\ntalia dum plorat simplex, manus ecce beati\nprospera mox Felicis adest dubiamque timentis\nadspirans tacite firmat mentemque manumque,\nne timeat tuto ausurus producere ferrum.\nuix hoc conatus fuit, et quasi lubricus uncus\nex oculo cadit absque oculo; tantum unda secuta\neuomuit lacrimis quem subpurauerat aestum.\nmox oculus tanti purgatus nocte pericli\ntam puro enituit speculo, quam nunc quoque sanus\ncernitur aeterni conlucens munere Christi.\net puto plus hodie solito niteat, quia lumen\naddit et ipse dies qui reddidit. ergo fideles\ncernite nunc animis tanti discriminis instar\net pariter tanti perpendite muneris actum.\nuir iam maturo grauis aeuo et corpore celsus\nstaminis uncino quasi piscis inhaeserat hamo;\net uice suspensus lychni pendebat aperto\nsed non sponte oculo, quem diducebat inuncans\nsubfixo clauus cilio neque uulnus agebat\ndiuina prohibente manu, quae fecerat illic\ninnocuamque aciem ferri simul et leue pondus;\nqua pituita grauis, pilus intolerabilis et qua\nnec minimae perferre atomum duramus harenae,\nhac graue et incuruo quis credat acumine ferrum\ninsuper et lychno concretis sordibus uncto\nfixum, inpune diu tenuem pressisse metallo\npupillam et nullo temeratum uulnere uisum?","t":"Grant, I pray, so noble a gift to your unworthy servant\nfor the praise of the Lord; grant this distinction to your day,\nholy one, so that, as the glory of Christ, whom you confessed,\nmade this day your birthday of eternal light for ages,\nI may have it as the birthday of my eye, and may likewise celebrate\nFelix and the light received for me from Felix.”\nWhile the simple man weeps such things, behold, the prospering\nhand of blessed Felix is soon present, and, silently breathing\non the wavering mind of the frightened man, strengthens mind and hand,\nso that he does not fear to draw out the iron, about to dare in safety.\nScarcely had he tried this, and the hook, as if slippery,\nfalls out of the eye without the eye; only a stream followed\nand spewed out with tears the heat that had festered.\nSoon the eye, cleansed from the night of so great a danger,\nshone with as pure a mirror as it is seen now too, sound,\nshining by the gift of eternal Christ.\nAnd I think it shines more today than usual, because\nthe very day that restored the light adds light too. So, faithful ones,\nbehold now in your minds the image of so great a danger,\nand likewise weigh the working of so great a gift.\nA man already grave with mature age and tall in body\nhad stuck on the little hook of the line like a fish on a hook;\nand he hung in the place of the lamp, with his eye open,\nbut not willingly, for the nail, hooking under the eyelid\nit was fixed in, drew it apart; nor did it make a wound,\nthe divine hand forbidding, which had made there\nboth the point of the iron harmless and its weight light;\nwhere heavy mucus or a hair is intolerable, and where\nwe cannot bear the speck of the smallest grain of sand,\nwho would believe that there the heavy iron with curved point,\nsmeared moreover with dirt clotted from the lamp,\nfixed there, pressed long on the delicate pupil with its metal with impunity,\nand the sight was violated by no wound?","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 23.249 (CSEL 30:203lines 249–281–204; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/23-249)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/23.282":{"o":"quae tam subtilis digitis manus aut opis arte,\nquae se tam tenui potuit discrimine iunctis\ninserere et medio palpebrae oculique subactum\ninter utramque uiam fragili per utrumque meatu\ninlaeso penetrans oculo suspendere ferrum,\nquod solidi crasso totum conplebat operti\norbem oculi, figens acie nec uulnere laedens?\nquae manus hoc potuit nisi quae manus omnia fecit?\nspiritus ille dei penetrator ubique per omnes\nnaturas rerum, tenui subtilior omni,\nperdita caecatis qui lumina reddidit et qui\nex utero et caecum noua lumina fecit habere,\nuultum inperfecti natura corporis inplens\narte creatoris, qua totum perficit orbem,\nfilius ille dei, manus et sapientia patris,\nomniparens rerum fons et constantia, Christus.\nipse illum quondam non plenae matris in aluo\nfinxerat, ut posthac homo factus et ipse creator\nhoc quoque diuinis opus admirabile signis\nadderet, ut uacuos expleret uisibus orbes.\ndenique humi sputans limum facit, unde negatos\nnascenti obtutus credenti reddit alumno,\nmateriaque eadem defecta in parte perornat\nsemiperactum hominem, qua toto corpore finxit,\nut se ipsum nostra uenisse in carne probaret\nqui cum patre deo communis imaginis ore\nconpositum limo et flatu formauerat Adam.\nipse opifex, lux nostra, deus, Felicis amici\nnatalem tanta uoluit decorare medella,\nut confessoris meritum sublime potenti\nmunere monstraret, non ut cumularet honorem\nmartyris hoc opere, ingentes cui contulit olim\nnobilibus titulis benedicto nomine palmas,\nquas indefessis in eo uirtutibus omni\ntempore continuat domini clementia Christi.","t":"What hand so fine in its fingers or in the art of healing\ncould insert itself into so slight a gap between joined parts,\nand, penetrating between the eyelid and the eye,\npushed under along both ways by a fragile passage,\nsuspend the iron with the eye unharmed,\niron which filled the whole orb of the eye with the thickness of its solid covering,\nfixing it with its point yet not hurting it with a wound?\nWhat hand could do this but the hand that made all things?\nThat Spirit of God, penetrating everywhere through all\nnatures of things, finer than everything fine,\nwho restored lost light to the blinded and who\nmade one blind from the womb to have new light,\nfilling out the face of an imperfect body's nature\nwith the Creator's art, by which he perfects the whole world,\nthat Son of God, the hand and wisdom of the Father,\nthe all-producing fountain and stability of things, Christ.\nHe himself once fashioned that man in his mother's womb\nnot complete, so that afterward, made man and himself creator,\nhe might add this wondrous work too to his divine signs,\nfilling the empty orbs with sight.\nIn short, spitting on the ground he makes clay, from which he gives back\nto his believing nursling the sight denied him at birth,\nand with the same material with which he had fashioned the whole body\nhe completes the half-finished man in the defective part,\nto prove that he himself had come in our flesh,\nhe who, with God the Father, by the word of a common image,\nhad formed Adam, composed of clay and breath.\nHe himself, the maker, our light, God, willed to adorn\nthe birthday of his friend Felix with so great a healing,\nto show the lofty merit of the confessor by a mighty\ngift, not to heap up the honour of the martyr\nby this work, on whom he had long ago conferred great palms\nwith noble titles and blessed name,\nwhich the kindness of Christ the Lord continues in him at all times\nwith untiring powers.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 23.282 (CSEL 30:204lines 282–316–205; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/23-282)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/23.317":{"o":"sed nobis uoluit specialem tempore in isto\nlaetitiam donare deus propriique patroni\ntale aliquod propriis operans signum dare seruis,\nquo nos siderei proprios Felicis alumnos\nproderet et merito illius curaque doceret\nuiuere, quo nostram seruans custode salutem\nsaepius infestum nocturnis casibus hostem\na nostris pariter membris et mentibus arcet.\ndenique iam nostri gaudemus honore pericli,\ncernentesque pari splendentem lumina uisu,\nquem paene amisso deformem uidimus uno,\nlaetamur tactis hoc sospite fratre medullis,\nquem tanto nobis donauit munere Christus.\niure oculis hunc aequo meis, in lumine cuius\nFelicis manus in Christo, mea gloria, fulget.\no felix casus, bona uulnera, dulce periclum,\nper quod cognoui me curam martyris esse.\ntanti namque fuit lumen mihi paene perisse,\nut modo Felicis de munere lumen haberem.","t":"But God willed to give us a special joy at this time,\nand, working some such sign of our own patron\nfor his own servants, to show us\nas the very nurslings of starry Felix,\nand to teach us to live by his merit and care,\nby which, guarding our salvation as watchman,\nhe often keeps the hostile enemy with his night attacks\naway from our limbs and minds alike.\nIn short, we now rejoice in the honour of our danger,\nand, seeing shining with equal sight\nhim whom we had seen almost disfigured with one eye lost,\nwe rejoice, touched in our marrow, that this brother is safe,\nwhom Christ has given us with so great a gift.\nRightly I value him equal to my eyes, in whose light\nthe hand of Felix shines in Christ, my glory.\nO happy fall, good wounds, sweet danger,\nthrough which I learned that I am the care of the martyr!\nFor it was worth so much to me almost to have lost light,\nthat I now have light by Felix's gift.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 23.317 (CSEL 30:205lines 317–335–206; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/23-317)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/23.33":{"o":"nunc teretes rotat illa modos, nunc sibila longis\nducit acuta sonis, rursum quasi flebile carmen\ninchoat et subito praecidens fine querellam\nadtonitas rupto modulamine decipit aures.\nsed mihi iuge fluat de te tua gratia, Christe.\net tamen illius mihi deprecor alitis instar\ndonetur uariare modis et pacta quotannis\ncarmina mutatis uno licet ore loquellis\npromere, diuersas quia semper gratia diues\nmaterias miris domini uirtutibus addit,\nquas deus in caro Christus Felice frequentat,\nclara salutiferis edens miracula signis.\ncernimus illa diem spectari sueta per omnem,\nuipeream subolem, saeuos cum daemonas urget\noccultaque manu clamosos uerberat hostes;\nsed tamen hac ipsum mirum uirtute notatur,\nquod licet in toto cruciatos daemonas anno\nexagitet iubeatque hominum discedere membris,\nproducat plerosque tamen, quo longior hostes\npoena malos agitet uel ut illi, qui meruere\nuasa malis fieri, ob meritum tardante medella\nplenius omne luant dilato tempore crimen,\nsiue hoc natali studet indulgere diei,\nut paucis alias det opem, quo plura benignus\nnatali det dona suo. nam cum ista propinquat\nelabente dies anno, tunc crebrior instat\net grauior. uideas tunc aegra examina cogi\ndensius et certam repeti prope festa salutem.","t":"Now it rolls smooth measures, now draws out sharp whistles\nin long sounds, again begins as it were a tearful song,\nand suddenly cutting off its complaint with an end\ndeceives astonished ears with the melody broken.\nBut let your grace flow on me continually from you, Christ.\nAnd yet I pray that, like that bird, it may be granted me\nto vary my measures and to bring forth every year the promised\nsongs with changed speech, though from one mouth,\nbecause rich grace always adds different\nmaterial through the Lord's wondrous powers,\nwhich God, Christ, multiplies in dear Felix,\nproducing famous miracles with saving signs.\nWe see those which are wont to be seen every day,\nwhen he presses the viper's brood, the savage demons,\nand lashes the shouting enemies with a hidden hand;\nbut this itself is noted as a wonder in this power:\nthat although throughout the whole year he harasses the tormented demons\nand bids them leave the limbs of men,\nyet he prolongs many cases, so that a longer punishment\nmay harass the evil enemies, or so that those who deserved\nto become vessels for evils, the healing delayed on account of their desert,\nmay pay more fully for every crime over a prolonged time;\nor whether he is eager to indulge his birthday in this,\nto give help to few at other times, so that, kind, he may give\nmore gifts on his birthday. For when this day draws near\nas the year slips away, then he presses more often\nand more heavily. You might see sick swarms then gathered\nmore densely and sure health sought near the festival.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 23.33 (CSEL 30:195lines 33–60–196; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/23-33)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/23.61":{"o":"tunc solito grauius succensi daemones ardent\nflebiliusque ululant et ui maiore subacti\nultima iam tormenta gemunt, nec abire sinuntur\nexcessu facili, sed miris ante agitati\net uariis male suppliciis tolluntur in altum,\nsuspensi solito sublimius, et quatiuntur\naeris in uacuo uinclisque latentibus haerent\npoenali per inane mora; per non sua quamuis\ncorpora uexatos hostes sua poena fatigat.\nsoluuntur poenis, cum poenas ferre uidentur\ncorpore, et inmunes animae spectant aliena\nin membris tormenta suis; homo daemone capto\nliber agit, species poenarum in corpore tantum est;\nsensus abest, quia non hominis sed daemonis est crux.\nhostis amare, quid insultas, qua spe ruis in nos?\necce redemptoris nostri malus arte uicissim\nluderis inlusor; dolus et tuus in tua cedit\nuincla tibi, capiens caperis nectensque ligaris.\nfit laqueus laqueatus homo, et sua praeda latronem\ndecipit; et capti captiuus corporis escam\ndum petit inlicitam, letalem deuorat hamum.\nhis etiam potiora, tamen spectata profabor,\nante alios illum, cui membra uetustior hostis\nobsidet, ad sacri pia limina martyris aegra\nexcussum de plebe rapi admotumque sacratis\nante fores sancti cancellis corpore uerso\nsuspendi pedibus spectantem tecta supinis,\nquodque magis mirum atque sacrum est, nec in ora relapsis\nuestibus ut rigidis aut ad uestigia sutis\ncorporis omne sacrum casto uelatur operto,\nscilicet ut diuini operis reuerentia tectis\ncorporibus maneat, nec poena daemon in ipsa\nqua cruciatur ouet, nudis prodendo pudorem\nartubus; inlaeso grauius torquetur honesto,\nrecta licet uersis sedeant cum tegmina membris.","t":"Then the demons, kindled more heavily than usual, burn\nand howl more mournfully and, subdued by greater force,\ngroan now at their final torments, nor are they allowed to depart\nby an easy exit, but first, driven by wondrous and various\npainful punishments, they are lifted on high,\nsuspended higher than usual, and are shaken\nin the void of the air and cling by hidden bonds\nin penal delay through the void; though it is through bodies not their own,\ntheir own punishment wears out the harassed enemies.\nThe souls are released from punishments while they seem to bear punishments\nin the body, and, immune, they behold torments\nnot their own in their own limbs; the man, with the demon captured,\nis free; there is only an appearance of punishments in the body;\nsensation is absent, because the cross is not the man's but the demon's.\nBitter enemy, why do you insult us? With what hope do you rush at us?\nSee, wicked one, by the art of our Redeemer in turn\nyou, the mocker, are mocked; your trick turns into your own\nchains for you; capturing, you are captured, and binding, you are bound.\nThe ensnared man becomes the snare, and the robber's own booty\ndeceives him; and while the captive seeks the unlawful food\nof the captured body, he devours a deadly hook.\nI shall tell things greater still than these, yet seen:\nbefore others that man, whose sick limbs a long-established enemy\nbesieges, snatched, shaken out from the crowd, to the godly threshold\nof the sacred martyr, and, brought up to the consecrated railings\nbefore the saint's doors, with body turned over,\nsuspended with feet upturned, looking at the roof;\nand, what is more wondrous and sacred, his clothes do not fall back\nover his face, but, as if stiff or sewn to his feet,\nevery sacred part of the body is veiled with a chaste covering,\nso that, evidently, the reverence of the divine work may remain\nwith bodies covered, nor may the demon exult in the very punishment\nby which he is tormented by exposing shame\nwith naked limbs; he is tortured more heavily with decency unharmed,\nwhile the coverings sit straight though the limbs are inverted.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 23.61 (CSEL 30:196lines 61–95–197; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/23-61)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/23.96":{"o":"mira haec sunt et magna (quis abnegat?), et tamen usu\nnota magis, minus auditu miranda uidentur,\nquamlibet et uisu reuerenda et grandia facto.\nergo minuta mei simul et noua facta patroni\nauscultate, precor, dominus quae Christus in illo\nmultimoda uirtute gerit, quibus omnibus unam\nconfirmare fidem nobis studet, ut per aperta\narcanum documenta deum uideamus adesse\nresque hominum et mentes studio curare paterno\ncaelestem dominum quo condidit omnia uerbo.\ndet mihi prima meus narrandi exordia frater\nTheridius; nam quod potiusue priusue canendum\nsuscipiam Felicis opus, quam quod mihi tectis\nipse meis quibus est idem dominaedius egit?\nex illa modo nocte diem cadit annus in istam.\nnostis eum morem, quo ieiunare solemus\nante diem et sero libatis uespere sacris\nquisque suas remeare domos. tunc ergo solutis\ncoetibus a templo domini, postquam data fessis\ncorporibus requies sumpta dape, coepimus hymnos\nexultare deo et psalmis producere noctem.\ninterea meus iste choro digressus amico,\nut spirante foris aura depelleret aestum,\nquem fumosa dabat ceratis cella papyris,\nporticus angusti qua tenditur agmine tecti,\nnocte licet nullo uia lumine caeca lateret,\nhic tamen intrepido per cognita limina passu,\nheu! iam uicini incautus discriminis ibat.\ncomminus in medio tecti cameram inter humumque\nnutabat solitus lychnum suspendere funis,\ninnectens triiugum supremo stamine ferrum,\nquo uitreae inseritur penetrabilis ansa lucernae\nauritusque calix tribus undique figitur uncis.","t":"These things are wonderful and great (who denies it?), and yet,\nbetter known by familiarity, they seem less wonderful to hear,\nhowever reverend to see and great in deed.\nSo hear, I pray, the small and new deeds of my patron,\nwhich the Lord Christ does in him with many-sided power,\nby all of which he is eager to confirm one faith in us:\nthat through open proofs we may see that the hidden God is present,\nand that the heavenly Lord, by the Word by which he founded all things,\ncares with fatherly zeal for the affairs and minds of men.\nLet my brother Theridius give me the first beginnings of the telling;\nfor what work of Felix shall I take up to be sung sooner or first,\nthan the one he did for me under my own roofs, of which he is also the master?\nThe year falls on this day from that very night.\nYou know that custom by which we are wont to fast\nbefore the day, and, the sacred rites offered late in the evening,\neach returns to his own home. Then, therefore, when the assemblies\nwere dismissed from the Lord's temple, after rest was given to weary\nbodies by taking food, we began to exult in hymns\nto God and to prolong the night with psalms.\nMeanwhile this brother of mine, leaving the friendly choir\nto drive off, in the breeze breathing outside, the heat\nwhich the cell, smoky with waxed papyrus wicks, gave,\nwhere the portico stretches in a row of narrow roof,\nthough the path lay hidden, blind with no light at night,\nyet here, with fearless step through familiar thresholds,\nalas, he was going, unwary of the danger now near.\nClose by, in the middle of the roof, between the ceiling and the ground,\nthe rope that usually suspends a lamp was swinging,\ntying to its top thread a three-pronged iron,\ninto which the handle of a glass lamp is inserted,\nand the eared cup is fixed by three hooks on every side.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 23.96 (CSEL 30:197lines 96–128–198; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/23-96)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/24.1":{"o":"Martinianum spiritu fratrem mihi\nunaque germanum fide,\nquem tu disertis prosecutus litteris\nad nos uenire miseras,\nnunc uix salutis conpotem factum suae,\nscriptis inanem perditis\nsed caritatis indicem plenum tuae\nut os tuum suscepimus,\net ueriorem litteris epistolam\nde corde signatam tuo,\ncum te referret spiritali littera,\net mente et aure legimus.\nnunc ambo nexi ad inuicem dextras damus\nin osculo pacis sacrae\net inmolamus hostiam laudis deo\ngratesque Christo reddimus,\nquo liberante nostra sospes e mari\nintraret hospes limina;\nnam dira passus et tamen miracula\nexpertus in periculis.\npatria profectus cognita causa tibi\niter pedestre legerat,\nsed longa secum spatia terrarum putans\nuertit uiae sententiam\net otiosam fluctuandi nauseam\npedum labori praetulit.\nNarbone soluit per trucem ponti uiam\nfragili carinae credulus.\nhinc ille gressu uir piger uersa uice\nfit nauigandi paenitens.","t":"Martinianus, brother to me in spirit\nand kinsman by one faith,\nwhom you, escorting him with eloquent letters,\nhad sent to come to us,\nnow barely in possession of his own safety,\nempty of the writings he lost,\nbut full, as the herald of your love,\nwe have received as your very mouth,\nand a letter truer than letters,\nsealed from your heart,\nsince he brought you back to us in a spiritual letter,\nwe have read with mind and ear.\nNow, both bound to each other, we give right hands\nin the kiss of sacred peace,\nand we offer to God the sacrifice of praise\nand return thanks to Christ,\nby whose deliverance our guest entered our thresholds\nsafe out of the sea;\nfor he suffered dire things, and yet\nexperienced miracles in his dangers.\nSetting out from his homeland, for a reason known to you,\nhe had chosen the journey on foot,\nbut, reckoning with himself the long stretches of land,\nhe changed his mind about the road,\nand preferred the idle nausea of tossing on the waves\nto the labour of the feet.\nHe set sail from Narbo along the savage road of the sea,\ntrusting a fragile hull.\nHence this man, lazy in walking, in turn\nbecame repentant of sailing.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 24.1 (CSEL 30:206lines 1–30–207; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/24-1)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/24.129":{"o":"quemcumque Christi recta signauit fides,\nhunc uita cognouit suum.\ntamen fuerunt Christianis additi\nnecdum hoc sacrati nomine,\nquos de profundo iuncta seruauit fuga,\nquia Christianis haeserant.\nnam cum infideli plebe nauigantium\nnullus fidelis mersus est,\nut clara magni ueritas mysterii\nostendit in paucis deus,\nquod fine mundi diuidendis gentibus\ndiscrimen in cunctis erit,\ncum praenotatos ora uexillo crucis\ntransibit ultor angelus.\nsic naue in illa nemo morti traditus,\nqui ueritate praeditus.\nuixere iuncti Christianis inpii\nuincente noctem lumine.\nnam Christianos adgregare mortuis\nmors cassa uirtutis fuit,\nquia fronte signum Christianis emicat,\nquo mors subacta conruit.\nnauarchus ipse, perditae princeps ratis,\npereuntibus primus fuit.\nnamque ante pelago quam periret naufragus,\niam mente naufragauerat,\nbis mersus ille, quem carina fluctibus\ndemersit, error inferis.\npotuisset ille (se) periclo abrumpere,\nsed debitum morti caput\ncaptiua dignis mens auari uinculis\nadstrinxit in finem ligans.","t":"Whomever right faith in Christ had marked,\nhim life recognized as its own.\nYet there were added to the Christians\nsome not yet consecrated by this name,\nwhom flight, joined with theirs, saved from the deep,\nbecause they had clung to the Christians.\nFor with the faithless crowd of sailors\nno faithful man was drowned,\nso that God showed in a few\nthe clear truth of a great mystery:\nthat at the end of the world, when the nations are to be divided,\nthere will be a distinction among all,\nwhen the avenging angel will pass over\nthose marked beforehand on the face with the standard of the cross.\nSo in that ship no one was handed over to death\nwho was endowed with the truth.\nThe impious joined to Christians lived,\nas light conquered night.\nFor death had no power to add Christians\nto the dead,\nbecause the sign shines on the forehead of Christians,\nby which death, subdued, collapsed.\nThe captain himself, head of the lost ship,\nwas first among those who perished.\nFor before he perished shipwrecked in the sea,\nhe had already made shipwreck in mind;\ntwice drowned was he: the hull\ndrowned him in the waves, his error in hell.\nHe could have broken himself away from the danger,\nbut his captive mind, in the fitting chains of avarice,\nbound fast his head, owed to death,\ntying it to the end.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 24.129 (CSEL 30:210lines 129–160–211; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/24-129)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/24.161":{"o":"nam ne superstes nauis et mercis foret,\nnecem saluti praetulit.\nMartinianum iam supremo stamine\nmergentibus mixtum uiris\ntumultuantis excitat turbae sonus\nsomnoque mortis excitat.\nqui tunc remoto fessus in prorae sinu et\nsecurus innocentia,\nIonas ut olim uentre nauis abditus,\nsomnos anhelabat graues.\nsed excitatus luctuosis undique\npereuntium clamoribus\npedibusque turbae membra quassus omnia,\nduro cubili prosilit.\nplerisque mersis intus in nauis utero\nlaterum per oras, qua solent,\nut uela tollant siue contis subrigant\nnautae expediti currere,\ntabulis adhuc supernatabat extimis\noperta nauis gurgite;\nuiam salutis hac uia rimantibus\nMartinianus iungitur\net agente Christo de globo mortis fugax\ncomes fit euadentibus\nseseque saltu mittit in cumbam procul,\nquae plurimis portus fuit.\net paene morti derelictus haeserat\ncum classe mergendus mari,\nnisi Christus illum ceu manu prensum sua\nrapuisset e mortis lacu.","t":"For, lest he outlive the ship and the cargo,\nhe preferred death to safety.\nMartinianus, already at the last thread,\nmingled among the men going under,\nthe sound of the tumultuous crowd rouses\nand wakes from the sleep of death.\nHe was then, weary, in a remote nook of the prow,\nand secure in his innocence,\nlike Jonah once hidden in the belly of the ship,\nbreathing heavily in sleep.\nBut, roused by the mournful cries\nof the perishing on all sides,\nand all his limbs shaken by the feet of the crowd,\nhe leaps from his hard bed.\nWith most drowned within, in the belly of the ship,\nalong the edges of the sides, where sailors\nare wont to run, ready, to raise the sails\nor prop them with poles,\nthe ship, covered by the flood, was still floating\nby its outermost planks;\nMartinianus joins those searching out\nthe way of salvation by this way,\nand, Christ driving him, a fugitive from the mass of death,\nhe becomes the companion of those escaping,\nand with a leap throws himself far into the boat,\nwhich was a harbour for very many.\nAnd he would almost have stayed, left to death,\nto be sunk in the sea with the vessel,\nhad not Christ, as if seizing him with his own hand,\nsnatched him from the lake of death.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 24.161 (CSEL 30:211lines 161–190–212; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/24-161)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/24.191":{"o":"sicut recussis fugit olim uestibus\nIoseph furentem feminam,\nsic hic relictis omnibus nudus fuga\neuasit infidam ratem.\net sicut olim iussa Ionan obuio\nexcepit ore belua\net hiulca late lubricum per guttura\ntransmisit in uentrem suum,\nincolume corpus dente suspenso uorans\net quem uorabat non edens:\nsic hunc (ab) alta naue in undas cernuum\nsuscepit occurrens scapha\ntutoque uexit fida per noctem sinu,\ndonec referret portui.\nsed mentione magni uatis edita,\nin quo pii mysterii\nimago mortem triduani funeris\nreduci salute praetulit,\npaucis reflexo carminis uestigio\nrecurrere ad Ionan libet.\ncommenta domini mira; mersus aequore\nintactus undis fluctuat.\nuiuit uoratus, quique glutiuit manet\nuiuente ieiunus cibo,\net praeda cum sit, esca non est beluae\ndomoque uentris utitur.\no digna sancto claustra fugitiuo dei!\ncapitur mari, quo fugerat,\naltumque uastae missus in uentrem ferae\nuiuo tenetur carcere.\nde naue (iactus) perit et undis nauigat,\nexul soli, hospes sali;","t":"As Joseph once fled the raging woman,\nhis garment thrown back,\nso this man, everything left behind, naked,\nescaped the faithless ship by flight.\nAnd as once the beast, at command,\nreceived Jonah in its mouth as it met him\nand sent him, slippery, through its wide-gaping throat\ninto its belly,\nswallowing his body unharmed, its teeth held back,\nand not eating the one it devoured:\nso the skiff, coming to meet him, received him\nheadlong from the high ship into the waves,\nand carried him through the night in its faithful, safe bosom,\nuntil it brought him back to harbour.\nBut since mention has been made of the great prophet,\nin whom the image of a godly mystery\nforeshowed death in a three-day burial\nwith returning salvation,\nit pleases me, turning back the track of the song a little,\nto run back to Jonah.\nWondrous devices of the Lord: sunk in the sea,\nhe floats untouched by the waves.\nDevoured, he lives, and the one who swallowed him remains\nfasting while its food lives,\nand though he is its booty, he is not food for the beast,\nand he uses its belly as a house.\nO cloister worthy of God's holy fugitive!\nHe is caught by the sea, by which he had fled,\nand, sent deep into the belly of the vast beast,\nis held in a living prison.\nThrown from the ship, he perishes and sails on the waves,\nan exile from land, a guest of the sea;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 24.191 (CSEL 30:212lines 191–222–213; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/24-191)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/24.223":{"o":"spatiatur antro beluini corporis\ncaptiuus et liber reus.\nnam liber undis, intra mare (et) exter maris,\nnatat in natante belua,\nclaususque quam(quam) corpore exit ad deum\nuolans propheta spiritu.\ncorpus tenetur corpore, at mentis fugam\nterrena uincla non tenent.\ninclusus aluo carcerem rumpit prece\nauresque pertingit dei;\norationi liber et uinctus fugae\nfide sua sese arguit.\nnam qui putarat per mare euadi deum\net naue celari deo,\nnunc iste et intra beluam mersam mari\nadesse credat arbitrum.\niam me referre flexilis uerbi pedem\noportet ad Ionan meum,\nquem more coeti cumba suscepit capax\nuteroque conclusum suo\nuexit trementem frigore et formidine\nsaluumque terrae reddidit.\nmirum renarrat se per illud temporis,\ncum puppe praeceps ardua\nsaliens in illam decidisset nauculam\neoque uenisset loci,\nquo cumba multam duxerat rimis aquam\nolente sentinae lacu,\nstatim fouente frigidos artus deo\nquiete sopitum sacra\nnudumque et udum, fugere quae somnus solet,\ndormisse lecto mollius,\nspatioque toto, quo relatus litori est,\nsomno fuisse deditum,\nnec aqua excitatum qua madebat nec gelu,\nquod nuditate traxerat;","t":"he walks about in the cave of the beast's body,\na captive and a free defendant.\nFor, free from the waves, within the sea and outside the sea,\nhe swims in the swimming beast,\nand though shut in his body, the prophet goes out to God,\nflying in spirit.\nHis body is held by a body, but the flight of the mind\nearthly bonds do not hold.\nShut in the belly, he breaks his prison by prayer\nand reaches God's ears;\nfree for prayer and bound against flight,\nhe convicts himself by his own faith.\nFor he who had thought God could be escaped through the sea\nand that he could hide from God in a ship\nmust now believe that, even within a beast sunk in the sea,\nthe judge is present.\nNow I must bring back the foot of my pliant words\nto my own Jonah,\nwhom the capacious boat received in the manner of the whale\nand, shut in its belly,\ncarried, trembling with cold and fear,\nand returned safe to land.\nHe tells a wonder: that during that time,\nwhen, leaping headlong from the high stern,\nhe had fallen into that little boat\nand had come to that part of it\nwhere the boat had taken in much water through its cracks,\nwith a stinking pool of bilge,\nat once, God warming his cold limbs,\nhe was lulled by sacred rest,\nand, naked and wet, conditions which sleep usually flees,\nslept more softly than in a bed,\nand through the whole space of time in which he was brought back to shore\nhe was given over to sleep,\nnor was he wakened by the water with which he was soaked, nor by the cold\nhe had caught from his nakedness;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 24.223 (CSEL 30:213lines 223–258–215; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/24-223)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/24.259":{"o":"licet esset anni tempus autumnus tepens,\nsed naufragis hiems erat,\nquos perditorum dura damna tegminum\ngelidusque quassabat tremor.\naliud stupendum, quo fidelem gratiam\nMartiniani colligas,\ndilecte frater, accipe et lauda deum\nsanctumque fratrem amplectere:\nut adlabentem portui sensit ratem\nstridente harena litoris,\nabeunte somno fit sui tandem memor\nrecipitque sese, expergitur\net adiacentes pectori tangit suo\nepistolas apostoli.\nhunc in pauore codicem sed nesciens\nrebus relictis sumpserat,\nuel ille codex spiritu uiuens sacro\nnon sentienti adhaeserat.\nmetire, quaeso, quis nisi Christus suo\ndedit hunc ministro praesulem?\ntestatur iste cogitatum nec sibi\nillo pericli tempore,\nut inplicatam sarcinis membranulam\nmeminisset illinc tollere.\nquod si subisset in metu mentem suam,\nnon et uacasset quaerere.\nsed in suarum litterarum corpore\nPaulus magister adfuit\namansque puro corde lectorem sui\nde mortis abduxit manu;\niterum eximendos e maris fundo uiros\nlargitus est Paulo deus.","t":"Although the season of the year was mild autumn,\nyet for the shipwrecked it was winter,\nwhom the hard loss of their lost clothing\nand icy trembling were shaking.\nHear another marvel, from which you may gather\nthe faithful grace shown to Martinianus,\nbeloved brother, and praise God\nand embrace our holy brother:\nas he felt the boat gliding into harbour\nwith the sand of the shore grating,\nas sleep left him, he at last came to himself\nand recovered himself; he wakes\nand touches, lying against his breast,\nthe epistles of the apostle.\nThis book he had taken up in his fear, but unknowing,\nleaving all his things behind,\nor else that book, living by the Holy Spirit,\nhad clung to him without his feeling it.\nConsider, I pray, who but Christ\ngave this protector to his minister?\nHe testifies that it did not even occur to him\nat that time of danger\nto remember to take from there\nthe little parchment wrapped up in his packs.\nAnd even if it had come into his mind in his fear,\nhe would not have had time to look for it.\nBut in the body of his letters\nPaul the teacher was present,\nand, loving his reader with pure heart,\nled him away from the hand of death;\nagain God granted Paul men to be rescued\nfrom the bottom of the sea.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 24.259 (CSEL 30:215lines 259–290–216; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/24-259)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/24.291":{"o":"quae quondam in ipso nauigante apostolo\nfuit potestas gratiae,\nhaec nunc per eius suffragata litteras\nMartiniano et ceteris,\nqui Christianis tunc cohaeserunt fuga,\ndiscrimen a discrimine\ntutum parauit, ut fideles inpiis\ndiscriminarat naufragos.\nergo ut biremis adplicata litori\nexposuit umentes uiros,\nuitam tenentes et requirentes simul,\nopem saluti flagitant,\nne saeuiori fluctibus terrae dati\nalgu perirent et fame.\nsed propter inde posita Gallorum solo\nMassilia Graium filia,\nalumna sanctae ciuitas ecclesiae,\npandebat humanos sinus.\nurbem hanc petentes naufragi casum indicant,\nali tegique postulant.\nMartinianum suscipit fraternitas\ntectoque apricat et cibo.\nsed copiosa caritate pauperes\nstipem pusillam commodant.\nexigua largus pensat affectus data,\norando ditant hospitem\net spiritali diuitem uiatico\ncum pace dimittunt sua.\ntamen iste caligis uilibus donatus est,\nne nautico erraret pede,\nqui maluisset confoueri excalcius\nquam calciari frigidus.","t":"The power of grace which was once\nin the apostle himself when he sailed\nhas now, by the support of his letters,\nfor Martinianus and the others\nwho then clung to the Christians in their flight,\nprepared a safe outcome\nfrom the danger, as it had distinguished\nthe faithful from the impious among the shipwrecked.\nSo when the two-oared boat, brought to the shore,\nput out the wet men,\nholding on to life and at the same time seeking it,\nthey beg help for their survival,\nlest, given back to the land, more savage than the waves,\nthey should perish of cold and hunger.\nBut nearby, set on the soil of the Gauls,\nMassilia, daughter of the Greeks,\na city, nursling of the holy church,\nopened its humane bosom.\nSeeking this city, the shipwrecked tell of their misfortune\nand ask to be fed and clothed.\nThe brotherhood receives Martinianus\nand warms him with roof and food.\nBut the poor, with copious love,\nlend a tiny alms.\nGenerous affection makes up for the slight things given;\nthey enrich their guest by praying,\nand send him off with their peace,\nrich with spiritual provision for the road.\nYet he was given cheap boots,\nso that he would not wander with a sailor's bare foot,\nhe who would rather have been kept warm unshod\nthan be shod and cold.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 24.291 (CSEL 30:216lines 291–322–217; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/24-291)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/24.31":{"o":"namque ut profectus continenti litorum\nin alta processit freta,\niam nocte densa, sed sereno lucida\nridente tranquillo maris,\ncum sola cursus ordinarent sidera\nabsente tunc luna polo,\nnauem repente temporis longo putrem\nusus uehendi deserit,\nlaterumque laxis soluitur conpagibus\nundasque rimis accipit.\ncunctis soporem suaserat tranquillitas,\ntantum gubernator uigil\nlabente blandis classe securus uadis\niter secabat spumeum\net fortiores prouehendis cursibus\nauras uocabat sibilo.\ninterea nauis altius decrescere\ncrescente pletura sui,\ntabulisque sese latius laxantibus\nincurrit unda largior;\nquibusque nulli de salo fluctus erant\nin naue fluctus nascitur\net dormientum membra iam subterluens\nudo rigore suscitat.\nut sensit unus, mox et alter, omnibus\nformido somnum discutit.\ntiment pauore mortis et causas adhuc\ntimoris ignorant sui.\nqua miseri fugiant pelagus infestum uia?\nmerguntur in naui sua.\nsi concitata feruerent uentis freta,\nnaui teneretur salus;","t":"For when, setting out from the coasts of the mainland,\nhe advanced into the deep straits,\nnow in dense night, but bright with a serene sky,\nthe sea smiling with calm,\nwhen the stars alone ordered the course,\nthe moon being then absent from the sky,\nsuddenly the ship, rotten with long time,\nfails in its service of carrying,\nand, its sides' joints loosened, comes apart\nand takes in the waves through its cracks.\nThe calm had persuaded all to sleep;\nonly the helmsman, wakeful,\nsecure as the vessel glided on smooth waters,\nwas cutting his foamy way\nand with whistling calling up stronger breezes\nto carry the course forward.\nMeanwhile the ship sank lower,\nas its filling grew,\nand, the planks gaping wider,\na larger wave ran in;\nand for those who had no waves from the open sea,\na wave is born in the ship\nand, now washing beneath the limbs of the sleepers,\nwakes them with wet chill.\nAs one felt it, then another, dread\nshakes off sleep from all.\nThey fear with terror of death and still\ndo not know the causes of their fear.\nBy what way can the wretched flee the hostile sea?\nThey are sinking in their own ship.\nIf the seas boiled, stirred by winds,\nsafety would be kept in the ship;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 24.31 (CSEL 30:207lines 31–62–208; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/24-31)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/24.323":{"o":"sed ire terra quamlibet passus mare\nnudi pudore respuit,\nreputans et illud, ne putaretur lucri\namore nudum fingere,\nsi ueste tectus pannea peruaderet\ncastella uicos oppida,\nquali uagari per mare et terras solent\nauara mendicabula,\nqui deierando monachos se uel naufragos\nnomen casumque uenditant.\nuerum iste noster Christianus quamlibet\net naufragus uere foret,\nsimilis putari praecauens fallentibus\naliosque se falli negans,\nnon uult uiator esse, ne nomen nouum\nadquirat inpostor sibi,\nmauultque uitae ferre iactum nauigans\nquam frontis aestum inambulans.\npanno ergo sordens, calciamento nitens,\nfluitare rursus eligit\nrepetitque portum et terreae tuto uiae\npraeuertit intutum maris,\nut naue tectus usque uoti litora\nuelut expeditus nauita\nde nuditatis nauticae consortio\nnudi pudorem euaderet.\nfauens fideli rex deus constantiae\nprosequitur audacem fidem\nuicesque mutans dura succedentibus\naduersa pensat prosperis\nsolidoque nauem paginatam robore\nad peruehendum praeparat;","t":"But though he would have endured going by land after the sea,\nhe refused out of shame at his nakedness,\nreckoning this too: lest he be thought to feign nakedness\nfor love of gain,\nif, covered with a ragged garment, he should go through\nforts, villages, towns,\nlike the greedy beggars who are wont\nto wander through sea and lands,\nwho, swearing falsely that they are monks or shipwrecked,\nsell the name and the misfortune.\nBut this Christian of ours, though\nhe was truly shipwrecked,\ntaking care not to be thought like deceivers,\nand refusing to deceive others himself,\ndoes not want to be a traveller, lest he acquire\nthe new name of impostor for himself,\nand prefers to bear the tossing of life by sailing\nthan the blushing of his face by walking.\nSo, shabby in rags, shining in his shoes,\nhe chooses to float again,\nand seeks the port again, and prefers the unsafety of the sea\nto the safety of the land road,\nso that, sheltered by the ship as far as the shores of his vow,\nlike an unencumbered sailor\nin the company of sailors' nakedness,\nhe might escape the shame of nakedness.\nGod the King, favouring faithful constancy,\nattends his bold faith,\nand, changing turns, makes up for hard\nadversities with prosperities that follow,\nand prepares a ship planked with solid timber\nto carry him across;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 24.323 (CSEL 30:217lines 323–354–218; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/24-323)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/24.355":{"o":"pacem procellis inperat, nubes fugat\ncursumque in aura dirigit,\ntali quiete temperans caelum et mare,\nne pace cursus haereat,\npericulosa nec ratem flatu graui\nperurgeat uelocitas.\nsic iste Christo blandiente molliter\nemensus asperum mare\nlonginquiorem portum ab urbe adlabitur,\ncui Centum Cellas nomen est,\nabinde nauis promouenda longius\nintraret ut portum phari.\nuix iste credens se potitum litore\ntelluris optatae sibi,\nnaui relicta laetus insultat solum\nRomamque festinat pedes;\nillic amica tecta fratrum ciuium\noptatus hospes inuenit.\nrespirat animo, conquiescit corpore,\ndat accipitque gaudia,\npatriam fruentes inuicem reddunt sibi,\ndeo fatentur gratias.\nMartinianus maesta gaudens indicat,\ntolerata narrans fratribus.\nlacrimas in ipsis gratulationibus\nmiscent profuso pectore.\nTheridius aberat inde tunc mecum meus\nuir, munus a Christo mihi,\nuir pacis et uir legis et uir gratiae,\nrequies uoluptas mens mea;\nhuius cohospes mente Paulinus pia\nin urbe seruabat domum.","t":"he commands peace to the storms, puts clouds to flight,\nand directs the course in the breeze,\ntempering sky and sea with such quiet\nthat the course does not stall in calm,\nnor does dangerous speed press the ship\nwith heavy blast.\nSo this man, Christ gently soothing,\nhaving crossed the rough sea,\nglides into a harbour farther from the city,\nwhose name is Centum Cellae,\nsince from there the ship was to be brought on further\nto enter the harbour of the lighthouse.\nScarcely believing he had reached the shore\nof the land he longed for,\nleaving the ship, he gladly leaps on the ground\nand hastens on foot to Rome;\nthere he finds, a longed-for guest,\nthe friendly roofs of brother citizens.\nHe breathes again in mind, rests in body,\ngives and receives joys;\nenjoying their homeland, they restore it to each other,\nand confess thanks to God.\nMartinianus, rejoicing, tells sad things,\nrelating to the brothers what he had endured.\nThey mingle tears in the very congratulations,\nwith overflowing hearts.\nTheridius, my man, was then away from there with me,\na gift to me from Christ,\na man of peace, a man of law, a man of grace,\nmy rest, my delight, my mind;\nhis fellow guest, Paulinus, with godly mind,\nwas keeping the house in the city.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 24.355 (CSEL 30:218lines 355–386–219; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/24-355)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/24.387":{"o":"Martinianum hic ueste nudat naufraga\net ueste coperit sua\ndonumque tunicae, qua sodalem ornauerat,\ngeminat cucullae munere.\nlargitor ipse tunc uicissim ut naufragus\nin ueste mansit unica.\npost haec et ad nos pergere inceptat uiam,\nqua sternit aggerem silex,\ncui munitor Appius nomen dedit.\nterit terentem tramitem;\nqui ueste trita nauigator uenerat\npedes uiator et terit.\nsed ne uel ista penitus inmunis uia\nsolitis uacaret casibus,\ninpune pigram non tulit sententiam,\nqua tendere ingressum piget.\nab urbe Capua, quae loco sedis meae\nbis dena distat milia,\nnanctus uacantem sarcina mulum, ut solent\niumenta reuocari domum,\nparuo per iter breue aere conductum sedet;\nmedioque mox spatio uiae\nmuli pauore sessor excussus procul\nuectore subducto cadit.\nin ora lapsus ora non laedit sua,\nin saxa fusus et rubos,\nnec sente uultum nec lapide artus contudit,\nFelicis exceptus manu;","t":"He strips Martinianus here of his shipwrecked clothing\nand covers him with his own clothing,\nand doubles the gift of the tunic with which he had clothed his companion\nwith the gift of a hooded cloak.\nThe giver himself then in turn, like one shipwrecked,\nremained in a single garment.\nAfter this Martinianus begins to make his way to us too,\nwhere flint paves the highway\nto which its builder Appius gave his name.\nHe treads the much-trodden track;\nhe who had come as a sailor in worn clothing\ntreads it on foot as a traveller.\nBut lest even this road be wholly free\nand empty of the usual mishaps,\nhe did not escape unpunished the lazy decision\nby which walking irks him.\nFrom the city of Capua, which is twenty miles\nfrom the place of my dwelling,\nhaving found a mule empty of burden, as pack animals\nare usually sent back home,\nhe sits on it, hired for a short way for a small sum;\nand soon in the middle of the road,\nthe rider, thrown far off by the mule's fright,\nfalls as his carrier is taken from under him.\nFalling on his face, he does not hurt his face;\nthrown on stones and brambles,\nhe bruised neither face with thorn nor limbs with stone,\ncaught by the hand of Felix;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 24.387 (CSEL 30:219lines 387–414–220; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/24-387)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/24.415":{"o":"qui iam propinquantem aedibus fratrem suis\nnon passus occursu mali\nsuis periclum in finibus capessere\nhostem remouit inuidum,\net hunc fidelis conpotem uoti suis\nconfessor induxit locis\nnostrisque iuxta sedibus gratum intulit\nFelix patronus hospitem.\npatriam hic rogatus indicat, casus refert,\nde te beata nuntiat.\nreferensque paucos de tuis scriptis logos,\nquasi labra melle asperserit,\nsic de fauorum mihi tuorum guttulis\ndulcissimum gustum offerens,\nmagis coegit quas auenti non dabat\ndesiderari litteras;\nsed cum ipse causa litterarum uenerit,\net litteras uidi tuas,\nnon atramento calami sed mentis stilo\nin fratre praescriptas bono.\nignotus ante mox ut esse cognitus\ncoepit, fit et carissimus.\nab intus eius emicabat gratia\nsermone mentis nuntio.\nbonus, inquit, omnis de bono profert bona,\net arborem fructu uides;\nsic iste uerbo suauis et castus fide\net fronte honesta lucidus,\ndulci benignae caritatis flumine\nin nostra fluxit uiscera.\nsuper haec amicum merito se iactans tuum,\nquo plus amaretur, dabat.","t":"who, not allowing the brother, already approaching his buildings,\nto meet danger in his own territory\nby the encounter with evil,\nremoved the envious enemy;\nand the faithful confessor brought him, his vow fulfilled,\ninto his places,\nand Felix the patron brought him in, a welcome guest,\nto our dwellings nearby.\nAsked about his homeland, he tells it, recounts his misfortunes,\nand gives blessed news of you.\nAnd relating a few words from your writings,\nas if he had sprinkled my lips with honey,\nso, offering me the sweetest taste\nfrom the little drops of your honeycombs,\nhe made me long the more for the letters\nwhich he could not give me in my eagerness;\nbut since he himself came as the reason for the letters,\nI saw your letters too,\nwritten not with the ink of a pen but with the stylus\nof the mind in a good brother.\nUnknown before, as soon as he began to be known,\nhe became most dear as well.\nGrace shone out from within him,\nwith speech as the messenger of the mind.\n“The good man,” it says, “brings forth all good things from the good,”\nand you know the tree by its fruit;\nso this man, sweet in word, chaste in faith,\nand shining with honest brow,\nflowed into our inmost being\nwith a sweet stream of kindly love.\nAbove all, boasting deservedly that he was your friend,\nhe gave this reason to be loved the more.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 24.415 (CSEL 30:220lines 415–446–221; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/24-415)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/24.447":{"o":"nec enim ulla nocti et lumini concordia est,\nlupus nec agno congruit.\nhinc et propheta, sicut, inquit, alites\npares in unum conuolant,\nsic semper apta qualitate moribus\niustitia concurrit bonis.\nMartinianum sic tibi longe parem\ngermana mens contexuit,\nspeculumque mentis et fidei instar tuae\nest talium dilectio.\nbenedictus auctor fonsque sanctorum deus\nnon stulta iam tantum neque\ninfirma mundi defluentis eligit,\nut alta mundi destruat;\nsed, ut ipse dixit, cuncta iam sursum trahens\net alta mundi uindicat.\nquoniam ipse fecit et pusillum et maximum,\nutrosque iungit gratia,\net quos creator opere in uno condidit,\nhos recreat uno munere.\ncommunis omnes clausit infidelitas,\nmediatur ut cunctis fides,\nut fiat omnis subditus mundus deo\nomnisque lingua et dignitas\nsuper omne Iesum nomen unum in gloria\nregnare fateatur patris.\nhuic iam et potentes saeculi curuant genu\ndeduntque ceruices deo,\nregemque Christum confitentur principes\net sceptra submittunt cruci.\ncoeunt in unum purpurae et panni gregem\npastore concordes deo.","t":"For there is no harmony between night and light,\nnor does the wolf agree with the lamb.\nHence also the prophet says: “As birds\nof a kind fly together into one,\nso justice always comes together with the good,\nfitting in quality with their ways.”\nSo a kindred mind has woven Martinianus\nto you, equal to you though far away,\nand the love of such men is the mirror of your mind\nand the image of your faith.\nGod, the blessed author and fountain of the saints,\nnow chooses not only the foolish and the weak\nof the passing world,\nto destroy the lofty things of the world;\nbut, as he himself said, now drawing all things upward,\nhe claims also the lofty things of the world.\nSince he himself made both the small and the great,\nhe joins both by grace,\nand those whom the Creator founded in one work\nhe re-creates by one gift.\nCommon unbelief has shut up all,\nthat faith may mediate for all,\nso that the whole world may be subject to God,\nand every tongue and every rank\nmay confess that Jesus, the one name above every name,\nreigns in the glory of the Father.\nTo him now even the powerful of the world bend the knee\nand give their necks to God,\nand princes confess Christ as King\nand submit their sceptres to the cross.\nPurple and rags come together into one flock,\nin harmony under God as shepherd.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 24.447 (CSEL 30:221lines 447–478–222; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/24-447)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/24.479":{"o":"commune regnum, sanguis unus omnibus,\nsummis et imis, Christus est,\nqui te decorum gloriosis saeculi,\nhonore litteris domo,\nditauit humili corde, ut aeternam tibi\nconferret altitudinem\net ut coheres diuitum caeli (fores),\nistic amator pauperum.\nbeatus es nunc mente pauper (sed) spei\ndiues, qua gaudent pauperes,\nqui defrudati lubricis mundi bonis,\ncaeli fruentur gaudiis.\nhos inter alto in Abrahae patris sinu\nsecretum ab igne diuitum et\nrefrigerantem roribus uitae locum\ndeus uiuorum praeparat.\ninsigne tantae iam spei certum tibi\nmagno coruscat pignore,\nplantata domino in atriis Hierusales\ntui propage germinis.\nnamque ut fideli te patri conponeret,\na te poposcit filium,\nin semine Isac semen adscribens tuum\nipsumque ut Isac expetens,\nquem tu Abramiae caritatis aemulus\nuiuam dedisti uictimam\ndeoque tradens iam peremisti tibi,\nut saluum haberes firmius.\nnunc iste uobis exter et uester manet,\nterrestris exsors saeculi.","t":"A common kingdom, one blood for all,\nhighest and lowest, is Christ,\nwho, though you were adorned among the glorious of the world\nin honour, letters and family,\nenriched you with a humble heart, so as to confer\neternal height on you,\nand that you might be co-heir of the rich of heaven,\nhere a lover of the poor.\nBlessed are you now, poor in mind, but rich\nin the hope in which the poor rejoice,\nwho, cheated of the slippery goods of the world,\nwill enjoy the joys of heaven.\nFor them, in the deep bosom of father Abraham,\nthe God of the living prepares a place\nset apart from the fire of the rich and\nrefreshing with the dews of life.\nThe sure token of so great a hope already\nshines for you with a great pledge,\nthe offshoot of your stock planted for the Lord\nin the courts of Jerusalem.\nFor, to make you like the faithful father,\nhe asked a son of you,\nenrolling your seed in the seed of Isaac\nand asking for him as for Isaac,\nwhom you, rival of Abraham's love,\ngave as a living victim,\nand, handing him over to God, you have now put him to death for yourself,\nthat you might hold him safe more firmly.\nNow he remains a stranger to you and yours,\nwithout share in the earthly world.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 24.479 (CSEL 30:222lines 479–508–223; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/24-479)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/24.509":{"o":"de matris aluo promptus, antequam patrem\nmatremque cognosset suam\nbonumue saperet aut malum discerneret,\nbeatus elegit bonum.\net nunc in aula paruulus ludit dei\net ore lactanti canit:\nde uentre matris et die prima mihi\ntu, Christe, protector meus.\naudistis et uos, quod beatis dicitur:\npotens erit semen tuum.\nhabes et illud: uentris a fructu tui\nin sedibus ponam meis.\nqui sermo Dauid quamlibet Christum sonet,\nin Christo et illis concinit,\nqui Christiani corporis collegio\nin sede ponentur dei.\nuobis et Annae sternitur consortium\ninfantis exemplo sacri.\nSamuel et iste creuit in templo dei,\nnunc agnus et pastor dehinc.\ncontexat illi sedulae matris manus\nephod staturae congruum,\nquem spiritalis in dei uerbo sacris\ndoctrina tegat liciis.\nsitque in superna ueste reginae aureis\nintextus ipse fimbriis,\nsanctumque Christo Nazarenus uerticem\npastis adornet crinibus,\nanimaeque pulchrum crine uirtutis caput\narmetur operosa fide.\nnec huius umquam desecans nouacula\nascendat in damnum comae.","t":"Ready from his mother's womb, before he knew\nhis father and his mother,\nor tasted good or could distinguish evil,\nblessed, he chose the good.\nAnd now the little one plays in the court of God\nand sings with milky mouth:\n“From my mother's womb and from the first day\nyou, Christ, are my protector.”\nYou too have heard what is said to the blessed:\n“Your seed will be mighty.”\nYou have this too: “Of the fruit of your womb\nI will set on my throne.”\nThis word of David, though it speaks of Christ,\nin Christ agrees also with those\nwho in the fellowship of the Christian body\nwill be set on God's throne.\nFor you, fellowship with Hannah is laid open\nby the example of the sacred infant.\nThis boy too, a Samuel, has grown in the temple of God,\nnow a lamb and hereafter a shepherd.\nLet the hand of his diligent mother weave him\nan ephod suited to his stature,\nwhich spiritual teaching in God's word\nmay cover with sacred threads.\nAnd let him be woven into the golden fringes\nof the queen's garment above,\nand as a Nazirite let him adorn his head, holy to Christ,\nwith nourished hair,\nand let the beautiful head of his soul be armed\nwith the hair of virtue, with active faith.\nAnd let no razor ever go up on it,\ncutting it, to the loss of his hair.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 24.509 (CSEL 30:223lines 509–540–224; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/24-509)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/24.541":{"o":"et ut ille Samso ui capillorum potens,\nuirtute crinitus sacra,\nsternat leonem strangulatum fortibus\norationum brachiis\ndulcemque fructum nobilis uictoriae\ndecerpat ore mortui.\nsed ab hoc triumpho caueat exemplo sibi\naliena adire foedera.\nallophyla mulier est mihi lex carnea\nblandis dolosa retibus.\nsi lege mentis ista sit lex fortior,\nin iura peccati trahet;\nmalesuada uerbis fraudis arte dulcibus\nanimum uirilem effeminat;\nexcaecat oculos mentis et radit caput,\nspolians et exarmans fidem.\nhac parte Samso nolo sit noster puer,\nne misceatur copulae,\nquam consequatur protinus captiuitas\ninfirmitas et caecitas,\nlicet ille fortis postea receperit\nrobur recretis crinibus\nmanuque ductus de mola ad ludibrium\nhostilis exultantiae\nin caecitate corporis mente intuens\nuocarit ultorem deum.\net restituto mox capillis robore\nprostrauit hostilem domum;","t":"And like that Samson, mighty by the strength of his hair,\nlong-haired with sacred power,\nlet him lay low the lion, strangled by the strong\narms of prayer,\nand gather the sweet fruit of noble victory\nfrom the mouth of the dead beast.\nBut after this triumph let him beware, by Samson's example,\nof approaching foreign unions.\nThe foreign woman, for me, is the law of the flesh,\ndeceitful with alluring nets.\nIf this law should be stronger than the law of the mind,\nit will drag him into the rule of sin;\nevil-counselling, with sweet words by the art of fraud,\nit makes a manly mind effeminate;\nit blinds the eyes of the mind and shaves the head,\ndespoiling and disarming faith.\nIn this respect I do not want our boy to be a Samson,\nlest he be mingled in a union\nwhich is followed at once by captivity,\nweakness and blindness,\nalthough that strong man afterward recovered\nstrength with his hair regrown,\nand, led by the hand from the mill to be the sport\nof enemy exultation,\ngazing with his mind in the blindness of his body,\ncalled on God the avenger.\nAnd soon, his strength restored with his hair,\nhe laid low the enemy's house;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 24.541 (CSEL 30:224lines 541–568–225; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/24-541)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/24.569":{"o":"cuius columnas fortior saxis manus\nut clausit amplexu graui,\nconlapsa fulcris tecta subductis humo\ncecidere in ipsum; sed tamen\net morte (in) ipsa praepotens heros dei\nhostes ruinae miscuit\net gloriosa morte pensauit sibi\nuitae subactae dedecus.\nqui seruus hoste gloriante uixerat,\nhoste obruto uictor cadit\net plura moriens interemit milia,\nquam uiuus interfecerat.\nimitetur istam filius noster uolo\nsic morte mortem, ut permanens\nin carne carnem uincat et uiuat deo,\npeccata carnis opprimens.\nsed nolo carnis gaudiis ut noxiae\ndolis subactus feminae\naddicat animum, postea fiat hostium,\nuirtute nudus gratiae.\nSamuel in ista parte sit, qua iugiter\nsanctus neque accisus comam\nper tota uitae tempora inrupto sacrum\npertexat aeuum stamine\net inchoatam seruitute infantiam\nusque ad senectam pensitet.\noccidat Amalech et pie saeuus deo\npeccata carnis immolet,\nquibus peremptis interierit zabulus,\ninuisus aeternum deo.\nSaul in hoc deficiat et regnet Dauid;","t":"when his hand, stronger than stones, enclosed\nits columns in a heavy embrace,\nthe roofs, their props removed, collapsed to the ground\nand fell on him; yet\neven in death itself the mighty hero of God\nmixed his enemies in the ruin,\nand by a glorious death made up for himself\nthe disgrace of a subdued life.\nHe who had lived a slave while the enemy gloried,\nfalls a victor, with the enemy overwhelmed,\nand dying killed more thousands\nthan he had slain living.\nI want our son to imitate this:\ndeath by death, so that, remaining\nin the flesh, he may conquer the flesh and live to God,\ncrushing the sins of the flesh.\nBut I do not want him, subdued by the wiles of a harmful woman,\nto give over his mind to the joys of the flesh,\nand afterward become the enemies' prey,\nstripped of the strength of grace.\nLet him be Samuel in this respect: that, always\nholy and with hair uncut,\nthrough all the times of his life he may weave his sacred\nage with unbroken thread,\nand repay to old age the infancy\nbegun in service.\nLet him kill Amalek and, savage for God in godliness,\nsacrifice the sins of the flesh,\nby whose slaying the devil will have perished,\neternally hateful to God.\nLet Saul fail in him, and David reign;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 24.569 (CSEL 30:225lines 569–599–226; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/24-569)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/24.600":{"o":"pusillus altum destruat,\nut non sit altus spiritu superbiae\nnec liuidus zeli malo,\nsed corde in humili celsa uirtutum gerens\nascendat in regni thronum,\net illa Samso gesta, quae priora sunt,\nsequatur, ut restes nouas\nceu fila rumpat, nec fidem prodat suam,\nne perdat ignauus comam.\ncrinitus operum uiribus caelestium,\npraetenta rumpet uincula,\npalos refiget, mille prosternet uiros\nuna subactos dextera,\nquia nostra uirtus et caput Christus deus,\nqui dextera et uirtus dei est;\neius potentes mille serpentem dolis\nnos adpetentem uincimus.\nsit fortis anima mortificans asinum suum,\npigri iumentum corporis.\ndecoctus umor sobriis laboribus\npallore uultum liuidet,\net tribulata carne uictrix castitas\nconsumat ignes criminum.\nexterior etenim noster ut corrumpitur\nterente continentia,\ntunc innouatur qui intus est uicti potens\ninfirmitate corporis.\ntunc mille a latere, dena (a) dextris milia\narente maxilla cadent,\nsi mala nostra salua fiat otio,\nquae est usu edendi mobilis,\nquia suculenti corporis licentia\nretunditur ieiuniis.","t":"let the small destroy the lofty,\nso that he may not be lofty with the spirit of pride\nnor livid with the evil of jealousy,\nbut, with humble heart doing lofty deeds of virtue,\nmay ascend the throne of the kingdom;\nand let him follow those earlier deeds of Samson,\nso as to break new ropes\nlike threads, and not betray his faith,\nlest, cowardly, he lose his hair.\nLong-haired with the strength of heavenly works,\nhe will break the bonds stretched round him,\npull up the stakes, lay low a thousand men\nsubdued by one right hand,\nbecause our strength and head is Christ God,\nwho is the right hand and the power of God;\nby his power we conquer the serpent\nof a thousand wiles who attacks us.\nLet the soul be strong, putting to death its ass,\nthe beast of the sluggish body.\nLet moisture, boiled away by sober labours,\nmake the face pale and livid,\nand let victorious chastity, the flesh afflicted,\nconsume the fires of sins.\nFor as our outer man is worn down\nby the wearing of continence,\nthen he who is within is renewed, made strong\nby the weakness of the conquered body.\nThen a thousand will fall at your side, ten thousand at your right,\nby a dry jawbone,\nif our jaw is kept safe by idleness,\nthe jaw which is mobile with the use of eating,\nbecause the licence of a juicy body\nis blunted by fasts.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 24.600 (CSEL 30:226lines 600–632–227; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/24-600)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/24.63":{"o":"intra carinae uiscera infuso mari\nquo uita capietur loco?\nquis portus illis, quis et in naui mare est,\nquod intus oppressos necat?\nsed adusque portus et salus cunctis deus\nmanum paternam porrigit\net inter alta medii dorsa gurgitis\npietatis expandit sinum,\nquo abrupta mortis incidentes excipit\net in uado uitae locat.\nscapham sequacem quadriremis machinae\nad hanc opem parauerat,\nut quos ab illa plebe nauigantium\nseruare legisset deus,\nsusciperet illa, quae ad dehiscentem mari\nclassem adnatabat comminus.\nhanc ipse nauis rector et cum litore\nin alta primo solueret,\nNouatianus ille, discissam fidem\nin corde portans naufrago,\nhomo mortis (itaque) et apta morti cogitans,\nde more noluit suo,\nut esset onerum portio. in nauem suam\nproperat statim conscendere,\net cum periclo stringeretur ultimo,\nmolitus est expellere,\nut fune rupto, quo cohaerebat rati,\ndimitteretur aequori.\nsed plurimorum uoce uictus obuia\nab utroque mansit inritus,\nquia praeualebat omnium sententia\nauctore Christo fortior,\nut mox salubri barca perfugio foret\npuppi superstes obrutae.","t":"with the sea poured within the bowels of the hull,\nin what place will life be found?\nWhat harbour have they, for whom the sea is inside the ship,\nkilling them, overwhelmed within?\nBut God stretches out his fatherly hand to all,\neven to harbour and salvation,\nand between the high backs of the mid-flood\nspreads the bosom of kindness,\nby which he catches those falling into the abyss of death\nand sets them in the shallows of life.\nHe had prepared for this help a skiff\nfollowing the four-banked craft,\nso that those whom God had chosen to save\nfrom that crowd of sailors\nit might take up, swimming close beside\nthe ship gaping in the sea.\nThe master of the ship himself, when he first\nset loose from the shore into the deep,\nthat Novatianist, carrying a split faith\nin his shipwrecked heart,\na man of death, and so thinking things fit for death,\nas was his habit, did not want this skiff\nto be part of the load. Now he hastens at once\nto climb into this boat of his,\nand when he was pressed by the final danger,\nhe strove to push it off,\nso that, the rope by which it was attached to the ship broken,\nit might be let go on the sea.\nBut, overcome by the voices of many opposing him\nfrom both sides, he stayed, frustrated,\nbecause the opinion of all prevailed,\nstronger with Christ as its author,\nso that soon the boat might be a saving refuge,\nsurviving the overwhelmed stern.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 24.63 (CSEL 30:208lines 63–96–209; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/24-63)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/24.633":{"o":"et tunc triumphus fonsque nobis nascitur\nin arefactis ossibus.\nmaxilla telum proelianti quae dedit\ndat aestuanti poculum\nieiuna suci carnis ossa mortuae\nsancto rigante spiritu.\nsed quae ante sanctis in figuram gesta sunt,\nnobis in actum scripta sunt,\nut quod parentes gestitarunt corpore\nnos actitemus spiritu.\nfluxere uetera, cuncta facta sunt noua,\nuacuauit umbram ueritas.\nadest salutis iam dies, hiems abit\net terra uernat floribus.\naudita iam uox turturis tempus canit\nincisionis adfore.\nepulemur ergo uetere fermento sine\nin ueritatis azymis,\nquia Pascha nostrum Christus inmolatus est\nintraque nos regnum dei est.\nquare uetustis absoluti legibus\niam non in umbra degimus,\nquos nube legis et statutorum iugo\nquasi comarum sarcina\nChristus leuauit ipse, filius dei,\nfactus redemptis in caput.\nquo capite liberi super taetrum caput\ndracone uicto incedimus.\nillos decebat inpedimentum comae\numbraculumque uerticis,\nquibus tegebat corda uelamen sacra\nobnubilans mysteria.","t":"And then a triumph and a fountain is born for us\nin dried-up bones.\nThe jawbone that gave a weapon to the fighter\ngives a cup to him who burns with thirst:\nbones fasting from the juice of dead flesh,\nas the Holy Spirit waters them.\nBut the things which were done before by the saints as a figure\nwere written for us to put into action,\nso that what our fathers carried out in the body\nwe may carry out in the spirit.\nThe old things have flowed away, all things have been made new;\ntruth has emptied the shadow.\nThe day of salvation is already here, winter goes away,\nand the earth blossoms with flowers.\nThe voice of the turtledove, now heard, sings that the time\nof pruning is at hand.\nLet us feast, then, without the old leaven,\nin the unleavened bread of truth,\nbecause Christ our Passover has been sacrificed,\nand the kingdom of God is within us.\nTherefore, released from the old laws,\nwe no longer live in shadow,\nwe whom Christ himself, the Son of God, made head for the redeemed,\nhas relieved of the cloud of the law and the yoke of statutes,\nas of a burden of hair.\nWith this head we walk free over the foul head,\nthe dragon conquered.\nFor them the hindrance of hair was fitting,\nand the shade of the head,\nwhose hearts a veil covered,\nclouding the sacred mysteries.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 24.633 (CSEL 30:227lines 633–664–228; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/24-633)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/24.665":{"o":"at nos remoto litterae uelamine\nin luce corporis sui\nenubilatam ueritatem cernimus,\nfaciem reuelati fide.\npuer ergo noster legis atque gratiae\nalumnus ex utroque sit\nin spiritalem conparatus gloriam,\nut uetera promat et noua.\nfortis pudicis actibus crines agat\nferrumque damni nesciat,\nut a machaera noxiorum dogmatum\nconseruet intactam fidem.\nsed rursus idem et euangelico desuper\nmentem retectus lumine,\nponat capillos oneris et uelaminis\nseruus fidei et liber fide.\nhunc lacte primo per prophetarum ubera\nlex paedagoga nutriat,\nhunc angelorum pane dulcis gratia\net melle de petra cibet.\ninebrietur sobriante poculo\nde fonte sancti spiritus.\net ipse tu mox copulatus filiis\nut palma florescas deo.\net ecce coniux in iugo Christi tua\nut uitis exundat bona,\ndomi deoque costa fortis haec tibi\nlateribus in domus tuae,\ncuras mariti sustinens, curans fidem,\nsancti corona coniugis,\nin castitate liberos enutriens\nuitam nouellantes deo.","t":"But we, the veil of the letter removed,\nin the light of his body\nsee the truth unclouded,\nour face unveiled by faith.\nSo let our boy be a nursling of law and grace,\nof both,\nfitted for spiritual glory,\nso that he may bring out things old and new.\nStrong with chaste acts, let him grow his hair\nand not know the iron of loss,\nso that he may keep his faith untouched\nby the sword of harmful doctrines.\nBut again let the same boy, his mind uncovered from above\nby the light of the gospel,\nlay aside the hair of burden and veil,\na servant of faith and free by faith.\nLet the law, as tutor, nourish him first with milk\nthrough the breasts of the prophets;\nlet sweet grace feed him with the bread of angels\nand with honey from the rock.\nLet him be made drunk with the sobering cup\nfrom the fountain of the Holy Spirit.\nAnd you yourself soon, joined to your children,\nmay you flourish for God like a palm.\nAnd see, your wife in the yoke of Christ\noverflows like a good vine,\nthis strong rib for you at home and for God,\non the sides of your house,\nbearing her husband's cares, caring for faith,\nthe crown of her holy husband,\nnourishing your children in chastity,\nrenewing their life for God.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 24.665 (CSEL 30:228lines 665–696–229; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/24-665)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/24.697":{"o":"hunc namque uestra uite fusum palmitem\nsic credo firmandum deo,\nradicis ipse ramus ut radix suae\nsecum suam stirpem trahat.\nut ille quondam prouidentia dei\ndistractus in seruum puer\nad arua frugum missus est, ut et patrem\npraeiret et fratres suos,\nqui mox per orbem consecutura fame\npatris altor et fratrum foret,\nsic iste forsitam in sacram panis domum\nuos antecessit filius,\nut et parentes pascat et fratres suos\nin istius mundi fame,\nubi terra tribulos parere nobis largior\neget bonorum frugibus.\net hic spadoni uenditus dici potest,\nquia castitatis seruus est,\net qui in Seueri ius manumque est traditus\nspadonis ob regnum dei,\nquo nutriente roboratus in fidem\net castitatem masculam,\ninretientis saeculi pompam inlicem\nut inpudentem feminam\ncasto superbus respuet fastidio\nnudaque uitabit fuga\net anteuertet gaudiis letalibus\npoenas salutares pati.\nut ille quondam, sic modo iste carcerem\npro castitate perferat,\nut a iuuenta singulariter sedens\ntacitaque seclusus domo\namet quietae tecta solitudinis,\nspinis et aures sepiat.","t":"For I believe this branch, spread from your vine,\nis to be strengthened by God thus,\nthat the branch may himself become the root of his root\nand draw his stock with him.\nAs that boy of old, by God's providence,\nsold away into slavery,\nwas sent to the fields of grain, so that he might go before\nhis father and his brothers,\nand soon, when famine followed through the world,\nbe the feeder of his father and brothers,\nso this son has perhaps gone before you\ninto the sacred house of bread,\nso that he may feed his parents and his brothers\nin the famine of this world,\nwhere the earth, more generous in bearing thistles for us,\nlacks the fruits of good things.\nAnd this one can be said to have been sold to a eunuch,\nbecause he is the slave of chastity,\nhe who has been handed over to the authority and hand of Severus,\na eunuch for the kingdom of God,\nby whose nurture, strengthened in faith\nand manly chastity,\nhe will spit out with chaste, proud disdain\nthe enticing pomp of the ensnaring world,\nlike a shameless woman,\nand escape it by naked flight,\nand choose to suffer saving punishments\nrather than deadly joys.\nAs that man once did, so now may this one endure prison\nfor chastity,\nso that from youth, sitting alone\nand secluded in a silent house,\nhe may love the roofs of quiet solitude\nand hedge his ears with thorns.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 24.697 (CSEL 30:229lines 697–730–230; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/24-697)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/24.731":{"o":"domibus ciborum praeferat luctus domum,\nut gaudium fletu serat\nseseque duris sponte nectat legibus,\nculpae ut resoluat uinculis\npatientiaeque conpedem inponat sibi,\nnec sede nec sensu uagus.\net tunc ab humili celsa promerebitur,\nquia qui superbos deprimit\nhumiles inaltat dansque paruis gratiam\nresistit adrogantibus.\nsic ille Ioseph ante paruus factus est,\nut magnus esset, et nisi\nseruus fuisset, non fuisset in sui\ntellure seruitii potens.\nubi sustinuerat seruitutem et carcerem,\nibi regnum opesque nactus est,\net sustinendo iniquitatis uincula\niustitia cepit praemia.\nsit et hic probatus corporis custos sui,\nut claustra teneat carceris.\nsi uitia carnis strinxerit Christi metu,\nquasi uinculatis praeerit,\naliisque mundi carcere inclusis adhuc\net adligatis saeculo,\nut liber ipse iamque commissus sibi\nmagister et custos erit.\nnamque ille iure qui suam seruauerit\naliorum habet custodiam,\nnon ut tenebris permanere carceris\nseu liberos uinctos uelit,\nsed ut receptos doceat exemplo suo\nmundi catenis exui.","t":"Let him prefer the house of mourning to houses of feasting,\nso as to sow joy by weeping,\nand let him bind himself willingly with hard laws,\nso as to loose the bonds of guilt,\nand put on himself the fetter of patience,\nwandering neither in place nor in sense.\nAnd then from lowliness he will earn lofty things,\nbecause he who casts down the proud\nraises up the humble and, giving grace to the small,\nresists the arrogant.\nSo that Joseph was first made small,\nthat he might be great; and unless\nhe had been a slave, he would not have been mighty\nin the land of his slavery.\nWhere he had endured slavery and prison,\nthere he obtained a kingdom and wealth,\nand by enduring the chains of iniquity\nhe received the rewards of justice.\nLet this one too be proved a guardian of his own body,\nso that he may hold the bars of the prison.\nIf, from fear of Christ, he binds the vices of the flesh,\nhe will be set over them as over prisoners,\nand over others still shut in the prison of the world\nand bound to the age\nhe himself, free and now entrusted to himself,\nwill be teacher and guardian.\nFor he who has kept his own rightly\nhas the custody of others,\nnot that he should wish them to remain in the darkness of the prison,\nor the free to be bound,\nbut to teach those received by his own example\nto be stripped of the chains of the world.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 24.731 (CSEL 30:230lines 731–762–231; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/24-731)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/24.763":{"o":"et facile propriis absolutus uinculis\nsolui docebit crimine,\nbonusque mentis uir gubernator suae\net eclesiae nauem reget.\nnam quomodo ille praesidebit proximis\npraeesse qui nescit sibi?\nsed sermo lapsus decucurrit longius,\nreuertar ad Ioseph meum.\ncastus beatae flore uernet gratiae\nut paradisi lilium\net corde puro caelitis prudentiae\npotum pudicus hauriat;\nresponsa dubiis exerat mortalibus\narcanus interpres dei\net emicante gloria famae bonae\nnotescat in regis domo,\nplacitusque regi spiritu prudentiae,\nsumatur in regni ducem.\npossessionis regiae princeps eat\npraefectus in magna domo,\nstolam sed iste byssinam et torquem aureum\ngerat, apta Christo insignia;\ntextam supernae gratiae uestem induat,\nstolatus innocentia.\ncontexta bysso uestis inruptam fidem\nsignat ualenti stamine;\nnam fila byssi fortiora et sparteis\nferuntur esse funibus.\npro torque collo caritatis aureae\npraedulce circumdet iugum,\nquod suaue Christo nec molestum pondere\nadstringit colla, non premit.","t":"And, easily released from his own bonds,\nhe will teach others to be released from crime,\nand, a good man, governor of his own mind,\nhe will also steer the ship of the church.\nFor how will he preside over his neighbours\nwho does not know how to govern himself?\nBut my speech has slipped and run too far;\nI shall return to my Joseph.\nLet him, chaste, flower with the bloom of blessed grace\nlike the lily of paradise,\nand, modest, with pure heart drink\nthe draught of heavenly prudence;\nlet him, a secret interpreter of God, give answers\nto doubting mortals,\nand with the shining glory of good fame\nbecome known in the King's house,\nand, pleasing to the King by the spirit of prudence,\nbe taken up as leader of the kingdom.\nLet him go as chief of the royal possession,\nset over a great house,\nbut let him wear a robe of fine linen and a golden chain,\ninsignia fit for Christ;\nlet him put on the woven garment of heavenly grace,\nrobed in innocence.\nThe garment woven of fine linen signifies unbroken faith\nby its strong thread;\nfor threads of fine linen are said to be stronger\neven than ropes of broom.\nInstead of a chain, let him put round his neck\nthe very sweet yoke of golden love,\nwhich, sweet to Christ and not troublesome in weight,\nbinds the neck but does not press it.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 24.763 (CSEL 30:231lines 763–794–232; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/24-763)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/24.795":{"o":"haec inter idem dona sumat, regii\ninsigne iuris, anulum,\ncomptusque trino trinitatis munere\ncurru uehatur regio.\nregalis etenim currus est Christi caro\ncorpusque sanctum ecclesia,\nquo uehitur ipse milibus laetantium\nagitator Israel deus.\nimitare Christum; fac bonum, uita malum,\ncaeli uitam in terris age.\net ipse te rex ponet in currum suum\nregnique consortem dabit.\net summa regni iura committet sui\npandetque thesauros suos.\nsed ante digna largietur pignora,\nut regiis insignibus\nornatus altum regis ascendas thronum\nreseresque regales penus,\nsapientiae monile, gloriae stolam\nfideique gestans anulum.\nsed ut ille totam uir per Aegyptum potens\nfuit exter Aegypti solo,\net iste mundi uiribus potentior\nsit fortis Aegyptum super,\nAegyptiorum sed peregrinus domo\nsic mixtus, ut non mixtus sit,\ndistetque sanctum, sede communi licet,\nde gente non sancta genus;\nnam nunc in isto tamquam in Aegypto situs\nsic demoretur saeculo,\nalienus ut sit saeculi negotiis\ncaelestis urbis incola.","t":"Among these let him also receive the ring, the sign\nof royal authority,\nand, adorned with the threefold gift of the Trinity,\nlet him be carried in the royal chariot.\nFor the royal chariot of Christ is his flesh\nand his holy body, the church,\nin which he himself, God, the charioteer of Israel,\nis carried by thousands of rejoicing ones.\nImitate Christ; do good, avoid evil,\nlive the life of heaven on earth.\nAnd the King himself will set you in his chariot\nand make you sharer of his kingdom,\nand will entrust to you the highest rights of his kingdom\nand open his treasures.\nBut first he will bestow worthy pledges,\nso that, adorned with royal insignia,\nyou may ascend the lofty throne of the King\nand unlock the royal storehouses,\nwearing the necklace of wisdom, the robe of glory,\nand the ring of faith.\nBut as that man, mighty through all Egypt,\nwas a foreigner to the soil of Egypt,\nso let this one too, mightier than the powers of the world,\nbe strong over Egypt,\nbut a pilgrim from the house of the Egyptians,\nso mingled as not to be mingled,\nand let the holy race, though in a common dwelling,\nstand apart from the unholy nation;\nfor now, placed in this world as in Egypt,\nlet him so linger in it\nas to be a stranger to the business of the world,\nan inhabitant of the heavenly city.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 24.795 (CSEL 30:232lines 795–826–234; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/24-795)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/24.827":{"o":"in carne uiuens uita carnis exulet\nin lege mentis ambulans\ntotamque regni crediti terram sibi\nperagret in libris sacris.\net sicut ille uir dei Ioseph pius\nMemphiticos fines obit\net ampliatis horreis laetas opes\nfecunditatis congerens,\nexuberantum diues annorum bonis\nieiuna pauit tempora:\nsic iste noster in sacratis litteris\nperambulet regnum dei.\nscriptura namque sancto flata spiritu\nregni perennis mater est,\net iste cura spiritali prouidens\nstruat ampla mentis horrea,\nut dilatato larga uitae perpetis\nalimenta condat pectore;\net cum uitali diuitem substantia\nperfecerit terram suam,\ntunc tu, ut fruaris filii potentia,\ntamquam Israel ibis senex\net introibis laetus accito simul\ncognationis agmine.\npascetque natus in domo regis tuam\npartis senectam panibus,\nut pullus aquilae dicitur repascere\ncura parentes mutua,\nquos uis senectae rursus inplumes facit\nnidoque pascendos refert,\ndonec replumi uestiantur corpore\npennisque florescant nouis.","t":"Living in the flesh, let him be an exile from the life of the flesh,\nwalking in the law of the mind,\nand let him travel through the whole land of the kingdom entrusted to him\nin the sacred books.\nAnd as that godly man of God, Joseph,\nwent round the borders of Memphis\nand, gathering the glad riches of fertility\nin enlarged granaries,\nrich with the goods of the overflowing years,\nfed the hungry times,\nso let this boy of ours walk through\nthe kingdom of God in the sacred writings.\nFor Scripture, breathed by the Holy Spirit,\nis the mother of the everlasting kingdom,\nand let him, providing with spiritual care,\nbuild ample granaries of the mind,\nso that he may store abundant food of eternal life\nin an enlarged breast;\nand when he has made his land rich\nwith life-giving substance,\nthen you, to enjoy the power of your son,\nwill go like Israel as an old man,\nand will enter gladly, summoned together with\nthe company of your kindred.\nAnd your son will feed your old age in the King's house\nwith the bread he has gained,\nas the eagle's chick is said to feed its parents\nin return by mutual care,\nwhen the force of old age makes them featherless again,\nand to bring them back to the nest to be fed,\nuntil they are clothed in a body feathered anew\nand blossom with new feathers.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 24.827 (CSEL 30:234lines 827–858–235; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/24-827)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/24.859":{"o":"uersi uicissim more naturae nouo\nsunt filiis pulli senes.\nat cum ueterno defaecata fecerit\nnouos iuuenta praepetes,\ndesueta pennarum remigia denuo\nnatis magistris inchoant\nmixtique pullis conuolant altoribus\nleni per auras inpetu;\nliquidum sereno tractibus lentis iter\nsecare sublimi iuuat,\nplacideque sudum uentilantes aerem,\nala pares inmobili\ndum se sequuntur et uicissim praeeunt,\nserto coronant circulo.\nultroque regni caelitis mysteria\nmutae loquuntur alites:\nsacrum potentis explicant instar crucis\nsuspensa pennis corpora;\nuolatus autem circumactus ambitu\nspondet laboris praemium.\nsic iste pullus gratiarum filius,\nuestrae salutis praeuius,\nauium per alta commeantum nubila\nsit spiritalis aemulus,\ncornibus et alis arduae fultus crucis\nuolet in coronam gloriae,\nqui fonte proprio est deriuatus, ut suam\nfons totus in uenam fluat;\nuestrumque proni riuulum sequamini,\nut flumen e cunctis eat,\nbenedicta prolis sanctae radix, ut bonae\nrami feraces arboris.","t":"The old, turned by a new way of nature,\nhave become chicks to their children in turn.\nBut when youth, purged of old age, has made them\nswift fliers anew,\nthey begin again the forgotten oarage of wings\nwith their children as teachers,\nand, mingled with the chicks who fed them, they fly together\nwith gentle impulse through the air;\nit delights them to cut a liquid path through the serene sky\nin slow sweeps on high,\nand, calmly fanning the clear air,\nequal with motionless wings,\nwhile they follow one another and in turn go before,\nthey crown it with a garland circle.\nAnd of their own accord the dumb birds\nspeak the mysteries of the heavenly kingdom:\ntheir bodies, hung on their wings, unfold\nthe sacred likeness of the mighty cross,\nand their flight, driven round in a circle,\npromises the reward of labour.\nSo let this chick, son of graces,\nforerunner of your salvation,\nbe the spiritual rival of the birds\nthat travel through the high clouds,\nand, supported by the horns and wings of the lofty cross,\nlet him fly to the crown of glory,\nhe who is drawn from his own fountain, so that the whole fountain\nmay flow into its vein;\nand you, bending down, follow your little stream,\nso that a river may go forth from all,\nblessed root of a holy offspring, as fruitful\nbranches of a good tree.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 24.859 (CSEL 30:235lines 859–890–236; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/24-859)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/24.891":{"o":"deo dedistis nutriendum filium,\net ille sic uobis alit,\nuti uicissim nutriat canos puer,\nsenibus magister paruulus,\npietatis admirabili mysterio\nfactus parens parentibus.\ndeinde cuncti, tota sanctorum cohors,\nad corpus illud uerticis,\nquo sicut aquilae congregabuntur pii,\net uos uolantes ibitis,\nquod non ualebunt, quos humo tolli uetant\npatrimoniorum pondera.\ncum prima signum suscitandis mortuis\ncaelo tuba intonauerit,\nhi nunc obesi spiritu superbiae\net opibus inflati canis,\nhumi manebunt conpediti nec suis\nsese explicabunt uinculis,\nquibus infideles nunc ligantur, ut uolunt,\ntunc adtinendi, ne uolent,\nquia sarcinatos et graues rebus suis\nmundi caduci diuites\nportare tenera non ualebunt nubila\nad regis occursum dei;\nsed haesitantes in luto faecis suae\nopumque pressos molibus\nmeridiano incendio mundi repens\nruina mortis opprimet.\nne quaeso dominus talium uirgam deus\nadmittat in sortem suam,\nneque nos in horum diuitum fructus sinat\nmanus iniquas tendere.","t":"You gave your son to God to be nourished,\nand he so nourishes you,\nthat in turn the boy may nourish the grey-haired,\na little teacher of the old,\nmade, by a wondrous mystery of piety,\nparent to his parents.\nThen all, the whole company of the saints,\nto that body of the head\nto which the godly will be gathered like eagles,\nyou too will go flying,\nwhich they will not be able to do whom the weight of their patrimonies\nforbids to be lifted from the ground.\nWhen first the trumpet thunders from heaven\nthe signal for the raising of the dead,\nthose who are now fat with the spirit of pride\nand puffed up with grey-haired riches\nwill remain shackled on the ground, nor will they\nfree themselves from their bonds,\nby which the faithless are now bound, as they wish,\nand will then be held fast, so that they cannot fly,\nbecause the tender clouds will not be able to carry\nthe rich of the falling world,\npacked and heavy with their goods,\nto meet God the King;\nbut the sudden ruin of death will overwhelm them,\nstuck in the mud of their own dregs\nand pressed down by the masses of their wealth,\nin the noonday burning of the world.\nMay God the Lord not admit, I pray, the rod of such men\ninto his lot,\nnor allow us to stretch out wicked hands\nto the fruits of these rich men.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 24.891 (CSEL 30:236lines 891–922–237; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/24-891)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/24.923":{"o":"uos ergo, magna cura pectoris mei,\nparamini Christo leues\niamque expediti sarcinis angentibus\nlaxate uinculis pedes;\nut copiosa luce uestiamini,\nestote nudi saeculo,\nueniens ut huius saeculi princeps nihil\ninueniat in uobis suum.\net uos prementum mole rerum liberos\net labe puros criminum\nfacile adleuantes perferant tenui sinu\nnubes piorum baiulae,\nsponsique regis obuiam uectos deus\nfulgore perfundat suo,\nut sempiternae clara uitae gloria\nmortale uestrum sorbeat,\net ad supernam restituti imaginem,\nerile conformes decus,\naeuum perenne perpetes ut angeli\ncum rege uiuatis deo.","t":"You, then, great care of my heart,\nprepare yourselves light for Christ,\nand now, freed from choking packs,\nloose your feet from their bonds;\nthat you may be clothed with abundant light,\nbe naked to the world,\nso that when the prince of this world comes he may find\nnothing of his own in you.\nAnd may the clouds, bearers of the godly,\neasily lift you and carry you in their slender bosom,\nfree from the mass of pressing things\nand pure of the stain of sins,\nand may God, the bridegroom King, flood you with his brightness\nas you are carried to meet him,\nso that the bright glory of eternal life\nmay swallow up what is mortal in you,\nand, restored to the image above,\nconformed to the Master's beauty,\nyou may live an everlasting age, unending like angels,\nwith God the King.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 24.923 (CSEL 30:237lines 923–942; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/24-923)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/24.97":{"o":"inusitata naufragi facies erat,\nmors nauitis pax aequoris.\nforis silebat in freto tranquillitas,\nin naue tempestas erat.\nnon saxa classem, non procella fregerat;\nsed his uetustas fortior\nclauante ferro firma ligni robora\naeuo terente soluerat.\ncaelum serenis enitebat nubibus,\nastris renidebat mare.\nuerum quid illis laeta uentorum simul\npelagique praestabat quies,\nquos deserebat in profundo marmoris\nuectura dilapsae ratis ?\nbibit unda nauem, nauis undam conbibit,\nsorbentur et sorbent aquae.\ninebriati nauitae potu salis\ntristi necantur crapula.\nridebat aliis mitis unda nauibus,\nuni(que) saeuibat rati.\nsed in periclo plurimorum cernere est\ncaelestis actum examinis.\ncommune cunctos una quos nauis uehit\npericulum mortis manet;\net ecce uariis diuiduntur casibus,\nad mortem et ad uitam dati.\nquod ne putetur forte permixte bonis\nsimul tributum uel malis,\nconstat perisse Christianum neminem\net interisse perfidos.\nnamque aut maligno corde Iudaeus perit\nreus aut superbi schismatis.","t":"Unusual was the appearance of the shipwreck:\ndeath for the sailors, peace for the sea.\nOutside, calm was silent on the strait;\nin the ship there was a storm.\nNo rocks, no gale had broken the vessel;\nbut old age, stronger than these,\nhad loosened the firm timbers, fixed with iron nails,\nwith age wearing them away.\nThe sky shone with serene clouds,\nthe sea gleamed with stars.\nBut what good did the glad quiet of winds and sea\ntogether offer those\nwhom the carriage of a broken ship\nwas deserting in the depth of the sea?\nThe wave drinks the ship, the ship drinks up the wave;\nthe waters are swallowed and swallow.\nThe sailors, drunk with a draught of salt,\nare killed by a sad drunkenness.\nThe gentle wave smiled on other ships,\nand raged against one ship alone.\nBut in the danger of very many one may see\nthe working of heavenly judgment.\nThe common danger of death awaits all\nwhom one ship carries;\nand behold, they are divided by various fortunes,\ngiven over to death and to life.\nAnd lest this perhaps be thought allotted\nindiscriminately to good and bad alike,\nit is established that no Christian perished,\nand that the faithless died.\nFor either a Jew of malicious heart perished,\nor one guilty of proud schism.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 24.97 (CSEL 30:209lines 97–128–210; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/24-97)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/25.1":{"o":"Concordes animae casto sociantur amore,\nuirgo puer Christi, uirgo puella dei.\nChriste deus, pariles duc ad tua frena columbas\net moderare leui subdita colla iugo.\nnamque tuum leue, Christe, iugum est, quod prompta uoluntas\nsuscipit et facili fert amor obsequio.\ninuitis grauis est castae pia sarcina legis,\ndulce piis onus est uincere carnis opus.\nabsit ab (his) thalamis uani lasciuia uulgi,\nIuno Cupido Venus, nomina luxuriae.\nsancta sacerdotis uenerando pignora pacto\niunguntur; coeant pax pudor et pietas.\nnam pietatis amor simul est et amoris honestas\npaxque deo concors copula coniugii.\nfoederis huius opus proprio deus ore sacrauit\ndiuinaque manu par hominum statuit.\nquoque indiuiduum magis adsignaret amorem,\nex una fecit carne manere duos.\nnam sopitus Adam costa priuatus adempta est\nmoxque suo factam sumpsit ab osse parem,\nnec lateris damnum suppleta carne uicissim\nsensit et agnouit quod geminatus erat;\nseque alium ex sese sociali in corpore cernens\nipse propheta sui mox fuit ore nouo.\nhaec, inquit, caro carne mea est, os ab ossibus istud\nnosco meis, haec est costa mei lateris.\nnunc igitur, prisca quoniam sub imagine sanctum\nfoedus Aaroneis pignoribus geritur,\nsobria tranquillis agitentur gaudia uotis,\nChristus ubique pii uoce sonet populi.\nnulla per ornatas insultet turba plateas;","t":"Harmonious souls are joined in chaste love,\na virgin youth of Christ, a virgin maiden of God.\nChrist God, lead these matching doves to your reins,\nand govern their necks, subjected to your light yoke.\nFor your yoke, Christ, is light, which a ready will\ntakes up and love carries with easy obedience.\nTo the unwilling the godly burden of chaste law is heavy;\nto the godly it is a sweet burden to conquer the work of the flesh.\nAway from these bridal chambers be the wantonness of the vain crowd,\nJuno, Cupid, Venus, names of luxury.\nThe holy children of a priest are joined in a venerable\ncovenant; let peace, modesty and piety come together.\nFor the love of piety is at the same time the honour of love,\nand peace in harmony with God is the bond of marriage.\nGod hallowed the work of this covenant with his own mouth,\nand established a human pair with his divine hand.\nAnd to mark love the more as undivided,\nhe made two remain from one flesh.\nFor Adam, asleep, was deprived of a rib taken from him,\nand soon took a partner made from his own bone,\nnor did he feel the loss of his side, the flesh filled in its place,\nand he recognized that he had been doubled;\nand seeing another from himself in a companion body,\nhe soon became his own prophet with a new mouth:\n“This,” he says, “is flesh from my flesh; this bone\nI know is from my bones; this is the rib of my side.”\nNow therefore, since under an ancient image a holy\ncovenant is made between the children of Aaron,\nlet sober joys be stirred with tranquil vows,\nlet Christ sound everywhere in the voice of the godly people.\nLet no crowd make insolent riot through decorated streets;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 25.1 (CSEL 30:238lines 1–31–239; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/25-1)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/25.129":{"o":"non ita corruptis spectantum mentibus intrans\ncallida ad infandum praeualuisset opus.\nipse quoque Herodes regali ueste superbus\nsacrilegis demens flatibus intumuit\nelatusque habitu diuinum oblitus honorem\nuulnere uermifluo foetidus interiit,\ndigna luens meritis, ut sordidus ulcere obiret\nqui se crediderat uestis honore deum.\nsed, cedo ut insani deceant regalia flatus\npectora, quae nobis cum Pharaone manus?\ndissidet a nostris caua mundi gloria regnis,\nnec coit aduersis lux pia cum tenebris.\nclericus uxorem Christo comente decoram\ndiligat et pulchram lumine cordis amet\nauxilioque uiri diuino munere factam\nlector caelesti discat ab historia;\ninque uicem mulier, sancto sit ut aequa marito,\nmente humili Christum in coniuge suscipiat,\ncrescat ut in sanctum texta conpagine corpus,\nut sit ei uertex uir, cui Christus apex.\ntali coniugio cessauit seruitus Euae,\naequauitque pium libera Sara uirum.\ntali lege suis nubentibus adstat Iesus\npronubus et uini nectare mutat aquam.\nhis Mariam sponsis domini decet adfore matrem,\nquae genuit salua uirginitate deum.\nnamque deus placitum sacrata in uirgine templum\nipse sibi arcano condidit inpluuio,\ndescendens tacito adlapsu, uelut imber ab alta\nnube super uellus rore silente cadit.\nnam nemo arcani fuit huius conscius umquam,\nquo deus adsumpsit uirgine matre hominem.","t":"she would not, entering the corrupted minds of the spectators,\nhave prevailed so cunningly for the unspeakable deed.\nHerod himself too, proud in his royal garment,\nswelled, mad, with sacrilegious pride,\nand, lifted up by his attire, forgetting the honour due to God,\ndied, stinking, of a wound flowing with worms,\npaying what his deserts deserved, so that he should die filthy with ulcers\nwho had believed himself a god by the honour of his garment.\nBut, granted that royal things befit hearts puffed up with mad pride,\nwhat have we to do with Pharaoh?\nThe hollow glory of the world is at odds with our kingdoms,\nnor does godly light come together with opposing darkness.\nLet the cleric love a wife made beautiful by Christ's adorning,\nand love her as beautiful by the light of the heart,\nand let the reader learn from heavenly history\nthat she was made by divine gift as a help to her husband;\nand in turn let the woman, to be equal to her holy husband,\nreceive Christ in her spouse with humble mind,\nso that she may grow into a holy body woven in its joining,\nso that the husband may be her head, whose head is Christ.\nIn such a marriage the slavery of Eve has ceased,\nand free Sarah was equal to her godly husband.\nBy such a law Jesus stands by his own who marry\nas groomsman, and changes water into the nectar of wine.\nIt befits Mary, the mother of the Lord, to be present with these spouses,\nshe who bore God with her virginity unharmed.\nFor God himself built for himself a pleasing temple in the consecrated virgin\nby a secret rain,\ndescending with silent gliding, as a shower from a high\ncloud falls with silent dew on a fleece.\nFor no one was ever witness to this secret,\nby which God took up man from a virgin mother.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 25.129 (CSEL 30:242lines 129–160–243; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/25-129)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/25.161":{"o":"o noua ad humanam domini commenta salutem !\nfit sine concubitu femina feta uterum.\nsponsa uiro tantum non est subiecta marito,\net genitrix partu nec mulier coitu.\nfoedere erat coniunx, sed corpore non erat uxor,\nintemerata uiro, mater erat puero.\ngrande sacramentum, quo nubit eclesia Christo\net simul est domini sponsa sororque sui.\nsponsa quasi coniunx, soror est, quia subdita non est.\n* * * * * * * * * * * *\ninde manet mater aeterni semine uerbi\nconcipiens populos et pariter pariens.\nhinc soror et coniunx, quoniam sine corporis usu\nmente coit cui uir non homo sed deus est.\nhac genitrice senex aeque generatur ut infans;\naetatem et sexum non habet haec soboles.\nhaec etenim est benedicta dei generatio, quae non\nseminis humani sed generis superi est.\ninde magister ait, quia iam nec femina nec mas\nin Christo, sed idem corpus et una fides.\nnamque omnes unum corpus sumus, omnia Christo\nmembra quibus Christus corporis in caput est.\net quia iam Christum induti deponimus Adam,\nprotinus in speciem tendimus angelicam.\npropterea hoc opus est cunctis baptismate natis,\nperfectum ut capiat sexus uterque uirum,\net commune caput stet in omnibus omnia Christus,\ntradens in regnum rex sua membra patri.\nnubere uel nubi fragilis iam deserit aetas\nomnibus aeterno corpore conpositis.\nergo mei memores par inuiolabile semper\nuiuite; sit uobis crux ueneranda iugum.","t":"O new devices of the Lord for human salvation!\nA woman becomes pregnant in her womb without intercourse.\nA bride was not subjected to a husband as her spouse,\nand a mother by giving birth, she was not a woman by intercourse.\nShe was a spouse by covenant, but she was not a wife in body;\nundefiled by a man, she was mother to a boy.\nA great sacrament, by which the church marries Christ\nand is at once the bride and the sister of her Lord.\nA bride as a spouse, she is a sister because she is not subjected.\n…\nHence she remains a mother, conceiving peoples by the seed\nof the eternal Word and likewise bearing them.\nHence she is sister and spouse, since without use of the body\nshe is joined in mind to one whose husband is not man but God.\nBy this mother the old man is born just as the infant;\nthis offspring has no age and no sex.\nFor this is the blessed generation of God, which\nis not of human seed but of the race above.\nHence the teacher says that now there is neither female nor male\nin Christ, but the same body and one faith.\nFor we are all one body, all members for Christ,\nfor whom Christ is the head of the body.\nAnd since, having put on Christ, we now lay aside Adam,\nwe at once tend toward the angelic likeness.\nTherefore this is the work for all born in baptism,\nthat both sexes may attain the perfect man,\nand Christ, the common head, may stand as all in all,\nthe King delivering his members into the kingdom to the Father.\nMarrying or being married, a frail stage, now passes away,\nwhen all are composed in an eternal body.\nSo, remembering me, live always as an inviolable pair;\nlet the venerable cross be your yoke.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 25.161 (CSEL 30:243lines 161–192–244; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/25-161)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/25.193":{"o":"illius ut matris nati, quae sponsa sororque est,\nsumite digna piis pectora nominibus,\net uobis fratres sponso concurrite Christo,\nsitis ut aeterni corporis una caro.\nhic uos nectat amor, quo stringit eclesia Christum\nquoque uicissim illam Christus amore fouet.\nipse pater uobis benedicat episcopus, ipse\npraecinat hymnisonis cantica sancta choris.\nduc, Memor alme, tuos domino ante altaria natos\ncommendaque precans sanctificante manu.\nsed quis odor nares adlabitur aethere manans?\nunde meos stringit lux inopina oculos?\nquis procul ille hominum placidis se passibus adfert,\nplurima quem Christi gratia prosequitur?\nquem benedicta cohors superis circumdat alumnis\nangelici referens agminis effigiem?\nnosco uirum, quem diuini comitantur odores\net cui sidereum splendet in ore decus.\nhic uir hic est, domini numeroso munere Christi\ndiues, uir superi luminis, Aemilius.\nsurge, Memor, uenerare patrem, conplectere fratrem,\nuno utrumque tibi nomen in Aemilio est.\niunior et senior Memor est. mirabile magni\nmunus opusque dei! qui minor, hic pater est;\nposterius natus senior, quia sede sacerdos\ngestat apostolicam pectore canitiem.\nfilius est fraterque Memor; laetatur adesse\ncommunem sibimet pignoribusque patrem.\niustitia et pax se gemina uice conplectuntur,\ncum Memor Aemilio iungitur unanimo.\ninfula pontifices diuino iungit honore;\nhumano pietas iungit amore pares.","t":"As children of that mother who is bride and sister,\ntake up hearts worthy of godly names,\nand, as brothers, run together to Christ the bridegroom,\nthat you may be one flesh of the eternal body.\nLet the love bind you here with which the church embraces Christ,\nand with which in turn Christ cherishes her with love.\nLet the bishop, your father himself, bless you; let him himself\nlead the holy songs for the hymn-singing choirs.\nLead, kindly Memor, your children to the Lord before the altars,\nand commend them, praying, with a sanctifying hand.\nBut what fragrance glides to my nostrils, flowing from heaven?\nWhence does an unexpected light strike my eyes?\nWho is that man who approaches from afar with calm steps,\nwhom abundant grace of Christ attends?\nWhom a blessed company surrounds with heavenly nurslings,\nrecalling the image of the angelic host?\nI know the man whom divine fragrances accompany\nand on whose face a starry beauty shines.\nThis is the man, this, rich with the many gifts of Christ the Lord,\na man of heavenly light, Aemilius.\nRise, Memor, revere your father, embrace your brother;\nboth names are yours in one Aemilius.\nMemor is both the younger and the elder. Wondrous gift\nand work of the great God! He who is younger is the father;\nborn later, he is the elder, because as bishop in his see\nhe carries apostolic grey hairs in his breast.\nMemor is son and brother; he rejoices that there is present\na common father for himself and his children.\nJustice and peace embrace one another in a twofold way,\nwhen Memor is joined with like-minded Aemilius.\nThe fillet joins the bishops in divine honour;\npiety joins them as equals in human love.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 25.193 (CSEL 30:244lines 193–224–245; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/25-193)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/25.225":{"o":"hinc Memor, officii non immemor, ordine recto\ntradit ad Aemilii pignora cara manus.\nille iugans capita amborum sub pace iugali\nuelat eos dextra, quos prece sanctificat.\nChriste, sacerdotes exaudi, Christe, precantes\net pia uota sacris annue supplicibus.\nimbue, Christe, nouos de sancto antistite nuptos\nperque manus castas corda pudica iuua,\nut sit in ambobus concordia uirginitatis\naut sint ambo sacris semina uirginibus.\nuotorum prior hic gradus est, ut nescia carnis\nmembra gerant; quod si corpore congruerint,\ncasta sacerdotale genus uentura propago,\net domus Aron sit tota domus Memoris\nchristorumque domus sit domus haec Memoris.\nesto et Paulini Therasiaeque memor,\net memor aeternum Christus erit Memoris.","t":"Hence Memor, not forgetful of his duty, in right order\nhands over his dear children to the hands of Aemilius.\nHe, yoking the heads of both under the peace of marriage,\nveils them with his right hand, and sanctifies them with prayer.\nChrist, hear the priests; Christ, assent to them as they pray,\nand to the godly vows of the holy suppliants.\nImbue, Christ, those newly married by the holy bishop,\nand help their modest hearts through chaste hands,\nso that there may be in both the concord of virginity,\nor that both may be the seed of sacred virgins.\nThis is the first grade of vows: that they bear limbs\nnot knowing the flesh; but if they come together in body,\nmay the offspring to come be a chaste priestly race,\nand may the whole house of Memor be a house of Aaron,\nand may this house of Memor be a house of anointed ones.\nBe mindful also of Paulinus and Therasia,\nand Christ will be mindful of Memor for ever.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 25.225 (CSEL 30:245lines 225–241; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/25-225)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/25.32":{"o":"nemo solum foliis, limina fronde tegat,\nnec sit Christicolam fanatica pompa per urbem;\nnolo profana pios polluat ambitio.\nnulla peregrinis fragret nidoribus aura;\ncuncta pudicitiae munditias oleant.\nunguentum sanctis unum est, quod nomine Christi\ndiffusum casto spirat odore deum.\nnulla superuacuis ornentur fercula donis;\nmoribus ornatur, non opibus probitas.\nsancta sacerdotis nurus et matrona sacrati\niam pueri dotem luminis accipiat.\nhorreat inlusas auro uel murice uestes;\naurea uestis huic gratia pura dei est.\nrespuat et uariis distincta monilia gemmis,\nnobilis ut domino gemma sit ipsa deo.\nceruicem Christi domini iuga ferre dicatam\nnon premat inuisae pondus auaritiae.\ninteriore magis mundo placitura colatur\ncompta salutiferis dotibus ingenium.\nnon cupiat lapidum pretium neque uellera Serum\nin cassum reditus dilapidare suos;\nornetur castis animam uirtutibus, ut sit\nnon damnosa suo, sed pretiosa uiro.\nnamque ubi corporeae curatur gloria pompae,\nuilescit uitio depretiatus homo,\net male mens praui caecata libidine uoti\nsordescit nitidis corporis exuuiis,\nnec sentit quam turpe decus gerat improbus, ut sit\nueste sua leuior qui sibi ueste placet.\nabsit ut idolici uideatur filia templi,\ngentis apostolicae filia facta domo,\nnon fucis male ficta cutem neque lumina nigro\npuluere nec flauo tincta colore comam.","t":"let no one cover the ground with leaves, the thresholds with boughs,\nnor let there be a fanatic procession through the Christ-worshipping city;\nI do not want profane ostentation to pollute the godly.\nLet no breeze smell of foreign fumes;\nlet everything breathe the cleanness of modesty.\nThe saints have one ointment, which, poured out in the name of Christ,\nbreathes God with a chaste fragrance.\nLet no dishes be adorned with superfluous gifts;\nuprightness is adorned with character, not with wealth.\nLet the holy daughter-in-law of a priest and wife of a consecrated\nyouth now receive the dowry of light.\nLet her shudder at garments embroidered with gold or purple;\nher golden garment is the pure grace of God.\nLet her also reject necklaces picked out with various gems,\nso that she herself may be a noble gem for God the Lord.\nLet not the weight of hateful avarice press\nthe neck dedicated to bear the yoke of Christ the Lord.\nRather let her cultivate her character, to please by inner adornment,\nadorned with saving dowries.\nLet her not desire costly stones nor the fleeces of the Seres,\nto squander her revenues in vain;\nlet her be adorned in soul with chaste virtues, so as to be\nnot costly to her husband, but precious.\nFor where the glory of bodily pomp is cared for,\nthe human being grows cheap, depreciated by vice,\nand the mind, wrongly blinded by the lust of a depraved wish,\ngrows filthy with the shining coverings of the body,\nnor does the shameless one feel what a disgraceful ornament he wears,\nso that he who pleases himself by his garment is lighter than his garment.\nFar be it that she should seem a daughter of an idol's temple,\nshe who has been made the daughter of an apostolic family's house,\nher skin falsely painted with cosmetics, her eyes\ntinted with black powder, or her hair with yellow colour.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 25.32 (CSEL 30:239lines 32–64–240; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/25-32)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/25.65":{"o":"purum naturae decus aspernata superbo\ncrimine diuinum in se sibi damnat opus.\nfrustra haec se mulier iactauerit esse pudicam,\nquae se tam uariis ornat adulteriis.\nuos autem, iuuenes Christi, fugite omnia, quorum\nin damno pretium est, usus in interitu.\ncredite diuinis uerbis de cultibus istis\npoenalem cupidis surgere materiam;\nEsaias rigida cingendas reste minatur,\nquae modo purpureis serica mixta gerunt,\nquae tunicas ostro rutilas auroque crepantes\nfluxis talari fine trahunt sinibus;\nfunibus accinctae saccos sine fine gerentes\ngrandia pistrini carcere saxa molent.\nquaeque caput pastis cumulatum crinibus augent,\nturpe gerent nudo uertice caluitium.\ntalibus ornari fuge dotibus, o noua sancti\nnupta uiri; uacuis sensibus ista placent.\ntu neque odoratis uaga uestibus atque capillis\nnaribus agnosci, qua gradiare, uelis,\naut inplexarum strue tormentoque comarum\nturritum sedeas aedificata caput.\nne multis splendore tuo male sollicitatis\npestiferae nequam sis caput inlecebrae.\nsed neque uel proprio per corporis incrementum\ntu cupias mentem foeda placere uiro.\ntu quoque, sancte puer libris deuote sacratis,\ncorporei curam sperne decoris amans.\nconpensauit enim Christus tibi largiter ornans\nperpetuis pulchram diuitiis animam,\nuosque simul castis ornauit dotibus ambos\nspe pietate fide pace pudicitia.","t":"Scorning the pure beauty of nature with proud crime,\nshe condemns in herself the divine work in her.\nIn vain will this woman boast that she is chaste\nwho adorns herself with so many varied adulterations.\nBut you, young people of Christ, flee all things whose\nprice lies in loss, whose use is in ruin.\nBelieve the divine words, that from these adornments\nmaterial for punishment arises for the greedy;\nIsaiah threatens that they will be girded with stiff rope\nwho now wear silks mixed with purple,\nwho drag tunics red with purple and rustling with gold\nwith flowing folds to an ankle-length hem;\ngirded with ropes, wearing sackcloth without end,\nthey will grind great stones in the prison of the mill.\nAnd those who heap up their heads with nourished hair\nwill wear shameful baldness on a bare head.\nFlee being adorned with such dowries, O new bride\nof a holy man; these things please empty minds.\nDo not wish to be recognized by noses, wandering\nwith scented clothes and hair, wherever you walk,\nnor to sit with your head built up like a tower\nwith a heap and twisting of braided hair,\nlest, having wrongly provoked many by your splendour,\nyou be the wicked source of pestilent enticement.\nNor should you, foul in mind, desire to please even your own\nhusband by the increase of your body's charms.\nYou too, holy youth devoted to the sacred books,\nspurn, as one who loves, the care of bodily beauty.\nFor Christ has compensated you generously, adorning\nyour beautiful soul with everlasting riches,\nand has adorned you both together with chaste dowries:\nhope, piety, faith, peace, modesty.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 25.65 (CSEL 30:240lines 65–96–241; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/25-65)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/25.97":{"o":"sermo dei argentum est, et sanctus spiritus aurum,\nmentibus et gemmae clara bonorum operum.\nsi tenuis cultus mentes offendit honestas\net pretio ambiri corda superba iuuat,\nsubmoueant istum sanctorum exempla pudorem\ncastaque primorum simplicitas hominum.\nadspicite antiquos paradisi in sede parentes,\nquorum totus erat mundus et unus ager.\nattamen his ouium pelles tegumenta fuerunt;\nnunc uti neto uellere texta pudet?\npulchra Rebecca sacrum cum sponsa ueniret ad Isac,\nsimpliciter uelo tecta pudoris erat.\nnon legitur uariis uenisse ornata lapillis,\nsed superobducto praedita palliolo,\nquo pudibunda suum texit uelamine uultum,\noblatam sponsi uirgo pauens faciem.\nan magis Herodias saltatrix uirgo placebit,\nbaptistae mortem nancta (pedum) pretio?\ninpia maternae sic ulta libidinis iram,\nut caput acciperet luxuriae pretium,\nillud nempe caput, de quo clamauerat index\nuox populis agnum propter adesse dei.\nunde nefas tantum meruit nisi ab inlice cultu\ninpia saltatrix, filia digna patre?\nquem tamen hoc uicit scelere inuitumque coegit\nin facinus placiti corporis inlecebris.\nconuiuas etenim dignos dape regis iniqui\nduxit in adsensum mobilis arte pedum.\nnam nisi fulua leues texisset bractea plantas,\ncalcibus ut pictis luderet inprobius,\net fluidam crispo duxisset syrmate uestem,\nfronte micans gemmis, pone refusa comam:","t":"The word of God is silver, and the Holy Spirit gold,\nand good works are bright jewels for minds.\nIf plain dress offends noble minds,\nand proud hearts delight in being courted by costliness,\nlet the examples of the saints remove that shame,\nand the chaste simplicity of the first humans.\nLook at the ancient parents in the seat of paradise,\nto whom the whole world was one field.\nYet sheepskins were their coverings;\nare we now ashamed to wear garments woven of spun wool?\nWhen beautiful Rebecca came as a holy bride to Isaac,\nshe was covered simply with a veil of modesty.\nWe do not read that she came adorned with various stones,\nbut furnished with a cloak drawn over her,\nwith whose covering she modestly veiled her face,\na virgin fearful of the face of her bridegroom as he met her.\nOr will the dancing girl Herodias please more,\nwho gained the Baptist's death as the price of her feet?\nImpious, she so avenged the anger of her mother's lust\nthat she received a head as the price of luxury,\nthat head, surely, from which the voice, the herald,\nhad cried to the peoples that the Lamb of God was near.\nWhence did the impious dancer, a daughter worthy of her father,\nearn so great a crime, if not from her enticing dress?\nYet by this crime she overcame him and compelled him, unwilling,\ninto the deed by the allurements of a pleasing body.\nFor by the art of her nimble feet she led the guests,\nworthy of the unjust king's feast, into assent.\nFor if a yellow gold leaf had not covered her light soles,\nso that she might play more shamelessly with painted heels,\nand if she had not drawn her flowing dress in a curled train,\nher forehead flashing with gems, her hair poured back:","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 25.97 (CSEL 30:241lines 97–128–242; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/25-97)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/26.1":{"o":"Ecce dies nobis anno reuoluta peracto\ninlustrem reuehit Felicis nomine lucem.\ntempus erat laetis modo promere gaudia uerbis,\nanxia si laetas paterentur tempora uoces.\nsed tamen ista dies licet inter proelia nobis\nlaetitiae pacisque dies erit; horrida longe\nbella fremant, nostris pax libera mentibus adsit.\nlaetitiae dulcem non obliuiscitur usum\nmens adsueta piis sua soluere pectora uotis\net domino festis caste gaudere diebus.\nquare inportunam quamuis sub tempore maesto\npellite tristitiam; bona gaudia, dulcia uerba,\nomne pium laetumque die Felicis amemus,\nnatali sine fine die, quia natus in ista est\nperpetuis Felix saeclis, qua corporis aeuum\nfunctus ad aeternam migrauit in aethera uitam.\nergo metus abeant tristes redeantque refectis\ngaudia pectoribus; fugiant decet omnia sanctum\nmaesta diem, tanti quem gloria confessoris\ninsignem cunctis per tempora tota diebus\nelucere facit populisque frequentibus ornat.\nhunc ego, si Geticis agerem male subditus armis,\ninter et inmites celebrarem laetus Alanos,\net si multiiugae premerent mea colla catenae,\ncaptiuis animum membris non iungeret hostis,\npectore non uincto calcaret triste superba\nseruitium pietas. licet inter barbara uincla\nliber amor placitis caneret mea uota loquellis.\nnunc igitur quamuis uarias uaga fama per oras\nterrificis pauidas feriat rumoribus aures,\nnos tamen in domino stabilis fiducia Christo\nroboret et recto fixis pede mentibus armet,\nnec pauor ater in hanc obducat nubila lucem,\nquam deus aetherio Felicis honore serenat.","t":"Behold, the day, returned for us as the year is completed,\nbrings back the light made illustrious by the name of Felix.\nIt would be the time to bring out joys in glad words,\nif anxious times allowed glad voices.\nBut yet, though amid battles, this day will be for us\na day of joy and peace; let horrid wars rage\nfar off, let free peace be present in our minds.\nThe mind does not forget the sweet habit of joy,\naccustomed to loosen its breast in godly vows\nand to rejoice chastely before the Lord on festal days.\nTherefore drive away importunate sadness, though in a sorrowful\ntime; good joys, sweet words,\neverything godly and glad let us love on Felix's day,\na birthday without end, because on it Felix\nwas born for everlasting ages, when, having finished the age\nof his body, he migrated to eternal life in heaven.\nSo let sad fears depart, and joys return to refreshed\nhearts; it is fitting that all sad things flee\nthe holy day, which the glory of so great a confessor\nmakes shine out notable among all days through all time\nand adorns with crowded peoples.\nThis day, even if I were living wretchedly subject to Gothic arms,\nI would celebrate gladly even among the savage Alans,\nand if many-yoked chains pressed my neck,\nthe enemy would not chain my mind to my captive limbs;\nwith my heart unbound, piety would proudly trample\nsad slavery. Even amid barbarian chains\nfree love would sing my vows in pleasing words.\nSo now, though wandering rumour through various regions\nstrikes fearful ears with terrifying reports,\nyet let steadfast trust in the Lord Christ strengthen us\nand arm our minds, fixed with upright foot,\nand let not black fear draw clouds over this light,\nwhich God makes serene with the heavenly honour of Felix.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 26.1 (CSEL 30:246lines 1–34–247; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/26-1)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/26.130":{"o":"tunc qui diuitiis populus fidebat et urbe,\ninteriit mixtis inter sua tecta sepulchris.\nsola Rahab meretrix, castam quae gessit iniqua\ngente fidem, non freta suis euadere muris,\nsed pietate dei meritum pietatis adepta est,\nqua famulis domini tuto fuit hospita tecto\ncelatisque pie ciues inlusit iniquos,\nfraude bona fallax, animo mentita fideli.\nhospitibus quia fida piis, infida profanis\nciuibus extiterat, uitam patriamque domumque\npraelato contempta deo mox cuncta benigno\nrepperit in domino; quae si posuisset in urbe\npraesidium, patriis cecidisset mixta ruinis\nindefensa deo; meretrix sed mystica Christum\nprouida pollutas empturum sanguine gentes,\npuniceo proprium signauit uellere tectum\nexcepitque suam patria pereunte salutem,\nsignificans illos mundo labente tegendos,\nquos crucis inuictae signat cruor. hinc cape quantum\nipse cruor ualeat, cuius saluabat imago.\nsemper in omne bonum ualuit confidere Christo,\ncredere cuncta deo uirtutum, ponere solum\nomnia summa deum; talis super omnia semper\narma fides ualuit; tali puer ille pusillus\nrobore grandis erat, qui spretis fortior armis\nperculit armatum silicis uirtute gigantem.\narma fide semper, numquam cognouimus armis\nindiguisse fidem. rupit mare uirga fidelis,\nquod uacua arma fide cum principe mersit iniquo.\nfemineas quoque personas uirtute uirili\ninduit alma fides, mulier qua sancta peremit\nterribilem Sisaram transfixum tempora palo;","t":"Then the people who trusted in riches and city\nperished, with tombs mingled among their houses.\nOnly Rahab the harlot, who kept chaste faith in a wicked\nnation, not trusting to escape by her walls,\nbut by God's kindness, obtained the reward of her kindness,\nby which she was hostess to the Lord's servants under a safe roof,\nand, hiding them dutifully, deceived the wicked citizens,\ndeceitful with a good deceit, lying with faithful mind.\nBecause she had been faithful to the godly guests, unfaithful to the profane\ncitizens, she soon found everything again, kindly given,\nin the Lord: life, homeland, home, scorned when God was preferred;\nif she had placed her protection in the city,\nshe would have fallen, mixed in her native ruins,\nundefended by God; but the mystic harlot, foreseeing\nthat Christ would buy the polluted nations with blood,\nmarked her own roof with a scarlet fleece\nand received her salvation as her homeland perished,\nsignifying that those are to be sheltered as the world falls\nwhom the blood of the unconquered cross marks. Learn from this how much\nthe blood itself avails, whose image saved.\nIt has always availed for every good to trust in Christ,\nto entrust all things to the God of powers, to set God alone\nas the sum of all things; such faith has always availed\nabove all arms; by such strength that little boy\nwas great, who, stronger with arms scorned,\nstruck down the armed giant with the power of a flint.\nWe have known arms always to need faith, never\nfaith to need arms. The faithful rod broke the sea,\nwhich drowned the arms empty of faith with their wicked prince.\nKindly faith has clothed even women\nwith manly courage, by which a holy woman killed\nterrible Sisera, his temples pierced with a stake;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 26.130 (CSEL 30:251lines 130–161–252; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/26-130)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/26.162":{"o":"terrentem magnos late populos Holofernem\narte pudicitiae deceptum callida Iudith\nrisit, in inpuro quae non polluta cubili\nbarbara truncato uictrix duce castra fugauit.\nnuda fides armata deo est; uirtute fidei\nfortior Ezechias paucis quam milibus ille\nSennacherib, cuius Babylon et opima Nineue\nregnum erat. Assyrias uires et Medica regna\nmouerat et magnis legionibus omnia circum\nregna terens sacram domini tendebat ad urbem\natque unam tota bellorum mole petebat.\ndum parat hoc bellis retinentibus inpia uota\ninpediente deo, praemisit scripta superbis\ndura minis, quae sumpta dolens altaria coram\nintulit Ezechias domino, lacrimisque profusis\ndum recitat fera uerba lauans prostratus et orans\natrata cum plebe, deum permouit, et una\ntam grauis exitii uictor prece perculit absens\nAssyrios pugnante deo, conpendia tanta\npromeritus, ne nosset eum quem uinceret hostem.\nnam post Ezechiae querulos trans sidera fletus\net de corde humili missas super astra querellas\nuoce pia inpulsis summi patris auribus, altae\nut patuere fores caeli, delabitur ales\nangelus halantem qua labitur aera ducens,\narmatus uerbi gladio ferit inpia castra\net sopitorum taciturna strage triumphans\ncentum octoginta dedit uno milia leto,\net nox una fuit tam magni conscia belli.\nmane minax rex surgit adhuc, et mox miser armis\nmilite deleto uacuis fugit agmine raro,\nEzechiam fugiens alio procul orbe diremptum,\ncui modo praesenti fuerat sua uincla minatus.","t":"Judith, by the cunning art of chastity, mocked\nHolofernes, who terrified great peoples far and wide,\nshe who, not polluted in the impure bed,\nvictorious, routed the barbarian camp when its leader was beheaded.\nNaked faith is armed by God; by the power of faith\nHezekiah with a few thousands was stronger than that\nSennacherib, whose kingdom was Babylon and rich Nineveh.\nHe had moved the Assyrian powers and the Median kingdoms,\nand, trampling all the kingdoms round with great legions,\nwas making for the sacred city of the Lord\nand attacking it alone with the whole mass of war.\nWhile he was preparing this, his impious wishes held back by other wars\nas God hindered, he sent ahead letters harsh\nwith proud threats, which Hezekiah, grieving, took\nand brought before the Lord at the altar, and with tears poured out,\nwashing the savage words as he read them, prostrate and praying\nwith the people in mourning, he moved God, and by one prayer,\nvictor over so grave a destruction, though absent he struck\nthe Assyrians, God fighting for him, earning so great a saving\nthat he should not even see the enemy he conquered.\nFor after Hezekiah's complaining tears had passed beyond the stars,\nand complaints sent from a humble heart above the stars\nhad struck the ears of the highest Father with godly voice,\nwhen the high doors of heaven opened, there glides down a winged\nangel, drawing a fragrant air where he glides,\nand, armed with the sword of the word, strikes the impious camp,\nand, triumphing in a silent slaughter of sleepers,\ngave a hundred and eighty thousand to one death,\nand one night was the witness of so great a war.\nIn the morning the king rises, still threatening, and soon, wretched,\nhis army destroyed, flees with a thin column, his arms emptied,\nfleeing Hezekiah, separated far off in another region,\nwhom just now, as if present, he had threatened with chains.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 26.162 (CSEL 30:252lines 162–194–253; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/26-162)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/26.195":{"o":"tunc uelut Ezechiae fuit interuentor Esaias,\nad dominum nobis isto sit tempore Felix.\niactemus nostras et transfundamus in istum\ncuras atque metus. leuis illi sarcina nostrum\npondus erit, quia quod paruis onus hoc leue magnis.\nsic deus ipse hominum gessit peccata nec hausit,\net mortem passus non pertulit in cruce culpam.\nperdidit ille meam repararet ut in cruce uitam;\nille reus factus, ne sim reus; inter iniquos\ncondemnatus obit, nos ut discernat iniquis.\nmorte pia dominus mihi mortuus, ut sibi uiuam\net merear semper uiuentis uiuere uitam.\nsic potiora eius uenerando in corpore membra\nmartyres, e quibus est insigni robore Felix\ninter diuini capitis sacra lumina fulgens,\niure deo ualidi, quia Christo proxima passi.\nconcurramus ad hunc spe conspirante patronum;\nsuscipiet nostras placida pietate querellas,\net dum natalem ipsius celebramus ouantes,\nille preces nostras meritis pius adseret altis\ninque uicem flebit nobis, quia mente dicata\nnos laetamur ei. non est cura haec noua sanctis\nexorare deum pro peccatoribus aegris\nuique boni meriti meritum superare sinistrum.\nsi legimus Moysen populo peccante precatum\nextinxisse graues aeterni uindicis iras,\net cum Pentapolim perfunderet igneus imber,\nexiguam Segor Sodomis discernit iniquis\nLot fugiens castaque potens prece liberat urbem\nelectamque domo sumit, quia sede pudica\ninteger incestae permanserat incola terrae,\npermixtus Sodomae tectis sed moribus exter.","t":"Then, as Isaiah was intercessor for Hezekiah,\nso may Felix be for us with the Lord at this time.\nLet us cast our cares and fears on him\nand pour them over onto him. Our weight will be a light burden\nfor him, because what is a burden to the small is light to the great.\nSo God himself bore the sins of men and did not take them in,\nand, suffering death, did not bear guilt on the cross.\nHe lost his life that on the cross he might restore mine;\nhe was made guilty, lest I be guilty; among the wicked\nhe died condemned, to separate us from the wicked.\nBy a godly death the Lord died for me, that I may live for him\nand deserve always to live the life of him who lives.\nSo the martyrs are the more important members in his venerable body,\namong whom Felix, of notable strength, shines\namong the sacred lights of the divine head,\nrightly strong with God, because they suffered things nearest to Christ's.\nLet us run together to this patron with united hope;\nhe will receive our complaints with calm kindness,\nand while we celebrate his birthday rejoicing,\nhe will kindly support our prayers with his high merits,\nand will weep for us in turn, because with dedicated mind\nwe rejoice for him. This is no new care for the saints,\nto entreat God for sick sinners,\nand by the force of good merit to overcome bad merit.\nWe read that Moses, praying when the people sinned,\nquenched the heavy anger of the eternal avenger,\nand that, when the fiery rain flooded the Pentapolis,\nLot, fleeing, set little Zoar apart from wicked Sodom\nand, mighty by chaste prayer, freed the city\nand took it as chosen for his home, because in a modest dwelling\nhe had remained upright, an inhabitant of an incestuous land,\nmingled with Sodom's houses but a stranger in morals.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 26.195 (CSEL 30:253lines 195–226–254; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/26-195)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/26.227":{"o":"quid loquar Eliae precibus clusum atque reclusum\ncaelum et sanctiloquo sublimis in ore prophetae\nterrarum mansisse famem, rediisse salutem?\nut quondam hos habuit uetus aetas, sic modo nostra\nFelicem sortita salus petat omne quod audet\nquodque cupit tali speret confisa patrono.\nsancte deo dilecte, dei tu dextera, Felix,\nesto, precor, nobis tu munitissima turris.\nnam deus Abraham deus est tuus et deus Isac\net deus Israel tuus est deus; ille Rubentis\ndiuisor pelagi et dulcator fontis amari,\nille dator mannae caelo, dator ortygis austro\net sitientis humi percussa rupe rigator,\nipse tuus deus est, qui per deserta sequentem\npraecessit populum et praetentam nocte dieque\ntemporis alterna mutauit lege columnam\nquique quater denos inter deserta per annos,\nangelico plebem de caelis pane cibauit\net rupta in fluuios sitientem cote refecit.\nposce, precor, placidum nostris accedere Christum\npartibus; ipse tuus deus est, quo fortis Iesus\nstare suis iussit solem lunamque triumphis,\net tibi cum dominus Romani prospera regni\nadnuerit, famulis elementis praecipe, Felix,\nad nostrum seruire bonum; procedat et astris\nstantibus aucta dies; stet sol tibi lunaque concors\nhaereat obfixo suspendens sidera cursu,\ndum Romana suum capiat uictoria finem.","t":"Why should I speak of heaven shut and opened again by the prayers of Elijah,\nand of famine remaining on the earth and salvation returning\nat the holy-speaking mouth of the lofty prophet?\nAs the old age once had these, so now let our safety,\nhaving received Felix as its lot, ask for all it dares,\nand hope for all it desires, trusting in such a patron.\nHoly Felix, beloved of God, right hand of God,\nbe, I pray, a most fortified tower for us.\nFor the God of Abraham is your God, and the God of Isaac\nand the God of Israel is your God; he who divided\nthe Red Sea and sweetened the bitter spring,\nhe who gave manna from heaven, gave quail by the south wind,\nand watered the thirsty ground by striking the rock,\nhe himself is your God, who went before the people\nfollowing him through the deserts, and by the alternating law of time\nchanged the column held out before them by night and by day,\nand who for forty years in the deserts\nfed the people with angels' bread from heaven\nand refreshed them in their thirst with a rock broken into rivers.\nAsk, I pray, that Christ may come calmly to our side;\nhe himself is your God, by whom mighty Joshua\ncommanded sun and moon to stand for his triumphs;\nand when the Lord has assented to the prosperity of the Roman empire\nfor you, command the serving elements, Felix,\nto serve our good; let the day go on lengthened\nwith the stars standing still; let the sun stand for you, and let the moon, in concord,\nhold still, keeping the stars suspended in a fixed course,\nuntil Roman victory reaches its end.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 26.227 (CSEL 30:254lines 227–254–255; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/26-227)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/26.255":{"o":"sicut in Assyria Daniel Babylone leones\neffusa domuit uictor prece, sic tibi, Felix,\neffera barbaries Christo frangente dometur\net tua captiui iaceant uestigia circum.\nsic aliquando ferae circum iacuere prophetam\norantisque pedes linguis mulsere benignis,\nnaturam mutante deo, ut damnaret acerba\nmente feros homines humana pace ferarum.\nsic et crudelem confudit flamma tyrannum\nsanctis spectantem pueris seruire caminos\natque suos cantare reos, ardere ministros.\nquonam se miseri poterunt defendere reges,\nqui tam degeneres humanae mentis in illos\nsaeuierint, quibus et feritas et flamma pepercit?\nsed uelut aeternos pueris recinentibus hymnos\nroscidus accensos discussit spiritus ignes,\nsic nobis placido Felicis gratia flatu\nadspirante deo bellorum temperet ignes\nortaque Romuleis reprimens incendia terris\nsollicitos placida iam pace refrigeret aestus\nfessaque restinctis absoluat pectora curis.\nsed cur insipiens, tamquam tibi sim rudis hospes\noblitusque tui, ueterum te posco parentum\nexemplis, ut opem tribuas in rebus egenis,\nquam tibi dante deo facies tu cedere nobis?\nsat mihi sunt, Felix, uirtutum exempla tuarum,\nnec tibi pauperior Christus caelestia fundit\nmunera quam patribus, quorum generosa propago es.","t":"As in Assyria Daniel, victorious by poured-out prayer, tamed the lions\nat Babylon, so for you, Felix,\nlet savage barbarism be tamed as Christ breaks it,\nand let the captives lie around your footsteps.\nSo once the beasts lay around the prophet\nand soothed the feet of the one praying with kindly tongues,\nGod changing their nature, so as to condemn men savage\nin bitter mind by the human peace of beasts.\nSo also the flame confounded the cruel tyrant,\nas he watched the furnaces serve the holy boys,\nand the men he had condemned sing, while his ministers burned.\nHow could wretched kings defend themselves,\nwho raged with minds so degenerate from humanity\nagainst those whom both wildness and flame spared?\nBut as, while the boys sang eternal hymns in response,\na dewy wind scattered the kindled fires,\nso may the grace of Felix with calm breath,\nas God breathes on us, temper the fires of war for us,\nand, repressing the conflagrations that have risen in the lands of Romulus,\ncool our anxious heat now with calm peace,\nand release weary hearts, our cares extinguished.\nBut why, foolish, as if I were an inexperienced guest of yours\nand forgetful of you, do I appeal to you by the examples of the ancient fathers\nto give help in our needs,\nhelp which, God granting it to you, you will make come to us?\nThe examples of your own powers suffice me, Felix,\nnor does Christ pour out heavenly gifts to you more poorly\nthan to the fathers, whose noble offspring you are.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 26.255 (CSEL 30:255lines 255–282–256; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/26-255)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/26.283":{"o":"nam patriarcharum, Felix, et filius aeque\nstirpis apostolicae es, tanti non degener heres\nseminis; ut sanctae legis simul atque fidei\nconfessor patriis uirtutibus aemula sanctus\nsigna geris, nec, si species operum tibi dispar,\nnon similis uirtus; diuersa est gratia nobis,\ngloria par, quoniam sanctis fons omnibus unus\net regnum commune dei; non una prophetis\nmartyribusque sacris opera, ut diuersa fuerunt\ntempora, nec coeunt signis distantia causis\ngesta; dei per dona sibi caelestia distant\naequales meritis. si non eadem omnia Felix\nquae Daniel gessit uel pertulit et lacus istum\nnon habuit nec terribiles cinxere leones:\nnec Daniel eadem pro nomine passus erili est,\nuerbera uincla metus et noctem carceris atri,\nquae Felix horrenda tulit. qui rostra ferarum\nclausit adoranti faciens mansueta prophetae,\nqui fecit gelidos pueris orantibus ignes\numidaque in mediis dedit indumenta caminis,\nipse dedit celso Felicem iure potentem\npestiferis Satanae legionibus inperitare,\nin quibus iste feras omnes conpescit et ignes.\nnam quae non serpens, quae non hac belua turba est?\ndenique de multis unum loquar, ut sit ab uno\ndiscere daemoniis sensus constare ferinos.\nquidam homo, non longum tempus, tam prodigiali\ndaemone distentus fuit, ut iam non modo notos\nille cibos hominum, uel si congesta daretur\nmulta mensa dape, in facili consumeret haustu,\nuerum et gallinas habitantum limine raptas,\nmox ut sustulerat, rabido discerperet ore\net pluma incoctas non suffocante uoraret.","t":"For you, Felix, are equally a son of the patriarchs\nand of the apostolic stock, no degenerate heir of so great\na seed; as a confessor of the holy law and of faith together,\nyou, holy one, bear signs rivalling your fathers' virtues,\nand if the form of your works is different, your virtue\nis not unlike; grace is diverse among us,\nglory equal, since there is one fountain for all the saints\nand a common kingdom of God; the works of the prophets\nand the sacred martyrs are not one, as the times were different,\nnor do deeds distant in their causes agree in their signs;\nthey differ among themselves by the heavenly gifts of God,\nequal in merits. If Felix did not do or suffer all the same things\nthat Daniel did or suffered, and the den did not hold him,\nnor did terrible lions surround him,\nneither did Daniel suffer for his Master's name the same things,\nscourges, chains, fears, and the night of a black prison,\nwhich Felix bore, horrible as they were. He who shut the beasts' jaws,\nmaking them gentle to the praying prophet,\nwho made the fires cold for the praying boys\nand gave them moist garments in the midst of the furnaces,\nhe himself has given Felix, mighty by lofty right,\nto command the pestilent legions of Satan,\nin which he restrains all beasts and fires.\nFor what serpent, what beast is not in that crowd?\nIn short, I shall tell one of many, so that from one\nyou may learn that the demons have bestial senses.\nA certain man, not long ago, was distended by so monstrous\na demon that he not only would consume in an easy gulp\nthe familiar food of men, even if a table were given\nheaped with much fare,\nbut also would tear apart with rabid mouth hens snatched\nfrom the doorsteps of the inhabitants as soon as he had seized them,\nand devour them uncooked, the feathers not choking him.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 26.283 (CSEL 30:256lines 283–315–257; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/26-283)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/26.316":{"o":"quin et funeream saniem sitiebat et ossa\nlambebat, pecudum proiecta cadauera mandens,\nobscenus conuiua canum. hic modo daemone tanto\nsobrius ecce procul conductum exercet agellum\net curante deo sancta Felicis in aula\nredditus ipse sibi claro satis indice monstrat\nFelicem meritis et Christi nomine fortem\ninmanes domitare feras et uincere flammas.\ndicite qui testes operum Felicis adestis,\nnonne feras ignesque domat, cum daemonas urget,\nqui uitiis animas et morbis corpora frangunt,\nqui desideriis hominem flammantibus urunt\npeccatisque uorant? istos cruciansque fugansque\nnonne feras ignesque domat? fremit igneus ultor\nagminis igniferi Felix flammamque nocentem\nopprimit igne dei; tenebrarum uincitur ignis\nluminis igne pio; daemon fugit, et deus intrat;\net fit homo bene uersa domus, felicior aula,\npossessore deo taetrum infitiata colonum.\ncandidus et medicans ignis deus; hoc meus igne\nferuet, ut incensum restinguat daemona, Felix\nlaxatumque hominem flagrante refrigeret hoste.\nmira manus et uirga potens et celsa potestas\nintra unum mixtis inimico foedere corpus\nspiritibus Felix interuenit inter operta\npectoris et tenues dirimit subtilior auras,\ndaemone discernens animam, quo libera pulso\nmens hominem recipit. par hoc operi est opus illi,\nquo merram tristem sacri dulcedine ligni\nin populi potus crucis inmutauit imago.","t":"Moreover he thirsted for the gore of carcasses, and licked\nbones, chewing the thrown-out corpses of cattle,\na foul table-companion of dogs. This man, delivered just now from so great a demon,\nsee, now sober, works a rented little field far away,\nand, God caring for him in the holy hall of Felix,\nrestored to himself, he shows by a clear enough sign\nthat Felix, strong by merits and the name of Christ,\ntames monstrous beasts and conquers flames.\nSay, you who are present as witnesses of the works of Felix,\ndoes he not tame beasts and fires, when he presses the demons\nwho break souls with vices and bodies with diseases,\nwho burn man with flaming desires\nand devour him with sins? Tormenting and putting these to flight,\ndoes he not tame beasts and fires? Felix, the fiery avenger\nof the fire-bearing troop, roars and crushes the guilty flame\nwith the fire of God; the fire of darkness is conquered\nby the godly fire of light; the demon flees, and God enters;\nand the man becomes a house well turned, a happier hall,\nwith God as possessor, having disowned the foul tenant.\nGod is a white and healing fire; with this fire my Felix\nglows, to quench the kindled demon\nand to cool the released man of the burning enemy.\nWondrous hand and mighty rod and lofty power!\nFelix intervenes within one body among spirits\nmingled in a hostile pact, in the hidden places\nof the breast, and, finer than they, divides the slender breaths,\nseparating the soul from the demon, so that, the demon expelled,\nthe mind, free, receives the man again. This work is equal to that work\nby which the image of the cross changed bitter Marah\ninto drink for the people by the sweetness of the sacred wood.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 26.316 (CSEL 30:257lines 316–345–258; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/26-316)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/26.346":{"o":"sic Felix pietate potens, quia nobilis altae\nconfessor crucis est, ipsum quasi tristia merrae\npocla hominem mutat. qui nunc inflatus acerbo\ndaemone uipereum per spumea labra saporem,\nconcussu laterum et singultu gutturis ampli\nsaepius adsiliens flatus ructabat amaros,\niam totus uel solus homo in sua iura reuersus\ndulce sapit, sanum spirat placidumque profatur.\nergo et Felicem uirtutis dextera cingit.\ninde potens uarias tenebrosi principis artes\ndeuorat ut magicos Moseia uirga dracones.\ncernimus ecce pares domini caelestis adesse\nad meritum Felicis opes, operum quoque formas\ncongruere et quaecumque patres in corpore sancti\nediderint documenta dei sine corpore uiuum\nin Christo Felicem agere insignique potentem\nmente animam, positi dum corporis ossa quiescunt,\nante diem reditus claris praetendere signis,\nqualem pro meritis sit gestatura coronam,\ncum steterit toto rediuiuus corpore Felix.\nomnes quisque suo radiabunt lumine sancti\ndissimili fulgore pares nec iudice Christo\nalter in alterius meriti dispendia crescent;\nChristus erit cunctis regnum lux uita corona.\ncernite distinctos actu sed honore iugatos\ntestamentorum ueterisque nouique magistros,\nin quibus una dedit geminas sapientia leges.\natque ita uirtutes uarias par gloria pensat.\nnon Petrus inrupit uirga mare, sed neque Moyses\naequoris incessit liquido; tamen unus utrique\nfulget honos, unus quoniam fuit auctor utrique\nscindere aquas uirga, pedibus calcare fluenta,\nqui deus est ueterum in sanctis, deus ipse nouorum;","t":"So Felix, mighty in piety because he is a noble confessor\nof the lofty cross, changes the man himself like the bitter cups\nof Marah. He who, just now swollen with a bitter\ndemon, belched a viper's taste through foaming lips,\noften leaping up with heaving of his sides and sobbing\nof his wide throat, belched bitter blasts,\nnow, wholly himself, a man returned to his own control,\ntastes sweet, breathes soundly, and speaks calmly.\nSo the right hand of power girds Felix too.\nHence, mighty, he devours the various arts of the prince of darkness\nas the rod of Moses devoured the magicians' serpents.\nSee, we perceive equal riches of the heavenly Lord present\nfor the merit of Felix, and the forms of works agreeing,\nand that whatever proofs of God the holy fathers produced\nin the body, Felix, living in Christ without the body,\nperforms, and, mighty in mind with notable soul,\nwhile the bones of his laid-down body rest,\nshows forth by bright signs, before the day of return,\nwhat crown he will wear for his merits\nwhen Felix stands restored to life in his whole body.\nAll the saints will shine, each with his own light,\nequal with unlike splendour, nor, with Christ as judge,\nwill one grow at the expense of another's merit;\nChrist will be kingdom, light, life, crown for all.\nBehold the teachers of the old and new testaments,\ndistinct in act but yoked in honour,\nin whom one wisdom gave twin laws.\nAnd so equal glory weighs out varied powers.\nPeter did not break the sea with a rod, nor did Moses\nwalk on the liquid of the sea; yet one honour\nshines for both, since there was one author for both\nof dividing the waters with a rod and treading the waves with feet,\nwho is the God of the old saints, and himself the God of the new;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 26.346 (CSEL 30:259lines 346–378–260; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/26-346)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/26.35":{"o":"legifer ut quondam Pharii tellure tyranni\npascha sacrum Moyses prima sub lege dicauit\nsanctaque tunc Iudaea, domo licet inpius illos\nmaturare fugam ualida ui cogeret hostis,\nlibertate tamen deuoti pectoris audax\nnec turbante metu iussum sollemne reliquit,\nsed trepidans fugiensque licet diuina peregit\nfesta, salutifero laetis epulatus in agno\ncoetibus et ficto Christi iam sanguine uictor,\nduxit ouans laetas uicto Pharaone choreas\n(inde fugae memores etiam nunc azyma sumunt\nIudaei solo retinentes nomine gentem,\ninfermentatis pulsi quia panibus olim\nAegypto fecere fugam; paribus modo signis\nper patrios, sed iam per inania sabbata, ritus\nantiqui recolunt uestigia grata timoris;\nnam frustra ueterem uacua sub imagine legem\nexercent, uerum nobis quia pascha repleuit\nunus pro cunctis patri datus hostia Christus,\net quia corpus adest uitae, perit umbra figurae):\nsic igitur modo nos turbato in tempore laeti,\nmente pia festum dilecti martyris omnes\nconlatis hilarae studiis pietatis agamus.\nforte magis pietas nobis dabit ista salutem,\nsi nostras ideo libeat deponere curas,\nut confessori laetantia corda feramus,\ncuius honore deus gaudet, quia martyr honorem\ncontempsit proprium domini pro nomine Christi,\nuilior ipse sibi, ut Christo pretiosior esset.\npropterea tali placeat gaudere patrono\nnatalemque diem sopiti pace beata\nmartyris expositis laetantes ducere curis.","t":"As once Moses the lawgiver, in the land of the Pharian tyrant,\ndedicated the sacred Passover under the first law,\nand holy Judea then, though the impious enemy\nwas forcing them with strong violence to hasten their flight from his home,\nyet, bold with the freedom of a devoted heart,\nand undisturbed by fear, did not abandon the commanded solemnity,\nbut, though trembling and fleeing, performed the divine\nfestival, feasting on the saving lamb in glad gatherings,\nand, already victorious by the prefigured blood of Christ,\nled glad dances in triumph when Pharaoh was conquered\n(hence, mindful of the flight, even now the Jews,\nkeeping the nation in name only, take unleavened bread,\nbecause once, driven out, they made their flight from Egypt\nwith unleavened loaves; with like signs now,\nthrough ancestral rites, but now through empty sabbaths,\nthey recall the welcome traces of the ancient fear;\nfor they practise the old law in vain under an empty image,\nbecause for us Christ, given to the Father as one victim for all,\nhas fulfilled the true Passover,\nand since the body of life is present, the shadow of the figure perishes):\nso therefore let us now, glad in a troubled time,\nall keep the festival of the beloved martyr with godly mind,\nwith united zeal of cheerful piety.\nPerhaps this piety will the more bring us safety,\nif it pleases us to lay down our cares for this purpose,\nto bring rejoicing hearts to the confessor,\nin whose honour God rejoices, because the martyr scorned\nhis own honour for the name of Christ the Lord,\ncheaper to himself so as to be more precious to Christ.\nTherefore let it please us to rejoice in such a patron\nand, rejoicing, our cares set aside, to keep the birthday\nof the martyr laid asleep in blessed peace.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 26.35 (CSEL 30:247lines 35–66–248; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/26-35)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/26.379":{"o":"quo data lex domino est, ex ipso gratia uenit;\nille deus Danielis et ille trium puerorum\nFelicis deus ipse deus nec se minor ipse est\nin sancto Felice deus, per quem bona dona\net medicas exercet opes terraque marique.\nomni namque die testes sumus undique crebris\ncoetibus aut sanos gratantia reddere uota\naut aegros uarias petere ac sentire medellas.\ncernimus et multos peregrino a litore uectos\nante sacram sancti prostratos martyris aulam,\ndum referunt grates, tolerata referre pericla,\ntestantes ualidis conlisa naue procellis\nse raptos miserante deo Felicis et ipsa\neducente manu Maris emersisse profundo\net desperatam placidos cepisse salutem,\nFelicis meritis et aquas et cedere flammas.\npraeterita ut taceam meriti documenta potentis,\nnouimus experti, pauor e terrore recenti\nuibrat adhuc memores animos, recolentibus illa\nquae tulimus paene absumptis incendia tectis;\nquamlibet extinctae recalent uestigia flammae\nmentibus et magni cumulant Felicis amorem,\nquem prope corporeo praesentem uidimus actu\nobiectare manus flammis et nostra tueri\nlimina iuncta suis, quae tamquam territa sancti\nobstantis facie prope tangens flamma pauebat\npulsaque de nostri rapiendo culmine tecti,\ncomminus in tuguri uicina strage perarsit.\nmira loquar, stetit inmotus sine flatibus aether\nnec nemorum foliis ullum dedit aura tremorem,\nne posset rapidus procedere longius ignis\nper contexta uolans sociarum tigna domorum,\nsed uentis deserta cadentibus ire negaret\nflamma et consumpto moreretur languida pastu.","t":"by whom the law was given, from him grace came;\nhe who is the God of Daniel and of the three boys\nis himself the God of Felix, nor is God himself less\nin holy Felix, through whom he exercises good gifts\nand healing powers on land and sea.\nFor every day we are witnesses, from everywhere, in frequent\ngatherings, either of the healthy paying thankful vows\nor of the sick seeking and feeling various healings.\nWe see too many brought from a foreign shore,\nprostrate before the sacred hall of the holy martyr,\nwhile they give thanks, telling the dangers they endured,\ntestifying that, their ship dashed by strong storms,\nthey were snatched away, God pitying them, and by the very hand\nof Felix leading them out had emerged from the depth of the sea\nand gained, calm, the safety despaired of,\nsince by Felix's merits both waters and flames yield.\nTo be silent about past proofs of his mighty merit,\nwe know by experience; fear from recent terror\nstill makes our remembering minds tremble as we recall\nthe fire we endured when our roofs were almost consumed;\nthough the flame is extinguished, its traces are still warm\nin our minds and heap up love for great Felix,\nwhom we saw, almost present in bodily act,\nsetting his hands against the flames and guarding our\nthresholds joined to his; the flame, almost touching them,\nfeared them, as if terrified by the face of the saint standing in the way,\nand, driven back from seizing the roof of our house,\nburned itself out close by in the ruin of a neighbouring hut.\nI shall tell wonders: the air stood motionless without breeze,\nnor did the wind give any trembling to the leaves of the groves,\nso that the swift fire could not advance further,\nflying through the joined beams of the neighbouring houses,\nbut, deserted by the falling winds, the flame refused to go on\nand died, weak, its fuel consumed.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 26.379 (CSEL 30:260lines 379–412–261; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/26-379)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/26.413":{"o":"consimili modo nos, Felix, ope solue periclis,\nnec domibus nostris propient mala, pulsaque per te\nhorrida sanguineo longe sonet ira flagello.\nillam etiam uirtutem arcendis indue bellis,\nqua male labentem uicinis montibus amnem,\nqui subitis aucto pluuiis torrente redundans,\nsic tua praecipitans in limina saepe ruebat,\nut tectis coniuncta tuis habitacula uastis\nquassaret uiolentus aquis, ita flumine uerso\nfecisti mutare uias, ut nunc nouus illum\nalueus insolita ducat regione furentem\nnostraque longinquo uitantem tecta meatu:\nsic modo bellisono uenientes flumine pugnas\nde nostris auerte locis. manus inpia sacris\nfinibus absistat, quibus est tua gratia uallum,\natque tuam timeant hostes quasi daemones aulam,\nnec cruor haec uiolet quae flamma uel unda refugit.","t":"In like manner, Felix, release us by your help from dangers,\nand let evils not draw near our houses, and, driven back by you,\nlet horrid wrath with its bloody scourge sound far away.\nPut on also, for keeping wars away, that power\nby which, when a river flowing wrongly down from the neighbouring mountains,\nswollen by sudden rains, overflowing with its torrent,\noften rushed headlong upon your thresholds\nso that it violently shook with vast waters the dwellings\njoined to your roofs, you, turning the stream,\nmade it change its ways, so that now a new\nchannel leads it, raging, through an unaccustomed region,\navoiding our roofs with a distant course:\nso now turn away from our places the battles coming\nin a war-sounding river. Let the impious hand keep off\nthe sacred borders, whose rampart is your grace,\nand let the enemies fear your hall as the demons do,\nand let not blood violate what flame and wave have fled.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 26.413 (CSEL 30:261lines 413–429; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/26-413)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/26.67":{"o":"hoc quoque deuotis aderit, si fortior extet\nnunc ad laetitiam affectus quam causa timoris\nad consternandas obducto pectore mentes.\ncredite non armis neque uiribus esse timendos\nallophylum populos, quos propter crimina nostra\noffensi mouet ira dei, ut formidine mortis\nexcitet ad curam uitae torpentia corda.\nergo deum mitem saeuo timeamus in hoste,\nabsit ut hoste metus, quem formidare meremur\nnon metuendo deum; placida quem pace remissi\nneglegimus saltem ui conpellente tremamus,\nplacemus maerore humiles quem laeta ferentem\nspernimus ex ipsa mox prosperitate superbi.\nprisca retractemus sanctorum exempla parentum,\nqui merita inmissis tolerantes uerbera bellis,\nnon armis sibi nec muris capienda putabant\npraesidia. humanis opibus sperare salutem\nnulla salus. nec enim mortem mortalia pellent.\nergo quibus curae tempus sit cura precandi\ncaelestem dominum, quo maesta aut laeta parantur,\nqui solus praestare potest dicione superna,\nrursus ut exactis renouentur gaudia curis.\nhoc etenim regit et uariat deus arbiter usu\nres hominum, ut semper succedant nubila sudis\natque iterum fugiant imbres redeunte sereno.\nquanta precum uirtus, quae sit medicina parenti\nflere deo, doceat luctu seruata Nineue\net senis inpensa Moysi prece uictus Amalec\net maledictus Aman sanctae prece perditus Esther,\nqui bene poenarum uersa uice quae mala sanctis\nmiscuerat solus bibit inpius et cruce iusta,\nquam famulo domini praefixerat, ipse pependit.","t":"This too will be granted to the devout, if affection for joy\nnow stands stronger than the cause of fear\nto dismay minds with clouded breast.\nBelieve that the foreign peoples are to be feared\nnot for their arms or strength; the anger of an offended God\nmoves them because of our sins, so as to rouse sluggish hearts\nby fear of death to care for life.\nSo let us fear the gentle God in the savage enemy;\nlet fear of the enemy be far from us, the enemy we deserve to fear\nby not fearing God; let us at least tremble, as force compels,\nbefore him whom, relaxed in calm peace, we neglect;\nlet us, humble in grief, appease him whom, when he brings glad things,\nwe soon spurn, proud from prosperity itself.\nLet us go back over the ancient examples of our holy fathers,\nwho, enduring deserved scourges in wars sent upon them,\ndid not think protection was to be found in arms\nor walls. To hope for salvation in human resources\nis no salvation. For mortal things do not drive off death.\nSo let those who have care spend this time in the care of praying\nto the heavenly Lord, by whom sad or glad things are prepared,\nwho alone can grant, by his heavenly rule,\nthat joys be renewed again when cares are driven away.\nFor God the arbiter rules and varies the affairs of men\nin this way, so that clear skies always follow clouds,\nand the rains flee again as fair weather returns.\nHow great is the power of prayers, what medicine it is\nto weep before God, let Nineveh teach, saved by mourning,\nand Amalek, conquered by the lavish prayer of old Moses,\nand cursed Haman, destroyed by the prayer of holy Esther,\nwho, the punishments well reversed, alone drank, impious,\nthe evils he had mixed for the saints, and on the just cross,\nwhich he had set up for the Lord's servant, himself hanged.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 26.67 (CSEL 30:248lines 67–98–249; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/26-67)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/26.99":{"o":"ergo fides innixa deo trepidantia firmet\npectora et in maesto securum tempore tempus\npraesumat confisa deo, quia non metuendi\ncausa timere deum, quem quisquis non timet unum\nomnia iure timet. fidant legionibus illi\nperfugioque parent reparatis moenia muris,\nnulla salutiferi quibus est fiducia Christi;\nnos crucis inuictae signum et confessio munit,\narmatique deo mentem non quaerimus arma\ncorporis; et quamquam membris uideamur inermes,\narma tamen gerimus, quibus et sub pace serena\ncontra incorporeos animis decernimus hostes.\nnunc opus adiutore deo, solusque timendus,\nquo sine et arma cadunt, per quem firmantur et arma;\nipse intra muros turris tibi, qui sine muris\nmurus erit. recolamus abhinc signata sacratis\ngesta patrum libris, et perspice qui potiore\npraesidio fuerint, quos urbs circumdata magnis\nabsque deo muris an quos sine moenibus urbis\nuallabat socio uirtus diuina fauore.\nillam dico urbem quam perdidit acer Iesus,\nmutatus proprium uirtutis nomine nomen,\nquam non militiae solito de more subegit,\nut solitum est, longa dux obsidione laborans;\nuerum ope diuina sacra per mysteria uibrans\ntela nec exercens tacitis exercitus armis\nlustrauit cessante manu septemque diebus\nseptenos iterans sibi circa moenia gyros.\nobtinuit captos numeri uirtute potentis\natque sacerdotum lituis clangore tremendo\nfulmineos superae tonitrus imitantibus irae.","t":"So let faith, resting on God, strengthen trembling\nhearts, and, trusting God, anticipate a secure time\nin a sorrowful time, because there is no cause to fear\nexcept to fear God; whoever does not fear him alone\nrightly fears all things. Let those trust in legions\nand prepare walls as refuge with rebuilt ramparts\nwho have no trust in saving Christ;\nthe sign of the unconquered cross and our confession fortify us,\nand, armed in mind by God, we do not seek arms\nfor the body; and though we seem unarmed in our limbs,\nyet we bear arms, with which even in serene peace\nwe fight in our souls against bodiless enemies.\nNow we need God as helper, and he alone is to be feared,\nwithout whom even arms fall, through whom even arms are made firm;\nhe himself will be a tower for you within the walls, he who without walls\nwill be a wall. Let us go back from here over the deeds of the fathers,\nrecorded in the sacred books, and see who had the better\nprotection: those whom a city surrounded with great\nwalls, without God, or those whom, without city walls,\ndivine power fenced about with allied favour.\nI speak of that city which fierce Jesus destroyed,\nwhose own name was changed into a name of power,\nwhich the leader did not subdue in the usual manner of warfare,\ntoiling, as is usual, in a long siege;\nbut, brandishing weapons by divine help through sacred mysteries,\nnot plying them, an army with silent arms,\nhe went round it with hands at rest, and for seven days\nrepeated sevenfold circuits about the walls.\nHe took them captive by the power of the mighty number\nand by the priests' trumpets with dreadful blast,\nimitating the thunderbolts of anger above.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 26.99 (CSEL 30:249lines 99–129–251; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/26-99)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/27.1":{"o":"Nascere, quae tardo semper mihi redderis ortu\nmox et in occasum properans fugis, aegra redire,\nales abire, dies. nam te per longa morantem\ntempora, dum tardi nitens rota uertitur anni,\nsustineo intentis adfecto pectore uotis.\nquam cuperem totis mihi te lucere diebus,\nuel si quando uenis, ita conpensare moras, ut\naestiuis posses spatiis producere lucem\naut illum pensare diem, qui sistere iussis\nsideribus longo lassauit lumine mundum,\nhumanos duplicans dilata nocte labores.\nnunc te, cara dies, rapido nimis aere nobis\ntemporis hiberni lex subtrahit et breuiatas\ncogit hiems horas cita lumine, pigra tenebris.\nsed bene quod tibi sol, Felix, cui gratia perpes,\ninlustrante micat Christo propriumque coruscat\nnatali iubar ipse suo neque conditur umquam\ncasibus occiduis aeterni splendor honoris.\ni, fugitiua dies, elabere, non reuocabo,\nnec te iam querar esse breuem, quia te sine Felix\nsemper inextincto praesens mihi lumine fulget.\nsi natalis abest, plus est quod iugiter ipse\nlux huius natalis adest. nec enim ille die fit\nsanctus, cuius honor celebrandi causa diei est.\nquod si natalem reliquis praestare diebus\nturba facit, solito quae densius ad sacra currit\nlimina, conferta prope semper plebe uidemus\nnatalem Felicis agi. nam quae, rogo, uotis\ncassa dies oritur uel magnis rara cateruis?\nsed tamen hanc speciale decus retinere fatebor\niure diem, expleto quondam qua contigit aeuo\nponere terrenos habitus et ad alta uocari\nsidera Felicem retinendum sede beata.","t":"Be born, day, who are always restored to me with slow rising\nand soon hasten to your setting and flee, slow to return,\nwinged to depart. For I wait for you, lingering through long\ntimes, while the struggling wheel of the slow year turns,\nwith my breast stirred by intent vows.\nHow I should wish that you shone for me all the days,\nor, whenever you come, that you so made up for your delays\nthat you could prolong the light to summer's length,\nor match that day which, the stars bidden to stand,\nwearied the world with long light,\ndoubling human labours with night put off.\nNow the law of winter time steals you from us, dear day,\nwith too swift an air, and winter, quick in light, slow in darkness,\ncompels the shortened hours.\nBut it is well that for you, Felix, to whom grace is perpetual,\nthe sun shines as Christ illumines, and he himself flashes\nhis own radiance on his birthday, nor is the splendour\nof eternal honour ever buried in setting falls.\nGo, fugitive day, slip away; I will not call you back,\nnor will I now complain that you are short, because without you Felix\nalways shines present for me with unquenched light.\nIf the birthday is absent, it is more that he himself,\nthe light of this birthday, is continually present. For he does not become\nholy by a day, he whose honour is the cause of celebrating the day.\nBut if it is the crowd that makes the birthday surpass the other days,\nrunning to the sacred thresholds more densely than usual,\nwe see Felix's birthday kept almost always with a crowded people.\nFor what day, I ask, rises empty of vows\nor thin in great throngs?\nYet I shall confess that this day rightly retains a special\nhonour, on which once, his age completed, it fell to Felix\nto lay down his earthly garb and be called to the lofty\nstars, to be kept in the blessed seat.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 27.1 (CSEL 30:262lines 1–33–263; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/27-1)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/27.103":{"o":"talis ubi lectas inpleuit crapula mentes,\nructauere sacras ieiuno gutture laudes\nebria corda deo; quis me miseratus ab isto\nflumine potabit, quod sobriat ebrietate?\nergo uelut caelum stellis et floribus arua\ntemporibusque annos dominus, sic ipsa diebus\ntempora distinxit festis, ut pigra diurnis\ningenia obsequiis saltem discrimine facto\npost interuallum reduci sollemnia uoto\nsancta libenter agant residesque per annua mentes\nfesta parent domino, quia iugiter intemeratos\niustitiae seruire piget, delinquere suetis\nparcere peccato labor est. decurritur omni\nualle, per ascensum non est euadere cursu.\nhinc uia labendi procliuior et uia uitae\ndurior; illa capax multis, haec ardua paucis.\ninde bonus dominus cunctos pietatis ut alis\ncontegat, inualidis niti uirtutis ad arcem\ncongrua sanctorum dedit interualla dierum,\nut saltem officiis mediocribus ultima Christi\nuestimenta legant, et eos uel fimbria sanet,\nqui non extorres penitus regione salutis\nintra perpetuae stabulant praesepia uitae,\nlonginqui primis, non longo fine secundis.\nprimus enim uitae gradus est pertexere cunctos\ncontinua bonitate dies et tempore toto\npascha sacrum Christi cultu celebrare pudico.\nquod si mixta seges tribulis mihi germinat et cor\nincultum stimulat terreni spina laboris,\nuel festis domino studeam me offerre diebus,\nut uel parte mei tangam confinia uitae,\ncorpore ne toto trahar in consortia mortis.","t":"When such drunkenness filled the chosen minds,\ndrunken hearts belched out sacred praises to God\nwith fasting throat; who will pity me and give me to drink\nfrom that river which sobers by drunkenness?\nSo, as the Lord marked the sky with stars and the fields with flowers\nand the years with seasons, so he marked the seasons themselves with festal\ndays, so that sluggish natures, at least when a distinction is made\nafter an interval, might gladly perform the holy solemnities\nwith returning vow, and idle minds might through the yearly\nfestivals be prepared for the Lord, since it irks them to serve justice\ncontinually undefiled, and for those used to sinning\nit is labour to refrain from sin. One runs down every\nvalley; there is no escaping up an ascent by running.\nHence the way of falling is more downhill, and the way of life\nharder; the one roomy for many, the other steep for few.\nHence the good Lord, to cover all with the wings\nof kindness, gave fitting intervals of holy days\nfor the weak to strive toward the citadel of virtue,\nso that at least by moderate services they may grasp the hem\nof Christ's garments, and even the fringe may heal those\nwho, not wholly exiled from the region of salvation,\nstable within the stalls of everlasting life,\nfar from the first rank, not far from the second.\nFor the first grade of life is to weave all days\nwith continual goodness, and through all time\nto celebrate the sacred Passover of Christ with chaste worship.\nBut if a crop mixed with thistles sprouts for me and the thorn\nof earthly toil goads my uncultivated heart,\nlet me at least be eager to offer myself to the Lord on festal days,\nso that at least with part of myself I may touch the borders of life,\nlest I be dragged with my whole self into the fellowship of death.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 27.103 (CSEL 30:266lines 103–134–268; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/27-103)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/27.135":{"o":"quamquam igitur iugi nos, qui statione propinqua\nadcolimus, sancti potiamur honore patroni,\nquem et sine natali deuota frequentia semper\nconcelebrat, tamen ut proprii per erilia uernae\nfesta relaxemur curis et uota canamus,\nhuius laetitiae princeps psallentibus ibo\nfratribus et socium ducam quasi signifer agmen.\nnam licet e uaria populi regione frequentes\nconparibus uotis hodie pia gaudia fundant,\nme tamen uberius decet atque insignius isto\nexultare die, quia nemo obstrictior est me\ndebitor huic, cui priuato specialius astro\nista dies tantum peperit sine fine patronum.\nsalue, cara dies, salue, mihi lux mea, salue,\nsemper festa mihi; sed in hoc mihi clarior anno\norta refulsisti, quia cum Felicis honore\nNicetam reuehis, sanctorum ut amore duorum\nbinum habeam natalem hodie, quo corpore sumpti\nmartyris excessum celebrans et corpore prompti\necce sacerdotis reditum satiatus adoro,\nsuscipiens humili metantem in pectore Christum.\nexultet mea nunc anima edicatque quod olim\nsponsa canebat amans domino uocalis amanti:\nimber abit, discessit hiems, uox turturis altae\nin nostra tellure sonat, dat uitis odorem,\nflorida et in terris miramur lilia caeli.\nunde repente, precor, uersa uice temporis annus\nuer agit et gelidis flores uisuntur in agris?\niunctus adest domini Christi comitatus amicis\nNicetes; hinc uernat hiems, hinc undique nobis\nspirat odoratos uegetabilis aura uapores;\nhoc de corde uenit benedicti spiritus agri.","t":"So although we, who dwell nearby at a close station,\nenjoy the continual honour of our holy patron,\nwhom a devoted crowd always celebrates even apart from his birthday,\nyet, that we, his own home-born servants, may be relaxed from cares\nthrough our master's festivals and sing our vows,\nI shall go as leader of this joy for the psalm-singing\nbrothers and lead the allied column like a standard-bearer.\nFor though crowds from various regions of the people\npour out godly joys today with like vows,\nyet it befits me to exult more abundantly and more notably\non this day, because no one is more bound\nas debtor to him, for whom, under a more special private star,\nthis day has borne so great a patron without end.\nHail, dear day, hail, my light, hail,\nalways festal for me; but in this year you have risen\nand shone more brightly for me, because with Felix's honour\nyou bring back Niceta, so that by the love of two saints\nI may have a double birthday today, on which, celebrating\nthe departure of the martyr taken up in body and the return\nof the bishop, here present in body,\nI worship, filled, receiving Christ, who dwells in my humble breast.\nLet my soul now exult and declare what once\nthe bride sang, loving, to the loving Lord:\n“The rain is gone, winter has departed, the voice of the turtledove\nsounds in our land, the vine gives its fragrance,”\nand we marvel at the lilies of heaven flowering on earth.\nWhence suddenly, I pray, with the season turned, does the year\nmake spring, and flowers are seen in icy fields?\nNiceta is present, joined as companion to the friends of Christ\nthe Lord; hence winter flowers, hence on every side\na quickening breeze breathes fragrant vapours on us;\nthis comes from the heart of a field blessed by the Spirit.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 27.135 (CSEL 30:268lines 135–166–269; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/27-135)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/27.167":{"o":"uita pudicitiae et liquido mens candida uero\nNicetam faciunt, flores et aromata Christi.\nmunere quid tanto dignum uel corde uel ore\npauper et insipiens et paruulus edere possim?\nipso nunc Felice opus est et in hoc mihi munus,\nsumat ut a Christo, mihi quas inpertiat ipse,\nut digne sibi grater, opes. et nunc mihi uellem\nuiua perennis aquae manarent flumina uentre,\nut non ore meo sed Christi munere possem\nlaetitiam enarrare meam, quae munere Christi\nuberius solito placidum mihi pectus inundat\nnatalemque mihi duplicat Felicis amore\nmultiplici. uideo praesenti lumine coram\nNiceten ridere mihi, uisoque parente,\ncuius prae cunctis amor in me regnat, et ipse\nNicetes fio, benedicti nominis instar\nmente gerens, quae nunc uoto uictore triumphat.\nhunc ego conspiciens longo post tempore longe\nnatali uenisse tuo, clarissime Felix,\nnonne tua ducente manu aduentasse fatebor?\nnam quis tam claro poterit non cernere signo\nhoc prece mi uenisse tua, ut, quod sumere uotis\nuix poteram aut ipso saltem mihi fingere somno,\nNicetam rursus coram Felicis in ipso\nnatali uisu simul amplexuque tenerem\natque iterum sub eo canerem mea debita, Felix,\nauditore tibi. sed quid faciam rogo. pauper\ndiuitis adsideo mensae et miser audeo magnis\ninsertare manum dapibus; neque cogito quod me\ntalia consimili uice, qualia sumo, parare\nconueniat dignumque isto dare iudice uerbum.","t":"A life of modesty and a mind white with clear truth\nmake Niceta, flowers and spices of Christ.\nWhat can I, poor and foolish and little, bring forth\nworthy of so great a gift, from heart or mouth?\nNow I need Felix himself, and in this I ask him the favour\nthat he take from Christ riches to impart to me himself,\nso that I may thank him worthily. And now I would wish\nthat living rivers of everlasting water might flow from my belly,\nso that I could tell, not with my own mouth but by Christ's gift,\nmy joy, which by Christ's gift\nfloods my calm breast more richly than usual\nand doubles Felix's birthday for me with manifold love.\nI see Niceta smiling at me face to face with present eyes,\nand, seeing my parent,\nwhose love reigns in me above all others, I myself\nbecome Niceta, bearing in mind the likeness of the blessed name,\nmy mind which now triumphs in a victorious vow.\nSeeing him come, after a long time and from far away,\nto your birthday, most illustrious Felix,\nshall I not confess that he has come with your hand leading him?\nFor who could fail to see by so clear a sign\nthat this has come about for me by your prayer: that what I could\nscarcely grasp in my vows, or even imagine in my very sleep,\nI should hold Niceta again face to face on the very\nbirthday of Felix, with sight and embrace together,\nand sing again under his eyes my due, Felix,\nwith you as listener? But what shall I do, I ask? Poor,\nI sit at a rich man's table and, wretched, dare\nto put my hand in great dishes; nor do I consider that it\nbefits me to prepare in turn such things as I take,\nand to give a word worthy of such a judge.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 27.167 (CSEL 30:269lines 167–197–270; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/27-167)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/27.198":{"o":"quare inopi da, sancte, tuo, ut te digna patrono\net pariter condigna tuo loquar ausus amico.\nposco tuos, Felix, tecum ad tua uota parentes.\nquae tua uota loquor, mea sunt et uerius haec sunt\nuota mea; at tibi celsus honor terrena recusat\ngaudia. sed quia nostra tuae sunt gaudia palmae\net tua dignaris tibi ducere uota tuorum,\nergo tuos etiam, Felix, inploro parentes;\nhic quoque ades, mihi nunc poscas ut adesse uocatos.\nqui colitis laetos paradisi caelitus hortos\nquique sub excelsa domini requiescitis ara,\npulcher apostolici chorus agminis et patriarchae,\ngens prior, ambo chori procerum, quos agmine bino\nper duodena deus signauit nomina patres\ngentibus et populis regnum ad caeleste uocandis,\nuos etiam, sancti, subplex deposco, prophetae,\nin nostra qui carne deum fore praececinistis,\nuos quoque corporibus caesis et sanguine fuso\noccisum et uiuum testati martyres agnum,\nomnes diuinis a fontibus una propago,\nquos pius Abraham sacer Isac lenis Iacob\nprogenuere deo per inenumerabile semen\net bifidum meritis caelestibus atque caducis,\naequantes his astra poli, his telluris harenam.\ncredo equidem uos officio pietatis ad istum\nundique conuenisse diem Felicis amore,\nut confessoris socii celebretis honorem.","t":"So grant to your poor man, holy one, that I may dare to speak\nthings worthy of you as patron and likewise worthy of your friend.\nI call on your kinsmen, Felix, with you, to your festival.\nWhat I call your festival is mine, and these are more truly\nmy vows; for your lofty honour refuses earthly\njoys. But since our joys belong to your palm,\nand you deign to count the vows of your own as yours,\ntherefore I implore your kinsmen too, Felix;\nbe present here too, and ask that, called, they be present for me now.\nYou who dwell in the glad gardens of paradise in heaven,\nand you who rest beneath the lofty altar of the Lord,\nthe beautiful choir of the apostolic band, and the patriarchs,\nthe earlier race, both choirs of chiefs, whom in a double column\nGod marked as fathers by twelve names\nfor calling the nations and peoples to the heavenly kingdom;\nyou too, holy prophets, I beg as a suppliant,\nwho foretold that God would be in our flesh;\nyou also, martyrs, who with bodies slain and blood poured out\nbore witness to the Lamb slain and living;\nall, one offspring from divine fountains,\nwhom godly Abraham, holy Isaac, gentle Jacob\nbegot for God through an innumerable seed,\ndivided by heavenly and by perishable merits,\nequalling with the former the stars of heaven, with the latter the sand of the earth.\nI believe indeed that you have gathered from everywhere for this day\nby the duty of piety, out of love for Felix,\nto celebrate the honour of your fellow confessor.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 27.198 (CSEL 30:270lines 198–224–272; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/27-198)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/27.225":{"o":"non autem tanti mihi sum praesumptor honoris,\nut sanctos idcirco meis modo protinus omnes\nsensibus adspirare precer quasi munere tanto\ndignus, ut illa meo resonet uox turturis ore,\nquam totum tellus audiuit laeta per orbem,\nsed quia uox diuina decet Felicis honorem\net quia Nicetes, domini puer atque sacerdos,\nlonginqua tellure mihi modo missus ad istum\necce diem uenit, uir tam bonus ore magistro\nquam sacer est uictore animo uel corpore uicto.\no mihi fulminea Cherubin si forcipe sumptum\ncarbonem ex ipsa domini procul efferat ara\net peccatoris male pinguia labra perurat,\nut defaecato concretis sordibus ore,\nnon ut ab ore meo, sed ut auditoris ab ore,\nipsius hausta meo depromam dignius ore,\nne peccatoris stolidi sermo asper et aeger\net uiolet castas et doctas uerberet aures!\nsed quoniam lateri meus adsidet ipse magister,\ncomminus e regione situm uenerante frequenter\nlumine conspiciam; forsan sapientis ab ore,\nut quondam effetae pecudes pastoris Iacob,\nconcipiam sterili fecundos pectore sensus.\nnamque et Nicetes domino benedictus ut ille\nmitis, ut Israel ouibus quoque pastor et haedis\nante lacum uiuentis aquae sedet; hic etiam tres\ncorde pari trina sibi legit ab arbore uirgas,\nquis in aqua positis pecus aduocat et coeuntes\ningrauidat uirgisque tribus concepta colorat,\nut de interrasa uariatis cortice uirgis\ninsignita gregis sancti fetura probetur.\nat pecori Laban non est nota, sed nota uitae;","t":"But I am not so presumptuous about so great an honour\nas to pray that all the saints should at once\nbreathe on my senses, as though I were worthy of so great a gift,\nso that the voice of the turtledove might resound from my mouth,\nthe voice which the glad earth heard through the whole world;\nbut because a divine voice befits the honour of Felix,\nand because Niceta, the Lord's servant and priest,\nsent to me now from a distant land, has come\nfor this day, behold, a man as good with teaching mouth\nas he is holy with conquering mind and conquered body.\nO if only a Cherub would take a coal with flaming tongs\nand bring it from afar from the very altar of the Lord,\nand burn the badly fattened lips of a sinner,\nso that, my mouth purged of its clotted dirt,\nI might bring out more worthily with my mouth,\nnot as from my mouth, but as from the mouth of my hearer,\nwhat I have drunk from his,\nlest the harsh and sick speech of a stupid sinner\nboth violate chaste ears and lash learned ones!\nBut since my teacher himself sits at my side,\nclose by, opposite, I shall often look at him\nwith reverent eyes; perhaps from the mouth of the wise,\nas once the exhausted ewes of the shepherd Jacob,\nI may conceive fruitful thoughts in my barren breast.\nFor Niceta too, blessed by the Lord like that gentle\nJacob, like Israel, shepherd of sheep and goats,\nsits before the pool of living water; here too\nhe chooses for himself with equal heart three rods from three trees,\nby which, placed in the water, he calls the flock, and makes those coming together\npregnant, and colours what they conceive with the three rods,\nso that the offspring of the holy flock may be proved marked\nby the rods variegated by peeling the bark.\nBut the mark on the flock is not Laban's, but the mark of life;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 27.225 (CSEL 30:272lines 225–256–273; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/27-225)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/27.257":{"o":"nam nota mortis erit Christo non esse notatos.\nsic animas steriles in nomine gratia trino\ninnouat, et uerbi coitu uir spiritus inplet\nconceptosque deo notat intus eclesia fetus\nuirgineo fecunda utero materque salutis,\ndum uirgis intenta tribus bibit uuida uerbi\nsemina et aeterni signatur lumine uultus.\nhinc sterilis peperit septem et defecit abundans\ndilatante deo tenues, tenuante superbos.\nsic ego Niceta uiso quasi fonte reperto\nsicut ouis sitiens ad uiua fluenta cucurri\naridus et sensi mea protinus ubera tendi,\nadtentusque diu pascentis in ora magistri\ninspexi docto uarias in pectore uirgas\nconspectumque bibi per lumina fixa colorem,\net me diuinis sparsit mens roscida guttis.\nsed tamen in tribus his, quia uenit mentio, uirgis,\nsi placet, inspiciamus adhuc mysteria regni.\ntres patriarcha sibi trina legit arbore uirgas,\nspirantem storacis, leuem platano, nuce firmam.\nspiritus in platano est, uirgo in storace, in nuce Christus.\nnam patulos platanus ramos expandit in umbras;\nsanctus inumbrata formauit uirgine Christum\nspiritus, et storacis puto uirga sit arbore Dauid\nprompsit odoratum quae uirgo puerpera florem.\nuirga nucis Christus, quoniam in nucibus cibus intus,\ntesta foris et amara super uiridi cute cortex.\ncerne deum nostro uelatum corpore Christum,\nqui fragilis carne est, uerbo cibus et cruce amarus;\ndura superficies, uerbum crucis et crucis esca est,\ncaelestem Christi claudens in carne medullam.","t":"for not to be marked for Christ will be the mark of death.\nSo grace renews barren souls in the threefold name,\nand the Spirit, as husband, fills them by union with the Word,\nand the church, fruitful with virgin womb and mother of salvation,\nmarks within the offspring conceived for God,\nwhile, intent on the three rods, she drinks the moist seeds\nof the Word and is sealed with the light of the eternal face.\nHence the barren has borne seven and the abundant has failed,\nGod enlarging the slender and making the proud slender.\nSo I, seeing Niceta, as if a fountain were found,\nran like a thirsty sheep to the living streams,\ndry, and felt my udders at once grow full,\nand, long attentive to the mouth of the master as he fed us,\nI looked at the varied rods in his learned breast,\nand drank the colour seen through my fixed eyes,\nand his dewy mind sprinkled me with divine drops.\nBut yet in these three rods, since mention has come,\nlet us, if you please, look further into the mysteries of the kingdom.\nThe patriarch chose three rods for himself from three trees:\nfragrant from the storax, smooth from the plane, firm from the nut.\nIn the plane is the Spirit, in the storax the virgin, in the nut Christ.\nFor the plane spreads its broad branches into shade;\nthe Holy Spirit formed Christ in the overshadowed virgin;\nand the rod of storax, I think, is the virgin from the tree of David,\nwho, a virgin mother, brought forth the fragrant flower.\nThe rod of the nut is Christ, because in nuts the food is within,\nthe shell outside, and over it, on the green skin, a bitter rind.\nSee Christ, God veiled in our body,\nwho is fragile in flesh, food in the Word, and bitter in the cross;\nthe hard surface is the word of the cross, and the food of the cross,\nenclosing the heavenly marrow of Christ in the flesh.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 27.257 (CSEL 30:273lines 257–287–275; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/27-257)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/27.288":{"o":"sed cruce dulcis item, quia protulit arbore uitam\nuita deus noster; ligno mea uita pependit,\nut staret mea uita deo. quid, uita, rependam\npro uita tibi, Christe, mea? nisi forte salutis\naccipiam calicem, quo me tua dextra propinet,\nut sacro mortis pretiosae proluar haustu.\nsed quid agam? neque si proprium dem corpus in ignes\nuilescamque mihi, nec sanguine debita fuso\niusta tibi soluam, quia me reddam tibi pro me,\net quicquid simili uice fecero, semper ero inpar,\nChriste, tibi, quia tu pro me mea, non tua, Christe,\ndebita soluisti, pro seruis passus iniquis.\nquis tibi penset amor? dominus mea forma fuisti,\nut seruus tua forma forem; et res magna putatur\nmercari propriam de re pereunte salutem?\nperpetuis mutare caduca et uendere terram,\ncaelum emere? ecce deus quanto me carius emit\nmorte crucis? passus, deiectus imagine serui,\nut uiles emeret pretioso sanguine seruos.\nsed quid agam? intuto temerarius euehor alto,\nausus in excelsum fragili me credere pinna;\nmartyris egregii natalem, qui meus est mos,\nmateria leuiore canens, in summa repente\nemicui, super astra uolans mentemque procacem\nad rerum fontem misso sermone tetendi.\nunde mihi hos animos? quae me leuat aura superbum?\nnon agnosco tumens mea pectora; maior agit mens.\nsentio Nicetam, dum proximus adsidet et me\ntangit et adiuncto lateri uicinus anhelat.\nacer anhelantis iuxta me spiritus intrat\ninsolitumque potens meditanti suscitat ignem,\nfrigentes animans admoto fomite fibras.","t":"But likewise sweet by the cross, because our life, God,\nbrought forth life from a tree; my life hung on the wood,\nso that my life might stand for God. What, O life,\nshall I repay to you for my life, Christ? Unless perhaps I take\nthe cup of salvation, which your right hand may offer to me,\nso that I may be washed in the sacred draught of a precious death.\nBut what shall I do? Not even if I give my own body to the fire\nand grow cheap to myself, nor with my blood poured out,\nshall I pay you the just debts I owe, because I should give myself back to you for myself,\nand whatever I do in like turn, I shall always be unequal,\nChrist, to you, because you, Christ, paid for me my debts,\nnot yours, suffering for wicked servants.\nWhat love could weigh against you? Lord, you took my form,\nthat I, a servant, might bear your form; and is it thought a great thing\nto purchase one's own salvation with a perishing thing?\nTo exchange the perishing for the everlasting and to sell the earth\nto buy heaven? Behold, how much more dearly God bought me\nby the death of the cross! He suffered, cast down in the image of a servant,\nto buy cheap servants with precious blood.\nBut what am I doing? Rash, I am carried up on the unsafe deep,\nhaving dared to trust myself to the height on a fragile wing;\nsinging, as is my custom, the birthday of the excellent martyr\nwith lighter material, I have suddenly shot up\nto the heights, flying above the stars, and have stretched my bold mind\nto the fountain of things with my speech sent forth.\nWhence do I have this courage? What breeze lifts me, proud?\nI do not recognize my swelling breast; a greater mind drives me.\nI feel Niceta, while he sits nearest and touches me\nand breathes close at my side, joined to me.\nThe keen spirit of the one breathing beside me enters,\nand, powerful, rouses an unaccustomed fire in me as I meditate,\nanimating my cold fibres with kindling brought near.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 27.288 (CSEL 30:275lines 288–319–276; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/27-288)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/27.320":{"o":"sed reprimam tumidos flatus nec magna super me\nexiguus spirabo loqui referarque relicta\nparuus humo et plano modici pede carminis ibo.\nquamuis Felicis meritum sublime profari\nnon possim sine laude dei, tu, sancte, paterno\nsuscipe me, Niceta, sinu, et dum pectore docto\nsustineor caput in blando mihi corde reclinans,\nsal tuus insulsum me condiat et sitientes\ndiues uena riget riuo mihi perpete sensus.\ndicam iterum gaudens et adhuc uix muneris huius\ncredulus ingeminabo rogans: dic, quaeso, redisti\nteque ipsum teneo Nicetam, in quo hactenus aeger\nnoctes atque dies anima tabente pependi?\nuenisti tandem quarto mihi redditus anno?\nsed grates Christo, quia te uel sero reuexit.\nquam metui ne te mediis regionibus hostis\ndisclusum opposita bellorum nube teneret!\nsed desideriis superantibus obuia nobis\nuincula rupisti, nec te mare nec labor ullus\nnec Gothici tenuere metus nec frigora longis\ndura uiis; uere in tantis, Niceta, fuisti\ncasibus adfectu uictus uictorque benigno,\nfortis et infirmus pariter, sed utrumque potenter.\nuictus amicitia, uictus Felicis amore,\nuicisti duros tenera pietate labores.\nnunc age, sancte parens, aurem mihi dede manumque;\nnodemus socias in uincula mutua palmas\ninque uicem nexis alterno foedere dextris\nsermones uarios gressu spatiante seramus.","t":"But I shall restrain swelling blasts, nor shall I, small,\npresume to speak great things above me, and I shall be brought back\nsmall to the ground I left and go with the level foot of a modest song.\nThough I cannot speak the lofty merit of Felix\nwithout the praise of God, you, holy Niceta, receive me\nin your fatherly bosom, and while I am supported by your learned breast,\nlaying my head on your kindly heart,\nlet your salt season my insipidity, and your rich vein\nwater my thirsting senses with an everlasting stream.\nI shall say again rejoicing, and, still scarcely believing\nthis gift, I shall repeat, asking: tell me, I pray, have you returned,\nand do I hold you yourself, Niceta, on whom until now, sick,\nI have hung nights and days with wasting soul?\nHave you come at last, restored to me in the fourth year?\nBut thanks to Christ, because he has brought you back, though late.\nHow I feared that the enemy in the regions between\nwould hold you shut off by the opposing cloud of wars!\nBut with overcoming desires you broke the bonds\nthat stood in our way, nor did sea nor any labour\nnor Gothic fears nor the hard cold of long roads\nhold you back; truly in such great perils, Niceta, you were\nconquered by affection and a conqueror with kindly heart,\nstrong and weak alike, but both powerfully.\nConquered by friendship, conquered by love of Felix,\nyou conquered hard labours by tender piety.\nNow come, holy parent, give me your ear and your hand;\nlet us knot our allied palms in mutual bonds,\nand, our right hands joined in alternate covenant,\nlet us sow varied conversation as we walk at leisure.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 27.320 (CSEL 30:276lines 320–348–277; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/27-320)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/27.34":{"o":"firmat enim ratio ista fidem, quae tempora certis\ndistinguit titulis sacrosque per annua signat\nfesta dies, quibus ad domini miracula quondam\nantiqui tremuere patres, horrenda sinistris\net semper celebranda piis, quia commoda sanctis,\ndura fuere malis. testis Memphitica tellus\net mare tunc factum sanctis humus, aequor iniquis,\nceteraque his paria Aegypto multasque per oras\ngesta deo memori nobis recoluntur amore.\nsic aeque diuina feruntur munera Christi:\nut ueneranda dies cunctis, qua uirgine natus\npro cunctis hominem sumpsit deus, utque deinde,\nqua puerum stella duce mystica dona ferentes\nsubpliciter uidere magi, seu qua magis illum\nIordanis trepidans lauit tinguente Iohanne\nsacrantem cunctas recreandis gentibus undas,\nsiue dies eadem magis illo sit sacra signo,\nquo primum deus egit opus, cum flumine uerso\npermutauit aquas praedulcis nectare uini.\nquid paschale epulum? nam certe iugiter omni\npascha die cunctis ecclesia praedicat oris,\ncontestans domini mortem cruce, de cruce uitam\ncunctorum; tamen hoc magnae pietatis in omnes\ngrande sacramentum praescripto mense quotannis\ntotus ubique pari famulatu mundus adorat,\naeternum celebrans rediuiuo corpore regem.\nhoc sollemne dies sequitur (septem numeramus\nhebdomadas, et lux populis festiua recurrit),\nqua sanctus quondam caelo demissus ab alto\nspiritus ignito diuisit lumine linguas,\nunus et ipse deus diuersa per ora cucurrit\nomnigenasque uno sonuit tunc ore loquellas,\nomnibus ignotas tribuens expromere uoces,\nquisque suam ut gentem peregrino agnosceret ore\nexternamque suo nesciret in ore loquellam.","t":"For this reason confirms faith, which marks off times with sure\ntitles and designates sacred days through yearly\nfestivals, on which the ancient fathers once trembled\nat the Lord's miracles, dreadful to the wicked\nand always to be celebrated by the godly, because they were helpful to the saints\nand hard on the wicked. Witness the land of Memphis,\nand the sea then made land for the saints, sea for the wicked,\nand the other things like these done by God in Egypt\nand in many regions, recalled by us with remembering love.\nSo likewise the divine gifts of Christ are celebrated:\nas the day venerable to all on which God, born of a virgin,\ntook up man for all, and then the day\non which the magi, bringing mystic gifts with a star as guide,\nsaw the boy as suppliants, or rather the day on which\nthe trembling Jordan washed him as John dipped him,\nhim who hallowed all waters for the re-creating of the nations,\nor whether the same day is more sacred by that sign\nby which God first did a work, when, the stream turned,\nhe changed water into the nectar of very sweet wine.\nWhat of the Paschal feast? For certainly the church in all\nregions proclaims the Passover continually every day,\nwitnessing the death of the Lord on the cross, and from the cross the life\nof all; yet this great sacrament of great kindness toward all\nthe whole world everywhere adores every year, in the prescribed month,\nwith equal service,\ncelebrating the eternal King with his body restored to life.\nA day follows this solemnity (we count seven\nweeks, and the festal light returns for the peoples),\non which once the Holy Spirit, sent down from high heaven,\ndivided tongues with fiery light,\nand he, one God, ran through various mouths\nand sounded tongues of every kind from one mouth,\ngranting all to bring out voices unknown to them,\nso that each recognized his own nation in a foreign mouth,\nand did not know the foreign tongue in his own mouth.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 27.34 (CSEL 30:263lines 34–68–265; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/27-34)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/27.349":{"o":"enarrare libet simul et monstrare parenti\nsollicito nostros toto quo defuit actus\ntempore. nam cui iure magis mea gesta retexam\nFelicisque manu nobis operata reuoluam,\nquam cui cura sumus? gemino qui iure magistri\net patris ut bene gesta probet, sic inproba damnet,\ncorrigat errata et placidus disponat agenda;\ninperfecta iuuet precibus, perfecta sacerdos\ndedicet, atque ita se Felicis in aedibus ultro\natque citro referat, tamquam ipsum pectore toto\nFelicem gerat et patria se iactet in aula.\nergo ueni, pater, et socio mihi iungere passu,\ndum te circumagens operum per singula duco.\necce uides istam, qua ianua prima receptat,\nporticus obscuro fuerat prius obruta tecto;\nnunc eadem noua pigmentis et culmine creuit.\nast ubi consaeptum quadrato tegmine circa\nuestibulum medio reseratur in aethera campo,\nhortulus ante fuit male culto caespite, rarum\narea uilis holus nullos praebebat ad usus.\ninterea nobis amor incidit hoc opus isto\naedificare loco; namque hunc res poscere cultum\nipsa uidebatur, uenerandam ut martyris aulam\neminus aduersa foribus de fronte reclusis\nlaetior inlustraret honos et aperta per arcus\nlucida frons bifores perfunderet intima largo\nlumine, conspicui ad faciem conuersa sepulchri,\nquo tegitur posito sopitus corpore martyr,\nqui sua fulgentis solii pro limine Felix\natria bis gemino patefactis lumine ualuis\nspectat ouans gaudetque piis sua moenia uinci\ncaetibus atque amplas populis gaudentibus aulas,\nlaxari densas numerosa per ostia turbas.","t":"It pleases me to tell and at the same time show my anxious parent\nwhat we have done through the whole time he was away.\nFor to whom should I more rightly unfold my deeds\nand go over what was worked for us by Felix's hand,\nthan to one to whom we are a care? He, by the twofold right of teacher\nand father, may approve well-done things and condemn wrong ones,\ncorrect errors and calmly arrange what is to be done,\nhelp the unfinished by prayers and, as priest, dedicate\nthe finished, and so may move to and fro in the buildings of Felix\nas if he bore Felix himself in his whole heart\nand gloried in his father's hall.\nCome, then, father, and join me with companion step,\nwhile I lead you around through each of the works.\nSee, this portico, where the first gate receives us,\nwas formerly buried under a dark roof;\nnow it has grown new with paint and roof.\nBut where the forecourt, enclosed around with a square covering,\nopens to the sky in a middle space,\nthere was formerly a little garden with ill-tilled turf; the cheap ground\ngave scant vegetables for no use.\nMeanwhile the love came upon us to build this work\nin this place; for the thing itself seemed to require this adornment,\nso that a gladder honour might light up the venerable hall of the martyr\nfrom afar, from the opposite front, with its doors opened,\nand the bright front, open through arches with double doors,\nmight flood the inner parts with abundant light,\nturned to face the conspicuous tomb\nwhere the martyr is covered, asleep, his body laid down,\nFelix, who from the threshold of his shining throne\nlooks in triumph on his courts, their double doors opened to the light,\nand rejoices that his walls are overcome by godly gatherings\nand that his ample halls are widened for rejoicing peoples,\nand the dense crowds let through by many doors.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 27.349 (CSEL 30:277lines 349–381–279; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/27-349)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/27.382":{"o":"ipsaque, qua tumulus sacrati martyris extat,\naula nouos habitus senio purgata resumpsit.\ntrina manus uariis operata decoribus illam\nexcoluit, biiuges laqueari et marmore fabri,\npictor imaginibus diuina ferentibus ora.\necce uides quantus splendor uelut aede renata\nrideat insculptum camera crispante lacunar.\nin ligno mentitur ebur, tectoque superne\npendentes lychni spiris retinentur aenis\net medio in uacuo laxis uaga lumina nutant\nfunibus, undantes flammas leuis aura fatigat.\nquaeque prius pilis stetit, haec modo fulta columnis,\nuilia mutato spreuit caementa metallo.\nsed rursum redeamus in atria. conspice sursum\ninpositas longis duplicato tegmine cellas\nporticibus, metanda bonis habitacula digne,\nquos huc ad sancti iustum Felicis honorem\nduxerit orandi studium, non cura bibendi.\nnam quasi contignata sacris cenacula tectis\nspectant de superis altaria tuta fenestris,\nsub quibus intus habent sanctorum corpora sedem.\nnamque et apostolici cineres sub caelite mensa\ndepositi placitum Christo spirantis odorem\npulueris inter sancta sacri libamina reddunt.\nhic pater Andreas, hic qui piscator ad Argos\nmissus uaniloquas docuit mutescere linguas;\nqui postquam populos ruptis erroris iniqui\nretibus explicuit traxitque ad retia Christi,\nThessalicas fuso damnauit sanguine Patras.\nhic et praecursor domini et baptista Iohannes,\nidem euangelii sacra ianua metaque legis,\nhospes et ipse mei ueniens Felicis ad aulas,\nparte sui cineris fraternum funus honorat.","t":"And the hall itself, where the tomb of the consecrated martyr stands,\npurged of old age, has taken on a new appearance.\nA threefold hand has adorned it with various beauties:\ncraftsmen of coffered ceiling and of marble, two kinds,\nand a painter with images bearing divine faces.\nSee how great a splendour, as if the building were reborn,\nsmiles in the carved coffering of the curving vault.\nIn the wood, ivory is counterfeited, and from the roof above\nhanging lamps are held by bronze coils,\nand in the middle space lights wander and nod on loose\nropes; a light breeze tires the waving flames.\nAnd what stood before on pillars is now supported by columns,\nand, its material changed, has scorned cheap rubble.\nBut let us return again to the courts. Look upward\nat the cells set above the long porticoes with doubled roof,\ndwellings to be worthily marked out for the good,\nwhom zeal for prayer, not care for drinking,\nhas brought here to the just honour of holy Felix.\nFor the upper rooms, as it were joined to the sacred roofs,\nlook down from upper windows on the safe altars,\nbeneath which the bodies of saints have their seat within.\nFor apostolic ashes too, laid beneath the heavenly table,\ngive back, amid the holy offerings, the fragrance\nof sacred dust that pleases Christ.\nHere is father Andrew, he who, sent as a fisherman to the Argives,\ntaught vain-speaking tongues to be silent;\nwho, after he had freed peoples from the broken nets\nof wicked error and drawn them to Christ's nets,\ncondemned Thessalian Patras with his poured-out blood.\nHere also the forerunner of the Lord and baptizer, John,\nlikewise the sacred gate of the gospel and the goal of the law,\nhimself also coming as a guest to the halls of my Felix,\nhonours his brother's grave with part of his ash.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 27.382 (CSEL 30:279lines 382–414–280; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/27-382)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/27.415":{"o":"hic dubius gemino Didymus cognomine Thomas\nadiacet; hunc Christus pauidae cunctamine mentis\npro nostra dubitare fide permisit, ut et nos\nhoc duce firmati dominumque deumque trementes\nuiuere post mortem uero fateamur Iesum\ncorpore, uiua suae monstrantem uulnera carnis,\nut ueniente die, qua iam manifestus aperta\nluce deus ueniet, cruciata in carne coruscum\nagnoscant trepidi quem confixere rebelles.\nhic medicus Lucas prius arte, deinde loquella,\nbis medicus Lucas; ut quondam corporis aegros\nterrena curabat ope, et nunc mentibus aegris\nconposuit gemino uitae medicamina libro.\nhis socii pietate fide uirtute corona\nmartyres Agricola et Proculo Vitalis adhaerens\net quae Chalcidicis Euphemia martyr in oris\nsignat uirgineo sacratum sanguine litus.\nVitalem Agricolam Proculumque Bononia condit,\nquos iurata fides pietatis in arma uocauit\nparque salutiferis texit uictoria palmis\ncorpora transfixos trabalibus inclita clauis.\nhic et Nazarius martyr, quem munere fido\nnobilis Ambrosii substrata mente recepi;\nculmina Felicis dignatur et ipse cohospes\nfraternasque domos priuatis sedibus addit.\nquamuis sancti omnes toto simul orbe per unum\nsint ubicumque deum, quo praesentantur ubique\ncorporis ut sua membra deo, sed didita sanctis\nsunt loca corporibus, neque tantum, qua iacet ora\ntotum corpus, ibi positorum gratia uiuit;","t":"Here lies Thomas, the doubter, with the double surname Didymus;\nChrist permitted him to doubt, by the hesitation of a fearful mind,\nfor the sake of our faith, so that we too,\nstrengthened with him as guide, may in awe confess Jesus,\nLord and God, to live after death in a true\nbody, showing the living wounds of his flesh,\nso that, when the day comes on which God will come\nmanifest in open light, the rebels who pierced him\nmay in fear recognize him shining in his tortured flesh.\nHere is Luke, a physician first by art, then by speech,\nLuke twice a physician; as once he cured\nthose sick in body by earthly help, so now for sick minds\nhe has composed medicines of life in a twofold book.\nWith these, companions in piety, faith, virtue and crown,\nare the martyrs Agricola, and Vitalis joined to Proculus,\nand Euphemia, the martyr who on the Chalcedonian shores\nmarks the shore consecrated with virgin blood.\nBologna buries Vitalis, Agricola and Proculus,\nwhom sworn faith called to the arms of piety\nand an equal victory covered with saving palms,\nfamous, their bodies pierced with beam-nails.\nHere also is the martyr Nazarius, whom by the faithful gift\nof noble Ambrose I received with humbled mind;\nhe too deigns to be a fellow guest under Felix's roofs\nand adds his brother's houses to his own seats.\nAlthough all the saints together, throughout the whole world,\nare wherever they are through the one God, through whom they are everywhere\npresented to God as members of his body, yet places have been\nassigned to the bodies of the saints, nor does the grace of those laid to rest\nlive only where the whole body lies;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 27.415 (CSEL 30:280lines 415–444–282; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/27-415)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/27.445":{"o":"sed quacumque pii est pars corporis, et manus extat\ncontestante deo meriti documenta beati,\nmagna et in exiguo sanctorum puluere uirtus\nclamat apostolici uim corporis indice uerbo.\nhis igitur uicinus erit quicumque supernis\ncastus aget tectis et qui procul aduena recto\npercitus adfectu sanctas properarit ad aedes;\ncum uelit oratum Christo secretus adire,\nsiue die seu nocte uelit sua promere uota,\ninpiger adtiguo de limine prodeat hospes.\nhoc etiam mirare, domus quod martyris alta\nlege sacramenti per limina trina patescit\n(fassus enim est unum trino sub nomine regnum).\net quod contextae iunctis sibi molibus aedes\niure pio signant, quoniam, etsi culmina plura\nsint domibus structis, sanctae tamen unica pacis\nest domus et multis unum concordia membris\ncorpus agit, cui conpago stat uertice Christi.\nforsitan haec inter cupidus spectacula quaeras,\nunde replenda sit haec tot fontibus area diues,\ncum procul urbs et ductus aquae prope nullus ab urbe\nexiguam huc tenui dimittat limite guttam.\nrespondebo, nihil propria nos fidere dextra,\nnil ope terrena confidere, cuncta potenti\ndeposuisse deo et fontes praesumere caelo.\ndenique cisternas adstruximus undique tectis,\ncapturi fundente deo de nubibus amnes,\nunde fluant pariter plenis caua marmora labris.\nquod si etiam interdum obueniat defectus aquarum,\nordine disposito uarias distincta figuras\nconcharumque modis et pictis florida metis\nforte erit et siccis spectabilis area uasis.","t":"but wherever there is part of a godly body, there his hand appears,\nGod bearing witness, as proof of blessed merit,\nand great power in the slight dust of the saints\ncries out the force of the apostolic body, the word bearing witness.\nSo whoever lives chaste in the upper rooms\nwill be neighbour to these, and the stranger from afar who, moved by right\naffection, has hastened to the holy buildings;\nwhen he wishes to go apart to pray to Christ,\nwhether by day or by night he wishes to bring out his prayers,\nlet the guest come forth, unwearied, from the adjoining threshold.\nWonder at this also: that the martyr's house, by the lofty\nlaw of a sacrament, opens through three thresholds\n(for it confesses one kingdom under a threefold name);\nand that the buildings, woven together with masses joined to one another,\nsignify by godly right that, though there are many roofs\nin the structured houses, yet there is one house of holy\npeace, and harmony makes one body of many members,\nwhose joining stands firm with Christ as head.\nPerhaps amid these sights you may eagerly ask\nwhence this rich court is to be filled with so many fountains,\nsince the city is far off and almost no channel of water from the city\nsends a slight drop here by a slender course.\nI shall answer that we trust nothing to our own right hand,\nrely on nothing of earthly help, have laid all things\non the mighty God and count on fountains from heaven.\nIn short, we have built cisterns against the roofs on every side,\nto catch rivers from the clouds as God pours them,\nwhence the hollow marbles may flow together with full lips.\nBut if at times there should be a failure of waters,\nthe court, set off in various shapes in arranged order,\nwith shell-shaped basins and florid with painted pillars,\nwill perhaps be worth seeing even with dry basins.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 27.445 (CSEL 30:282lines 445–476–283; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/27-445)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/27.477":{"o":"namque tenes etiam magna Salomonis in aede\nquam fuerit decori siccum mare, quod sapiens rex\naere dedit solido et tauris suspendit aenis.\naspice nunc aliud latus: ut sit porticus una,\net paries mediis spatio bipatente columnis\nculmine discretas aditu sibi copulat aulas.\ntempus in hanc transire oculis peragrantibus aedem,\nquae longum reserata latus, cum lumine caeli\nadquirit spatium tecti, quod in atria iuncta\npanditur, insertos socians disiuncta per arcus\net populis rigui praebet spectacula campi,\nquem tamen includunt structo circumdata saepto\nmoenia, ne pateant oculis sacra tecta profanis\nuestibulumque patens aurae defendant operta.\nnec mirere sacras spatiis adcrescere caulas;\ncrescit ubique potens aeterni gloria Christi,\nsanctorum cumulatur honor, deus omnibus unus\nnoscitur, inlustrat quia sanctus spiritus orbem,\ncumque coaeterno regnat patre filius heres,\ninde propagato pia gratia lumine ueri\nmultiplicat populis aeternae semina uitae.\net quia pastor oues auget bonus, ampla redemptis\ncrescere cum gregibus fauet altus ouilia Christus.\ningredere haec psalmis recinens, antistes, et hymnis\net mea uota refer domino et tua gaudia uotis\niunge meis, celebrans communis festa patroni.\ntempore oportuno pro peccatore rogabis\ngaudentem dominum de confessoris honore.\nhoc duce procliui tua tramite uota ferentur,\nFelix diuinas tibi praeuius ibit ad aures,\nteque sacris psalmisque simul deuota litante\nobsequia placido descendet numine Christus,\nut populum templumque sacra caligine uelet,\ninfundens niueam per operta sacraria nubem.","t":"For you know too how great an ornament in Solomon's great temple\nwas the dry sea, which the wise king\nmade of solid bronze and set upon bronze bulls.\nLook now at the other side: how there is one portico,\nand the wall, with a space opening two ways between columns,\njoins halls separated in roof with an entrance between them.\nIt is time to pass with roving eyes into this building,\nwhich, opened along its long side, gains space for its roof\nwith the light of the sky, opening into the joined courts,\nuniting what is disjoined through inserted arches,\nand offers the peoples the spectacle of a watered field,\nwhich yet walls built round in an enclosure shut in,\nso that the sacred roofs may not lie open to profane eyes,\nand the covered parts may protect the open forecourt from the weather.\nNor wonder that the sacred folds increase in space;\nthe mighty glory of eternal Christ grows everywhere,\nthe honour of the saints is heaped up, one God is known\nby all, because the Holy Spirit lights up the world,\nand the Son, the heir, reigns with the coeternal Father;\nhence godly grace, with the light of truth spread abroad,\nmultiplies the seeds of eternal life for the peoples.\nAnd because the good shepherd increases his sheep, lofty Christ\nfavours that the folds grow ample with the redeemed flocks.\nEnter these, bishop, singing psalms and hymns,\nand carry my vows to the Lord, and join your joys to my\nvows, celebrating the feast of our common patron.\nAt a fitting time you will pray for the sinner\nto the Lord, who rejoices in the honour of his confessor.\nWith this guide your prayers will be carried along a downward path;\nFelix will go before you to the divine ears,\nand as you offer devoted services with the sacred rites and psalms together,\nChrist will descend with calm divinity,\nto veil people and temple with sacred mist,\npouring a snowy cloud through the covered sanctuaries.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 27.477 (CSEL 30:283lines 477–510–285; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/27-477)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/27.511":{"o":"nunc uolo picturas fucatis agmine longo\nporticibus uideas paulumque supina fatiges\ncolla, reclinato dum perlegis omnia uultu.\nqui uidet haec uacuis agnoscens uera figuris\nnon uacua fidam sibi pascit imagine mentem.\nomnia namque tenet serie pictura fideli,\nquae senior scripsit per quinque uolumina Moyses,\nquae gessit domini signatus nomine Iesus,\nquo duce Iordanis suspenso gurgite fixis\nfluctibus a facie diuinae restitit arcae.\nuis noua diuisit flumen; pars amne refuso\nconstitit et fluuii pars in mare lapsa cucurrit\ndestituitque uadum, et ualidus qua fonte ruebat\ninpetus adstrictas alte cumulauerat undas\net tremula conpage minax pendebat aquae mons,\ndespectans transire pedes arente profundo\net medio pedibus siccis in flumine ferri\npuluerulenta hominum duro uestigia limo.\niam distinguentem modico Ruth tempora libro,\ntempora Iudicibus finita et Regibus orta,\nintentis transcurre oculis; breuis ista uidetur\nhistoria, at magni signat mysteria belli,\nquod geminae scindunt sese in diuersa sorores.\nRuth sequitur sanctam quam deserit Orpha parentem;\nperfidiam nurus una, fidem nurus altera monstrat:\npraefert una deum patriae, patriam altera uitae.\nnonne, precor, toto manet haec discordia mundo\nparte sequente deum uel parte ruente per orbem?\natque utinam pars aequa foret necis atque salutis!\nsed multos uia lata capit facilique ruina\nlabentes prono rapit inreuocabilis error.","t":"Now I want you to see the paintings on the colourful porticoes\nin a long row, and to tire your neck a little, bent back,\nwhile you read everything through with face tilted up.\nHe who sees these, recognizing truths in empty figures,\nfeeds his trusting mind on an image not empty.\nFor the painting holds in faithful order all\nthat old Moses wrote in five volumes,\nand what Jesus did, marked with the Lord's name,\nunder whose leadership the Jordan, its flood suspended,\nstood back, its waves fixed, before the face of the divine ark.\nA new force divided the river; part, the stream poured back,\nstood still, and part of the river, slipping into the sea, ran off\nand left the ford bare; and where the strong rush\nburst from its source it had heaped the waters high, held fast,\nand a threatening mountain of water hung in a trembling mass,\nlooking down on feet crossing the dried deep,\nand on the dusty footprints of men carried with dry feet\nin the middle of the river over hard mud.\nNow run over with intent eyes Ruth, who in a small book\nmarks off the times, the times ended with the Judges and begun with the Kings;\nthis seems a brief history, but it signifies the mysteries of a great war,\nin that twin sisters split in different directions.\nRuth follows her holy mother-in-law, whom Orpah deserts;\none daughter-in-law shows faithlessness, the other faith:\none prefers God to her homeland, the other her homeland to life.\nDoes not, I pray, this discord remain in the whole world,\none part following God and the other rushing to ruin through the world?\nAnd would that the shares of death and salvation were equal!\nBut the broad way takes many, and irrevocable error\nsnatches those slipping downhill in easy ruin.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 27.511 (CSEL 30:285lines 511–541–286; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/27-511)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/27.542":{"o":"forte requiratur quanam ratione gerendi\nsederit haec nobis sententia, pingere sanctas\nraro more domos animantibus adsimulatis.\naccipite et paucis temptabo exponere causas.\nquos agat huc sancti Felicis gloria coetus,\nobscurum nulli; sed turba frequentior hic est\nrusticitas non cassa fide neque docta legendi.\nhaec adsueta diu sacris seruire profanis\nuentre deo, tandem conuertitur aduena Christo,\ndum sanctorum opera in Christo mirantur aperta.\ncernite quam multi coeant ex omnibus agris\nquamque pie rudibus decepti mentibus errent.\nlonginquas liquere domus, spreuere pruinas\nnon gelidi feruente fide; et nunc ecce frequentes\nper totam et uigiles extendunt gaudia noctem,\nlaetitia somnos, tenebras funalibus arcent.\nuerum utinam sanis agerent haec gaudia uotis\nnec sua liminibus miscerent pocula sanctis.\nquamlibet et ieiuna cohors potiore resultet\nobsequio, castis sanctos quae uocibus hymnos\npersonat et domino cantatam sobria laudem\ninmolat: ignoscenda tamen puto talia paruis\ngaudia quae ducunt epulis, quia mentibus error\ninrepsit rudibus; nec tantae conscia culpae\nsimplicitas pietate cadit, male credula sanctos\nperfusis halante mero gaudere sepulchris.\nergo probant obiti quod damnauere magistri?\nmensa Petri recipit quod Petri dogma refutat?\nunus ubique calix domini, est cibus unus et una\nmensa domusque dei. discedant uina tabernis;","t":"Perhaps it may be asked by what reasoning\nthis decision settled on us, to paint holy\nhouses, a rare custom, with likenesses of living beings.\nHear, and I shall try to set out the causes in a few words.\nWhat gatherings the glory of holy Felix drives here\nis obscure to no one; but the more frequent crowd here\nis country folk, not empty of faith but not skilled in reading.\nThis crowd, long accustomed to serve profane rites\nwith its belly as god, is at last converted, newcomers, to Christ,\nwhile they marvel at the works of the saints plainly shown in Christ.\nSee how many come together from all the fields,\nand how, deceived in their simple minds, they err devoutly.\nThey have left distant homes, scorned the frosts,\nnot cold, with glowing faith; and now, see, in crowds\nthey stretch their joys wakefully through the whole night,\nkeeping off sleep with gladness and darkness with torches.\nBut would that they carried on these joys with sound vows\nand did not mingle their cups at the holy thresholds.\nAlthough the fasting company resounds with better\nservice, singing holy hymns with chaste voices\nand soberly offering praise sung to the Lord,\nyet I think such joys as the simple draw out in feasts\nare to be pardoned, because error has crept into their uncultivated\nminds; nor does simplicity, not conscious of so great a fault,\nfall away from piety, wrongly believing that the saints\nrejoice when their tombs are drenched with fragrant wine.\nSo do the departed masters approve what they condemned?\nDoes Peter's table receive what Peter's teaching rejects?\nOne is the cup of the Lord everywhere, one the food and one\nthe table and house of God. Let wines go away to the taverns;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 27.542 (CSEL 30:286lines 542–571–287; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/27-542)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/27.572":{"o":"sancta precum domus est ecclesia; cede sacratis\nliminibus, serpens. non hac male ludus in aula\ndebetur, sed poena tibi; ludibria misces\nsubpliciis, inimice, tuis. idem tibi discors\ntormentis ululas atque inter pocula cantas.\nFelicem metuis, Felicem spernis inepte,\nebrius insultas, reus oras; et miser ipso\niudice luxurias, quo uindice plecteris ardens.\npropterea uisum nobis opus utile totis\nFelicis domibus pictura ludere sancta,\nsi forte adtonitas haec per spectacula mentes\nagrestum caperet fucata coloribus umbra,\nquae super exprimitur titulis, ut littera monstret\nquod manus explicuit, dumque omnes picta uicissim\nostendunt releguntque sibi, uel tardius escae\nsint memores, dum grata oculis ieiunia pascunt,\natque ita se melior stupefactis inserat usus,\ndum fallit pictura famem; sanctasque legenti\nhistorias castorum operum subrepit honestas\nexemplis inducta piis; potatur hianti\nsobrietas, nimii subeunt obliuia uini.\ndumque diem ducunt spatio maiore tuentes,\npocula rarescunt, quia per miracula tracto\ntempore iam paucae superant epulantibus horae.\nquod superest ex his, quae facta et picta uidemus,\nmateriam orandi pro me tibi suggero poscens,\nrem Felicis agens ut pro me sedulus ores.\net decet, ut quem mente pia comitaris eundem\net mentis facie referas animoque sequaris\npar in amore mei; nec enim miser ambigo amari\nmartyre, uel modici dignatus amore catelli,\ncum mihi uita domus res gratia gloria panis\nsit Felix donante deo. quo praesule posce\nmontibus in sanctis mea fundamenta locari\net coeptam peragi inrupto molimine turrem.","t":"the church is the holy house of prayer; yield from the sacred\nthresholds, serpent. Not sport, wrongly, but punishment\nis owed you in this hall; you mix mockeries\nwith your own punishments, enemy. Discordant, you\nboth howl in torments and sing amid cups.\nYou fear Felix and foolishly spurn Felix;\ndrunk, you insult, as one accused you pray; and, wretch, you revel\nbefore him as judge, by whose vengeance you are punished, burning.\nTherefore it seemed to us a useful work to adorn all\nthe houses of Felix with playful holy painting,\nin case the shade painted in colours might capture\nthrough these spectacles the astonished minds of the rustics,\nthe shade which is explained above by inscriptions, so that the letter shows\nwhat the hand has unfolded; and while they all in turn\nshow and read over the paintings to one another, they may be mindful\nof food more slowly, while welcome fasts feed their eyes,\nand so a better practice may insert itself in them, astonished,\nwhile the painting cheats their hunger; and as one reads the holy\nhistories, the honour of chaste works steals upon him,\nled in by godly examples; sobriety is drunk in\nby the gaping one, and forgetfulness of too much wine comes on.\nAnd while they spend the day looking over a larger space,\nthe cups grow fewer, because, the time drawn out by marvels,\nfew hours now remain for the feasters.\nFrom what remains of these things which we see done and painted,\nI suggest to you matter for praying for me, asking\nthat, as you are doing Felix's business, you pray diligently for me.\nAnd it is fitting that you, who accompany him with godly mind,\nshould reproduce him in the face of the mind and follow him in spirit,\nequal in love of me; for I, wretch, do not doubt that I am loved\nby the martyr, deemed worthy even of the love due to a little puppy,\nsince my life, house, property, grace, glory, bread\nis Felix by God's gift. With him as protector, ask\nthat my foundations be laid on the holy mountains\nand the tower begun be completed with unbroken effort.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 27.572 (CSEL 30:287lines 572–606–289; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/27-572)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/27.607":{"o":"de Genesi, precor, hunc orandi collige sensum,\nne maneam terrenus Adam, sed uirgine terra\nnascar et exposito ueteri noua former imago.\neducar tellure mea generisque mei sim\ndegener et sponsae festinem ad mellea terrae\nflumina, Chaldaei seruatus ab igne camini.\nsim facilis tectis quasi Lot fore semper aperta,\nliberer ut Sodomis; neque uertam lumina retro,\nne salis in lapidem uertar sale cordis egenus.\nhostia uiua deo tamquam puer offerar Isac\net mea ligna gerens sequar almum sub cruce patrem.\ninueniam puteos, sed ne, precor, obruat illos\ninuidus et uiuentis aquae caecator Amalech.\nsim profugus mundi, tamquam benedictus Iacob\nfratris Edom fugitiuus erat, fessoque sacrandum\nsubponam capiti lapidem Christoque quiescam.\nsit mihi castus amor, sit et horror amoris iniqui,\ncarnis ut inlecebras uelut inuiolatus Ioseph\neffugiam uinclis exuto corpore liber\ncriminis et spolium mundo carnale relinquam.\ntempus enim longe fieri conplexibus, instat\nsumma dies, prope iam dominus, iam surgere somno\ntempus et ad domini pulsum uigilare paratos.\nsit mihi ab Aegypto bonus exitus, ut duce lege\ndiuisos penetrans undosi pectoris aestus\nfluctibus euadam rubris dominique triumphum\ndemerso Pharaone canam, cui subplice uoto\nexultando tremens et cum formidine gaudens\nipsius pia dona, meos commendo labores.\nadsere, Niceta, prece quod precor, et simul omnes,\nqui simul huc sancta pro religione coistis,\ndeuoti domino et gratantes dicite mecum:\nhaec tibi, Christe deus, tenui fragilique paratu\npro nobis facimus; nec enim te, summe creator,\nfacta manu capiunt, toto quem corpore mundus\nnon capit, angustum cui caelum terraque punctum est.\nsed sanctis sine fine tuis deuota ferentes\nobsequia exiguo magnos ueneramur honore,\nsperantes illis exoratoribus, ut tu\nin nobis operum ponas perfecta tuorum\nculmina et extructis habitator mentibus adsis.","t":"From Genesis, I pray, gather this meaning for your prayer:\nthat I may not remain earthly Adam, but be born from virgin\nearth and, the old put off, be formed as a new image.\nMay I be led out of my land and be unlike my race,\nand hasten to the honey-flowing rivers of the promised land,\nsaved from the fire of the Chaldean furnace.\nMay I be generous with my house, like Lot, its doors always open,\nso that I may be freed from Sodom; and may I not turn my eyes back,\nlest, lacking the salt of the heart, I be turned into a pillar of salt.\nMay I be offered to God as a living victim like the boy Isaac,\nand, carrying my wood, follow my kindly Father beneath the cross.\nMay I find wells, but, I pray, may envious Amalek,\nthe blinder of living water, not fill them up.\nMay I be a fugitive from the world, as blessed Jacob\nwas a fugitive from his brother Edom, and may I place\na stone to be consecrated under my weary head and rest in Christ.\nMay mine be a chaste love, and a horror of wicked love,\nso that, like inviolate Joseph, I may flee the enticements of the flesh,\nmy body stripped of its chains, free\nof crime, and leave fleshly spoil to the world.\nFor it is time to be far from embraces; the last day\nis at hand, the Lord is already near, it is time now to rise from sleep\nand, ready, to keep watch for the Lord's knock.\nMay I have a good exodus from Egypt, so that with the law as guide,\npassing through the divided surges of my stormy breast,\nI may escape the red waves and sing the Lord's triumph\nwith Pharaoh drowned; to him with suppliant vow,\nexulting with trembling and rejoicing with fear,\nI commend my labours, his own godly gifts.\nSupport, Niceta, by prayer what I pray, and at the same time all of you\nwho have gathered here together for holy religion,\ndevoted to the Lord and giving thanks, say with me:\nThese things, Christ God, we do for you on our behalf\nwith slender and fragile provision; for things made by hand\ndo not contain you, highest Creator, you whom the world with its whole body\ndoes not contain, to whom heaven is narrow and earth a point.\nBut bringing devoted services to your saints without end,\nwe venerate the great with slight honour,\nhoping, with them as intercessors, that you\nmay set in us the perfect summits of your works\nand be present as dweller in minds built up.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 27.607 (CSEL 30:289lines 607–647–291; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/27-607)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/27.69":{"o":"barbarus ipse sibi non notis nota canebat\nuerba, suis aliena loquens; sed in omnibus unum\nuoce deum uaria laudabat spiritus unus.\nut citharis modulans unius uerbere plectri\ndissona fila mouet uel qui perflantia textis\nlabra terit calamis, licet unum carmen ab uno\nore ferat, non una sonat uariosque magistra\ntemperat arte sonos, arguta foramina flatu\nmobilibusque regit digitis clauditque aperitque,\nut rapida uice dulcis eat redeatque cauernis\ncurrens aerio modulabilis aura meatu,\nexplicet inruptos animata ut tibia cantus:\nsic deus omnisonae modulator et arbiter unus\nharmoniae, per cuncta mouet quam corpora rerum,\net naturae opifex deus omnis et artis, in omni\nfons opere et (finis), faciens bona factaque seruans,\nipse manens in se media pietate uicissim,\nqua pater in uerbo, qua filius in patre regnat,\nquo sine nil factum, per quem sata cuncta in eodem\nconsistunt, idem nouat omnia principe uerbo,\nqui cruce purpurea pretiosi sanguinis ostro\narduus ascensu uolucri penetrauit in alta\nnube super Cherubin uolitans seditque parenti\ndexter et inde suis caelestia dona profudit,\nspiritum ab unigena sanctum (et) patre procedentem,\nqui deus ipse deo ueniens licet adsit ubique,\nconspicuo tamen adlapsu ruit igneus illic,\npubis apostolicae concors ubi coetus agebat,\nmoxque nouo sonitu multis ex urbe coactis\nomni ex gente uiris sedit quasi flamma per omnes\net simul in cunctis spiramine dissonus uno,\nut lyricas facili modulatus pectine chordas,\ndiuiduis eadem cecinit praeconia linguis,\nincutiens uarias humana per organa uoces.","t":"The barbarian himself sang words known to others but not known to himself,\nspeaking what was foreign to his own people; but in all\none Spirit praised one God with varied voice.\nAs one who makes music on lyres with the stroke of one plectrum\nmoves discordant strings, or one who rubs his lips\non the woven reeds blowing through them, though he brings one song\nfrom one mouth, does not sound one note, but tempers varied sounds\nwith masterly art, and governs the shrill holes with breath\nand with mobile fingers closes and opens them,\nso that the sweet breath, modulated, may go and return\nin quick turns through the holes, running in an airy course,\nand the animated pipe may unfold uninterrupted songs:\nso God, the one modulator and arbiter of all-sounding\nharmony, which he moves through all the bodies of things,\nGod, maker of all nature and art, in every\nwork fountain and end, making good things and keeping those made,\nhimself abiding in himself in mutual kindness,\nin which the Father reigns in the Word, the Son in the Father,\nwithout whom nothing was made, through whom all things sown\nconsist in him, the same who renews all things by the Word as beginning,\nhe who, by the cross purple with the dye of precious blood,\nlofty in winged ascent, penetrated the heights\non a cloud, flying above the Cherubim, and sat at the right hand\nof the Father, and thence poured out heavenly gifts on his own:\nthe Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Only-begotten and the Father,\nwho, himself God coming from God, though present everywhere,\nyet rushed down there, fiery, with a visible descent,\nwhere the harmonious gathering of the apostolic company was met,\nand soon, with a new sound, as many men from every nation\nhad gathered from the city, sat like a flame upon all,\nand at once in all, discordant with one breath,\nas one who plays lyric strings with an easy plectrum,\nsang the same proclamations with divided tongues,\nstriking varied voices through human instruments.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 27.69 (CSEL 30:265lines 69–102–266; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/27-69)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/28.1":{"o":"In ueteri nobis noua res adnascitur actu,\net solita insolito crescunt sollemnia uoto,\nmateriamque simul mihi carminis et simul almi\nnatalem geminant Felicis in aedibus eius\nnata recens opera haec, quae molibus undique celsis\ncernitis emicuisse pari splendentia cultu.\nistic porticibus late circumdata longis\nuestibula incluso tectis reserantur operto\net simul astra oculis, ingressibus atria pandunt.\nillic adiunctis sociantur moenibus aulae\ndiffusoque situ simul et coeunte patentes\naemula consertis iungunt fastigia tignis\net paribus uarie speciosae cultibus extant\nmarmore pictura laquearibus atque columnis,\ninter quae et modicis uariatur gratia cellis;\nquas in porticibus, qua longius una coactum\nporticus in spatium tractu pertenditur uno,\nadpositas lateri tria comminus ora recludunt\ntrinaque cancellis currentibus ostia pandunt.\nmartyribus mediam pictis pia nomina signant,\nquos par in uario redimiuit gloria sexu.\nat geminas, quae sunt dextra laeuaque patentes,\nbinis historiis ornat pictura fidelis.\nunam sanctorum conplent sacra gesta uirorum,\nIob uulneribus temptatus, lumine Tobit;\nast aliam sexus minor obtinet, inclita Iudith,\nqua simul et regina potens depingitur Esther.\ninterior uariis ornatibus area ridet,\nlaeta super tectis et aperta luce serenis\nfrontibus atque infra niueis redimita columnis.\ncuius in exposito praelucens cantharus extat,\nquem cancellato tegit aerea culmine turris.","t":"In an old act a new thing is born for us,\nand the usual solemnities grow with an unusual vow,\nand both the material of my song and the birthday\nof kindly Felix are doubled in his buildings\nby these works, newly born, which you see shining out\nwith lofty masses on every side, gleaming with equal adornment.\nHere, surrounded far and wide by long porticoes,\nthe forecourts open with an enclosed covered space under the roofs,\nand open the sky to the eyes and the courts to those entering.\nThere halls are joined with walls added,\nand, open both in their spread position and coming together,\njoin rival roofs with interlocked beams,\nand stand out, variously beautiful with equal adornments,\nin marble, painting, coffered ceilings and columns,\namong which grace is also varied by modest cells;\nwhere one portico\nstretches in one line over a longer space,\nthree openings set close together along its side lay these open,\nand three doors open with running lattices.\nGodly names mark the middle one, with painted martyrs\nwhom an equal glory crowned in different sex.\nBut the twin ones, which open on the right and left,\nfaithful painting adorns with two histories each.\nThe sacred deeds of holy men fill one:\nJob tried with wounds, Tobit with blindness;\nbut the lesser sex holds the other: famous Judith,\nwith whom mighty Queen Esther is also painted.\nThe inner court smiles with various ornaments,\nglad with roofs above and with serene fronts open to the light,\nand below wreathed with snowy columns.\nIn its open space stands a shining cantharus,\nwhich a bronze tower with latticed top covers.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 28.1 (CSEL 30:291lines 1–32–292; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/28-1)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/28.125":{"o":"nec mea uox aut dextra illum, sed uis crucis ignem\nterruit inque loco, de quo surrexerat ipso,\nut circumsaeptam praescripto limite flammam\nsidere et extingui fremitu moriente coegit\net cinere exortam cineri remeare procellam.\nquanta crucis uirtus! ut se natura relinquat,\nomnia ligna uorans ligno crucis uritur ignis.\nmulta manus crebris tunc illa incendia uasis\naspergens largis cupiebat uincere limphis;\nsed licet exhaustis pensarent fontibus imbres,\nui maiore tamen lassis spargentibus omnem\nuicerat ignis aquam. nos ligno extinximus ignem,\nquamque aqua non poterat uicit breuis astula flammam.\npost ubi decessit metus optatumque reduxit\nlux operosa diem, processimus acta uidere\nnoctis et extinctae quamuis fumantia late\nsecuris spectare oculis uestigia flammae.\net credebamus nos plurima damna domorum\nuisuros, magni memores terroris et ignis;\nsed cito conspectis decreuit opinio rebus,\net nihil exustum nisi quod debebat aduri\ncernimus ex illisque unum flagrasse duobus\nhospitiis, quae nostra manus, nisi flamma tulisset,\nabstulerat. sed et hoc Felicis gratia nobis\nmunere consuluit, quod praeueniendo laborem\nutilibus flammis operum conpendia nobis\npraestitit inde, parem incensae quia liquerat illic\nflamma domum, non ut pateretur stare uel ipsam\nobstantem simili bipatentibus obice ualuis,\nuerum ut et hoc illum puniret flamma colonum,\nconseruans illi quod mox euerteret ipse.","t":"Not my voice or right hand, but the power of the cross terrified\nthat fire, and in the very place from which it had risen,\nas if the flame were hedged round by a prescribed boundary,\ncompelled it to sink and be extinguished with a dying roar,\nand the storm born of ash to return to ash.\nHow great the power of the cross! Nature forsakes itself:\nfire, which devours all wood, is burned by the wood of the cross.\nMany hands then, sprinkling those fires with frequent vessels,\nwished to conquer them with abundant water;\nbut though they made up showers by exhausting the fountains,\nyet the fire, with greater force, had conquered all the water\nas the sprinklers tired. We extinguished the fire with wood,\nand a little splinter conquered the flame that water could not.\nAfterward, when fear had departed and the busy light had brought back\nthe longed-for day, we went out to see the deeds of the night\nand to look with secure eyes at the traces of the extinguished\nflame, though still smoking far and wide.\nAnd we believed we would see very great damage to the houses,\nremembering the great terror and fire;\nbut at once, when we saw things, our opinion diminished,\nand we see nothing burned except what ought to have been burned,\nand that one of those two lodgings had burned,\nwhich our hand would have removed if the flame had not taken it.\nBut even in this the grace of Felix provided for us\nby a gift, in that, forestalling our labour,\nit furnished us a saving of work by useful flames; for the flame had left\nthere a house like the burned one, not so as to allow it to stand\nand itself obstruct the double doors in the same way,\nbut so that the flame might punish that tenant with this too,\npreserving for him what he himself would soon overthrow.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 28.125 (CSEL 30:296lines 125–155–298; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/28-125)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/28.156":{"o":"nam sua qui sanctis nuper gurgustia tectis\npraetulerat, primum flamma multatus in uno,\nmox aliud propria ipse manu uastare tegillum\nincipit et celeri peragit sua damna furore\ndilectasque domos et inanes plangit amores.\nqui simul aspiciens incensa et diruta tecta,\ndissimiles simili miratur in aggere labes\nruderis et cineris iuncti bicolore ruina.\nhunc nobis sine lite uidens cessisse triumphum,\nse tantum miser accusat, quem gratia nulla\nmanserit obsequii et maneat confusio poenae.\nnunc quia dimoto patuerunt obice frontes,\neloquio simul atque animo spatiemur in ipsis\ngaudentes spatiis sanctasque feramur in aulas\nmiremurque sacras, ueterum monumenta, figuras\net tribus in spatiis duo testamenta legamus,\nhanc quoque cernentes rationem lumine recto,\nquod noua in antiquis tectis, antiqua nouis lex\npingitur; est etenim pariter decus utile nobis\nin ueteri nouitas atque in nouitate uetustas,\nut simul et noua uita sit et prudentia cana,\net grauitate senes et simplicitate pusilli\ntemperiem mentis gemina ex aetate trahamus,\niungentes nostris diuersum moribus aeuum.\nest etiam interiore situ maioris in aulae\ninsita cella procul quasi filia culminis eius,\nstellato speciosa tholo trinoque recessu\ndispositis sinuata locis; medio pietatis\nfonte nitet mireque simul nouat atque nouatur.\nnamque hodie bis eam geminata nouatio comit,\ndum gemina antistes gerit illic munera Christi;","t":"For he who had lately preferred his hovel to the holy roofs,\nfirst fined by the flame in one hut,\nsoon begins himself with his own hand to destroy the other,\nand completes his own loss with swift fury,\nand laments his beloved houses and empty loves.\nLooking at the burned and the demolished roofs together,\nhe marvels at the unlike ruins in a like heap,\nthe two-coloured wreck of rubble and ash joined.\nSeeing that this triumph had been yielded to us without a quarrel,\nhe accuses only himself, wretch, for whom no thanks\nfor service remained, and the shame of punishment remains.\nNow, since the fronts have been opened, the obstacle removed,\nlet us walk in speech and mind through these very spaces,\nrejoicing, and let us be carried into the holy halls,\nand marvel at the sacred figures, monuments of the ancients,\nand in three spaces read the two testaments,\nseeing also this reason with right sight,\nthat the new law is painted in the old buildings, the old in the new;\nfor it is equally a useful ornament for us,\nnewness in the old and oldness in newness,\nso that there may be at once new life and grey-haired prudence,\nand, old in gravity and little ones in simplicity,\nwe may draw a temperate mind from twofold age,\njoining different ages in our characters.\nThere is also, set in the inner part of the greater hall,\na chapel far in, as it were a daughter of that building,\nbeautiful with a starry dome and curving with a threefold recess\nin arranged places; in the middle it shines with the fountain\nof piety, and wondrously renews and is renewed at once.\nFor today a twofold renewal adorns it twice,\nwhile the bishop performs there the twin gifts of Christ;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 28.156 (CSEL 30:298lines 156–186–299; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/28-156)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/28.187":{"o":"in geminos adytum uenerabile dedicat usus,\ncastifico socians pia sacramenta lauacro;\nsic pariter templum nouat hostia, gratia fontem,\nfonsque nouus renouans hominem, quod suscipit, et dat\nmunus siue magis, quod desinit esse per usum,\ntradere diuino mortalibus incipit usu.\nnam fons ipse semel renouandi missus in usum\ndesinit esse nouus; sed tali munere semper\nutendus numquam ueteres renouare facesset.\nhoc domini donum, hanc speciem, qua munere Christi\nidem homo fit nouus et uetus interit, ecce refectis\ncernite culminibus gemina Felicis in aula.\nquae fuerant uetera, et noua nunc extare uidentur;\nnam steterant uasto deformibus agmine pilis.\nnunc meliore datis eadem uice fulta columnis\net spatii cepere et luminis incrementa\ndepositoque situ reducem sumpsere iuuentam.\nnamque his et duplex spectandi gratia fulget,\nqua renouata nouis aequali lumine certant\nculmina culminibus; tectorum dissidet aetas,\nconcordat species; ueterum manus atque recentum\nconuenit; in facie simili decor unus utrumque\nornat opus; coeunt olim fundata nouellis.\nnec discrimen adest oculis, nitet una uetustas\nannosis rudibusque locis; niger abditur horror,\net senibus tectis iuuenem pictura nitorem\nreddidit infuso uariorum flore colorum.\nhinc operum tempus confunditur et nitet extra\nparietibus nouitas, latet intus operta uetustas;\nfronte iuuentatis tegitur fucata senectus,\nin pueram faciem ueterana refloruit aetas;","t":"he dedicates the venerable sanctuary for twin uses,\njoining the godly sacraments with the chastening washing;\nso equally the sacrifice renews the temple and grace the font,\nand the new font, renewing the man whom it receives, gives\na gift, or rather, what ceases to be new by use,\nbegins to hand over to mortals by divine use.\nFor the font itself, once put into use for renewing,\nceases to be new; but, always to be used for such a gift,\nit will never cease to renew the old.\nSee this gift of the Lord, this likeness, by which, by Christ's gift,\nthe same man becomes new and the old perishes,\nin the twin hall of Felix with its roofs restored.\nWhat had been old now appears to stand new also;\nfor they had stood with a vast row of ugly pillars.\nNow, supported in turn by better columns given,\nthey have gained increase of space and of light,\nand, their mould put off, have taken back returning youth.\nFor in these a double grace of viewing shines,\nin which the renewed roofs vie with the new roofs\nin equal light; the age of the roofs differs,\nthe appearance agrees; the hands of old and recent workers\ncome together; in a like face one beauty adorns\nboth works; things founded long ago come together with new.\nNor is there any distinction for the eyes; one antiquity shines\nin old and new places; the black horror is hidden,\nand painting has given back youthful brightness to the aged roofs\nby pouring in the bloom of various colours.\nHence the age of the works is confused, and newness shines outside\non the walls, while covered antiquity lies hidden within;\npainted old age is covered with the face of youth,\nveteran age has flowered again into a girl's face;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 28.187 (CSEL 30:299lines 187–217–300; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/28-187)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/28.218":{"o":"suntque simul uetera et noua, nec noua nec uetera aeque,\nnon eadem simul atque eadem, quae forma futuri\npraesentisque boni est; namque et nunc utile nobis\ndeterso ueteris uitae squalore nouari\nmente pia Christumque sequi regnisque parari.\ntunc quoque cum dabitur redeunte resurgere uita,\nille resurgentum potior numerabitur ordo,\nqui super inlustri carnem perfusus amictu\nseruilem domini mutabit imagine formam\nconformemque deo conregnaturus honorem\naccipiet Christo similis, sed munere Christi.\nhaec eadem species ueterem deponere formam\net gestare nouam monet et retro acta abolere\ninque futura dei conuersam intendere mentem,\ncongrua praeteritis obliuia ducere curis\ncaelestumque animo regnorum inducere curam\nrebus et humanis et moribus istius aeui\nmente prius quam morte mori neque corporis ante\nnexibus absolui quam criminis. ergo nouemur\nsensibus et luteos terrestris imaginis actus\ndiscutere a nostro properemus corpore longe\nuestibus excussis, puros ut sorde recussa\ncorporis atque animae nitidi reddamus amictus.\nnec modo commissum peccati sed meditatum,\nsicut morbiferam de labe cadaueris auram,\nnaribus obstrictis tristem fugiamus odorem.\nut faciem colubri Salomon peccata timeri\nhorrerique monet dicitque armata leonis\ndentibus; et uere, leonis uelut ore ferino\nsaeua uorant animam, quam uicerit aegra uoluptas\ncorporis euictemque suae draco duxerit escae,\nqui uorat Aethiopum populos non sole perustos,\nsed uitiis nigros et crimine nocticolores.","t":"and they are at once old and new, neither new nor old equally,\nnot the same and at once the same, which is the figure of future\nand present good; for now too it is useful for us,\nthe squalor of the old life wiped away, to be renewed\nwith godly mind and to follow Christ and be prepared for the kingdom.\nThen also, when it is given to rise again as life returns,\nthat order of the risen will be counted better\nwhich, its flesh flooded over with a shining garment,\nwill change the servile form for the image of the Lord,\nand, conformed to God, about to reign with him, will receive honour,\nlike Christ, but by the gift of Christ.\nThis same likeness warns us to lay aside the old form\nand wear the new, and to abolish what is past,\nand to turn the mind and direct it to the future things of God,\nto draw fitting forgetfulness over past cares\nand bring into the mind the care of the heavenly kingdoms,\nand to die in mind to human affairs and the ways of this age\nbefore dying in death, and not to be released from the bonds\nof the body before those of sin. So let us be renewed\nin our senses, and let us hasten to shake far from our body\nthe muddy acts of the earthly image,\nour garments shaken out, so that, the dirt struck off,\nwe may give back the bright garments of body and soul pure.\nAnd not only committed sin but sin contemplated\nlet us flee, like the disease-bearing air from the corruption of a corpse,\nwith nostrils closed, as a sad smell.\nSolomon warns that sins are to be feared and dreaded\nlike the face of a serpent, and says they are armed with\nthe teeth of a lion; and truly, as with the wild mouth of a lion,\nthey savagely devour the soul which sick pleasure of the body\nhas conquered, and which, conquered, the dragon has led away as his food,\nhe who devours the peoples of the Ethiopians, not scorched by the sun,\nbut black with vices and coloured like night with crime.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 28.218 (CSEL 30:301lines 218–250–302; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/28-218)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/28.251":{"o":"tales Aethiopas serpens edit, in quibus escam,\nquam capere est, damnatus habet, quia peccatorem\nserpentisque cibum deus uno nomine terram\ndixit, et nomine uorans peccata dracone uoratur.\ntempus adest mutare uias, exurgere somno\net tandem uigilare deo, dormire uicissim\nactibus his, quibus inuigilat mens mortua Christo.\nsi nobis doctrina dei deus lumine uerbi\nnon aperit sensum, saltem capiamus ab ipsis\naedibus exempla, et lapides ac ligna magistri\nsint stolidis, ut quale manu confecimus istic\nquale fide faciamus opus; licet absit ab uno\nmentis opus manuumque labor, sed ab inpare causa\npar operis trahitur ratio; ecce uidete, probabo\ndissimiles simili specie concurrere formas.\nqua noua tecta sedent, multi meminere locorum;\nnam breue tempus id est, ex quo sunt omnia coepta,\nquae modo facta manent; annis sudata duobus\ntertius explicuit prece sanctorum atque ope Christi.\npars spatii breuis hortus erat, pars ruderis agger,\nquem conlata manus populo curante remouit\net uiles holerum cum sentibus eruit herbas,\nut nitido purgata patesceret area dorso,\nquae modo marmoreis ornato iugere saxis\nlate strata nitet, cultus oblita priores.\nquam bene mutauit speciem! post stercoris usum\nmarmoris ornatum; Parias post uilia conchas\nbrassica fert et splendet aquis quae sorde nitebat.\nquonam igitur nunc ista modo mihi fabrica formam\npraebebit, qua me colere aedificare nouare\nsensibus et Christo metandum ponere possim?","t":"The serpent eats such Ethiopians, in whom, condemned,\nhe has the food that is his to take, because God called\nthe sinner and the serpent's food by one name, earth,\nand the one who devours sins is himself devoured by the dragon bearing that name.\nThe time is here to change our ways, to rise from sleep,\nand at last to keep watch for God, and in turn to sleep\nto those deeds for which a mind dead to Christ stays awake.\nIf God, by the light of his Word, does not open our understanding\nthrough the teaching of God, let us at least take examples\nfrom these very buildings, and let stones and timbers be teachers\nto the dull, so that the kind of work we have made here with our hands\nwe may make by faith; though the work of the mind is far from\nthe labour of the hands, yet from an unequal cause\nan equal reasoning of work is drawn; see, I shall prove it,\nhow unlike forms come together in a like appearance.\nMany remember the places where the new roofs stand;\nfor it is a short time since all were begun\nthat now stand finished; sweated over for two years,\nthe third year completed them by the prayer of the saints and the help of Christ.\nPart of the space was a small garden, part a heap of rubble,\nwhich joined hands, with the people taking care, removed,\nand dug out the cheap herbs of vegetables with the brambles,\nso that the area, purged, might lie open with a shining surface,\nwhich now shines far and wide, paved over an acre\nadorned with marble stones, forgetful of its former cultivation.\nHow well it has changed its look! After the use of dung,\nthe adornment of marble; after cheap cabbage\nit bears Parian shell-basins, and shines with waters where it shone with filth.\nIn what way, then, will this building now give me a pattern\nby which I may cultivate, build and renew myself in my senses\nand set myself as a dwelling to be marked out for Christ?","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 28.251 (CSEL 30:302lines 251–281–303; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/28-251)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/28.282":{"o":"prompta quidem ratio est, quae sit mea terra, quod in me\nrudus et unde meo spinae nascantur in agro.\nterra cor est, culpae praui sunt rudera cordis;\nluxus iners, inpurus amor, maculosa libido\nrudera sunt animae; sic corporis anxia cura,\nliuor edax et auara fames, grauis ira, leuis spes,\nprodiga et ambitio proprii, sitiens alieni,\nspinae sunt animo, quia semper inanibus angunt\nancipites animas stimulis, quas iugiter urit\ndefectus miseri metus et miser ardor habendi.\natque ita et inter opes inopes quasi Tantalus ille\ninter aquas sitiunt nec habent quod habere uidentur.\nnam partis uti metuunt, seruata relinquunt,\ndumque alimenta parant, uiuendi tempora perdunt.\nhas igitur spinas, haec rudera mentibus hirtis*\negerere est opus et primam hanc euellere fibris\ncunctorum stirpem scelerum, qua pullulat arbor\ninfelix; domini radicitus illa securi\nicta cadat, nostris ut numquam germinet aruis.\nhaec si praeciso de nobis fomite radix\naruerit, cadet omne nefas, uitium omne peribit,\nmatricisque suae casum mala cuncta sequentur,\net moriente sua simul arbore poma peribunt.\ntunc bene purgato domus aedificabitur horto\net uiuo fundata solo bene surget in altum\nfabrica diuini moliminis. ipse columnas\neriget in nobis Christus ueteresque resoluet\nobstructae pilas animae, spatiumque sibi rex\nsensibus efficiet nostris, ut inambulet illis,\ntamquam in porticibus Salomonis quinque solebat\nore pio medicos sapientia ducere gressus,\ncorpora tangendo sanans et corda docendo.\nnon igitur simus ueteres inter noua tecta,\nut qui corde habitat Christus noua corda reuisat.\npeior enim scissura nouo ueterique coactis\nredditur, et noua uina nouos bene dantur in utres.\nuita prior pereat, pereat ne uita futura.\nsponte relinquamus mundum, non sponte carendum,\nsponte nisi fugimus; moriamur, ne moriamur;\nletalem uitam uitali morte tegamus.\nterrena intereat, subeat caelestis imago,\net Christo uertatur Adam; mutemur et istic,\nut mutemur ibi; qui nunc permanserit in se\nidem, et in aeternum non inmutabitur a se.","t":"The reasoning is ready: what my earth is, what is\nrubble in me, and whence thorns are born in my field.\nThe heart is earth; the faults of a depraved heart are rubble;\nidle luxury, impure love, stained lust\nare the rubble of the soul; so anxious care for the body,\ngnawing envy and greedy hunger, heavy anger, light hope,\nambition prodigal of its own and thirsty for another's,\nare thorns to the mind, because they always torment wavering souls\nwith empty goads, souls continually burned\nby wretched fear of want and wretched ardour of having.\nAnd so, amid riches, they thirst, needy, like that Tantalus\namid the waters, and do not have what they seem to have.\nFor they fear to use what they have gained, they leave what they have kept,\nand while they prepare the means of living, they lose the time of living.\nThese thorns, then, this rubble must be cleared from bristling\nminds, and this first root of all crimes, from which the unhappy tree\nsprouts, must be plucked from our fibres; let it fall,\nstruck at the root by the Lord's axe, so that it may never sprout in our fields.\nIf this root, its fuel cut off from us,\ndries up, every wickedness will fall, every vice will perish,\nand all evils will follow the fall of their mother,\nand as their tree dies the fruits will perish with it.\nThen, the garden well purged, the house will be built,\nand, founded on living soil, the structure of divine effort\nwill rise well on high. Christ himself will raise columns\nin us and dissolve the old pillars\nof the obstructed soul, and the King will make space for himself\nin our senses, to walk about in them,\nas in Solomon's five porticoes Wisdom used to lead\nhealing steps with godly mouth,\nhealing bodies by touch and hearts by teaching.\nSo let us not be old among new roofs,\nso that Christ, who dwells in the heart, may revisit new hearts.\nFor a worse tear results when new and old are forced together,\nand new wine is well put into new wineskins.\nLet the former life perish, lest the future life perish.\nLet us leave the world willingly, which we must lose unwillingly\nunless we flee it willingly; let us die, that we may not die;\nlet us cover a deadly life with a life-giving death.\nLet the earthly image perish, let the heavenly come in,\nand let Adam be turned into Christ; let us be changed here too,\nthat we may be changed there; whoever now remains in himself\nthe same will not be changed from himself for eternity either.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 28.282 (CSEL 30:303lines 282–325–305; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/28-282)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/28.33":{"o":"cetera dispositis stant uasa sub aere nudo\nfonticulis, grato uarie quibus ordine fixis\ndissidet artis opus, concordat uena metalli,\nunaque diuerso fluit ore capacibus unda.\nbasilicis haec iuncta tribus patet area cunctis,\ndiuersosque aditus ex uno pandit ad omnes,\natque itidem gremio diuersos excipit uno\na tribus egressus, medio spatiosa pauito;\nquod tamen ordinibus structis per quinque nitentum\nagmina concharum series denseta coacto\nmarmore mirum oculis aperit, spatiantibus artat;\nsed circumiectis in porticibus spatiari\ncopia larga subest interpositisque columnas\ncancellis fessos incumbere et inde fluentes\naspectare lacus pedibusque madentia siccis\ncernere nec calcare sola et certamine blando\nmirari placido salientes murmure fontes.\nnon solum hiberno placitura in tempore praesto est\ncommoditas, quia sic tecti iuuat umbra per aestum,\nsicut aprica placent in frigore siccaque in imbri.\nparte alia patet exterior quae cingitur aeque\narea porticibus, cultu minor, aequore maior.\nante sacras aedes longe spectabile pandit\nuestibulum, duplici quae extructis tegmine cellis\nper contextarum coeuntia tigna domorum\ncastelli speciem meditatur imagine muri\nconciliisque forum late spatiabile pandit.\nquale loco signum Felix uenerandus in isto\nediderit nuper, celeri narrabo relatu.","t":"The other vessels stand under the open air, arranged\nas little fountains, in which, set variously in pleasing order,\nthe work of art differs while the vein of metal agrees,\nand one water flows from different mouths into the capacious basins.\nThis court, joined to three basilicas, lies open to all,\nand from one place opens different approaches to all,\nand likewise receives in one bosom different\nexits from the three, spacious with its middle pavement;\nyet this, with rows of shining shell-basins, a series packed\nwith closely set marble through five ranks,\nopens a wonder to the eyes and narrows it for those walking;\nbut in the surrounding porticoes there is ample room\nfor walking, and, with lattices set between the columns,\nfor the weary to lean and look from there at the flowing\npools, and to see wet floors with dry feet\nwithout treading them, and with pleasant rivalry\nto marvel at fountains leaping with calm murmur.\nNot only in winter is a pleasing convenience at hand,\nfor the shade of the roof delights in heat\njust as sunny places please in cold and dry places in rain.\nOn the other side lies open an outer court, which is likewise surrounded\nby porticoes, smaller in adornment, greater in level space.\nBefore the sacred buildings it spreads a forecourt visible from afar,\nwhich, with cells built under a double roof\nthrough the joining beams of houses woven together,\nimitates the appearance of a fortress in the image of a wall,\nand spreads a forum broad for walking for gatherings.\nWhat sign venerable Felix lately gave in this place,\nI shall tell in a quick account.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 28.33 (CSEL 30:292lines 33–61–294; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/28-33)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/28.62":{"o":"in medio campi contra uenerabilis aulae\nlimina de ligno duo texta tegilla manebant,\ninportuna situ simul et deformia uisu,\nquae decus omne operum perimebant inproba, foedo\nobice prospectum caecantia; namque patentis\nianua basilicae tuguri breuis interiectu\nobscurata fores in cassum clausa patebat.\nhaec amoliri cupientibus obuia nobis\nuerba dabant tectis qui metabantur in illis\niurabantque prius uitam se posse pacisci\nquam cogi migrare locis. temnenda quidem uox\nista uidebatur; sed erat, fateor, mihi id ipsum\ninuidiae; taedebat enim uel uincere rixa.\ninterea quadam primam iam nocte quietem\ncarpere sopitis coeptantibus, ecce relictis\nprosiliens scintilla focis conflauit in una\ncellarum ipsarum latebra de stramine faeni,\nquo forte inciderat, subitum ignem; moxque per ipsam\nfusa casam uires alimenta per arida cepit\ningentem et fragili rapuit de fomite flammam,\ntum facili lapsu per putria ligna uetusti\nculminis erumpens; magnis incendia torsit\nturbida uerticibus calidamque per aera nubem\nmiscuit et nigro subduxit sidera fumo.\nipsaque terribilem dabat insuper ira fragorem,\nmateriae fragilis crepitu grauiore resultans,\ncunctaque uicanis circum metata colonis\natque etiam uico submotos longius agros\nsic uapor adflabat, sic horrida lux feriebat,\nsic prope, sic longe sita culmina respergebat\nscintillis late uolitantibus igneus imber,\nut subito exciti nos planctibus undique maestis","t":"In the middle of the field, opposite the threshold of the venerable\nhall, there remained two huts woven of wood,\nawkward in position and at the same time ugly to see,\nwhich, shameless, destroyed all the beauty of the works, blinding\nthe view with a foul obstacle; for the door of the open\nbasilica, darkened by the interposition of a small hut,\nlay open in vain, as if its doors were closed.\nWhen we wished to remove these, those who were lodging\nin those huts opposed us with words,\nand swore they could sooner bargain away their lives\nthan be compelled to move from the places. That talk seemed\ncontemptible indeed; but, I confess, it was itself\na reproach to me; for I was weary even of winning by a quarrel.\nMeanwhile, one night, when the sleepers were beginning\nto take their first rest, behold, a spark, leaping\nfrom a hearth left untended, kindled in one hidden corner\nof those very huts a sudden fire from the straw of hay\nonto which it had happened to fall; and soon, spreading through\nthe hut itself, it gained strength through the dry fuel\nand seized a huge flame from the fragile kindling;\nthen, slipping easily through the rotten wood of the old roof,\nbursting out, it twisted the turbid conflagration in great whirls,\nmixed a hot cloud through the air,\nand hid the stars with black smoke.\nAnd its very wrath gave a terrible crash besides,\nresounding with the heavier crackling of fragile material,\nand the heat so blew on all the dwellings round\nmarked out by the village settlers, and even on the fields farther from the village,\nso did the horrid light strike, so did the fiery rain\nsprinkle roofs set near and far\nwith sparks flying far and wide,\nthat we, suddenly roused by sorrowful laments on every side,","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 28.62 (CSEL 30:294lines 62–93–295; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/28-62)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/28.94":{"o":"et circumfusis inmani lumine tectis\nomnia circa nos lucere ut aperta uidentes,\ncuncta putaremus flammis correpta cremari\nipsaque sanctorum simul igne palatia tanto\nferuere et a tectis simul omnibus illa referri\nfulgora, quae sparsis etiam longinqua replebant\nignibus et magno torrebant rura uapore,\nut quasi uicinas omnes sibi quisque timeret\nad sua tecta faces, ardentem comminus aestum\ninfectasque trahens diris nidoribus auras.\nnos trepidi ut nostris domibus propiore periclo\nnil ope de nostra praesumimus; unde etenim uis\net manus infirmis foret illam extinguere molem\nsufficiens, cum flamma suis incensior iret\nfomitibus paruoque exorta repente tegillo\nculmina cuncta simul perfunderet igne minaci?\ncurrimus ergo fide tantum et prece subplice nixi\nad uicina mei Felicis limina et inde\ncontiguam paribus uotis adcurrimus aulam\natque ab apostolici cineris uirtute medellam\nposcimus, inpositis subiecti altaribus ora.\nipse domum remeans modicum sed grande saluti\nde crucis aeternae sumptum mihi fragmine lignum\npromo tenensque manu aduersis procul ingero flammis,\nut clipeum retinens pro pectore, quo tegerem me\narceremque hostem conlato umbone relisum.\ncredite nec donate mihi, sed reddite Christo\ngrates et iustas date laudes omnipotenti;\nnostra salus etenim cruce Christi et in nomine constat,\ninde fides nobis et in hoc cruce nixa periclo\nprofuit, et nostram cognouit flamma salutem.","t":"and, seeing everything around us lit as if in the open,\nthe roofs flooded with immense light,\nwe thought everything was seized by flames and burning,\nand that the very palaces of the saints were blazing with so great a fire,\nand that those flashes were reflected from all the roofs at once,\nflashes which filled even distant places with scattered\nfires and scorched the countryside with great heat,\nso that each feared the torches as if near his own roof,\ndrawing in the burning heat close by\nand air infected with dire fumes.\nWe, trembling, since our houses were in nearer danger,\npresumed nothing from our own help; for whence would strength\nand hands be sufficient for the weak to extinguish that mass,\nwhen the flame went on more inflamed by its own fuel,\nand, sprung suddenly from a small hut,\nwas flooding all the roofs at once with threatening fire?\nSo we run, relying only on faith and suppliant prayer,\nto the neighbouring threshold of my Felix, and from there\nwith equal vows we run to the adjoining hall,\nand beg healing help from the power of the apostolic ashes,\nour faces laid beneath the altars set over them.\nReturning home myself, I bring out wood, small but great for salvation,\ntaken for me from a fragment of the eternal cross,\nand, holding it in my hand, thrust it from afar against the opposing flames,\nas though holding a shield before my breast, with which I might cover myself\nand ward off the enemy, beaten back by the boss brought against it.\nBelieve, and do not credit it to me, but return thanks to Christ\nand give just praises to the Almighty;\nfor our salvation stands by the cross of Christ and in his name;\nhence faith, resting on the cross, helped us in this danger too,\nand the flame recognized our salvation.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 28.94 (CSEL 30:295lines 94–124–296; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/28-94)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/29.1":{"o":"Ver age carminibus, fluat articulata modestis\nuox numeris. ades, o diues mihi causa loquendi\nFelix, et tacito mea corda inlabere flatu.\nspiritus ore meo curret tuus. esto meis fons\neloquiis; ego uero tuis ero fistula riuis,\nquos mihi praebueris diuini a flumine uerbi.\nSurge igitur blandoque meum spiramine pectus\ningredere, o Felix pater et domine atque patrone,\ntu domus et medicina mihi et sapientia, Felix;\ntu nunc obtusam mihi longa per otia mentem\nexacue, ignito uegetans mea lumine corda.\nSed mihi non isto fundendus in aequore sermo est,\nut per sanctorum merita aut miracula curram\net quae per sanctos omnes ab origine rerum\npraestat agitque deus uersu detexere coner,\nquae nec mens humana capit nec lingua profari.\net quid in hoc mirum, si charta uolumine toto\nnon capiat quae nec mundus capit omnia totus?\nmaior enim (mundo) mundi sator, ipse deus rex,\nqui terram caelumque implet; quem non capit iste\nmundus, eum capiunt sancti, non corporis amplo,\nsed pietate humiles et mundo corde capaces.\nNunc itaque ut diuina mei bene gesta patroni\nFelicis referam uel quae mihi commoda uitae\ncontulerit uel quae multis ope caelite praestans\nmuneribus conferre piis non desinit omni\npaene die, uariis tribuens pia munera signis,\nChristum laudari meritorum postulat ordo;\nnon hominem sed eum potius laudare uidebor,\nquo Felix auctore potens uenerabile nomen\noptinet et medicas dat opes, quibus aegra reuisit\ncorpora captiuasque animas ui daemonis atri\nabsoluit superante deo. nec in hac ope tantum\nmunificus Felix operatur munera Christi\net de uipereo fortissimus hoste triumphat.","t":"Make spring with songs; let my articulate voice flow\nin modest measures. Be present, Felix, my rich cause for speaking,\nand glide into my heart with silent breath.\nYour spirit will run through my mouth. Be the fountain\nof my eloquence; I shall be the pipe for your streams,\nwhich you supply to me from the river of the divine Word.\nRise, then, and enter my breast with gentle breath,\nO Felix, father and lord and patron,\nyou, Felix, my house and medicine and wisdom;\nnow sharpen my mind, dulled through long leisure,\nquickening my heart with fiery light.\nBut my speech is not to be poured out on this sea,\nto run through the merits or miracles of the saints,\nand to try to set out in verse what God\ngrants and does through all the saints from the origin of things,\nwhich neither the human mind grasps nor the tongue can utter.\nAnd what wonder in this, if a sheet in a whole volume\ncannot contain what the whole world does not contain?\nFor the sower of the world is greater than the world, God the King himself,\nwho fills earth and heaven; him whom this\nworld does not contain, the saints contain, not by amplitude of body,\nbut, humble in piety, capacious with a pure heart.\nSo now, that I may tell the divine good deeds of my patron\nFelix, either the benefits of life he has conferred on me,\nor those which, excelling with heavenly help, he does not cease\nto confer as gifts on the godly almost every\nday, bestowing godly gifts with various signs,\nthe order of his merits demands that Christ be praised;\nI shall seem to praise not a man but rather him\nby whose authority Felix, mighty, holds a venerable name\nand gives healing riches, by which he visits sick\nbodies and frees souls captive to the power of the black demon,\nGod overcoming. Nor in this help alone\ndoes bountiful Felix perform the gifts of Christ\nand triumph most mightily over the viperous enemy.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 29.1 (CSEL 30:305lines 1–35–306; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/29-1)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/3.1":{"o":"Europamque Asiamque, duo uel maxima terrae\nmembra, quibus Libyam dubie Sallustius addit\nEuropae adiunctam, possit cum tertia dici,\nregnatas multis, quos fama oblitterat et quos\nbarbara Romanae non tradunt nomina linguae,\nIllibanum Numidamque Auelim Parthumque Vononem\net Caranum, Pellaea dedit qui nomina regum,\nquique magos docuit mysteria uana Nechepsos,\net qui regnauit sine nomine moxque Sesostris.\n* * * * * * *\naudax Icario qui fecit nomina ponto,\net qui Chalcidicas moderate enauit ad arces.","t":"Europe and Asia, the two greatest members of the earth\n(to which Sallust doubtfully adds Libya\nas joined to Europe, though it might be called a third),\nruled by many whom fame blots out, and whose\nbarbarian names the Roman tongue does not hand down:\nIllibanus, and the Numidian Avelis, and the Parthian Vonones,\nand Caranus, who gave the names of kings to Pella,\nand Nechepsos, who taught the magi vain mysteries,\nand he who reigned without a name, and soon Sesostris.\n…\nhe who boldly gave a name to the Icarian sea,\nand he who with measured flight swam out to the Chalcidian citadels.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 3.1 (CSEL 30:2lines 1–12–3; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/3-1)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/30.1":{"o":"Felicis penetral, prisco uenerabile cultu\nlux noua diffusis nunc aperit spatiis.\nangusti memores solii gaudete uidentes\npraesulis ad laudem quam nitet hoc solium.\nParuus erat locus ante sacris angustus agendis\nsupplicibusque negans pandere posse manus,\nnunc populo spatiosa sacris altaria praebet\nofficiis medii martyris in gremio.\ncuncta deo renouata placent, nouat omnia semper\nChristus et in cumulum luminis amplificat.\nsic et dilecti solium Felicis honorans\net splendore simul protulit et spatio.","t":"The sanctuary of Felix, venerable with ancient worship,\nnow opens a new light in widened spaces.\nYou who remember the narrow throne, rejoice to see\nhow this throne shines to the praise of the patron.\nBefore, the place was small, narrow for performing the sacred rites,\nand refusing suppliants room to spread their hands;\nnow it offers the people spacious altars for the sacred\nservices, in the bosom of the martyr in the middle.\nAll things renewed please God; Christ always renews all things\nand enlarges them to a fullness of light.\nSo, honouring also the throne of beloved Felix,\nhe has advanced it in splendour and in space at once.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 30.1 (CSEL 30:307lines 1–12; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/30-1)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/31.1":{"o":"Ante puer patribus claris et nomine auito\nCelsus erat, sed nunc celsus agit merito,\nquem dominus tanto cumulauit munere Christus,\nut rudis ille annis et nouus iret aquis,\natque bis infantem spatio aeui et fonte lauacri\ncongeminata deo gratia proueheret.\nheu! quid agam? dubia pendens pietate laboro,\ngratuler an doleam? dignus utroque puer;\ncuius amor lacrimas et amor mihi gaudia suadet,\nsed gaudere fides, flere iubet pietas.\ntam modicum patribus tam dulci e pignore fructum\ndefleo in exiguo temporis esse datum.\nrursus ut aeternae bona uoluo perennia uitae,\nquae deus in caelo praeparat innocuis;\nlaetor obisse breui functum mortalia saeclo,\nut cito diuinas perfrueretur opes,\nnec terrena diu contagia mixtus iniquis\nduceret in fragili corporis hospitio,\nsed nullo istius temeratus crimine mundi\ndignius aeternum tenderet ad dominum.\nergo deo potius quam nobis debitus infans,\nuerum et pro nobis ille deo placitus,\ncoeperat octauum producere paruulus annum,\nprima citis agitans tempora curriculis.\niam puerile iugum tenera ceruice ferebat,\ngrammatici duris subditus imperiis,\nquaeque docebatur puer, admirante magistro\nsorbebat docili nobilis ingenio.\ngaudebant trepido praesagi corde parentes,\ndum metuunt tanti muneris inuidiam.","t":"Before, the boy was Celsus through his famous fathers and ancestral name,\nbut now he lives lofty by merit,\nwhom the Lord Christ has heaped with so great a gift\nthat he went, unformed in years and new, to the waters,\nand grace, doubled for God, advanced him,\ntwice an infant, by span of age and by the font of washing.\nAlas, what shall I do? Hanging in doubtful affection, I struggle:\nshall I congratulate or grieve? The boy is worthy of both;\nlove urges tears on me and love urges joys,\nbut faith bids rejoice, affection bids weep.\nI lament that so little fruit was given to his fathers\nfrom so sweet a pledge in so slight a time.\nAgain, as I turn over the everlasting goods of eternal life,\nwhich God prepares in heaven for the innocent,\nI rejoice that he died, having finished mortal things in a short age,\nso that he might quickly enjoy divine riches,\nnor, mingled long with the wicked, draw earthly contagions\nin the fragile lodging of the body,\nbut, defiled by no crime of this world,\nmight go more worthily to the eternal Lord.\nSo the infant was owed to God rather than to us,\nand indeed, for our sake too, he pleased God.\nThe little one had begun to draw out his eighth year,\ndriving his first times in swift courses.\nAlready he bore the boyish yoke on his tender neck,\nsubject to the hard commands of a grammarian,\nand what the boy was taught, as his teacher marvelled,\nthe noble boy drank in with teachable talent.\nHis parents rejoiced, with foreboding, trembling hearts,\nwhile they feared envy of so great a gift.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 31.1 (CSEL 30:307lines 1–30–308; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/31-1)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/31.127":{"o":"in cruce fixus homo est, deus e cruce terruit orbem.\nmortem homo, uerum mors ipsa deum patitur.\nin cruce pendet homo, deus e cruce crimina donat\net moriens uitam criminis interimit\nproque reis habitus peiorque latrone putatus,\nquem Iudaea pio praeposuit domino,\ncredenti donat regnum caeleste latroni,\nclausus adhuc terris iam paradisum aperit.\nnos igitur firmare animos, attollere mentem\nignauosque decet trudere corde metus,\npro quibus ecce animam posuit simul atque resumpsit\nfilius ille dei cuncta manente deo.\nde nostra uictor deus egit morte triumphum\net nostrum secum corpus in astra tulit,\nnon sat habens, quod pro nobis mortalia cuncta\nhausit, ut auferret uulnera nostra suis.\nsed ne me dubiae suspenderet anxia mentis\ncura, resurrexit corpore quo cecidit.\nclara fides oculis patuit mortalibus, ipse\npost obitum uisus qualis et ante obitum.\nnam se discipulis dubitantibus obtulit ultro\nrimandumque oculis praebuit et manibus.\nnec sine mente dei dubitauit apostolus olim,\nuiuere post mortem nullus ut ambigeret.\nfirmauit dubitando fidem; dum comminus anceps\narguitur Thomas, omnis homo instruitur.\ncernere quod Thomas coram et palpare iubetur,\nconstanter stabili credere disco fide\nmortem hominum Christi crucifixi morte subactam\nspemque resurgendi corporibus positam,\ncorporibus nostris, quia Christus uictor in ista\ncarne resurrexit, quam gero, qua morior.","t":"As man he is fixed on the cross; as God he terrified the world from the cross.\nAs man he suffers death, but death itself suffers God.\nAs man he hangs on the cross; as God he forgives crimes from the cross,\nand dying he kills the life of crime;\nand, reckoned among the guilty and thought worse than the robber\nwhom Judea preferred to the godly Lord,\nhe gives the heavenly kingdom to the believing robber,\nand, still shut in the earth, already opens paradise.\nSo it befits us to strengthen our souls, to raise our minds,\nand to thrust idle fears from the heart,\nwe for whom, behold, that Son of God laid down his life and took it up again,\nremaining God throughout.\nGod the victor celebrated a triumph over our death\nand carried our body with him to the stars,\nnot content that he drank all mortal things for us,\nto take away our wounds by his own.\nBut lest the anxious care of a doubtful mind should keep me in suspense,\nhe rose in the body in which he fell.\nClear proof lay open to mortal eyes; he himself\nwas seen after death as he was before death.\nFor he offered himself of his own accord to the doubting disciples\nand gave himself to be examined by eyes and hands.\nNor did the apostle once doubt without the purpose of God,\nso that no one might doubt that he lives after death.\nHe strengthened faith by doubting; while Thomas, hesitant,\nis reproved face to face, every man is instructed.\nWhat Thomas is bidden to see and touch in person,\nI learn to believe steadfastly with firm faith:\nthat the death of men has been subdued by the death of Christ crucified,\nand the hope of rising again placed in bodies,\nin our bodies, because Christ rose victorious in this\nflesh which I bear, in which I die.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 31.127 (CSEL 30:312lines 127–158–313; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/31-127)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/31.159":{"o":"meque docens pro me dubitantibus ingerit artus\net solidam carnem structa per ossa probat,\ninsuper et lateris, manuum quoque uulnera monstrat\net dubium digitos his iubet inserere.\ncerne, inquit, latus ecce meum, palmasque pedesque;\necce crucis clauuos, cuspidis ecce uiam.\necce ipsam toto conpagem corpore uiuam\nstare patet neruis ossibus ore cute.\nergo tenete fidem, quam cernitis, insuper et quam\ntangitis, et dubios pellite corde animos,\net testes tantae cunctis estote salutis\ncunctorumque hominum soluite corda metu.\nomnibus intereat mortis timor, et simul omnes\nista resurgendi spes animet populos.\ncredentum tamen ista salus, qui corde fideli\nsuscipient quae uos lumine conspicitis.\necce in me cunctorum hominum discrimine nullo\nmors superata abiit, stat rediuiua salus.\nuitam ex morte dedi, mortem moriendo subegi\net genus humanum sanguine restitui;\npeccatum carnis superans in carne peremi\nmateriam culpae, iustitiam peperi.\ncorpore mors cecidit, surrexit corpore uita;\nqua prius occiderat, carne reuixit homo.\net nunc ecce meo rediuiuum in corpore portans\npraefero uictorem mortis et anguis Adam.\nquae, rogo, sufficient nobis solacia uel quae\nsanabit fessos iam requies animos,\nsi nec tanta potest aegris medicina mederi,\nquae uitas obita morte redire docet?","t":"And, teaching me, for my sake he presents his limbs to the doubters\nand proves his solid flesh through its structure of bones,\nand moreover shows the wounds of side and hands\nand bids the doubter put his fingers into them.\n“See,” he says, “behold my side, and hands and feet;\nbehold the nails of the cross, behold the path of the spear.\nBehold, it is plain that the very framework of the whole body\nstands alive in sinews, bones, face and skin.\nSo hold the faith which you see and, moreover, which\nyou touch, and drive doubtful thoughts from your heart,\nand be witnesses to all of so great a salvation,\nand free the hearts of all men from fear.\nLet the fear of death perish for all, and let this hope\nof rising again animate all peoples together.\nYet this is the salvation of believers, who with faithful heart\nwill receive what you behold with your eyes.\nBehold, in me, with no distinction among all men,\ndeath has been overcome and has gone; salvation stands revived.\nI gave life from death, I subdued death by dying,\nand restored the human race with my blood;\novercoming the sin of the flesh in the flesh, I destroyed\nthe material of guilt and brought forth justice.\nIn the body death fell, in the body life rose;\nin the flesh by which he had died before, man has come alive again.\nAnd now, behold, carrying Adam alive again in my body,\nI display him as victor over death and the serpent.”\nWhat consolations, I ask, will suffice us, or what\nrest will heal souls now weary,\nif not even so great a medicine can heal the sick,\nwhich teaches that lives return when death has died?","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 31.159 (CSEL 30:313lines 159–188–314; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/31-159)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/31.189":{"o":"maeror, abi; discede, pauor; fuge, culpa. ruit mors,\nuita resurrexit, Christus in astra uocat,\nmorte mea functus mihi mortuus et mihi uictor,\nut mors peccati sit mihi uita dei.\ndenique seruatum iam de cruce duxit aperto\nlimite latronem, qua paradisus adest,\nmunere quo signum dedit et peccata piare\net nemoris uetiti uincere saepta fide.\ntalibus exemplis, tanto sponsore salutis\nerectos laetis uertere maesta decet.\npellamus querulos ingrato corde dolores\net redeant tersis lumina pura oculis.\ncredamus Christo, quod in ipso uidimus, isdem\nnos quibus occidimus surgere corporibus,\ninde superfusa diuini ueste decoris\nsumere mutatos angelicam speciem.\nquod si tanta animis nox caligantibus obstat\net piger obtunso corpore sensus hebet,\nut, quia corporeis oculis diuina teguntur,\nnullam dicatis scripta tenere fidem:\nsed doceat Paulus quia non aeterna uidentur,\naeterna humanis abdita sunt oculis.\ninsipiens, terrena uide, caelestia crede,\nobtutu mundum conspice, mente deum.\nhinc pretiosa fides; nam sicut gratia iam non\ngratia, si meritis adtribuatur, erit,\nsic et nulla fides nisi quae quod non uidet illud\ncredit et aeternam spe duce rem sequitur.\nmortales miseri, querulum genus, impia tandem\npectora mollitis mentibus exuite.\nheu! quonam, precor, usque graui mendacia corde\nquaeritis et uani lubrica diligitis?","t":"Grief, depart; fear, go away; guilt, flee. Death falls,\nlife has risen, Christ calls to the stars,\nhaving undergone my death, dead for me and victor for me,\nso that the death of sin may be for me the life of God.\nIn short, he led the robber, saved now from the cross,\nby an open path to where paradise is,\nand by this gift gave a sign both of expiating sins\nand of overcoming by faith the hedges of the forbidden grove.\nWith such examples, with so great a guarantor of salvation,\nit befits us, raised up, to turn sad things into glad.\nLet us drive away complaining griefs with an ungrateful heart,\nand let pure light return to our eyes when they are wiped.\nLet us believe Christ that, as we have seen in him, we rise\nin the same bodies in which we die,\nand then, the garment of divine beauty poured over us,\nchanged, we put on the angelic appearance.\nBut if so great a night stands in the way of darkened minds,\nand the sluggish sense grows dull in a blunted body,\nso that, because divine things are hidden from bodily eyes,\nyou say that the Scriptures hold no credibility:\nlet Paul teach that eternal things are not seen,\nthat eternal things are hidden from human eyes.\nFool, see earthly things, believe heavenly things;\nlook at the world with the eye, at God with the mind.\nHence faith is precious; for just as grace will no longer be\ngrace if it is attributed to merits,\nso there is no faith except that which believes what it does not see\nand follows an eternal thing with hope as guide.\nWretched mortals, complaining race, at last strip off\nimpious hearts with softened minds.\nAlas, how long, I pray, with heavy heart do you seek lies\nand love the slippery things of vanity?","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 31.189 (CSEL 30:314lines 189–220–315; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/31-189)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/31.221":{"o":"commutate uias, dirumpite uincula mortis\net date praedulci libera colla iugo.\nsumite diuinas pro libertate catenas,\ncrimine quae soluunt et pietate ligant.\nqui sequeris tenebras, in aperto lucis oberras,\net qui nocte uides, lumine caecus agis.\nergo oculos mentis Christo reseremus et aures,\nut mens peccato clausa deo pateat.\nnamque et corporeis sua iam promissa reuelat\nuisibus et claris monstrat operta deus.\ncuncta resurgendi faciem meditantur in omni\ncorpore et in terris germina et astra polo.\nnoctes atque dies, ortus obitusque uicissim\nalternant; morior nocte, resurgo die.\ndormio corporeae sopitus imagine mortis,\nexcitor a somno sicut ab interitu.\nquid sata, quid frondes nemorum, quid tempora? nempe\nlegibus his obeunt omnia uel redeunt.\nuere resurgenti cunctis noua rebus imago\npost hiemis mortem uiuificata redit.\nquod semel est facturus homo, cui subdita mundi\ncorpora, sub caelo cuncta frequenter agunt.\nsed quaerunt quonam reparetur mortuus omnis\ncorpore quoue modo fiat homo ex cinere.\nsi non sufficiunt sacris signata prophetis,\nmuta fidem clamant, credite conspicuis.\ncernite nulla suis emergere semina campis,\nni prius intereant tabe soluta putri.\nnuda seris, uestita legis; iacis arida grana\natque eadem fructu multiplicata metis.\no peruersa fides et diffidentia nobis,\ncredere nos terris et dubitare deo!","t":"Change your ways, break the bonds of death,\nand give your free necks to the very sweet yoke.\nTake divine chains in exchange for liberty,\nwhich release from crime and bind with piety.\nYou who follow darkness wander in the open light,\nand you who see in the night act blind in the light.\nSo let us unlock the eyes and ears of the mind to Christ,\nso that the mind, shut to sin, may be open to God.\nFor God already reveals his promises to bodily\nsight too and shows hidden things through clear ones.\nAll things rehearse the likeness of rising again in every\nbody, both seeds on earth and stars in the sky.\nNights and days, risings and settings, alternate\nin turn; I die at night, I rise in the day.\nI sleep, lulled in the bodily image of death;\nI am roused from sleep as from destruction.\nWhat of seeds, what of the leaves of the groves, what of the seasons? Surely\nby these laws all things pass away and return.\nIn rising spring a new appearance returns to all things,\nbrought to life after the death of winter.\nWhat man will do once, to whom the bodies of the world\nare subject, all things under heaven do often.\nBut they ask with what body every dead man is restored,\nor in what way a man is made from ash.\nIf the things recorded by the sacred prophets are not enough,\ndumb things cry out faith; believe what is visible.\nSee that no seeds emerge in their fields\nunless they first perish, dissolved by rotting decay.\nYou sow naked, you gather clothed; you cast dry grains\nand reap the same multiplied in fruit.\nO perverse faith and distrust in us,\nthat we trust the earth and doubt God!","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 31.221 (CSEL 30:315lines 221–252–316; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/31-221)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/31.253":{"o":"et certe nil terra mihi spondere nec ausa est\nnec potuit; quin et saepe fefellit ager\nuix commissa sibi reddens sata; nec tamen illi\ncredere deceptus spem segetis dubito,\nnec piget incertis certum sudare laborem\nfructibus et nudo credere nuda solo.\nquod si terra potest corruptum reddere semen,\nquod tamen aeterni lege facit domini,\ndifficile omnipotentis opus fore creditur, ut nos\nex nihilo factos ex aliquo reparet?\nnullus eram, et faciente deo sum natus ut essem;\nnunc iam de proprio semine rursus ero.\nnam licet in tenuem redigantur et ossa fauillam,\ncorporis integri semina puluis habet,\ncumque etiam cineres uacuatis terra sepulchris\ncognato inmixtos caespite sorbuerit,\ntunc quoque corporeis hominum uanescere uisos\nluminibus solidos continet omnipotens,\ninque die magno, quae nunc absumpta putamus\ncorpora, cernemus surgere tota deo,\nnulla cui natura perit, quia quicquid ubique est\nomne creatoris clauditur in gremio.\nquos aqua fluminibus pelagoque et piscibus hausit,\nquos uolucres et quos diripuere ferae,\ncunctos terra deo debet, quia quos aqua mersit\nlitore uel fundo strata recepit humus,\nquae licet una, tamen non uno sumpta sepulchro,\nsparsa locis laceri funeris ossa tegit,\net quia consumptus simul et consumptor in uno\ntelluris gremio morte ferente cadunt,\nsiue per egeriem, qua sese animalia purgant,\nreddunt digestis membra uorata cibis,\nhumanum corpus transfunditur ex alieno\ncorpore nec perdit uim proprii generis.","t":"And certainly the earth neither dared nor was able\nto promise me anything; indeed the field has often deceived me,\nbarely returning the seed entrusted to it; nor yet,\nthough deceived, do I hesitate to entrust it with the hope of a crop,\nnor does it irk me to sweat at sure labour for uncertain\nfruits and to entrust bare seeds to bare soil.\nBut if the earth can give back corrupted seed,\nwhich yet it does by the law of the eternal Lord,\nis it believed that it will be a hard work for the Almighty\nto restore from something us who were made from nothing?\nI was nothing, and by God's making I was born to be;\nnow I shall be again from my own seed.\nFor though even the bones be reduced to fine ash,\nthe dust holds the seeds of the whole body,\nand even when the earth has sucked up the ashes from emptied tombs,\nmixed with kindred turf,\nthen also the Almighty holds whole those\nwho seem to have vanished from the bodily eyes of men,\nand on the great day we shall see the bodies\nwe now think consumed rise whole for God,\nfor whom no nature perishes, because whatever is anywhere\nis all enclosed in the Creator's bosom.\nThose whom water has swallowed in rivers and sea and fish,\nthose whom birds and beasts have torn apart,\nthe earth owes all to God, because those whom water has drowned\nthe ground has received, laid on shore or seabed;\nthe earth, though one, yet not received in one tomb,\ncovers the bones of a torn body scattered in places;\nand because consumed and consumer alike fall\nin the one bosom of the earth as death brings them,\nor through the excretion by which animals purge themselves\nthey give back devoured limbs in digested food,\nthe human body is poured over from another's\nbody and does not lose the force of its own kind.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 31.253 (CSEL 30:316lines 253–286–317; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/31-253)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/31.287":{"o":"sed licet e membris in humum transmissa ferinis\nmembra hominum uiuo semine salua manent,\net moriente fera, cui forte cadaueris esca\nhumani fuerit, diuiditur ratio.\nnamque animal rationis homo est, ideoque et in ipso\nrex aliis praestat corpore corporibus,\nunde licet possit mutis animalibus idem\npraeda dari, tamen his sorte coire negat.\nsola resurgendi caro perceptura uigorem,\nquae rationalis uas animae fuerit,\nut reducem terris animam conpage refecta\niam non lapsuro tegmine suscipiat,\net uelut hic omni mens et caro iungitur actu,\nsic et in aeternam sint sociata diem,\nut carpant socio gestorum praemia fructu,\nconsortes meriti luce uel igne loci.\npropterea quamuis nos et spirantia cuncta\nunam sortiti corpore materiem,\nnon tamen in uacuum reuocamur morte soluti,\nexsortes animae carnis ab occiduo;\nsed clangente tuba reddentibus undique terris\nnostra ex arcanis corpora seminibus,\ncorpore mente anima rursum in sua foedera nexis\nintegri dominum sistimur ante deum.\nsi dubitas cineres in corpora posse recogi\net fieri reduces in sua uasa animas,\nEzechiel tibi testis erit, cui prodita dudum\ntota resurgendi per dominum facies.","t":"But though the limbs of men, passed into the ground from the limbs of beasts,\nremain safe by a living seed,\nwhen the beast dies, for which a human corpse\nmay have been food, the account is divided.\nFor man is a rational animal, and therefore in him\nthe king excels the other bodies in body,\nso that, although he may be given as prey\nto dumb animals, he refuses to be joined with them in lot.\nOnly the flesh which was the vessel of a rational soul\nwill receive the vigour of rising again,\nso that, its frame restored, it may receive the soul returned to earth\nin a covering that will no longer fall,\nand as here mind and flesh are joined in every act,\nso they may be associated for the eternal day,\nso that they may gather the rewards of their deeds with shared fruit,\npartners in merit, in the light or the fire of their place.\nTherefore, although we and all breathing things\nhave received one matter in body,\nyet we, released by death, are not called back into emptiness,\nwithout share of soul, from the setting of the flesh;\nbut when the trumpet sounds, the lands on every side giving back\nour bodies from hidden seeds,\nwith body, mind and soul knit again in their covenants,\nwe are set whole before God the Lord.\nIf you doubt that ashes can be gathered again into bodies\nand souls brought back into their vessels,\nEzekiel will be your witness, to whom long ago\nthe whole appearance of rising again was revealed by the Lord.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 31.287 (CSEL 30:317lines 287–314–318; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/31-287)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/31.31":{"o":"nec mora longa fuit, placitam deus aethere Christus\narcessens merito sumpsit honore animam\net rapuit terris subitum, quia dignior esset\nadsociata piis uiuere conciliis.\ncausa fuit leti suffusus faucibus umor,\nquo grauis inflauit lactea colla tumor,\ninde repressus abit, sed lapsus ad intima fugit\ncorporis et uitam uisceribus pepulit.\nterra suam partem tumulata carne recepit,\nspiritus angelico uectus abit gremio.\ndeserti uacuum funus duxere parentes,\nCelsus in excelso laetus agit nemore.\nparcite quaeso, pii, multis peccare, parentes,\nfletibus, in culpam ne pietas ueniat.\ninpia nam pietas animam lugere beatam\ngaudentemque deo flere nocens amor est.\nnonne patet quantum tali pietate trahatur\npeccatum? arguimur fraude tenere fidem\naut reprobare dei leges errore rebelli,\nni placeat nobis quod placuit domino.\niustius est istas hominum lugere tenebras,\nquas facimus nostrae degeneres animae,\ninmemores primi caelestis imaginis ortus,\nquam reuocat miserans ad sua regna pater.\ncuius amore meos suscepit filius artus,\nuirgine conceptus, uirgine natus homo,\ncuncta gerens hominum, cunctos et corpore in uno\ncunctorum dominus suscipiens famulus.\nfactus enim serui forma est, qui summus agebat,\nforma dei regnans cum patre rege deus.\nsuscepit formam serui culpamque peremit,\nqua poenae et mortis quondam homo seruus erat.","t":"Nor was there long delay; God, Christ, summoning from heaven\nthe pleasing soul, took it up with deserved honour\nand snatched him suddenly from earth, because he was worthier\nto live joined to the godly assemblies.\nThe cause of death was a moisture spread in his throat,\nby which a heavy swelling puffed up his milky neck;\nthen, repressed, it went away, but, slipping to the inmost parts,\nit fled into the body and drove life from the vitals.\nThe earth received its part, the flesh being buried;\nthe spirit went away, carried in an angelic bosom.\nThe bereft parents led an empty funeral;\nCelsus lives glad in a lofty grove.\nRefrain, I pray, godly parents, from sinning with many\ntears, lest affection come into fault.\nFor it is impious affection to mourn a blessed soul,\nand a harmful love to weep for one rejoicing in God.\nIs it not plain how much sin is drawn on by such affection?\nWe are accused of holding faith deceitfully,\nor of rejecting God's laws by rebellious error,\nunless what pleased the Lord pleases us.\nIt is more just to mourn those human darknesses\nwhich we, degenerate, make for our souls,\nforgetful of the first origin of the heavenly image,\nwhich the Father, pitying, calls back to his kingdom.\nFor love of it the Son took up my limbs,\nconceived of a virgin, born a man of a virgin,\nbearing all things of men, and in one body all men,\nthe Lord of all taking them up as servant.\nFor he was made in the form of a servant, he who was highest,\nGod reigning in the form of God with the Father King.\nHe took up the form of a servant and destroyed the guilt\nby which man was once a slave of punishment and death.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 31.31 (CSEL 30:308lines 31–62–309; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/31-31)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/31.315":{"o":"illic aspicies toto uiuiscere campo\narentes ueterum reliquias hominum\nossaque porrectum late dispersa per agrum\nultro ad conpages currere iussa suas\natque medullatis penetralibus edere neruos\nmoxque supernata ducere carne cutem\net dicto citius perfectis ordine membris\npuluere de ueteri stare nouos homines.\nac ne forte, sacri quod fert manifesta prophetae\nuisio, sopiti somnia uana putes,\nmaiorem super his et plenum suscipe testem;\nipse prophetarum nam loquitur dominus:\nuita ego sum; qui me credet, nec morte peremptus,\nconsorti mecum luce beatus aget.\ndenique quod uerbo dixit uirtute probauit,\nipse suum reuocans ex abysis hominem,\ntempore quamquam illo non tantum in corpore Christus\nsigna suo dederit, cum cruce uictor obit.\nnamque ut concussis patefecit tartara terris\net uinctum inferno carcere soluit Adam,\nfissa resurgentes ruperunt saxa sepulti,\net nouus in sancta floruit urbe tholus.\nuiderunt multi ueterum renouata piorum\ncorpora descensu uiuificata dei.\ntunc etiam refugo caecatus lumine mundus\naeterna timuit nocte piare nefas.\ntunc et discisso nudata altaria uelo\namisere sacri religionem adyti,\nut monstraretur uacuandum numine templum\net fore ab hostili sancta profana manu,\nquod duce Romano docuit post exitus ingens\neuersis templo ciuibus urbe sacris.","t":"There you will see coming alive in the whole plain\nthe dry remains of ancient men,\nand bones scattered widely through the extended field\nrunning of their own accord, as bidden, to their joints,\nand putting forth sinews from their marrowy inner parts,\nand soon drawing skin over the flesh grown upon them,\nand, quicker than a word, the limbs completed in order,\nnew men standing from old dust.\nAnd lest perhaps you think what the manifest vision of the holy prophet\nbrings to be the vain dreams of a sleeper,\ntake a greater and full witness besides;\nfor the Lord of the prophets himself speaks:\n“I am the life; whoever believes in me, not destroyed by death,\nwill live blessed in light shared with me.”\nIn short, what he said in word he proved by power,\nhimself calling back his own man from the abysses,\nalthough at that time Christ gave signs not only in his own\nbody, when he died, victor, on the cross.\nFor as he opened hell, the earth shaken,\nand released Adam bound in the infernal prison,\nthe buried, rising, burst the split rocks,\nand a new dome flowered in the holy city.\nMany saw the bodies of the ancient godly renewed,\nbrought to life by the descent of God.\nThen also the world, blinded as the light fled,\nfeared to expiate the crime with eternal night.\nThen too the altars, laid bare as the veil was torn,\nlost the sanctity of the sacred shrine,\nso that it might be shown that the temple was to be emptied of divinity\nand its holy things profaned by an enemy hand,\nas the great outcome later taught under a Roman leader,\nwhen the citizens were overthrown with the temple and the sacred things with the city.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 31.315 (CSEL 30:318lines 315–346–319; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/31-315)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/31.347":{"o":"fas etenim, ut Iudaea, cui suus hostia Christus\nnon erat et per quam uictima Christus erat,\nsede locoque simul ueterum uiduata sacrorum,\ninfitiata fidem, perderet omne sacrum.\nfinis enim legis Christus, quia lege fideli\npraedictus legi lex ueniendo fuit,\npraescribens ueteri finem legemque fidei,\nlegem prophetae gentibus instituens.\nunde magister ait: uetera effluxere peractis\ntemporibus, subeunt omnia ubique noua.\niamque reuelata facie speculamur apertum\nin Christo propriae lucis honore deum.\net puto quod scissi in templo mysteria ueli\nid quoque signarint, gratia quod tribuit.\nnam ueluti rupto patuere sacraria uelo,\nsic reserat nobis legis operta fides.\ninde sub antiquo legitur uelamine Moyses\nIudaeis nebula cordis opertus adhuc,\nquam de luminibus mentis mihi creditus aufert\nChristus, adumbratas discutiens species\nseque docens prisca uelatum legis in umbra\niamque reuelatum corporis in facie,\nqualem praemissi cecinerunt adfore uates,\nqualis apostolicis coram oculis patuit,\nqualem et Iudaei non perspexere uidentes\nmentibus obtunsis impietate sua,\net qualem, quamuis non uisum in corpore nobis,\ncredendo interno lumine conspicimus.\nnam quod ueridici sese uidisse magistri\net palpasse docent, tango fide et uideo.","t":"For it was right that Judea, for which Christ was not its sacrifice\nand through which Christ was made a victim,\nbereft at once of the seat and place of its ancient rites,\nhaving denied faith, should lose everything sacred.\nFor Christ is the end of the law, because, foretold by the faithful law,\nhe was by his coming the law to the law,\nprescribing an end to the old and a law of faith,\nestablishing for the nations the law of the prophets.\nHence the teacher says: the old things have flowed away, their times\ncompleted; all things everywhere come forth new.\nAnd now with unveiled face we behold God openly\nin Christ in the honour of his own light.\nAnd I think that the mysteries of the veil torn in the temple\nsignified this too, which grace bestows.\nFor as the sanctuary lay open when the veil was torn,\nso faith unlocks for us the hidden things of the law.\nHence Moses is read under the ancient veil\nby the Jews, still covered with a cloud of the heart,\nwhich Christ, believed by me, takes from the eyes of my mind,\nscattering the shadowed appearances,\nand teaching that he was veiled in the ancient shadow of the law\nand is now revealed in the face of a body,\nsuch as the prophets sent before sang would come,\nsuch as appeared before the apostles' eyes,\nsuch as the Jews did not perceive though they saw,\ntheir minds blunted by their own impiety,\nand such as, though not seen by us in the body,\nwe behold by believing with inner light.\nFor what the truthful teachers teach that they saw\nand touched, I touch and see by faith.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 31.347 (CSEL 30:319lines 347–376–320; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/31-347)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/31.377":{"o":"et cunctis credendo patet cognoscere Christum\nimpia caecantem pectora perfidiae\nfundentemque suam per corda fidelia lucem,\nut placitas habitet clarificetque animas.\nergo, mei fratres, mea cura, meum cor, in ista\nmaerentes animos laetificate fide.\npellite tristitiam dociles pietate fideli\nfidentesque deo laetitiam induite.\nillos infelix luctus decet et dolor amens,\nnulla quibus superest spes, quia nulla fides,\net quibus omne bonum est hoc tantum uiuere saeclo,\ndesperare deo, fidere corporeis.\nillis internus stupor insolabile pectus\ndesertis uero sensibus obsideat,\nquos infida deo mens abdicat et quibus exsors\na Christo infernas sors cadit in tenebras.\nnobis ore dei solator apostolus adsit,\nnos euangelio Christus amans doceat;\nnos exempla patrum simul et praeconia uatum,\nnos liber historiae firmet apostolicae,\nin qua corporeum remeare ad sidera Christum\ncernimus et gremio nubis in astra uehi,\net talem e caelis reducem sperare iubemur,\nad caelos qualem uidimus ire patri.\nhuius in aduentum modo pendent omnia rerum,\nomnis in hunc regem spesque fidesque inhiat.\niamque propinquantem supremo tempore finem\ninmutanda nouis saecula parturiunt.\nomnes uera monent sacris oracula libris\ncredere praedictis seque parare deo.\nfestinate, precor, dum copia panditur istic\nprocurare bonis praeque cauere malis.","t":"And by believing it lies open to all to know Christ,\nwho blinds the impious hearts of faithlessness\nand pours his light through faithful hearts,\nthat he may dwell in pleasing souls and glorify them.\nSo, my brothers, my care, my heart, in this faith\ngladden your sorrowing souls.\nDrive away sadness, teachable in faithful piety,\nand, trusting God, put on joy.\nUnhappy mourning and mad grief befit those\nfor whom no hope remains, because no faith,\nand for whom all good is only to live in this age,\nto despair of God, to trust in bodily things.\nLet an inner stupor besiege the inconsolable breast\nof those deserted by true understanding,\nwhom a mind faithless to God disowns, and for whom a lot\nwithout share in Christ falls into infernal darkness.\nFor us let the apostle be present as consoler with the mouth of God,\nlet loving Christ teach us by the gospel;\nlet the examples of the fathers and the proclamations of the prophets,\nlet the book of apostolic history strengthen us,\nin which we see Christ return bodily to the stars\nand be carried to heaven in the bosom of a cloud,\nand we are bidden to hope for him to return from the heavens\nsuch as we saw him go to the Father in heaven.\nOn his coming all things now hang,\nall hope and faith gape toward this King.\nAnd now the ages, to be changed for new ones,\nare in labour with the end approaching in the last time.\nThe true oracles in the sacred books warn all\nto believe what was foretold and to prepare themselves for God.\nHasten, I pray, while the opportunity lies open here,\nto provide good things and to guard against evils beforehand.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 31.377 (CSEL 30:320lines 377–408–321; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/31-377)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/31.409":{"o":"uertite peruersas conuerso pectore curas,\nmonstrat flere fides utilibus lacrimis.\npeccatum lugere iuuat contractaque culpis\nuulnera profusis fletibus abluere,\nqualibus ille suum stratum omni nocte rigabat\nmulta gemens Dauid, corde potens humili.\nsi cinerem ut panem ille deo dilectus edebat\net sua miscebat pocula cum lacrimis,\nquid facere, heu! misero mihi conpetit? unde piabor?\nunde satisfaciam? quanam ope saluus ero?\npumiceum cor eget lacrimis, cinis horret ad escam,\ndeliciaeque iuuant esuriente anima.\nquis mihi suggereret lacrimarum ad flumina fontem,\nquo mea deflerem facta meosque dies?\nnam mihi pro meritis actae per crimina uitae\ningentes plagas flumine flere opus est.\nrumpe mei lapidem cordis, saluator Iesus,\nut mollita pio uiscera fonte fluant;\ntu, precor, o fons Christe, meis innascere fibris,\nut mihi uiua tuae uena resultet aquae.\nnam tu fons, quo uita fluit, quo gratia manat,\nquo lux omnigenas funditur in populos.\nqui te, Christe, bibent, dulci torrente refecti\nnon sitient ultra, sed tamen et sitient.\nnam quos diuini satiarit copia uerbi,\nhos dulcedo magis pota sitire facit.\nte, domine, ergo, deus, panem fontemque salutis\nsemper et esuriant et sitiant animae.\nnon ieiuna fames, sed nec sitis arida uitam\nconsumet, si te mens edat atque bibat.\niugifluus semper biberis turbamque sitimque\npotantum exhaustus largior exuperas.","t":"Turn away your perverse cares with a converted heart;\nfaith shows how to weep with useful tears.\nIt is good to mourn sin and to wash away with poured tears\nthe wounds contracted by faults,\ntears with which that David, groaning much, mighty with humble heart,\nwatered his bed every night.\nIf he, beloved of God, ate ashes like bread\nand mixed his cups with tears,\nwhat, alas, befits wretched me to do? Whence shall I be expiated?\nWhence shall I make satisfaction? By what help shall I be saved?\nMy pumice heart lacks tears, ashes revolt me as food,\nand delicacies please my hungry soul.\nWho would supply me a fountain for rivers of tears,\nwith which I might weep for my deeds and my days?\nFor, according to the deserts of a life spent in crimes,\nI need to weep for huge wounds with a river.\nBreak the stone of my heart, Saviour Jesus,\nso that my softened inmost parts may flow with a godly fountain;\nyou, I pray, O Christ the fountain, be born in my fibres,\nso that the living vein of your water may spring up in me.\nFor you are the fountain from which life flows, from which grace streams,\nfrom which light is poured on peoples of every kind.\nThose who drink you, Christ, refreshed by the sweet torrent,\nwill thirst no more, and yet they will thirst.\nFor those whom the abundance of the divine Word has satisfied,\nits sweetness, once drunk, makes thirst the more.\nSo, Lord, God, let souls always hunger and thirst for you,\nthe bread and fountain of salvation.\nNeither fasting hunger nor dry thirst will consume life\nif the mind eats and drinks you.\nEver-flowing, you are always drunk, and, though drained,\nmore generous, you surpass the crowd and the thirst of the drinkers.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 31.409 (CSEL 30:321lines 409–440–323; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/31-409)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/31.441":{"o":"totus enim dulcedo, deus, dilectio, Christe, es,\ninde replere magis quam satiare potes.\net desideriis semper sitiendus auaris\ninfluis exciperis, nec saturatur amor,\natque ita perficitur pietas, sine fine ut ameris,\nChriste, tuis uitam qui sine fine dabis.\nda mihi nunc lugere, deus, fletuque salubri\npraeserere aeternae semina laetitiae;\nhoc, precor, hoc potius maneat mihi luctus in aeuo,\nin quo quicquid adest per breue transit iter.\nite procul, laeti, flentum consortia malo,\nut breuibus lacrimis gaudia longa metam.\nsi modo lugentem grauis hirto tegmine saccus\ncaprigenum saetis, dum tegit, et stimulet,\ntunc patre placato meriti reddetur honoris\nanulus, et cinget me stola laetitiae;\ntunc mihi iure pater uitulum mactabit opimum,\nsi modo ieiunus iustitiam esuriam.\nmalo famem panis quam sancti ducere uerbi;\nnolo domum uini, lucis aquam sitio;\nhic cruciet me dira fames, hic turpis egestas\ncontractum pannis tristibus obsideat,\nhic licet ante suas diues me transeat aedes,\nspernens uel micis me saturare suis.\nnolo mihi Tyrio modo Serica murice uestis\nardeat, arsuri corporis inuidia,\nne post purpureos me flamma perennis amictus\nambiat et pretium uestis in igne luam.\nhic potius miseri iaceamus in aggere foedo\nstercoris et lambant ulcera nostra canes,\nut placida tristem post uitam morte solutos\nmitis ad occursus angelus excipiat\net patriarcharum sinibus deponat ouantes,\nunde gehenna procul saeuit hiante chao.","t":"For you are wholly sweetness, God, love, Christ;\nhence you can fill rather than satiate.\nAnd, always to be thirsted for with greedy desires,\nyou flow in and are received, nor is love sated,\nand so piety is made perfect, that you may be loved without end,\nChrist, by your own, to whom you will give life without end.\nGrant me now to mourn, God, and with saving weeping\nto sow beforehand the seeds of eternal joy;\nlet this mourning, I pray, rather remain for me in the age\nin which whatever is present passes by a short road.\nGo far off, you glad; I prefer the company of those who weep,\nso that with brief tears I may reap long joys.\nIf now heavy sackcloth with its rough covering\nof goats' bristles covers and goads me as I mourn,\nthen, the Father appeased, the ring of deserved honour\nwill be returned, and the robe of joy will gird me;\nthen rightly the Father will kill the fatted calf for me,\nif only, fasting, I hunger for justice.\nI would rather endure hunger for bread than for the holy Word;\nI do not want the house of wine, I thirst for the water of light;\nhere let dire hunger torment me, here foul poverty\nbesiege me, shrunk in sad rags,\nhere let the rich man pass me by before his house,\nscorning to fill me even with his crumbs.\nI do not want a silken garment to glow on me with Tyrian purple,\nto the envy of a body that will burn,\nlest after purple robes the everlasting flame\nsurround me and I pay for my garment in fire.\nHere rather let us lie wretched on a foul heap\nof dung, and let dogs lick our sores,\nso that, released after a sad life by a calm death,\na gentle angel may receive us as we meet him\nand set us down rejoicing in the bosoms of the patriarchs,\nfar from where Gehenna rages with gaping chasm.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 31.441 (CSEL 30:323lines 441–474–324; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/31-441)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/31.475":{"o":"non commenta loquor natum terrentia paruos,\nlatrantem in foribus per tria rostra canem\nterrentemque umbras tristi squalore Charontem,\nuipereis saeuas crinibus Eumenidas,\naeternam, Tityon, funesti uulturis escam\narentemque siti Tantalon inter aquas,\nuoluentem sine fine rotam et reuolubile saxum,\ncassaque sudantum dolia Danaidum.\nhaec inopes ueri uanis cecinere poetae,\nqui Christum ueri non tenuere caput.\nat nos uera deus docuit, sator ipse suorum\nenarrans nobis omnia uera operum.\ndisce euangelio loca pauperis et loca ditis:\npauper in Abraham, diues in igne iacet.\niustitia mutante uices qui fleuerat istic\ngaudet ibi, et pleno paupere diues eget.\niste bona requie fruitur, gemit ignibus ille,\ndiues opum poenas, pauper opes recipit.\nmendicat diues modicum de paupere rorem,\nquem mendicantem spreuerat in superis.\ninde in eum ardentem nec parua e pauperis imo\nstillauit digito gutta refrigerii,\nde magnis quoniam dapibus nec mica referto\nesurientis in os pauperis exciderat.\nhis monitis sanctam discamus uiuere Christo\niustitiam et partem ponere pauperibus.\ntu, cui sordet inops, qui uiso horrescis egeno\noccursumque pii subplicis omen habes,\nqui te miraris pretiosa ueste nitentem\nnec sordere uides interiore habitu,\nomnia mente geris, quae corpore pauperis horres,\nsordidior pannis diues et ulceribus;","t":"I do not speak fictions that terrify little children:\nthe dog barking at the gates through three mouths,\nand Charon terrifying shades with sad squalor,\nthe Eumenides savage with viper hair,\nTityos, the eternal food of the deadly vulture,\nand Tantalus parched with thirst amid the waters,\nthe wheel turning without end and the rolling stone,\nand the vain jars of the sweating Danaids.\nThese things poets empty of truth sang with vain words,\nwho did not hold Christ, the head of truth.\nBut God has taught us true things, the sower of his own works\nhimself recounting to us all the truth of them.\nLearn from the gospel the places of the poor man and of the rich:\nthe poor man lies in Abraham, the rich in fire.\nWith justice reversing their lots, he who had wept here\nrejoices there, and the rich man is in want while the poor is full.\nThe one enjoys good rest, the other groans in fires;\nthe rich man receives punishment for his wealth, the poor man riches.\nThe rich man begs a little dew from the poor man,\nwhom he had scorned when he begged in the world above.\nHence not even a small drop of refreshment trickled on him, burning,\nfrom the tip of the poor man's finger,\nsince from his great feasts not even a crumb had fallen\ninto the mouth of the hungry poor man.\nBy these warnings let us learn to live holy justice\nfor Christ and to set aside a share for the poor.\nYou, to whom the needy man is filthy, who shudder at the sight of the poor\nand hold meeting a godly suppliant to be an ill omen,\nwho admire yourself shining in a precious garment\nand do not see that you are filthy in your inner dress,\nyou carry in your mind all that you shudder at in the poor man's body,\na rich man filthier than rags and sores;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 31.475 (CSEL 30:324lines 475–506–325; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/31-475)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/31.507":{"o":"contemnis caecum, leprosum tangere uitas,\ndiues auare, lepram diligis ipse tuam.\nille oculis hominum miser est et debilis; at tu\nturpis es ante deum debilitate animae.\ninprobe, consortem naturae spernis egentem\net facis exsortem partis auaritia.\nquicquid, inique, tibi nullo supereffluit usu,\nquod fosso abstrudis caespite, pars inopum est.\ncur aliena tenes, qua spe linquenda retentas,\nnec retributa suis nec potiunda tibi?\ntu, cui sordet inops, qui nomine diuitis excors\ntriste leuas crispa fronte supercilium,\nnec dignaris eos homines uel nomine fari,\nquos simili luxu non fluitare uides,\nfilius ille dei qua uenerit aspice forma,\nqui cum esset diues, pauper in orbe fuit.\net ueniens non alta deus, sed uilia mundi\nlegit, ut infirmis fortia destrueret.\nnon iam diuitiis diues nec robore fortis\nnec sapiens magno gaudeat ingenio.\nnemo ope confidat propria aut de se sibi plaudat,\ncum sata uel data sint omnia fonte deo.\nperfugium Christus personaque factus egentum,\ndiuitibus pudor est, gloria pauperibus.\nhuius in ambrosios auidi curramus odores,\nut procul a nobis mortis odor fugiat.\nquis mihi det pretiosum alabastro fundere nardum\net domini sacros flendo lauare pedes?\nuos, precor, o mea cura, piis operam date curis\nuosque date inmenso coniuge mente deo.\ntempus adest, prope iam dominus; properate parari\nregis ad occursum, dum breuis hora patet.","t":"you despise the blind, you avoid touching the leper,\ngreedy rich man, you yourself love your own leprosy.\nHe is wretched and weak in the eyes of men; but you\nare foul before God by weakness of soul.\nShameless one, you spurn the needy man, your partner in nature,\nand by avarice deprive him of his share.\nWhatever overflows for you, unjust one, with no use,\nwhich you hide in dug turf, is the share of the poor.\nWhy do you hold what belongs to others? With what hope do you keep what must be left,\nneither returned to its owners nor to be enjoyed by you?\nYou, to whom the needy man is filthy, who, senseless in the name of a rich man,\nraise a sad eyebrow with wrinkled brow,\nand do not deign even to call them men\nwhom you do not see flowing with like luxury,\nlook in what form that Son of God came,\nwho, though he was rich, was poor in the world.\nAnd coming, God chose not the lofty but the cheap things of the world,\nto destroy the strong by the weak.\nLet not the rich now rejoice in riches, nor the strong in strength,\nnor the wise in great talent.\nLet no one trust in his own resources or applaud himself,\nsince all things are sown or given from God as fountain.\nChrist, made the refuge and the person of the needy,\nis shame to the rich, glory to the poor.\nLet us run eagerly toward his ambrosial fragrance,\nthat the odour of death may flee far from us.\nWho will grant me to pour precious nard from alabaster\nand to wash the Lord's sacred feet with weeping?\nYou, I pray, my care, give your effort to godly cares,\nand give yourselves to God, the immense spouse, with united mind.\nThe time is here, the Lord is now near; hasten to be prepared\nto meet the King while the short hour lies open.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 31.507 (CSEL 30:325lines 507–538–326; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/31-507)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/31.539":{"o":"utimini uestris opibus pietate benigna\nradicemque mali uellite pectoribus.\ncorde inopum uestrae pretium concludite uitae\net capita expensis ungite uestra piis.\ncastaque lambentes domini uestigia Christi,\ndetergete comis ambo, lauate oculis.\nsi desiderium est Celsi sine fine fruendi,\nsic agite, ut uobis aula eadem pateat.\nnam quem sancta fides et nescia criminis aetas\net pia mens casto corpore continuit,\ncerta fides illa superum regione potiri,\nignea qua sanctos protegit ara dei.\nnolumus ergo, boni fratres, de pignore nostro\nuos ita tristari tamquam homines uacuos;\nnam si certe fides nobis quia Christus Iesus\nmortuus est et nunc uiuit in arce dei,\nsic et eos, quicumque fide uiuente quiescunt,\nadducet Christo cum remeante pater.\nhoc etenim in uerbo domini docet ille magister,\nquo duce sidereas nitimur ire uias,\nquod quibus in Christo fuerit modo uita peracta,\nisdem cum Christo uita perennis erit.\ncumque tuba signum domini aduentantis ab alta\nsede patris princeps angelus ediderit,\nprimi qui in Christo mortes obiere resurgent,\ndignati occursum nubibus ire deo.\ncumque omnes in qua uixerunt carne reuiuent,\nnon omnes uerso corpore lumen erunt.\nnamque resurgemus, sed non mutabimur omnes;\nhoc discrimen erit gentibus ante deum.\nincorrupta profanorum quoque corpora surgent\na tumulis, longo pabula supplicio.","t":"Use your riches with kindly piety,\nand pluck the root of evil from your hearts.\nStore the price of your life in the hearts of the poor,\nand anoint your heads with godly expenditure.\nAnd, kissing the chaste footprints of the Lord Christ,\nwipe them, both of you, with your hair, wash them with your eyes.\nIf you desire to enjoy Celsus without end,\nact so that the same hall may lie open to you.\nFor him whom holy faith, an age not knowing crime,\nand a godly mind contained in a chaste body,\nit is sure faith that he possesses that region above,\nwhere the fiery altar of God protects the saints.\nSo we do not want you, good brothers, to grieve over our pledge\nlike men without hope;\nfor if we surely believe that Christ Jesus\ndied and now lives in the citadel of God,\nso also the Father will bring with Christ when he returns\nthose who rest in living faith.\nFor this that teacher teaches in the word of the Lord,\nwith whom as guide we strive to go the starry ways:\nthat for those whose life was spent in Christ,\nthere will be everlasting life with Christ.\nAnd when the chief angel has sounded with the trumpet the sign\nof the Lord's coming from the lofty seat of the Father,\nthose who died in Christ will rise first,\ndeemed worthy to go on the clouds to meet God.\nAnd when all live again in the flesh in which they lived,\nnot all will become light, their bodies changed.\nFor we shall all rise, but we shall not all be changed;\nthis will be the distinction among the nations before God.\nThe bodies of the profane too will rise incorruptible\nfrom the tombs, food for long punishment.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 31.539 (CSEL 30:326lines 539–570–327; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/31-539)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/31.571":{"o":"uita erit his sine fine mori et mors uiuere poenis\net durante suas pascere carne cruces.\nipse suos proprio peccator corpore gignet\ncarnifices et erit uermibus esca suis.\nat quos caelesti pietas euexerit actu,\nparticipata gerent stemmata rege deo\nuestitique suum diuino lumine corpus\nconformes Christo semper agent domino.\nquod cum ita sit, capite ex istis solacia uerbis\net fidos ueri spe recreate animos;\net pignus commune superno in lumine Celsum\ncredite uiuorum lacte fauisque frui.\naut illum gremio exceptum fouet almus Abraham\net blandus digiti rore Eleazar alit,\naut cum Bethlaeis infantibus in paradiso,\nquos malus Herodes perculit inuidia,\ninter odoratum ludit nemus atque coronas\ntexit honorandis praemia martyribus.\ntalibus inmixtus regem comitabitur agnum\nuirgineis infans additus agminibus.\nCelse, beatorum castae puer incola terrae,\nCelse, dolor patribus, gloria, Celse, patrum,\nCelse, amor et desiderium lumenque tuorum,\nCelse, breuis nobis gratia, longa tibi.\nsed tamen et nobis poterit tua gratia longum\nuiuere, si nostri sis memor ad dominum.\nnamque in te parui meritis ingentibus aeui\ntempore uita breuis, sed pietate potens.\ntalium enim infantum caeli regnum esse probatur,\nqualis eras aeuo mente fideque puer,\nqualis et ille fuit noster, tuus ille beati\nnominis, accitus tempore quo datus est,\nexoptata diu soboles nec praestita nobis\ngaudere indignis posteritate pia;","t":"For them life will be to die without end, and death to live in punishments,\nand to feed their tortures with enduring flesh.\nThe sinner himself will beget his own executioners\nfrom his own body and will be food for his own worms.\nBut those whom piety has lifted by heavenly conduct\nwill wear shared crowns with God as King,\nand, their body clothed with divine light,\nwill live always conformed to Christ the Lord.\nSince this is so, take consolation from these words,\nand restore your souls, faithful to the true hope;\nand believe that Celsus, our common pledge, in the light above\nenjoys the milk and honeycombs of the living.\nEither kindly Abraham cherishes him, received in his bosom,\nand gentle Lazarus feeds him with the dew of his finger,\nor, with the infants of Bethlehem in paradise,\nwhom wicked Herod struck in envy,\nhe plays in a fragrant grove and weaves crowns,\nrewards for the martyrs to be honoured.\nMingled with such, the infant will accompany the Lamb, the King,\nadded to the virgin ranks.\nCelsus, boy dwelling in the chaste land of the blessed,\nCelsus, grief of your fathers, glory, Celsus, of your fathers,\nCelsus, love and longing and light of your own,\nCelsus, a grace brief for us, long for you.\nBut yet your grace will be able to live long for us too,\nif you remember us before the Lord.\nFor in you, of short age but great merits,\nlife was short in time but mighty in piety.\nFor of such infants the kingdom of heaven is proved to be,\nsuch as you were, a boy in age, mind and faith,\nand such as was ours too, he of your blessed\nname, called away at the time he was given,\noffspring long desired and not granted to us,\nunworthy to rejoice in godly posterity;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 31.571 (CSEL 30:327lines 571–604–328; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/31-571)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/31.605":{"o":"credimus aeternis illum tibi, Celse, uirectis\nlaetitiae et uitae ludere participem,\nquem Conplutensi mandauimus urbe propinquis\nconiunctum tumuli foedere martyribus,\nut de uicino sanctorum sanguine ducat,\nquo nostras illo spargat in igne animas.\nforte etenim nobis quoque peccatoribus olim\nsanguinis haec nostri guttula lumen erit.\nCelse, iuua fratrem socia pietate laborans,\nut uestra nobis sit locus in requie.\nuiuite participes, aeternum uiuite, fratres,\net laetos dignum par habitate locos,\ninnocuisque, pares, meritis peccata parentum,\ninfantes, castis uincite suffragiis.\nquot tibi, Celse, annis, totidem illi uita diebus\nhausta; sed ille minor, qua prior, est senior.\nnam minor est, in quo uixit minus; attamen idem\nqua prior abscessit, nunc ibi te senior.\nCelse, tuo cum fratre tuis, quibus addimur, adsta;\nnam tua de patrio sanguine uena sumus.\ncum patre Pneumatio simul et cum matre Fideli\ndic et Paulinum Therasiamque tuos,\nut precibus commune tuis miserante habeamus\npraesidium Christo nos quoque, Celse, tui.\nsed tamen et nobis superest operam dare, qua te\npossimus simili simplicitate sequi.\ntum nostro socii poterimus uiuere Celso,\ndulcis et aeternum pignoris esse patres.","t":"we believe that he, Celsus, plays with you, sharer\nof joy and life, in the eternal green places,\nhe whom we entrusted, in the city of Complutum, to the neighbouring\nmartyrs, joined to them by the covenant of a tomb,\nso that from the nearby blood of the saints he may draw\nthat with which to sprinkle our souls in that fire.\nFor perhaps for us sinners too, one day,\nthis little drop of our blood will be a light.\nCelsus, help your brother, labouring with shared piety,\nthat we may have a place in your rest.\nLive as partners, live eternally, brothers,\nand inhabit the glad places, a worthy pair,\nand, equal infants, overcome the sins of your parents\nby innocent merits and chaste intercessions.\nAs many years as you, Celsus, had, so many days of life\ndid he draw; but he, the younger, is the elder in being first.\nFor he is younger in that he lived less; but yet the same,\nin that he departed first, is now your elder there.\nCelsus, with your brother, stand by your own, to whom we are added;\nfor we are a vein of your father's blood.\nTogether with your father Pneumatius and your mother Fidelis,\nname also Paulinus and Therasia as your own,\nso that by your prayers, as Christ pities, we too, Celsus,\nmay have with your own a common protection.\nBut yet it remains for us to give effort, so that we may\nfollow you with like simplicity.\nThen we shall be able to live as companions of our Celsus,\nand to be eternally fathers of a sweet pledge.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 31.605 (CSEL 30:328lines 605–632–329; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/31-605)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/31.63":{"o":"et libertati famulum sub imagine serui\nnostra caro effectus restituit dominus,\nut mihi per Christum caelestis imago rediret,\nqui cruce terrenum despoliauit Adam.\ncarnem igitur mortemque meam meus ille creator\npertulit et carum morte redemit opus.\nmulta mihi dederat prius et promissa salutis\net praecepta, quibus per bona dirigerer.\nsed quia nec legis posito medicamine primi\ninueterata patris uulnera dilueram\net neque praemissis diuino ex ore prophetis\nexpectare dei munera credideram,\net genus humanum passim sine luce fidei\ndesperata salus merserat in tenebras,\nregnabatque simul peccatum in corpore nostro,\nmors in peccato, daemon in interitu,\ncaptiuumque hominem tristis metus et miser error\naltius in mortem praecipitare dabant:\ninterea pater ipse polo miseratus ab alto\nerrantum lapsus pestiferos hominum\nserpentemque truci dominantem in morte cadentum\nnon tulit et natum misit ad omne bonum.\nparuit ille libens, deus omnia cum patre concors,\ncommunem curans rem pietate pari.\naduenit et fit homo et mixtum perfectus utroque\nostendit fragili carnis inesse deum.\nutitur officiis hominis, sed et intus operti\nsigna dei medicis exerit inperiis.\nuoce hominis diuina docet, mortalia uero\nextra peccatum corporeus peragit.\nquippe sui rem tantum operis sibi reddere curans,\nnaturam uenit sumere, non uitium.","t":"And our flesh, made Lord in the image of a servant,\nrestored the servant to freedom,\nso that the heavenly image might return to me through Christ,\nwho on the cross stripped off the earthly Adam.\nSo my Creator bore my flesh and my death\nand redeemed his dear work by death.\nHe had given me many things before, promises of salvation\nand precepts by which I might be directed through good things.\nBut because, though the medicine of the law was applied, I had not\nwashed away the inveterate wounds of the first father,\nnor had I believed, though prophets were sent ahead from the divine mouth,\nthat I should wait for the gifts of God,\nand despaired salvation had plunged the human race everywhere\ninto darkness without the light of faith,\nand sin reigned at the same time in our body,\ndeath in sin, the demon in destruction,\nand sad fear and wretched error were driving captive man\nheadlong more deeply into death:\nmeanwhile the Father himself, from high heaven, pitying\nthe pestilent falls of erring men,\nand the serpent ruling in the savage death of the fallen,\ndid not bear it, and sent his Son for every good.\nHe obeyed willingly, God in harmony with the Father in all things,\ncaring for their common cause with equal kindness.\nHe came and became man, and, perfect, mingled of both,\nshowed that God was in the frail flesh.\nHe uses the services of a man, but also shows forth\nsigns of the God hidden within by healing commands.\nHe teaches divine things with a human voice, and performs\nmortal things in the body, but apart from sin.\nFor, caring only to restore to himself the substance of his own work,\nhe came to take nature, not vice.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 31.63 (CSEL 30:309lines 63–94–310; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/31-63)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/31.95":{"o":"namque bonum natura hominem bonus ad bona fecit.\nmente sua lapsus se uitiauit homo.\nquare opifex hominum mortali in corpore uenit,\nnon et mortali crimine factus homo.\nnam neque deleret culpas nisi liber ab illis\nnec laxare reos posset et ipse reus,\nnec peccatori mors cederet utpote uinctum\npeccati uinclis legitime retinens.\niure igitur cessit rumpenti tartara Christo,\nin quo quod posset nectere non habuit.\nipsaque iudicii iniusti rea facta uicissim\nper scelus occiso iure subacta homini est.\npalluit inuidia serpens, inferna reducto\nclaustra homini uersa lege reclusa uidens\ninque uicem uincta mortalem morte resolui\nexcussumque sua surgere corpus humo,\ninsuper et caelos rediuiuum scandere cernens,\ndente truci frustra liuidus infremuit.\net modo tabescit, cum crebrescente piorum\nagmine per Christum perditor ipse perit.\nergo mei uitiosa animi sanauit et aegra\ncorporis excepit, matre homo, patre deus.\nimbecilla quidem, sed naturalia carnis\ngessit et affectus corporis exhibuit.\nsensibus humanis edit et bibit et sua somno\nlumina declinat, lassat eundo uiam.\ntamquam homo defuncto lacrimas inpendit amico,\nquem mox ipse deus suscitat e tumulo.\nnauigio uectatur homo, et deus imperat austris,\net uirtute dei ambulat aequor homo.\nmente hominis trepidat uicinae mortis ad horam,\nmente dei nouit tempus adesse necis.","t":"For the good one made man good in nature for good things;\nman, fallen by his own mind, corrupted himself.\nTherefore the maker of men came in a mortal body,\nnot made man with mortal crime as well.\nFor he would not destroy faults unless free of them,\nnor could he release the guilty if himself guilty,\nnor would death have yielded to a sinner, since it would lawfully\nhold one bound by the chains of sin.\nSo it rightly yielded to Christ as he broke open hell,\nin whom it had nothing it could bind.\nAnd death itself, made guilty in turn of an unjust judgment,\nwas subdued by right to man, slain through crime.\nThe serpent grew pale with envy, seeing the infernal\nbars opened, the law reversed, as man was led back,\nand the mortal in turn released from the bonds of death,\nand the body shaken out of its earth to rise,\nand moreover seeing it, alive again, climb the heavens,\nhe gnashed in vain, livid, with savage tooth.\nAnd now he wastes away, as with the growing ranks\nof the godly the destroyer himself perishes through Christ.\nSo he healed the vices of my soul and took on the weaknesses\nof my body, man from a mother, God from a Father.\nWeak indeed, but natural, were the things of the flesh\nhe bore, and he showed the affections of the body.\nWith human senses he eats and drinks, and lowers his eyes\nin sleep, and tires on the road by walking.\nAs man he sheds tears for a dead friend,\nwhom soon, as God himself, he raises from the tomb.\nAs man he is carried in a boat, and as God he commands the winds,\nand by the power of God the man walks on the sea.\nWith the mind of man he trembles at the hour of approaching death;\nwith the mind of God he knows the time of death is at hand.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 31.95 (CSEL 30:311lines 95–126–312; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/31-95)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/32.1":{"o":"Discussi, fateor, sectas, Antonius, omnes;\nplurima quaesiui, per singula quaeque cucurri,\nsed nihil inueni melius quam credere Christo.\nhaec ego disposui leni describere uersu,\net ne displiceat quod talia carmina pango,\nDauid ipse deum modulata uoce rogauit,\nquo nos exemplo pro magnis parua canemus,\ndicentes quae sunt fugienda sequenda colenda,\ncum tamen in cunctis et res et causa probetur.\nIudaicum primo populum nec gratia mouit\nmira dei; nam tum Pharaoni ereptus iniquo\net mare transgressus pedibus lucente columna,\ncum duce qui mergi infestos uidit equestres\net cui desertis nihil umquam defuit agris,\nManna cui e caelo et fons de rupe cucurrit,\npost haec ipse deum praestantem tanta negauit,\ndumque aliud numen dementi pectore quaerit,\nignibus incensis quod misit perdidit aurum.\npar quoque paganus; lapides quos sculpit adorat\net facit ipse sibi quod debeat ipse timere.\ntum simulacra colit quae sic ex aere figurat,\nut, quando libitum est, mittat confracta monetae\naut magis in species conuertat saepe pudendas.\nhinc miseras mactat pecudes mentesque deorum,\nquos putat irasci, calido in pulmone requirit\natque hominis uitam pecoris de morte precatur.\nquid petit ignosci ueniam qui sanguine poscit?\nillud enim quale est, quam stultum quamue notandum!\ncum deus omnipotens hominem formauerit olim,\naudet homo formare deum; ne crimina desint,\nhunc etiam uendit, dominum sibi comparat emptor.","t":"I have examined, I confess, all the sects, I, Antonius;\nI have sought very many things, I have run through each one,\nbut I have found nothing better than to believe in Christ.\nThese things I have resolved to describe in gentle verse;\nand lest it displease that I compose such songs,\nDavid himself entreated God with melodious voice,\nand by his example we shall sing small things instead of great,\ntelling what is to be fled, what followed, what worshipped,\nso that in all things both the matter and the reason may be proved.\nFirst, not even the wondrous grace of God moved\nthe Jewish people; for then, snatched from wicked Pharaoh,\nand having crossed the sea on foot with the shining column,\nwith a leader who saw the hostile horsemen drowned,\na people which never lacked anything in the desert fields,\nfor whom manna ran from heaven and a spring from the rock,\nafter this it denied the God who granted such great things,\nand while with mad heart it sought another deity,\nit destroyed in kindled fires the gold that it brought.\nThe pagan, too, is like it; he adores the stones he carves\nand makes for himself what he himself must fear.\nThen he worships images which he so shapes from bronze\nthat, when it pleases him, he sends them broken to the mint,\nor rather often turns them into shameful forms.\nHence he slaughters wretched cattle and seeks in the hot lung\nthe minds of the gods whom he thinks angry,\nand prays for the life of a man from the death of a beast.\nWhat pardon does he ask to be forgiven, who demands it with blood?\nFor what a thing is that, how foolish or how remarkable!\nThough almighty God once formed man,\nman dares to form God; and lest crimes be lacking,\nhe even sells him, and the buyer purchases a lord for himself.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 32.1 (CSEL 30:329lines 1–31–330; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/32-1)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/32.128":{"o":"quid loquar et Vestam, quam se negat ipse sacerdos\nscire quid est? imisque tamen penetralibus intus\nsemper inextinctus seruari fingitur ignis.\ncur dea, non deus est? cur ignis femina fertur?\nista quidem mulier, sicut commendat Hyginus,\nstamine prima nouo uestem contexuit olim.\nnomine de proprio dictam, quam tradidit ipsa\nVulcano, qui tunc illi monstrarat opertos\ncustodire focos; hic rursum munere laetus\nobtulit hanc Soli, per quem deprehenderat ante\nMartis adulterium; nunc omnis credula turba\nsuspendunt Soli per Vulcanalia uestes.\nutque notent Venerem, tunc et portatur Adonis;\nstercora tunc mittunt, ipsum pro stercore iactant.\nomnia si quaeras, magis et ridenda uidentur.\nadditur hic aliud: Vestae quas uirgines aiunt\nquinquennis epulas audio portare draconi,\nqui tamen aut non est aut si est diabolus ipse est,\nhumano generi contrarius antea suasor,\net uenerantur eum, qui nunc in nomine Christi\net tremit et pendet suaque omnia facta fatetur.\nquae mens est hominum, ut pro ueris falsa loquantur,\nqui linquenda colunt contraque colenda relinquunt!\niam sat erit nobis uanos narrare timores.\nhaec ego cuncta prius, clarum quam lumen adeptus,\nmeque diu incertum et tot tempestatibus actum\nsancta salutari suscepit eclesia portu\npostque uagos fluctus tranquilla sede locauit,\nut mihi iam liceat detersa nube malorum\ntempore promisso lucem sperare serenam.\niam prior illa salus, quam perdidit immemor Adam\ntunc uento suadente malo, nunc remige Christo\neruta de scopulis semper mansura resurget.","t":"Why should I speak of Vesta, of whom the priest himself denies\nhe knows what she is? And yet in the deepest inner recesses\nan ever-unextinguished fire is pretended to be kept.\nWhy is she a goddess, not a god? Why is fire said to be female?\nThis woman, indeed, as Hyginus records,\nwas the first long ago to weave a garment with new thread,\ncalled after her own name, which she herself handed over\nto Vulcan, who had then shown her how to guard\ncovered hearths; he in turn, glad of the gift,\noffered it to the Sun, through whom he had earlier detected\nthe adultery of Mars; now the whole credulous crowd\nhang garments for the Sun during the Vulcanalia.\nAnd to mark Venus, Adonis too is then carried;\nthen they throw dung, they throw him himself as dung.\nIf you inquire into everything, things seem still more laughable.\nAnother thing is added here: I hear that those whom they call Vestal\nvirgins carry five-yearly feasts to a serpent,\nwho either does not exist or, if he exists, is the devil himself,\nformerly the counsellor against the human race;\nand they venerate him who now, in the name of Christ,\nboth trembles and hangs and confesses all his deeds.\nWhat a mind men have, to speak false things instead of true,\nwho worship what should be left and leave what should be worshipped!\nNow it will be enough for us to tell of vain fears.\nAll these things I did before I gained the clear light,\nand when I was long uncertain and driven by so many storms,\nholy church received me in the harbour of salvation\nand, after the wandering waves, placed me in a tranquil seat,\nso that, the cloud of evils wiped away, I may now\nhope for serene light in the promised time.\nNow that first salvation which forgetful Adam lost,\nthen at the persuasion of an evil wind, now, with Christ as oarsman,\nrescued from the rocks, will rise again to remain forever.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 32.128 (CSEL 30:334lines 128–160–335; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/32-128)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/32.161":{"o":"rector enim noster sic undique cuncta gubernat,\nut modo qui nobis errorem mentis ademit\nhic meliore uia paradisi limina pandat.\nfelix nostra fides uni certoque dicata.\nunus enim deus est, substantia filius una\nunus, in utroque est unus uigor, una potestas.\nnamque dei uerbum patrio de pectore Christus\nemicuit semperque fuit, qui non quasi natus,\nore sed egressus chaos illud inane remouit\net tulit informem contextae noctis hiatum\ndistribuitque locis mare terras aera caelum\nhisque dedit geminam pulsa caligine lucem.\nast ubi cuncta nouum stupuerunt surgere solem,\nquattuor haec auxit uariis exordia rebus:\nsunt homines terris, sunt addita sidera caelo,\n(aere) pendet auis, liquido natat aequore piscis.\nsic elementa suis decorauit singula formis;\nnexuit haec diuersa licet discretaque iunxit\niunctaque discreuit, quae nunc diuisa cohaerent.\nclaudit enim Oceanus terram, mare clauditur ipsa,\naxe sub aetherio medius concluditur aer.\nhoc etiam caelum quod nos sublime uidemus\nsex aliis infra est spatio surgentibus aequo,\npostque thronos septem, post tot caelestia regna\ncetera pars omnis, quae cunctis eminet ultra,\nquae super excedit, quae passim tendit in altum,\nquae sine fine patet, quam nec mens colligit ulla,\nlucis inaccessae domus est sedesque potentis\nsancta dei, unde procul quae fecit subdita cernit.\nomnia sic constant, dum spiritus omnia cingit.","t":"For our helmsman so governs all things everywhere\nthat he who just now took error of mind from us\nopens the threshold of paradise by a better way.\nHappy is our faith, dedicated to the one and sure God.\nFor God is one, one substance, the Son is one,\none; in both there is one vigour, one power.\nFor Christ, the Word of God, shone out from the Father's heart\nand always was; he, not as if born,\nbut going forth from his mouth, removed that empty chaos\nand took away the shapeless gap of woven night\nand distributed sea, lands, air, sky in their places,\nand gave them twin light, the darkness driven off.\nBut when all things were amazed to see the new sun rise,\nhe increased these four beginnings with various things:\nmen are added to the lands, stars to the sky,\nthe bird hangs in the air, the fish swims in the liquid sea.\nSo he adorned each element with its own forms;\nhe knotted these, though different, and joined the separate,\nand separated the joined, which now cohere though divided.\nFor Ocean encloses the land, the sea itself is enclosed,\nunder the heavenly axis the air is enclosed in the middle.\nEven this heaven which we see lofty\nis below six others rising at equal distance,\nand after seven thrones, after so many heavenly kingdoms,\nall the rest, which rises above all beyond,\nwhich exceeds above, which stretches everywhere on high,\nwhich lies open without end, which no mind gathers,\nis the house of inaccessible light and the holy seat\nof mighty God, whence from afar he sees the subject things he made.\nAll things stand so, while the Spirit encircles all things.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 32.161 (CSEL 30:335lines 161–190–336; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/32-161)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/32.191":{"o":"haec itidem, quorum nobis conceditur usus,\nquae polus inferior magno complectitur orbe,\ncuncta licet distent, una cum pace tenentur,\ndenique nomen habent unum, sunt omnia mundus.\nhunc etiam Graeci cosmon dixere priores;\nhinc ita conpositum distinguens utraque lingua\ncosmon ab ornatu, mundum de lumine dixit.\nnam qua sol nitet, hoc totum sordebat in umbra,\net manet exemplum, quotiens nox omnia foedat,\net docet ex tenebris quae sit data gratia lucis.\ntot bona qui fecit, qui sic operatus ubique est,\nhic dominus de corde dei, hic spiritus oris,\nsancti sermo patris, tantarum fabrica rerum.\nnec se paganus laudet, si qui idola uitat\naut satis esse putat quod numine credat in uno.\nqui colit ille deum, qui uerbum non colit eius,\nqui non uirtutem simili ueneratur honore?\nquique inuisibilem inconprensibilemque fatetur\nesse deum, hic etiam Christum, si cogitet, idem\ninueniet, quoniam uerbum conprendere nemo,\nnemo uidere potest, opera eius sola uidentur.\nin patre natus enim, in nato pater omnia fecit\net quicquid uirtute dedit pietate tuetur.\nsic fuit, est et erit uerus saluator in aeuum,\nqui tulit errores, qui fecit uera uideri\nplacatoque patri pereuntem reddidit orbem.\nnec mirum si cuncta regit qui cuncta creauit,\nqui dedit ex nihilo totum lucique tenebras\nreppulit atque diem iussit succedere nocti\nquodque in carne fuit carnis peccata remittit;","t":"These likewise, whose use is granted us,\nwhich the lower sky embraces in a great circle,\nthough all differ, are held in one peace;\nin short, they have one name: all are the world.\nThe earlier Greeks also called this cosmos;\nhence, distinguishing what was so composed, each language\ncalled it cosmos from adornment, mundus from light.\nFor where the sun shines, all this lay foul in shadow,\nand the example remains whenever night disfigures all things,\nand teaches from darkness what grace of light has been given.\nHe who made so many good things, who has so worked everywhere,\nthis is the Lord from the heart of God, this the Spirit of his mouth,\nthe Word of the holy Father, the builder of such great things.\nNor let the pagan praise himself if he avoids idols,\nor thinks it enough to believe in one divinity.\nDoes he worship God who does not worship his Word,\nwho does not venerate his Power with like honour?\nAnd whoever confesses God to be invisible and incomprehensible\nwill find, if he reflects, that Christ too is\nthe same, since no one can comprehend the Word,\nno one can see him; his works alone are seen.\nFor the Son in the Father, the Father in the Son made all things,\nand whatever he gave by power he protects by kindness.\nSo he was, is, and will be the true Saviour forever,\nwho took away errors, who made true things to be seen,\nand, the Father appeased, gave back the perishing world.\nNor is it wonderful if he rules all things who created all things,\nwho gave the whole from nothing and drove back darkness\nfrom light and ordered day to succeed night,\nand, because he was in the flesh, forgives the sins of the flesh;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 32.191 (CSEL 30:336lines 191–220–337; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/32-191)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/32.221":{"o":"cernit enim fragilem faciles incurrere lapsus\ncorripiensque tamen ueniam dabit omnibus unam,\nremque nouam dicam nec me dixisse pigebit,\nplusque pius quam iustus erit. si denique iustus\nesse uelit, nullus fugiet sine crimine poenam;\niustus enim mala condemnat, pius omnia donat.\nhoc facit, ut rata sint uenturae munera uitae\net quod culpa tulit rursum indulgentia reddat;\nquae si non fuerit plebi concessa roganti,\ntunc prope nullus erit delicto liber ab omni.\nquis poterit meritus promissa luce potiri?\ntangere tunc laetis caelorum regna licebit,\ntunc poterit mors ipsa mori, cum tempore toto\nuita perennis erit, qua tunc in sede beata\nnullus peccandi locus est, ubi nulla cupido est.\ngloria tanta manet populo seruata fideli.\namplius hoc tribuit, maius dedit hoc quoque munus,\nquod peccatorem quem paenitet antea lapsum\nnon facit in numero turbae peccantis haberi.\nquippe satis poena est, cui sit sua culpa dolori;\nsupplicium proprium timor (est); tormenta reatus\ntam ueluti patitur qui se meruisse fatetur,\nquid poterit melius uel quid moderatius esse?\niudicat inquirit castigat parcit honorat\nomnia qui uincit nec ab ipsa uincitur ira.\nquod de praesenti iam cernimus esse futurum;\nnam cum saepe minax horrentia nubila cogit\net terrore pio rutilo nimis igne coruscat\ntristibus et pluuiis et nubibus intonat atris,\nomne genus timet interitum; sed uiua potestas\ndesinit et pariter caelum mentesque serenat.\nhoc quoque tunc sperare iubet qui se modo cuncta\nperdere posse probat, sed perdere uelle recusat.\nsic iteranda salus uenturo ostenditur aeuo\naeternique dei pietas aeterna manebit.","t":"for he sees that the frail fall into easy slips,\nand, though he reproves, he will give one pardon to all;\nand I shall say a new thing, nor shall I regret having said it:\nhe will be more kind than just. In short, if he wished\nto be just, no one would escape punishment, without crime;\nfor the just condemns evil things, the kind forgives all.\nHe does this so that the gifts of the life to come may be assured,\nand that indulgence may give back what guilt took away;\nif this were not granted to the people who ask,\nthen almost no one would be free from every offence.\nWho could possess the promised light by deserving it?\nThen it will be granted to the glad to touch the kingdoms of heaven,\nthen death itself will be able to die, when through all time\nthere will be everlasting life, when in that blessed seat\nthere is no place for sinning, where there is no desire.\nSo great a glory remains kept for the faithful people.\nHe has bestowed more than this, given this greater gift too:\nthat the sinner who repents of his former fall\nhe does not have counted in the number of the sinning crowd.\nFor it is punishment enough for one to whom his own guilt is grief;\nfear is its own punishment; he who confesses he has deserved them\nsuffers, as it were, the torments of guilt.\nWhat could be better or what more moderate?\nHe judges, examines, chastises, spares, honours,\nhe who conquers all things and is not conquered even by anger.\nThat this will be so in the future we already see from the present;\nfor when, threatening, he often gathers bristling clouds\nand with godly terror flashes with fire too ruddy,\nand thunders with sad rains and black clouds,\nevery kind of creature fears destruction; but the living power\nceases and calms both the sky and minds alike.\nThis too he bids us hope then, he who now proves\nhe can destroy all things but refuses to will to destroy.\nSo salvation to be renewed is shown for the age to come,\nand the kindness of the eternal God will remain eternal.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 32.221 (CSEL 30:337lines 221–255–338; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/32-221)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/32.32":{"o":"philosophos credam quicquam rationis habere,\nqui ratione carent, quibus est sapientia uana?\nsunt Cynici canibus similes, quod nomine produnt;\nsunt et sectantes incerti dogma Platonis,\nquos quaesita diu animae substantia turbat,\ntractantes semper nec definire ualentes,\nunde Platonis amant de anima describere librum,\nqui praeter titulum nil certi continet intus.\nsunt etiam Physici naturae nomine dicti,\nquos antiqua iuuat rudis atque incondita uita.\nnamque unus baculum quondam et uas fictile portans,\nutile quod solum solumque putaret habendum,\nillud ut auxilii, hoc esset causa bibendi,\ncum stare agricolam manibusque haurire supinis\npotandas uidisset aquas, uas fictile fregit,\nquo procul abiecto remouenda superflua dixit.\nrusticus hunc docuit quod spernere posset et istud.\nhi neque uina bibunt nec uictu panis aluntur\nnec lecto recubant nec frigora uestibus arcent\ningratique deo quae praestitit ille recusant.\nquid dicam diuersa sacra et dis atque deabus\ncondita templa. loquar quae sint Capitolia primum:\nhis deus (est) uxorque dei, ipsamque sororem\nesse uolunt, quam Vergilius notat auctor eorum\ndicendo et soror et coniunx. plus de Ioue fertur\net natam stuprasse suam fratrique dedisse,\nutque alias caperet, propriam uariasse figuram:\nnunc serpens, nunc taurus erat, nunc cygnus et arbor\nseque inmutando qualis fuit indicat ipse;\nplus aliena sibi quam propria forma placebat.\nturpius his aquilam finxit puerique nefandos\nuenit in amplexus. quid dicit turba colentum?","t":"Should I believe that philosophers have anything of reason,\nwho lack reason, whose wisdom is vain?\nThere are Cynics, like dogs, as they betray by their name;\nthere are also followers of the uncertain doctrine of Plato,\nwhom the long-sought substance of the soul troubles,\nalways discussing it and never able to define it;\nhence they love to copy out Plato's book on the soul,\nwhich contains nothing certain within except its title.\nThere are also Physicists, called by the name of nature,\nwhom an ancient, rude and uncultivated life delights.\nFor one of them once, carrying a staff and an earthen vessel,\nwhich alone he thought useful and alone to be kept,\nthe one for support, the other for drinking,\nwhen he had seen a farmer stand and with upturned hands\ndraw water to drink, broke the earthen vessel,\nand, throwing it far away, said that superfluous things must be removed.\nA rustic taught him that he could scorn even this.\nThese neither drink wine nor are nourished by bread,\nnor lie on a bed nor keep off the cold with clothes,\nand, ungrateful to God, they refuse what he has granted.\nWhat shall I say of the various rites, and the temples founded\nto gods and goddesses? I shall say first what the Capitol is:\nhere is a god and the god's wife, and they will have her\nto be his sister too, whom Virgil, their authority, marks\nby saying “both sister and wife.” More is told of Jupiter:\nthat he violated his own daughter and gave her to his brother,\nand, to seize other women, changed his own shape:\nnow he was a serpent, now a bull, now a swan and a tree,\nand by changing himself he shows what he was;\nanother's form pleased him more than his own.\nMore shamefully than these he feigned an eagle and came\ninto the unspeakable embraces of a boy. What does the crowd of worshippers say?","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 32.32 (CSEL 30:331lines 32–63–332; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/32-32)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/32.64":{"o":"aut neget esse Iouem aut fateatur dedecus istud.\nnomen habet certe quod nec ratione probetur.\nsacra Ioui faciunt et Iuppiter optime' dicunt\nhuncque rogant, et Iane pater' primo ordine ponunt.\nrex fuit hic Ianus proprio qui nomine fecit\nIaniculum, prudens homo, qui cum multa futura\n* * * * * * * * * * * * * *\nposset respicere, (et) duplici hunc pinxere figura\net Ianum geminum ueteres dixere Latini.\nhic quia nauigio Ausonias aduenit ad oras,\nnummus huic primum tali est excussus honore,\nut pars una caput, pars sculperet altera nauem;\ncuius nunc memores quaecumque nomismata signant,\nex ueteri facto capita' haec et nauia' dicunt.\nde Ioue quid sperant, (ut) qui est a rege secundus\nquique sacrificiis apponitur ore precantum?\nhic habet et matrem captam pastoris amore;\nnam prior est pastor quam Iuppiter aut Iouis ipse;\nsed Melius pastor, castum seruare pudorem\nqui uoluit spreuitque deam, cui saeua uiriles\nabscidit partes, ne quando tangeret ille\nalterius thalamum, qui uoluit eius adire.\nhoc tamen, hoc egit sententia iusta deorum,\nne fieret coniunx qui non est factus adulter?\nnunc quoque semiuiri mysteria turpia plangunt\nnec desunt homines, quos haec contagia uertant,\nintus et arcanum quiddam quasi maius adorant\nidque uocant sanctum, quo si uelit ire pudicus,\niste profanus erit. sic artior ipse sacerdos\nfemineos uitat coitus patiturque uiriles.\no mens caeca uirum! de sacris semper eorum\nscaena mouet risus, nec ab hoc errore recedunt.","t":"Let them either deny that he is Jupiter or confess that disgrace.\nHe certainly holds a name that cannot be proved by reason.\nThey sacrifice to Jupiter and say “Jupiter, best,”\nand pray to him, and put “Father Janus” in the first rank.\nThis Janus was a king who made the Janiculum by his own name,\na prudent man, who, since many future things\n…\nhe could look back on, they painted him with a double face,\nand the old Latins called him twin Janus.\nBecause he came by ship to the Ausonian shores,\na coin was first struck in his honour in such a way\nthat one side carried a head, the other a ship;\nremembering this, whatever coins they mark,\nfrom the ancient deed they call them “heads” and “ships.”\nWhat do they hope from Jupiter, who is second to a king,\nand who is placed after him in sacrifices by the mouths of those who pray?\nHe also has a mother captured by love of a shepherd;\nfor the shepherd is earlier than Jupiter or Jove himself;\nbut the shepherd was better, who wished to keep his chaste modesty\nand spurned the goddess, who savagely cut off his\nmanly parts, so that he might never touch\nanother's bed, he who would not approach hers.\nWas this, was this what the just sentence of the gods did,\nthat he who did not become an adulterer should not become a husband?\nNow too half-men lament the shameful mysteries,\nnor are men lacking whom this contagion turns,\nand within they adore some secret thing as greater\nand call it holy, and if a chaste man wishes to go there,\nhe will be profane. So the priest himself, more strictly,\navoids intercourse with women and submits to that with men.\nO blind mind of men! The stage always raises laughter\nat their rites, nor do they withdraw from this error.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 32.64 (CSEL 30:332lines 64–95–333; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/32-64)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/32.96":{"o":"Saturnum perhibent Iouis esse patrem huncque uorasse\nnatos ante suos et mox e uentre nefandas\neuomuisse dapes, sed postea coniugis arte\npro Ioue suppositum mersisse in uiscera saxum,\nquod nisi fecisset, consumptus Iuppiter esset.\nhuncque Cronon dicunt ficteque Chronon, quia tempus\nquae creat absumit rursusque absumpta promittit.\ncur tamen oblique nomen pro tempore fingunt?\nhunc etiam, quod saepe sibi de prole timebat,\nab Ioue deiectum caelo latuisse per agros\nItaliae Latiumque ideo tunc esse uocatum.\nmagnus uterque deus! terris est abditus alter,\nalter non potuit terrarum scire latebras.\nhinc Latiare malum prisci statuere Quirites,\nut mactatus homo nomen satiaret inane.\nquae nox est animi, quae sunt inprouida corda!\nquod colitur nihil est (et) sacra cruenta geruntur.\nquid quod et Inuictum spelaea sub atra recondunt\nquemque tegunt tenebris audent hunc dicere Solem?\nquis colat occulte lucem sidusque supernum\ncelet in infernis nisi rerum causa malarum?\nquid quod et Isiaca sistrumque caputque caninum\nnon magis abscondunt, sed per loca publica ponunt?\nnescio quid certe quaerunt gaudentque repertum\nrursus et amittunt quod rursus quaerere possint.\nquis ferat hoc sapiens illos quasi claudere solem,\nhos proferre palam propriorum monstra deorum?\nqui Serapis meruit, qui sic laceratur ab ipsis\nper uarios turpesque locos? hic denique semper\nfit fera fitque canis, fit putre cadauer aselli,\nfit homo nunc pannis, nunc corpore languidus aegro.\ntalia dum faciunt, nihil hunc sentire fatentur.","t":"They say Saturn is Jupiter's father and that he devoured\nhis children before, and soon vomited the unspeakable feast\nfrom his belly, but afterward, by his wife's art,\nsank into his belly a stone substituted for Jupiter,\nand had he not done so, Jupiter would have been consumed.\nAnd they call him Cronos and, by a fiction, Chronos, because time\nconsumes what it creates and promises again what it has consumed.\nWhy, though, do they obliquely invent a name for time?\nThey say too that he, because he often feared for himself from his offspring,\ncast down from heaven by Jupiter, hid through the fields\nof Italy, and that for this reason it was then called Latium.\nGreat gods both! One is hidden in the lands,\nthe other could not know the hiding places of the lands.\nHence the ancient Quirites established the evil of the Latiar,\nso that a slaughtered man might satisfy an empty name.\nWhat night of the mind, what improvident hearts!\nWhat is worshipped is nothing, and bloody rites are performed.\nWhat of the fact that they hide the Unconquered in dark caves,\nand dare to call him whom they cover in darkness the Sun?\nWho would worship light in secret and hide the star above\nin the underworld, except the cause of evils?\nWhat of the fact that the rites of Isis do not hide the sistrum and the dog's head,\nbut set them in public places?\nThey certainly seek something and rejoice when it is found,\nand lose again what they may seek again.\nWhat wise man would bear this: those, as it were, shutting up the sun,\nthese bringing out openly the monsters of their own gods?\nWhat has Serapis deserved, who is so torn apart by them\nthrough various and shameful places? In short, he always\nbecomes a beast and a dog, becomes the rotting corpse of a little ass,\nbecomes a man now in rags, now languid with a sick body.\nWhile they do such things, they confess that he feels nothing.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 32.96 (CSEL 30:333lines 96–127–334; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/32-96)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/33.1":{"o":"O uir beatus, cui remissa iniquitas\nnec imputata est pigra credendi mora,\noperum cui cassa contulit uitam fides!\nen iste, celsi quem sub auro culminis\npictura ueris exprimit miraculis,\nclarus superbo Veriorum nomine\net consulari Baebianus sanguine\nipse est potentis larga Christi gratia.\nprius iste captus uinculis mortalibus\nopes et inter saeculi pauper deo\nuitam paratis blandientem copiis\nmortalitatis immemor cucurrerat.\nut se subactum fine mortalem uidet,\nfesso benignum quaerit aspectu deum.\nstatimque Christum luminatus inuenit;\nueniam precatur et sacerdotum pedes\nsupplex adorat ipse culpator sui\nnegansque dignum gratia dignum facit.\nuouetque uitam, (si) supersit, integram\net obire gaudet, si renatus oppetat.\nCredidit oranti et sitientem flumina (uitae)\npraecinctus puro perfudit episcopus amne.\nquo peragente pios solito mox ordine ritus\net diuale sacrum libans et chrismate fragrans\nattonitum mira se maiestate fatetur;\nsed quis odor, quaerit, quem sentiat in sua labi\npectora praedulci medicantem nectare fibras?\nsedula tunc coniunx Cwtrv de nomine Christi\nunguentum spirare docet, spondetque sacerdos\net monet, ut longi spatium sibi postulet aeui.\nille dei iam totus ad haec: satis hoc mihi donum,\nquo potior; nunc mors lucrum mihi uitaque Christus!","t":"O blessed man, whose iniquity is forgiven\nand whose sluggish delay in believing has not been imputed,\non whom faith conferred life when his works were empty!\nSee, this man, whom painting, beneath the gold of the lofty roof,\nrepresents with true wonders,\nBaebianus, famous with the proud name of the Verii\nand with consular blood,\nis himself the generous grace of mighty Christ.\nBefore, this man, caught in mortal bonds,\namid the riches of the world but poor toward God,\nhad run through a flattering life with resources ready,\nforgetful of mortality.\nWhen he sees himself, a mortal, subdued by his end,\nwith weary look he seeks the kind God,\nand at once, enlightened, he finds Christ;\nhe prays for pardon, and as a suppliant reveres the feet\nof the priests, himself his own accuser,\nand, as he denies he is worthy, grace makes him worthy.\nAnd he vows his life, if any remains, to be blameless,\nand rejoices to die, if he should die reborn.\nThe bishop believed his prayer and, girded, poured the pure stream\nover him as he thirsted for the rivers of life.\nWhen the bishop soon performed the godly rites in the usual order,\nhe, partaking of the divine sacrament and fragrant with chrism,\nconfesses that he is astonished by a wondrous majesty;\nbut what fragrance, he asks, does he feel gliding into his\nbreast, healing his fibres with very sweet nectar?\nThen his diligent wife teaches that the ointment breathes\nof … from the name of Christ, and the priest promises\nand urges him to ask for himself a long span of life.\nHe, now wholly God's, replies: “This gift is enough for me,\nwhich I possess; now death is gain for me, and life is Christ!”","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 33.1 (CSEL 30:338lines 1–32–340; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/33-1)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/33.33":{"o":"ecce per aeternum terris data gratia Christum!\nhic est ille latro felix, qui fine sub ipsa\nconfessus Christum meruit reus astra fidelis;\nhic donatus abit solida mercede diei,\nserus ab undecima iam mercennarius hora.\nergo ut sanctifica nituit renouatus ab unda,\nipse grauis artus in mollia fulcra refusus\nunanimam alloquitur recreato corde iugalem:\nAetatis spatium lustra nouem mihi,\nannum uita super ducere coeperat,\nfelix unanimo coniugio mihi,\ndulcis pigneribus clara et honoribus,\net nunc mortificis eluta sordibus\nsancto fine pium transmeat in deum.\nhaec ad uerba piis sedula fletibus\nconiunx, oret adhuc uiuere, supplicat.\ntunc ille: o mulier nescia quid petas,\niam scis an ualeam uiuere tam pie,\nut tanti maneam muneris integer?\net quid uita iuuat, qua moritur salus?\nhaec ut fortis ait, toruum oculis micans\net caelum stupide suspiciens ait:\nflammantem uideo luminis ambitum,\nin quem nulla uenit femina circulum.\no felix, cui adhuc corporeo datum\naeterni speciem cernere saeculi,\nin quo conubiis nulla necessitas,\nsexus perpetuis corporibus perit!\nRursus ut haec dixit, subita quasi morte solutus\nexanguem porrecta trahit per membra rigorem.","t":"See grace given to the earth through eternal Christ!\nThis is that happy robber, who at the very end,\nconfessing Christ, earned the stars, guilty but faithful;\nthis is the late hired labourer from the eleventh hour,\nwho goes away given the full wage of the day.\nSo when he shone, renewed by the sanctifying wave,\nhe himself, his heavy limbs laid back on the soft cushions,\naddresses his like-minded wife with refreshed heart:\n“My life had begun to draw out nine lustra\nof age, and a year beyond,\nhappy for me in a like-minded marriage,\nsweet in children, famous in honours;\nand now, washed of deadly dirt,\nby a holy end it passes over to the godly God.”\nAt these words his diligent wife, with godly tears,\nbegs that he pray to live still.\nThen he: “O woman, not knowing what you ask,\ndo you know already whether I can live so godly\nas to remain unimpaired in so great a gift?\nAnd what good is a life in which salvation dies?”\nAs he says this bravely, his eyes flashing grimly,\nand looking up at heaven in amazement, he says:\n“I see a flaming circuit of light,\ninto which circle no woman comes.”\nO happy he, to whom it was given while still in the body\nto see the appearance of the eternal age,\nin which there is no need of marriages,\nand sex passes away in perpetual bodies!\nAgain, as he said this, released as if by sudden death,\nhe draws a bloodless stiffness through his outstretched limbs.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 33.33 (CSEL 30:340lines 33–62–341; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/33-33)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/33.63":{"o":"at trepida et uisis exterrita talibus uxor\nsoluitur in speciem leti, iam muta trementes\ntendit in ora manus membrisque intenta iacentis\npendet in exanimum pallentior ipsa maritum.\nipsa fidem mortis suadet mora; namque bis acto\norbe duplex reuoluta dies, bis uespere clausa est,\nmortales oculos dum fallit mortis imago.\nille autem angelicis manibus per nubila raptus\nliquerat hospitium repetendi corporis et tunc\naetherii secreta poli sedesque beatas\nspectabat monstrante deo dignataque Christo\nmens pia, dum fletur terris, gaudebat in astris,\nhoc tantum maerens, quod adhuc remea(re time)ret.\ndemissa excessu redit, ut conspecta referret\nfirmaretque fidem dubitantum uiuere functos.\nutque redux membris admotae coniugis ora\nuidit, pollicitus quiddam mirabile sese\ndicturum, in lucem sua distulit orsa sequentem.\nErgo dies primos ubi crastina fulsit in ortus,\nmane nouo sacris (aderat nam forte) sacerdos\nfungitur, utque pio gessit solemnia cultu,\nsuspiciens caelum ille manus dispandit et in se\nbracchia constringens quasi quaedam munera caelo\nmissa auido premit amplexu, meane omnia sunt haec?\npercontans. cuncti dictis stupuere rogantque,\nquidnam conspiciat clausum mortalibus. ille\nπάντα καλῶς inquit, patriarcham saepius Isac\ncommemorans, graece θεῖον, γλυκὺ θεῖον ὁρᾶσθαι\nhorrescens ueneransque refert, utque angelus illum\nsustulerit per inane uehens, ut milia multa\nuiderit angelicis mixta agninisque cateruis\nregnantemque deum super omnia cum patre Christum,\nnarrat et aeternam portis gemmantibus urbem,\nnarrat (et) aetherii caeleste nemus paradisi.","t":"But his wife, trembling and terrified by such sights,\nfalls into the likeness of death; now mute, she stretches\ntrembling hands to his face and, intent on the limbs of the one lying there,\nhangs, paler herself, over her lifeless husband.\nThe very delay urges belief in death; for twice\nthe double day turned round its circle, twice was closed by evening,\nwhile the image of death deceived mortal eyes.\nBut he, snatched through the clouds by angelic hands,\nhad left the lodging of the body that he was to seek again, and then\nwas beholding the secrets of the heavenly sky and the blessed seats,\nas God showed them, and his godly mind, deemed worthy by Christ,\nwhile he was wept for on earth, rejoiced among the stars,\ngrieving only at this, that he feared he must still return.\nSent down from his ecstasy he returns, to tell what he had seen\nand to strengthen the faith of those who doubt that the dead live.\nAnd as, returned to his limbs, he saw the face of his wife\nbent over him, he promised that he would tell\nsomething wonderful, and put off his account to the following daylight.\nSo when the next day shone at its first rising,\nin the new morning the priest (for he happened to be present)\nperforms the sacred rites, and as he carried out the solemnities with godly worship,\nBaebianus, looking up at heaven, spread his hands and, drawing\nhis arms to himself, as if pressing with eager embrace some gifts\nsent from heaven, asks: “Are all these mine?”\nAll were astonished at his words and ask\nwhat he sees, hidden from mortals. He\nsays in Greek “All things well,” often recalling the patriarch Isaac,\nand, shuddering and revering, says, in Greek,\n“divine, sweet divine to behold,” and tells how an angel\nlifted him, carrying him through the void, how he saw many thousands\nmingled with angelic hosts and companies,\nand Christ reigning as God over all with the Father;\nhe tells of the eternal city with jewelled gates,\nhe tells of the heavenly grove of the paradise of the sky.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 33.63 (CSEL 30:341lines 63–96–342; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/33-63)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/33.97":{"o":"inter et haec dextram secreta in pectora misit\nconiugis, hoc dicens: unum sumus ambo et idem, quae\ningeminans, sancto placidam sic ordine complens\nfinem, euangelico uitam in sermone refudit.\nEt nunc ille deo fruitur curamque beatae\nconiugis aeterno uinctus amore tenet;\nattamen unius rapuit solatia nati\ninpatiens tota prole carere pater.\nsed postquam iusto tua tempora clauseris aeuo,\neductis genetrix inclita pignoribus,\ntunc puer ille tuus florentem luce coronam\npraeditus occurret cum genitore tibi;\nquo comite adueniens tibi laetus ab aethere coniunx\ndextram cum blandis porriget alloquiis:\ntempus adest! curis iam soluere, soluere membris!\nuixisti natis, nunc redhibere mihi.\niam non coniugium nobis mortale, ut in aegris\nante dedit breuitas inuida corporibus,\nquod nobis tenui fructu rapida abstulit aetas\norbibus accumulans uix duo lustra tribus;\nnam tua uiginti lustro cumulauerat annos,\npraecessit cursus cum mea uita tuos,\nat mihi bis decies maior te fluxerat aetas,\nsed tamen aequaeuos fecerat unus amor.\nnunc meliore iugo stabiles et in ore piorum\naurea uiuemus saecula rege deo.\nsurge, uirum natumque sequens; patet ecce sereni\nporta poli merito * * * * * *\n* * * * * * * * * * * * * *\n* * * * * * angelus anteuolans;\nipse piam de nube manum deus exerit et te\nin caelum dextra sollicitante uocat.\nfelix Apra, cui licuit terraque poloque\nconiugis unicubae iuge tenere bonum,\nquo terris tibi clarus honor, sub nomine eodem\nin caelis etiam gloria perpes erit!","t":"And among these words he put his right hand into the secret breast\nof his wife, saying: “We are both one and the same,”\nand, repeating this, so completing a calm end in holy order,\nhe gave back his life with a word of the gospel.\nAnd now he enjoys God and keeps his care for his blessed\nwife, bound by eternal love;\nyet he has taken one son with him as comfort,\na father impatient of lacking all his offspring.\nBut after you have closed your times with a full age,\nfamous mother, your children brought up,\nthen that boy of yours, endowed with a crown flowering with light,\nwill run to meet you with his father;\nand your husband, coming glad from heaven with him as companion,\nwill stretch out his right hand to you with kind words:\n“The time is here! Be released now from cares, released from limbs!\nYou have lived for your children; now be given back to me.\nNow ours is not a mortal marriage, such as envious brevity\ngave before in sickly bodies,\nwhich the swift years took from us with slender fruit,\nadding barely two lustra to three years;\nfor your life had heaped twenty years on one lustrum\nwhen my life went before your course,\nbut my age had flowed twice ten years beyond yours,\nyet one love had made us equal in age.\nNow, firm in a better yoke and on the lips of the godly,\nwe shall live golden ages with God as King.\nRise, following husband and son; see, the gate of the serene\nsky lies open to merit …\n…\n… an angel flying ahead;\nGod himself puts forth a godly hand from the cloud and calls you\nto heaven with his summoning right hand.”\nHappy Apra, to whom it was granted on earth and in heaven\nto hold the lasting good of a husband, wife of one man,\nby whom, as there was bright honour for you on earth, under the same name\nthere will also be everlasting glory in heaven!","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 33.97 (CSEL 30:342lines 97–132–343; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/33-97)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/4.1":{"o":"Omnipotens genitor rerum, cui summa potestas,\nexaudi si iusta precor: ne sit mihi tristis\nulla dies, placidam nox rumpat nulla quietem.\nnec placeant aliena mihi, quin et mea prosint\nsupplicibus nullusque habeat mihi uota nocendi\naut habeat nocitura nihil. male uelle facultas\nnulla sit ac bene posse adsit tranquilla potestas.\nmens contenta suo nec turpi dedita lucro\nuincat corporeas casto bene conscia lecto\ninlecebras, turpesque iocos obscenaque dicta\noderit illa nocens et multum grata malignis\nauribus effuso semper rea lingua ueneno.\nnon obitu adfligar cuiusquam aut funere crescam.\ninuideam numquam cuiquam nec mentiar umquam.\nadsit laeta domus epulisque adludat inemptis\nuerna satur fidusque comes nitidusque minister,\nmorigera et coniunx caraque ex coniuge nati.\nmoribus haec castis tribuit deus, hi sibi mores\nperpetuam spondent uentura in saecula uitam.","t":"Almighty Begetter of all things, who hold supreme power,\nhear me, if I pray for what is just: let no day be gloomy\nfor me, let no night break my peaceful rest.\nLet others' goods not please me; rather, let mine be of use\nto those who ask; let no one have prayers to harm me,\nor let him have nothing that could harm. Let there be no means\nof willing ill, and let there be a tranquil power of doing good.\nLet a mind content with its own, not given to shameful gain,\nwell conscious of a chaste bed, overcome the enticements\nof the body; and let it hate shameful jests and obscene words,\nand that guilty tongue, most welcome to malicious\nears, ever pouring out its poison.\nLet me not be afflicted at anyone's death, nor grow rich by a funeral.\nMay I never envy anyone, nor ever lie.\nLet there be a happy household, and at a feast of unbought food let\na well-fed home-born slave play, and a faithful companion, and a neat attendant,\nand a compliant wife, and dear children from that wife.\nThese things God grants to chaste ways; these ways\npromise themselves everlasting life in the ages to come.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 4.1 (CSEL 30:3lines 1–19; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/4-1)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/6.1":{"o":"Summe pater rerum caelique aeterna potestas,\ncum quo nostra salus, sanctorum gloria, Christe,\nspiritus et patri pariter natoque cohaerens,\nqui mentes linguasque regis uiresque ministras,\npromeruit quas sola fides, cui plena potestas\nbrutis ingenium uocemque infundere mutis,\npraesta euangelico ductum de fonte Iohannem\nin nostra arenti decurrere carmina riuo.\nille quidem tantus, quantum potuit dare mundo\nqui nasci talem noua per miracula iussit;\nsed licitum magnis tenues inpendere curas,\nnec dedignantur uilem caelestia laudem.\npars etiam meriti meritum celebrare piorum;\nnec noua nunc aut nostra canam; dixere prophetae\ncuncta prius sanctique uiri sermone soluto\npromissum exortum, uitam mortemque sacrarunt,\nsi mors illa fuit, meruit quae sanguine caelum.\nnos tantum modulis euoluere dicta canoris\nuouimus et uersu mentes laxare legentum.\nsic (nam magna licet paruis, antiqua nouellis,\nperfecta indoctis conferre, aeterna caducis)\ninspirante deo quicquid dixere priores\naptauit citharis nomen uenerabile Dauid,\nconsona caelesti pangens modulamina plectro.\nnos quoque fas meminisse dei et quamquam obruta multis\npectora criminibus caelestem admittere sensum.\nZacharias Syria quondam de gente sacerdos\ncredita sollemni curabat templa paratu.\nvita uiri pietate fide grauitate pudore\nobsequio condigna dei, coniunx huic alma\nElisabeth prisca sanctorum stirpe uirorum\nprogenita et tanto uirtutibus aequa marito.","t":"Supreme Father of all things and eternal power of heaven,\nand you, Christ, with whom are our salvation and the glory of the saints,\nand Spirit, joined equally with the Father and the Son,\nyou who rule minds and tongues and supply the strength\nwhich faith alone has earned, you who have full power\nto pour understanding into brute beasts and voice into the mute,\ngrant that John, drawn from the fountain of the gospel,\nmay run down into my songs in a dry stream.\nHe indeed is as great a gift as could be given to the world\nby him who commanded such a one to be born through new miracles;\nbut it is allowed to spend slight pains on great things,\nand heavenly things do not disdain humble praise.\nIt is even a share of merit to celebrate the merit of the godly;\nnor shall I sing now of things new or my own: the prophets told\nall things beforehand, and holy men in prose\nmade sacred his promised birth, his life and his death,\nif that was death which earned heaven by blood.\nI have only vowed to unfold their sayings in tuneful measures\nand to refresh the minds of readers with verse.\nSo (for it is allowed to compare great things with small, old with new,\nperfect with unlearned, eternal with perishing),\nby God's inspiration, whatever earlier men had said\nDavid, that venerable name, fitted to the lyre,\ncomposing harmonious melodies with a heavenly plectrum.\nFor us too it is right to remember God, and, though our breasts\nare buried under many sins, to admit a heavenly understanding.\nZechariah, once a priest of the Syrian race,\ncared for the temple entrusted to him with solemn ritual.\nThe man's life, in godliness, faith, gravity, modesty,\nand obedience, was worthy of God; he had a kindly wife,\nElizabeth, born of an ancient stock of holy men,\nand equal in virtues to so great a husband.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 6.1 (CSEL 30:7lines 1–32–8; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/6-1)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/6.128":{"o":"inperturbatos tantarum in praemia laudum\ntolle animos, dabit ille tibi uiresque fidemque,\nqui uoluit (nam cuncta regit nutuque gubernat)\nfilius esse tuus, domini cum filius esset.\ndixerat, et uisus pariter terrasque reliquit\nadsuetumque sibi facili petit aethera nisu.\ninplentur praecepta dei creditque puella\nprotinus atque auget meritum uitamque priorem\nprompta fides. tacitis elementa latentia causis\ndiuinum informant corpus sacrandaque crescit\nsarcina, caelestem dominum pia confouet aluus.\ninterea grauidam soboles quamquam edita necdum\ninstigat Mariam sanctam, ut progressa reuisat\nElisabeth, longo quae iam uenerabilis aeuo\ndilectum domino puerum paritura gerebat.\nauscultat nato genitrix, uis tanta fidei,\net quo iussa uenit; mouit materna Iohannes\nuiscera et inpleuit diuino pectora sensu.\niam uates necdum genitus conclusus in aluo\niamque propheta prius gesta et uentura uidebat.\nilla ubi concepto fulgentem lumine longe\nconspexit Mariam, celeri procul incita gressu\nobuia progreditur uenerataque brachia tendens.\nsalue, o mater, ait, domini, salue, pia uirgo,\ninmunis thalami coitusque ignara uirilis,\nsed paritura deum; tanti fuit esse pudicam,\nintactae ut ferres titulos et praemia nuptae.\ncur mihi non meritae nec tanto munere dignae\nofficii defertur honos? cur gloria caeli\nin nostros delata Lares et uilia tecta\nobscuris tantum lumen penetralibus infert?","t":"Take up a mind undisturbed for the rewards of such great praise;\nhe will give you strength and faith,\nwho has willed (for he rules all things and governs them by his nod)\nto be your son, though he was the Son of the Lord.”\nHe had spoken, and left at once both her sight and the earth,\nand with easy effort sought the heaven he was used to.\nGod's commands were fulfilled, and the maiden believed\nat once, and her ready faith increased her merit\nand her former life. Hidden elements, by silent causes,\nform the divine body, and the burden to be hallowed\ngrows; the godly womb cherishes the heavenly Lord.\nMeanwhile her offspring, though not yet born,\nurges holy Mary, pregnant, to go out and visit\nElizabeth, who, now venerable with long age,\nwas carrying a boy beloved by the Lord, soon to be born.\nThe mother listens to her son (so great is the power of faith)\nand comes where she is bidden; John stirred his mother's\nwomb and filled her breast with divine understanding.\nAlready a seer though not yet born, shut in the womb,\nalready a prophet, he saw things done before and things to come.\nWhen she saw Mary from afar, shining with the light\nshe had conceived, she hurried forward with quick step\nto meet her, and, reverently stretching out her arms, said:\n“Hail, O mother of the Lord, hail, godly virgin,\nfree of the marriage bed and knowing no man's union,\nyet to bear God; so much was it worth to be chaste,\nthat untouched you should bear the titles and rewards of a bride.\nWhy is the honour of this service brought to me, undeserving\nand unworthy of so great a gift? Why does the glory of heaven,\nbrought into our household and humble roof,\ncarry so great a light into our obscure inner rooms?","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 6.128 (CSEL 30:11lines 128–158–12; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/6-128)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/6.159":{"o":"sed mitis placidusque suis cultoribus adsit,\npraestet et hunc genitus quem praestitit ante fauorem.\ndixit et amplexus ulnis circumdata iunxit\niamque deum uenerata pio dedit oscula uentri.\ndic age nunc, Iudaea nocens et sanguine regis\nconmaculata tui, uerbis si nulla priorum\nest adhibenda fides, sacros si fallere uates\ncreditis et Moysen ipsum, si fallere Dauid\ninpia peruersae putat inclementia gentis,\ncredite non genitis; materna clausus in aluo\nquid uideat, sancto matris docet ore Iohannes.\nquis, precor, hunc docuit quem casto uiscere uirgo\ncontineat, quantus maneat noua saecula partus?\nsed sanctis abstrusa patent nec uisa profanis.\nuerum egressa modum latos petit orbita campos\natque oblita mei procurrere longius audet.\nspero, erit ut possim firmato robore quondam\nhoc quoque per spatium fortes agitare quadrigas.\nnunc coeptum repetamus iter; mortalia dicat\npagina mortalis, dominum diuina loquantur.\niamque adeo exacto, quantum natura iubebat,\ntempore matura puer inclitus editur aluo,\net promissa dei magna non credita poena\ninplet certa fides et natus conprobat infans.\nconueniunt contingentes de more propinqui,\nut puero ueterum de nomine ducta parentum\naptent conlatis quaesita uocabula causis;\nsed negat arbitrium cognatis esse relictum\ncaelestis iussi per natum conscia mater.\nergo placet dudum praeclusa uoce silentem\nconsuluisse patrem; promendi sola facultas\nindicii quod lingua nequit, si littera signat.","t":"But may he be gentle and peaceful to those who worship him,\nand, once born, grant the favour he has granted before.”\nShe spoke, and clasped her in the embrace of her arms,\nand, already worshipping God, gave kisses to the godly womb.\nCome, tell me now, guilty Judea, stained with the blood\nof your king: if no faith is to be given to the words\nof earlier men, if you believe that the holy prophets deceive,\nand Moses himself, if the impious harshness of a perverse\nnation thinks that David deceives,\nbelieve those not yet born; shut in his mother's womb,\nJohn teaches through his mother's holy mouth what he sees.\nWho, I ask, taught him whom the virgin held in her chaste\nwomb, how great a birth awaits the new ages?\nBut hidden things lie open to the holy, and are not seen by the profane.\nBut my wheel has left its track and seeks the broad plains,\nand, forgetting me, dares to run on too far.\nI hope there will be a time when, with strengthened power, I may someday\ndrive a strong four-horse team across this field too.\nNow let us take up again the journey we began; let a mortal page\ntell mortal things; let divine writings speak of the Lord.\nAnd now, the time being completed, as much as nature required,\nthe famous boy was born from a ripe womb,\nand sure faith fulfilled God's great promises, which, not believed,\nhad brought punishment, and the infant once born proved them.\nThe relatives gathered, coming as is the custom,\nto fit the boy with a name drawn from the names of ancestors,\nsought out by comparing reasons;\nbut the mother, aware of the heavenly command through her son,\nsays that the choice has not been left to relatives.\nSo they resolve to consult the father, long silent\nwith his voice shut off; the only means of bringing out\nthe sign the tongue cannot give is if a letter marks it.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 6.159 (CSEL 30:12lines 159–190–13; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/6-159)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/6.191":{"o":"consulitur, sumit tabulas scribitque Iohannem.\nmirantur cuncti nullumque habuisse priorum\npraescriptum nomen recolunt de stirpe parentum.\nquantum sera fides ualuit! quia dextra notauit\nquod mens crediderat, peccati poena remissa est.\nsoluuntur uinctae laxata repagula linguae\nrespondet iam uoce senex proditque propinquis\ntecta diu mandata dei spondetque futura,\ndum transacta probat. talem fore quis dubitaret,\nquem domini iussis naturae lege remissa\ninsolito exortu nasci potuisse uideret?\nexemplum cunctis celebrandum incredulitatis\nante oculos cunctis posuit uel poena parentis\nuel uenia, atque animis instat simul hinc metus, hinc spes.\nlabitur interea cunarum tempus; in ipsis\nextat diuini species manifesta uigoris.\nblanditiae risusque silent incertaque cessant\nmurmura; serietas lasciui praeuia sensus\niam tenera informat uenturis moribus ora.\ninde ubi prima puer stabili uestigia nisu\nfixerat et certam signarant uerba loquelam,\nmos erat aut sancti dicta auscultare parentis\naut antiquorum praeclara ediscere facta\nuel quas ipse deus leges interprete Moyse\ncondiderat, sacri quas seruat pagina saxi.\nhaec et quae teneram firmarent cetera mentem\ntractabat recolens; neque enim ignorasse priora\ncredendus, dederat dominus cui nosse futura.\nat postquam robur membris accessit ab aeuo\n(nam mens plena deo tardos praeuenerat annos),\nilla sibi iam tum statuit discenda, docere\nquae nequeunt homines, simul effugienda ciborum\net potus sanctae contagia noxia uitae.","t":"He is consulted; he takes the tablets and writes “John.”\nAll marvel, and recall that no one among the earlier\nancestors of the family had had this name before.\nHow much faith, though late, availed! Because his right hand marked\nwhat his mind had believed, the punishment of his sin was remitted.\nThe bars of his bound tongue were loosed and opened;\nthe old man now answers with his voice and discloses to his relatives\nthe commands of God long hidden, and promises the future\nwhile he proves the past. Who would doubt that he would be such a one,\nwhom he saw could be born by the Lord's command,\nby an unusual birth, with the law of nature set aside?\nBoth the father's punishment and his pardon set before the eyes of all\nan example of unbelief to be told by all,\nand fear presses on minds from one side, hope from the other.\nMeanwhile the time of the cradle slips by; even in it\na clear appearance of divine vigour stands out.\nCoaxings and laughter are silent, uncertain babblings\ncease; a seriousness that runs ahead of playful sense\nalready shapes his tender face for the character to come.\nThen, when the boy had planted his first steps with steady effort\nand words had marked out sure speech,\nit was his custom either to listen to the sayings of his holy father,\nor to learn by heart the famous deeds of the ancients,\nor the laws which God himself had established through Moses as interpreter,\nwhich the page of sacred stone preserves.\nThese things, and others that might strengthen his tender mind,\nhe handled and went over again; for he is not to be thought\nignorant of the past, to whom the Lord had given to know the future.\nBut after strength came to his limbs with age\n(for his mind, full of God, had outrun his slow years),\nhe then resolved that he must learn what men\ncannot teach, and at the same time flee the contagions of food\nand drink, harmful to a holy life.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 6.191 (CSEL 30:13lines 191–223–14; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/6-191)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/6.224":{"o":"tecta igitur sancti quamquam inmaculata parentis\ndeserit ac turbas hominum coetusque nocentes\neffugit ac solas loca tendit ad inuia terras,\nin quis se tantum mens inpolluta uideret\nliberaque a curis sacra ad praecepta uacaret.\nuestis erat curui saetis conserta cameli,\ncontra luxuriem molles duraret ut artus\narceretque graues conpuncto corpore somnos.\nhunc uilis rigidos ad lumbos zona ligabat.\npraebebant uictum facilem siluestria mella\npomaque et incultis enatae cautibus herbae\narentemque sitim decurrens unda leuabat.\nquis locus hic uitiis? aditum quem praua cupido\ninuenit haec inter sacrae ad penetralia mentis?\nquo peccet qui nil cupiat? quo tendat iniqui\nin latebras sensus quisquis non indiget ullo?\nsic primi uixere homines, mundoque recenti\nhos auctor dederat uentura in saecula mores,\ninseruit donec sese malesuada uoluptas\nac secum luxus et amorem inuexit habendi.\nhinc odia, hinc lites, hinc fraus, hinc liuor et irae,\ncaedes arma cruor conflictus proelia mortes,\nhinc offensa dei, quam tartara saeua piabunt.\nuerum ego cur nimium communes arguo culpas,\ninmemor ipse mei, quem non commissa grauare,\nsed ueniam sperare decet? mirabimur immo\nrectius inuictum nullique imitabile prisci\nexemplum saecli transgressum humana labore\nsemideumque uirum, qui labe inmunis ab omni,\ncum sua tam saeuis cruciarit corpora poenis,\npraescripsit quid nos uel post peccata deceret.","t":"So he leaves the house of his holy father, though spotless,\nand flees the crowds of men and their guilty gatherings,\nand makes for lonely lands, for trackless places,\nin which his undefiled mind might see only itself\nand, free from cares, give itself to sacred precepts.\nHis clothing was woven of the bristles of the humped camel,\nso that against luxury he might harden his soft limbs\nand, with his body pricked, keep off heavy sleep.\nA cheap girdle bound it round his rigid loins.\nWild honey supplied his easy food,\nand fruits, and herbs sprung up on untilled rocks,\nand running water relieved his parched thirst.\nWhat room is there here for vices? What entrance has wicked desire\nfound among these things into the inner sanctuary of the holy mind?\nWherein can he sin who desires nothing? How can he tend\ntoward the hiding places of wrong feeling who lacks nothing?\nSo lived the first men, and when the world was new\nthe Maker had given them these ways for the ages to come,\nuntil evil-counselling pleasure thrust itself in\nand brought luxury with it and the love of possession.\nHence hatreds, hence quarrels, hence fraud, hence envy and anger,\nslaughter, arms, blood, conflict, battles, deaths;\nhence the offense against God, which savage Tartarus will expiate.\nBut why do I rebuke too much the common faults,\nforgetful of myself, whom it befits not to burden others with misdeeds\nbut to hope for pardon? Rather we shall more rightly marvel at\nthe unconquered example, which no one in the old age could imitate,\nof a man who surpassed human limits by toil,\na half-divine man, who, free from every stain,\nthough he tormented his body with such harsh penalties,\nlaid down what befits us, even after sins.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 6.224 (CSEL 30:15lines 224–254–16; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/6-224)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/6.255":{"o":"at postquam inuictam firmans per talia mentem\nexegit largum tempus statuitque reperta.\nquae fuerant quaerenda, sibi uox edita caelo est:\niam satis inpensum spatii, dilecte propheta,\nquo tibi prodesses; tempus tibi quae data sentis\nut prosint aliis et quae iam perdita seruent.\nperge igitur sanctas puri Iordanis ad undas.\nhic quicumque hominum uitae commissa prioris\npaenitet et tandem sensu meliora uolutat,\nablue confessum; quisquis tibi mente fideli\ncrediderit delere pio conmissa lauacro,\nille renatus erit, talis modo uita sequatur\nquae probet ablutos uitam damnasse priorem.\nparuit auditis famulanti mente Iohannes\nprotinus et ripas iussi descendit ad amnis.\npraedicat hic praecepta dei sermone uerendo\ninfunditque nouam credentum in corda salutem.\ndiluit infusis credentum crimina limphis\nabsoluitque metus hominum poenasque remittit\natque ignem restinguit aquis, obliuia suadet\nerrorum praestatque nouae noua corpora uitae.\no pater, o hominum rerumque aeterne creator,\nquot gradibus parcit pietas tua! qui pater umquam\nsustinet erranti totiens ignoscere nato?\ndas genti sensum, quo uel bona uel mala noscant.\nnon satis, innectis seruandae uincula legis\nproponisque malis poenas et praemia iustis.\nhaec quoque quis spreuit, redeat quandoque libebit;\nin promptu uenia est, sanctum patet ecce lauacrum,\nquod renouet uitam ueteresque oblitteret actus\nquodque nouos homines faciat. quid quaerimus ultra?","t":"But after, strengthening his unconquered mind through such things,\nhe had spent a long time and had settled as found\nthe things that were to be sought, a voice came to him from heaven:\n“Enough time has now been spent, beloved prophet,\nin which you have profited yourself; it is time that the gifts you know were given you\nshould profit others and save what is already lost.\nGo, then, to the holy waters of the pure Jordan.\nThere whoever among men repents of the misdeeds\nof his former life and at last turns over better things in his mind,\nwash him, once he has confessed; whoever with faithful mind\nbelieves you that misdeeds are blotted out by the godly washing,\nhe shall be reborn, if only such a life follows\nas proves that the washed have condemned their former life.”\nJohn obeyed what he heard with a servant's mind\nat once, and went down to the banks of the river as commanded.\nHere he preaches God's precepts with awe-inspiring speech\nand pours new salvation into the hearts of believers.\nHe washes away the crimes of believers with the waters poured on them,\nand frees men from fears and remits penalties,\nand quenches fire with water, urges forgetfulness\nof errors, and furnishes new bodies for a new life.\nO Father, O eternal creator of men and of things,\nby how many steps your kindness spares! What father ever\nbears to forgive a straying son so often?\nYou give the race understanding, by which they may know good and evil.\nNot enough: you bind on them the bonds of a law to be kept,\nand set out penalties for the wicked and rewards for the just.\nWhoever has scorned these too, let him return whenever he pleases;\npardon is at hand; see, the holy washing lies open,\nwhich renews life and blots out old deeds\nand makes men new. What more do we seek?","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 6.255 (CSEL 30:16lines 255–285–17; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/6-255)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/6.286":{"o":"et tamen ulterior uenia est, uiolauerit ullus\nhoc quoque polluto prolapsus corpore donum.\nquamquam iam nimius longe processerit error,\ndesinat et redeat. cum se damnauerit ipse,\nabsolui meruit; si paenitet, inrita culpa est.\no uere, quod ais, pondus leue quodque cohaeret\nsuaue iugum, totiens homini cum ignoscitur uni;\net tamen erramus, finis nec criminis ullus\nhumano generi. sed crescit laus tua; nam quo\nmaior culpa rei, parcentis gloria maior.\ngrates ergo tibi referat mens omnis et omnis\nlingua canat, quantumque potest humana propago,\nsi placuisse nequit, fieri uel grata laboret.\npanditur inmensum, si demus uela, profundum\nin laudes, pater alme, tuas; sed conscia tanti\nmens oneris trepidat propriasque haud inscia uires\nconsulit et dignis potius dicenda relinquit.\nreddamur coeptis: opus hoc tibi, sancte Iohannes,\nquo renoues puras abluto corpore mentes.\nnon haec prima dedit domini sententia, qua te\nadmonuit claram mittens per nubila uocem,\nsaecula multa prius sancti deus ore locutus\nIsaiae uatis, ueteris qui maximus aeui:\nmittam, ait, ante tuos oculos, o nate, ministrum,\nqui sentosarum purgans concreta uiarum\ngressibus ille tuis celsos subsidere montes,\nidem depressas faciet consurgere ualles;\ndiriget hic quae praua et leniet aspera, dura\nmolliet et totum coget planescere mundum.\ntune, precor, donum summi patris, alme Iohannes,\ncum Christo promisse, uenis teque inputat ille\nqui misit natum? tune, o praedicte prophetis,\nnominis angelici tu participatus honore?","t":"And yet there is a further pardon, if anyone, having fallen,\nviolates this gift too with a polluted body.\nAlthough his error has already gone very far,\nlet him stop and return. When he has condemned himself,\nhe has earned absolution; if he repents, the guilt is void.\nO truly, as you say, the burden is light, and the yoke that is fastened on\nis sweet, when one man is forgiven so often;\nand yet we stray, and there is no end of crime\nfor the human race. But your praise grows; for the\ngreater the guilt of the accused, the greater the glory of the one who spares.\nSo let every mind return thanks to you, and every\ntongue sing, and as far as the human race can,\nif it cannot please, let it at least labour to be grateful.\nAn immense deep lies open, if we spread our sails,\nfor your praises, kind Father; but my mind, aware of so great\na burden, trembles, and, not unaware of its own strength,\ntakes counsel and leaves what must be said to worthier men.\nLet us return to what we began: this work is yours, holy John,\nby which you renew pure minds when the body is washed.\nIt was not first given by that word of the Lord by which\nhe admonished you, sending a clear voice through the clouds;\nmany ages earlier God had spoken by the mouth of the holy\nprophet Isaiah, the greatest of the old age:\n“I will send before your eyes, O Son, a servant,\nwho, clearing the tangles of thorny paths,\nwill make lofty mountains sink down before your steps\nand will likewise make low valleys rise up;\nhe will make straight what is crooked and smooth the rough, will soften\nthe hard, and will force the whole world to become level.”\nIs it you, I pray, gift of the most high Father, kindly John,\npromised together with Christ, who come, and does he count you as his own,\nhe who sent his Son? Are you, O you foretold by the prophets,\nthe one who shares the honour of the angelic name?","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 6.286 (CSEL 30:17lines 286–318–18; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/6-286)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/6.319":{"o":"per te prima dei sese clementia profert;\nprima tibi dandae ueniae permissa potestas.\ncum multa nouae peterent miracula plebis,\nde te Christus ait: concessum est uisere talem,\nqualem nulla prius uiderunt saecla prophetam.\ndico ego, qui solus quae gesta gerendaque noui:\ninter mortales dederit quos femina partus\nquosque dabit sollemni hominum de more creatos,\nnullus erit possit qui se praeferre Iohanni.\nhaec de te ille refert, qui quaelibet intima cordis\nhumani et cunctos saeclorum ex ordine tractus\nperuidet, ut quae sunt oculis subiecta uidemus.","t":"Through you the mercy of God first shows itself;\nto you was first granted the power of giving pardon.\nWhen the crowds of the new people sought many miracles,\nChrist said of you: “It has been granted to see such a prophet\nas no ages before have seen.\nI tell you, I who alone know what has been done and what is to be done:\namong the children whom woman has borne to mortals,\nand whom she will bear, created in the usual way of men,\nthere will be none who can be preferred to John.”\nThis is what he says of you who sees through every inmost\npart of the human heart and all the stretches of the ages in order,\nas we see what is set before our eyes.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 6.319 (CSEL 30:18lines 319–330; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/6-319)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/6.33":{"o":"sed, quod in obprobrio matrum posuere priores,\nprole carens sterilem ducebat maesta senectam\nspemque omnem sobolis transacta excluserat aetas.\nforte sacrum sollemne deo plebs cuncta ferebat,\net pius antistes sacros adoleuerat ignes,\nintima diuinis decorans altaria flammis;\necce sacram propter caelestis nuntius aram\nadstitit ac ueste insignis, uenerabilis ore\nse caelo missum uultuque habituque probauit,\ntum sancta in tales laxauit pectora uoces:\naccipe, caelesti domino dilecte sacerdos,\naeterni mandata dei, cui cura piorum\nperpetua est, iugis qui puro in pectore custos\nemeritum sanctis inpendere sciuit amorem.\nac primum genus hic extincto semine non uult\ninteriisse tuum fecundaque uiscera fecit\nconiugis, effeto quae iam cessabat in aeuo.\ncur tamen addubitas, mortali tu quoque sensu,\nomnia posse deum? sed credes, ille probabit.\nnascetur dignus tanto sponsore beatus\nperpetuusque puer, qui primo protinus aeuo\nmaior sacras inuicto in pectore uires\nauctoris dono plus quam genitoris habebit.\nnec sane, nato quae prima uocabula ponas,\narbitrii iurisque tui est; deus ipse profecto\nqui nasci iubet hunc idem iubet esse Iohannem.\nnominis hic titulus, meritorum inmensa propago,\nquae necdum genito potuit praenoscere solus\nqui dabit et tanto tribuet tibi gaudia nato.\nnec uero tribuet tantum tibi, gloria parua est\nintra unam conclusa domum; sed quantus ab ortu\ntenditur in serae finita crepuscula lucis,\ntotus prole tua tecum laetabitur orbis.","t":"But, what earlier generations counted a reproach to mothers,\nlacking offspring she led a sorrowful, barren old age,\nand her years, now past, had shut out all hope of children.\nIt happened that all the people were bringing a solemn offering to God,\nand the godly high priest had kindled the sacred fires,\nadorning the inner altar with divine flames;\nbehold, a heavenly messenger stood beside the sacred altar,\nand, distinguished in dress, venerable in face,\nproved by his look and bearing that he was sent from heaven;\nthen he opened his holy breast in words like these:\n“Receive, O priest beloved of the heavenly Lord,\nthe commands of the eternal God, whose care for the godly\nis perpetual, who, a constant guardian in a pure breast,\nhas known how to bestow on the saints a love they have earned.\nAnd first, he does not wish your family to perish here\nwith its seed extinguished, and he has made fruitful the womb\nof your wife, who was already ceasing in her worn-out age.\nWhy, though, do you also doubt, with a mortal mind,\nthat God can do all things? But you shall believe; he will prove it.\nThere will be born, worthy of so great a guarantor, a blessed\nand everlasting boy, who from his very first years\nwill hold, beyond his age, sacred strength in an unconquered breast,\nmore by the gift of his Maker than of his begetter.\nNor indeed is it your choice or right\nwhat first name you give your son; God himself, assuredly,\nwho commands that he be born, commands also that he be John.\nThis title of his name, an immense extension of his merits,\nhe alone could foreknow before he was born\nwho will give him and will grant you joy in so great a son.\nNor will he grant it to you alone; glory is small\nwhen shut within one house; but as far as the world\nstretches from the east to the bounded twilight of the late light,\nthe whole world will rejoice with you in your offspring.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 6.33 (CSEL 30:8lines 33–65–9; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/6-33)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/6.66":{"o":"quid mirum? cuncta uitiorum faece carebit,\ncaelestem ducens sine labe et crimine uitam,\nuesano seruans abstemia pectora uino\nomniaque euitans malesuadi pocula suci,\ncumque hominum generi uel post errata salutem,\nspondeat, ab sancta quisquis renouabitur unda,\nipse in se nihilum quo purificetur habebit.\nac ne plura tibi uariis ambagibus edam,\nEliae meritum doctus nescire sacerdos\nnon potes, exosae qui mortis lege remissa\naeternam degit proprio cum corpore uitam,\nigneus excelsum quem uexit ad aethera currus\nflammantum rapido nisu glomeratus equorum;\nhunc tuus aequabit meritorum stemmate natus\ntantundem et laudis simul et uirtutis habebit.\nergo ad condignas tanto pro munere grates\nne dubiam suspende fidem, ne mota fauentis\nira dei meritam statuat post praemia poenam.\nhaec ait et tenues elabitur ales in auras\nfragrantemque sacro procul aera fundit odore.\ndiriguit trepida confusus mente sacerdos,\nac dum promissum cunctantia corda volutant,\ndum se diffidit tantum meruisse fauorem,\nut summi sit cura dei, dimissus ut alto\nnuntius e caelo famulo tam clara referret\na domino mandata suo ludique ueretur,\nsomniaque illa putat, mores dum parcius aequo\naestimat ipse suos nec se meruisse fatetur,\ninfidum facit ipsa fides; dum credere dignum\nse non uult, poenas incredulitate meretur.","t":"What wonder? He will be free of all the dregs of vices,\nleading a heavenly life without stain or crime,\nkeeping his breast abstinent from maddening wine\nand avoiding every cup of evil-counselling juice;\nand though he will promise salvation to the human race, even after its errors,\nto whoever is renewed by the holy water,\nhe himself will have nothing in himself to be purified.\nAnd not to tell you more by varied windings:\nbeing a learned priest, you cannot be ignorant of the merit\nof Elijah, who, released from the law of hateful death,\nlives an eternal life with his own body,\nwhom a fiery chariot carried to the lofty heaven,\nborne along by the swift effort of flaming horses;\nyour son will equal him in the pedigree of his merits\nand will have just as much both of praise and of virtue.\nSo, as fitting thanks for so great a gift,\ndo not keep your faith in suspense, lest the anger of a favouring God,\nroused, should set a deserved penalty after the rewards.”\nSo he spoke, and winged he glided away into the thin air\nand filled the air far around with a sacred fragrance.\nThe priest stiffened, confused, with a trembling mind,\nand while his hesitant heart turned the promise over,\nwhile he distrusted that he had earned so great a favour,\nthat he should be the care of the most high God, that a messenger\nsent down from high heaven should bring to a servant such clear\ncommands from his Lord, and while he fears he is being mocked\nand thinks it all a dream, while he rates his own\ncharacter more sparingly than is right and will not own that he has earned it,\nfaith itself makes him faithless; while he will not believe\nhimself worthy, he earns punishment by unbelief.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 6.66 (CSEL 30:9lines 66–95–10; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/6-66)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/6.96":{"o":"protinus adstricta est dubitanti lingua palato,\net motus oblita sui molitaque uocis\narticulare sonum pigro torpore cohaesit,\ndumque cupit narrare suae miracula plebi,\nconatus frustra defixo obmutuit ore.\nmaestus abit uersatque inclusa mente dolorem\net ueniam erratis arcano in corde precatur.\nquanta dei pietas quamque exorabile numen!\npaenituisse sat est. rata qui dat temporis ordo\nuoluitur, et grauida (mirum) distenditur aluo\nElisabeth, sanctumque gerunt pia uiscera pondus,\net uenit effeto munus iuuenile sub aeuo.\ninde aliud sanctus Gabriel, qui nuntius idem\nZachariae fuerat, multo maiora uolutans\nad Mariam molitur iter, quae sponsa marito,\nsed mage lecta deo, Mundi paritura salutem\nuirgo inlibatum seruabat casta pudorem.\ncui postquam insignis caelesti forma decore\nconstitit ante oculos, uultus demissa pudicos\ntinxit suffuso rutilantes sanguine malas.\nille ait: o toto quem solis circulus ambit,\nquaeque fuere prius, quae sunt, quae deinde sequentur,\nuirginibus cunctis felicior orbe puella,\nmagno lecta deo, mater dicaris ut eius,\ncuius et ille pater! felix age concipe pondus,\ninpolluta uiro coituque inmunis ab omni,\nuerbo feta dei; corpus tua uiscera praestent\nilli, qui caelum terras mare sidera fecit,\nqui semper fuit et nunc est et tempore in omni\nsemper erit mundi dominus lucisque creator.\net lux ipse poli per te mortalia membra\ninduet atque oculos hominum coetusque subibit.","t":"At once the tongue of the doubter was bound fast to his palate,\nand, forgetting its own movement, and attempting\nto shape the sound of the voice, it clung in sluggish numbness,\nand while he longed to tell his people of the miracles,\nhe strove in vain and was struck dumb, his mouth fixed.\nHe went away sorrowful, turning over the grief shut within his mind,\nand in his secret heart prayed pardon for his errors.\nHow great is God's kindness, and how easily entreated his divinity!\nIt is enough to have repented. The order of time that brings fulfilment\nrolls on, and (a wonder) Elizabeth swells\nwith a pregnant womb, and her godly womb carries a holy weight,\nand a gift of youth comes in a worn-out age.\nThen holy Gabriel, who had been the same messenger\nto Zechariah, turning over far greater matters,\nsets out on another journey, to Mary, who, betrothed to a husband\nbut rather chosen by God to bear the salvation of the world,\na chaste virgin, kept her modesty unblemished.\nWhen he, distinguished in a form of heavenly beauty,\nstood before her eyes, she lowered her modest face\nand her cheeks reddened with a rush of blood.\nHe said: “O maiden, more blessed than all virgins\nin the world which the sun's circle surrounds,\nthat were before, that are, that shall follow hereafter,\nchosen by the great God, so that you may be called the mother of him\nwhose Father he also is! Come, happy one, conceive a weight,\nundefiled by a man and free of all intercourse,\nmade fruitful by the Word of God; let your womb furnish a body\nfor him who made heaven, earth, sea, and stars,\nwho always was, and now is, and in all time\nwill always be the Lord of the world and the creator of light.\nAnd he, the very light of heaven, will through you put on\nmortal limbs and come under the eyes and into the company of men.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 6.96 (CSEL 30:10lines 96–127–11; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/6-96)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/7.1":{"o":"Beatus ille qui procul uitam suam\nab inpiorum segregarit coetibus\net in uia peccantium non manserit\nnec in cathedra pestilenti sederit,\nsed corde toto fixus in legem dei\npraecepta uitae nocte uoluit et die\nmentemque castis institutis excolit.\nerit ille ut arbor, quae propinqua flumini\nhumore ripae nutriente pascitur\nsuoque fructum plena reddet tempore,\net fronde numquam defluente peruirens\nstabit perenni uiuidum lignum coma.\nnon haec iniquos prosequetur gloria;\nsed ut fauillam pulueris uentus rapit,\nsic ira iniquos uerret a uultu dei.\nidcirco tali diuidentur ordine\nhominum per orbem dissipatorum greges,\nut iudicandi non resurgant inpii,\nqui denegarunt debitum cultum deo,\nsed puniendi; namque crimen euidens\nnon indigebit quaestione detegi,\nquoniam inminentem praeferent mortis notam\nsignum salutis non gerentes frontibus.\npeccator autem, non et inpius tamen,\nquae magna turba est, non resurget gloriae,\nuerum resurget deputanda examini.\nnec enim sedere cum piis iudex potest\ncausas suorum redditurus actuum\nuarieque gestis aut probandus aut reus.\nsine lege passim legis ignari cadent,\nin lege lapsus lege iudicabitur.\nopus per omne curret ignis arbiter;","t":"Blessed is he who has set his life far apart\nfrom the gatherings of the impious,\nand has not stayed in the way of sinners,\nnor sat in the pestilent chair,\nbut, fixed with his whole heart on the law of God,\nhas turned over its precepts of life by night and by day\nand cultivates his mind with chaste teachings.\nHe will be like a tree which, near the river,\nis fed by the moisture that nourishes the bank,\nand, full, will yield its fruit in its season,\nand, ever green with leaves that never fall,\nwill stand, a living wood with everlasting foliage.\nThis glory will not attend the wicked;\nbut as the wind snatches the ash of dust,\nso wrath will sweep the wicked from the face of God.\nTherefore the flocks of men scattered over the world\nwill be divided in this order:\nthe impious, who denied God the worship due to him,\nwill not rise again to be judged,\nbut to be punished; for evident crime\nwill need no inquiry to uncover it,\nsince they will show the mark of impending death,\nnot bearing on their foreheads the sign of salvation.\nBut the sinner who is not, however, also impious,\nand these are a great crowd, will not rise to glory,\nbut will rise to be assigned to examination.\nFor he cannot sit as judge with the godly,\nsince he is to render account of his own acts\nand, according to his varied deeds, be either approved or found guilty.\nThose ignorant of the law will fall everywhere without law;\nhe who has fallen under the law will be judged by the law.\nThe fire will run through every work as arbiter;","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 7.1 (CSEL 30:18lines 1–32–19; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/7-1)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/7.33":{"o":"quod non cremarit flamma sed probauerit,\nillud perrenni praemio pensabitur.\nqui concremanda gesserit, damnum feret,\nsed ipse saluus euolabit ignibus;\ntamen subusti corporis signis miser\nuitam tenebit, non tenebit gloriam.\nquia carne uictus, mente non uersus tamen,\netsi negarit debitam legi fidem,\nper multa saepe deuolutus crimina,\ntamen fidei nomen aeternum gerens,\nnumquam salutis exulabit finibus.\nidcirco cuncti nunc in isto saeculo,\ndum currit aetas et dies aeui patet,\nrectas agamus semitas firmo pede\nnec deferamur lubrico latae uiae;\npraestat per artum dimicantes tramitem\nlaboriosis introire nisibus.\nuias bonorum laetus agnoscit deus,\nat inpiorum pronum iter delebitur.","t":"what the flame has not burned up but tested\nwill be repaid with an everlasting reward.\nHe who has done things fit to be burned will suffer loss,\nbut he himself will fly out of the fires saved;\nyet, wretched, with the marks of his scorched body,\nhe will keep life; he will not keep glory.\nBecause, overcome by the flesh yet not turned away in mind,\neven if he has refused the law the faith he owed it,\noften rolling down through many crimes,\nyet bearing the eternal name of faith,\nhe will never be exiled from the bounds of salvation.\nTherefore let all of us now in this age,\nwhile time runs and the day of life lies open,\nwalk straight paths with firm foot\nand not be carried down the slippery broad road;\nit is better, struggling along the narrow track,\nto enter by toilsome efforts.\nGod gladly acknowledges the ways of the good,\nbut the downhill road of the impious will be destroyed.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 7.33 (CSEL 30:19lines 33–51–20; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/7-33)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/8.1":{"o":"Cur gentes fremuere et inania cur meditati\nsunt populi? adstiterunt proceres cum regibus acti\naduersum dominum et Christum uesana frementes:\nuincula rumpamus, iuga discutiamus eorum.\nqui manet aeterno totis moderamine caelis,\ninridebit eos iustaque loquetur in ira\nterribilique minax uerbo turbabit iniquos:\nast ego rex ab eo parili dicione creatus,\npraeceptum domini super almum praedico Sion.\nipse ad me dominus, meus, inquit, filius es tu,\nteque hodie genui. pete; sis mihi gentibus heres,\net tua fundatur totis possessio terris.\nferrea uirga tibi est, ualido quia iure tumentes\norbe regis toto populos, ceu uasa recocto\nficta luto frangens corda, ut meliora reformes.\net nunc ecce, omnes, stratis aduertite, reges,\nmentibus et quicumque hominum famulantia corda\niudicio regitis rerumque tenetis habenas,\ndeseruite deo trepidi mixtoque fideles\nexultate metu; fiat discordia concors.\ndissimiles socians affectus pectore in uno,\nne timor adfligat mentes uel gaudia soluant,\nsi careant laeto pauidi formidine leti.\ndicite iustitiam rectosque capessite mores\net iusto trepidate deo, gaudete benigno,\nne quando meritum deus irascatur in orbem\nuosque uia iusta iuste pereatis abacti.\namodo iam resilire uia properetis iniqua;\necce breui cum magna potentis inarserit ira,\nuentilet ut totum diuino examine mundum\nsegreget et paleas igni, frumenta saluti,\ntunc omnes, quibus est in eo spes fida, beati.","t":"Why did the nations rage, and why did the peoples\ndevise vain things? The chiefs, driven along with the kings, took their stand\nagainst the Lord and his Christ, raging madly:\n“Let us break their chains, let us shake off their yokes.”\nHe who abides with eternal governance over all the heavens\nwill laugh at them and speak in just anger,\nand threatening with a terrible word will confound the wicked:\n“But I, made king by him with equal dominion,\nproclaim the Lord's precept upon kindly Zion.”\nThe Lord himself said to me: “You are my Son,\nand today I have begotten you. Ask; be my heir among the nations,\nand let your possession be established in all lands.\nYou have a rod of iron, because by mighty right you rule\nthe swelling peoples in the whole world, breaking hearts\nlike vessels shaped from clay, that you may re-form them better, fired anew.”\nAnd now, behold, all you kings, give heed with humbled\nminds, and whoever among men govern servant hearts\nby judgment and hold the reins of affairs:\nserve God trembling, and, faithful, rejoice\nwith fear mixed in; let there be a harmonious discord,\nuniting unlike feelings in one breast,\nso that fear may not crush minds nor joys dissolve them,\nif, fearful through dread of death, they should lack joy.\nSpeak justice and take up upright ways,\nand tremble before God as just, rejoice in him as kind,\nlest at any time God be angry with a world that deserves it,\nand you, driven from the just way, justly perish.\nFrom now on hasten to leap back from the unjust way;\nbehold, when shortly the great anger of the Mighty One has blazed up,\nso that he winnows the whole world with divine sifting\nand separates the chaff for the fire, the grain for salvation,\nthen all who have a faithful hope in him will be blessed.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 8.1 (CSEL 30:20lines 1–32–21; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/8-1)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/9.1":{"o":"Sedimus ignotos dirae Babylonis ad amnes\ncaptiui, Iudaea manus, miserabile flentes,\ncum patrium memori traheremus pectore Sion\net meritum iusta suspiraremus ab ira\nexilium, lentis qua consita ripa salictis\nhospitibus populis umbras praebebat amicas.\nillic Assyriae mediis in moenibus urbis\nobliti laetas per maesta silentia uoces\nde salicum ramis suspendimus organa nostra.\nnamque dabat nobis durum grauis ira dolorem,\nquod solita in sancto depromi cantica templo\nhaec ad delicias sibi nos cantare iubebat\ninpius ille domo qui nos abduxerat hostis.\nergone diuinas laudes et carmina castis\napta choris inter sacra barbara foedaque busta\ninter et accensas funestis ignibus aras\nheu! male de nostro laetis maerore canemus\ndeque pio ritu luxum faciemus iniquum,\nmystica ad hostilem modulantes cantica ludum?\nquo miseri nunc ore sacros cantabimus hymnos?\nquoue loco Babylon poscit sibi cantica Sion?\nsed domini carmen tellus aliena mereri\nnon capit, indignas sacra uox auertitur aures.\nsi tamen ut captis dominus uiolentior instas,\net si tantus amor Sion pia noscere uobis\ncantica, si pergis me cogere non tua fari\net diuina tibi quaenam sint cantica Sion,\naccipe quid captae deus ultor spondeat urbi,\nne longum speres isto gaudere triumpho,\ninpie, quo sacrum prodi tibi praecipis hymnum;\necce quis est hymnus domini, quae cantica Sion:","t":"We sat by the unknown rivers of dread Babylon,\ncaptives, a band of Judah, weeping piteously,\nas we drew our fathers' Zion with remembering heart\nand sighed over an exile deserved by just wrath,\nwhere the bank, planted with pliant willows,\noffered friendly shade to the peoples who were its guests.\nThere, within the walls of the Assyrian city,\nforgetting joyful sounds in sorrowful silence,\nwe hung our instruments on the branches of the willows.\nFor heavy wrath gave us hard grief,\nbecause that impious enemy who had led us away from home\ncommanded us to sing for his pleasure\nthese songs that used to be poured out in the holy temple.\nShall we then sing the divine praises and songs fit\nfor chaste choirs amid barbarous rites and foul tombs\nand among altars kindled with deadly fires,\nalas, to those wrongly glad at our grief,\nand make wicked luxury out of godly ritual,\nsetting mystic songs to an enemy's sport?\nWith what mouth shall we wretched sing sacred hymns now?\nIn what place does Babylon demand for itself the songs of Zion?\nBut a foreign land cannot deserve the song of the Lord;\nthe sacred voice turns away from unworthy ears.\nYet if, as a more violent master, you press upon captives,\nand if you have so great a love of knowing the godly songs of Zion,\nif you go on forcing me to speak what is not yours\nand to tell you what the divine songs of Zion are,\nhear what God the avenger promises the captured city,\nso that you may not hope to rejoice long in that triumph,\nimpious one, by which you order the sacred hymn to be brought out for you;\nbehold, what the hymn of the Lord is, what the songs of Zion are:","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 9.1 (CSEL 30:21lines 1–31–22; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/9-1)."},"paulinus-nola-carmina/9.32":{"o":"si fuero oblitus mea moenia, te, mea cura,\nurbs Hierusalem, fiat mea non memor umquam\ndextra mei, mea lingua meis et adhaereat arens\nfaucibus, aeterno nisi te conplectar amore\net nisi principio promissi in saecula regni\nlaetitiaeque meae primo reminiscar in anno,\nte cunctis, Hierusalem, praeponere terris.\nesto memor tum prolis Edom, ut uersa uice nostrum\nadspiciat confusa diem, quo plebs tua claram\nmoenibus aeternis Hierusalem habitabit,\ncui nunc gens oblita tui crudele minatur\nexcidium, dicens: inuisam funditus urbem\ndiruite et uacuate manu, uestigia donec\nnulla relinquantur muris ad inane redactis.\ninfelix miserae Babylonis filia, felix\nqui tibi pro nobis in nos tua gesta rependet.\nnec minus ille beatus erit, qui parua tenebit.\net simul elidet solidae tua pignora petrae.\nsi cupis extincta Babylonis stirpe beari,\nin te ipso primis gliscentia crimina flammis\nfrange fide. iam propter adest petra Christus; in ipso\nuipeream sobolem ualidis elide lacertis.\nnam Babylon nomen confusio, filia cuius\nest caro, peccatis mater, quae turba saluti\nnoxia corporeis ducit mala semina fibris.\nhaec uincenda tibi, si uis euincere mortem;\nnamque tuis tales inclusos ossibus hostes,\nsi permittantur crescendo adsumere uires,\ndifficili uinces luctamine; praecipe paruos,\ndum rudis ex utero cordis per pectora capta\nreptat adhuc teneris uitiorum infantia membris.\nquae nisi praecaueas, aucta uirtute necabit\nconcordem uitiis animam terrena propago.\nne parcas igitur talem mactare cateruam.\nnon tibi crimen erit nocituram perdere gentem\nultricemque malo perfundere sanguine petram;\ngaudet enim iustus, si concidat inpia proles;\nnam magis atque magis pius ista caede piatur,\nsi perimat peccata suis dominantia membris\net fracta in Christo uitiorum plebe triumphet.","t":"“If I forget my walls, you, my care,\ncity of Jerusalem, may my right hand never\nremember me, and may my tongue cling dry to my\nthroat, unless I embrace you with eternal love,\nand unless, at the beginning of the kingdom promised for the ages\nand in the first year of my joy, I remember\nto set you, Jerusalem, before all lands.\nRemember then the children of Edom, so that, the tables turned, confounded,\nthey may behold our day, when your people will inhabit\nglorious Jerusalem with eternal walls,\nagainst which a race forgetful of you now threatens cruel\ndestruction, saying: ‘Tear down utterly the hated city\nand empty it by force, until no traces\nare left, the walls reduced to nothing.’\nUnhappy daughter of wretched Babylon, happy is he\nwho shall repay you on our behalf for your deeds against us.\nNor will he be less blessed who will seize your little ones\nand at once dash your offspring against the solid rock.”\nIf you desire to be blessed by extinguishing Babylon's stock,\nbreak by faith the sins that swell within you\nin their first flames. The rock, Christ, is at hand; on him\ndash the viper's brood with strong arms.\nFor Babylon's name means confusion; her daughter\nis the flesh, mother of sins, a crowd harmful to salvation,\nwhich draws evil seeds through the fibres of the body.\nThese you must conquer, if you wish to conquer death;\nfor such enemies shut up in your bones,\nif they are allowed to gain strength by growing,\nyou will conquer only with a hard struggle; seize them while small,\nwhile the infancy of vices, raw from the womb of the heart,\nstill creeps with tender limbs through the captured breast.\nUnless you forestall them, the earthly offspring, grown in strength,\nwill kill the soul that agrees with the vices.\nSo do not spare to slay such a troop.\nIt will be no crime for you to destroy a race that would harm you\nand to drench the avenging rock with evil blood;\nfor the just man rejoices if the impious offspring falls;\nfor the godly man is more and more cleansed by this slaughter,\nif he kills the sins that rule in his members\nand, the people of vices broken in Christ, triumphs.","f":"Paulinus of Nola, <i>Carm.</i> 9.32 (CSEL 30:22lines 32–71–23; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paulinus-nola-carmina/9-32)."}}