Petrocorius, Paulinus

Petrocorius, Paulinus sometimes confounded with Paulinus of Nola (q.v.), was an Eastern ecclesiastic, and, according to his own reports, flourished in the Western empire in the 5th century. He was intimate with Perpetuus, who was bishop of Tours from A.D. 461 to 491, and whom he calls his patron. It was at the desire of Perpetuus that he put into verse the life of St. Martin of Tours; and in an epistle addressed to that prelate he humbly tells him, with an amusing reference to the history of Balaam, that, in giving him confidence to speak, he had repeated the miracle of opening the mouth of the ass. He afterwards supplied, at the desire of the bishop, some verses to be inscribed on the walls of the new church which Perpetuus finished about A.D. 473 (or, according to Oudin, A.D. 482), and to which the body of St. Martin was transferred. He sent with them some verses, De Visitatione Nepotuli sui, on occasion of the cure, supposed to be miraculous, which his grandson, and the young lady to whom he was married or betrothed, had experienced through the efficacy of a document, apparently the account of the miracles of St. Martin, written by the hand of the bishop. We gather that this poem was written when the author was old, from the circumstance of his having a grandson of marriageable age. Of the death of Paulinus we have no account. The works of Paulinus Petrocorius are, De Vita S. Martini, a poem in hexameter verse, divided into six books. It has not much poetical or other merit. The first three books are little else than a versified abridgment of the De Beati Martini Vita Liber of Sulpicius Severus; and the fourth and fifth comprehend the incidents mentioned in the Dialogi II et III de Virtutibus Beati Martini of the same author. The sixth book comprises a description of the miracles which had been wrought at the tomb of St. Martin under the eyes of Perpetuus, who had sent an account of them to Paulinus: — De Visitatione Nepotuli sui, a description of the miraculous cure of his grandson already mentioned, also written in hexameter verse: — De Orantibus (an inappropriate title, which should rather be Orantibus simply, or Ad Orantes), apparently a portion of the hexameter verses designed to be inscribed on the walls of the new church built by Perpetuus: — Perpetuo Episcopo Epistola. This letter was sent to Perpetuus with the verses De Visitatione and De Orantibus. The works of Paulinus Petrocorius were first printed by Franciscus Juretus (Par. 1585). After the first publication of the works they were inserted in several collections of the Christian poets, and in some editions of the Bibliotheca Patrum, generally, however, under the name of Paulinus of Nola. In the Lyons edition of the Bibliotheca Patrum (1677, fol.), 6:297, etc., they are ascribed to their right author. They were again published by Christianus Daumius (Leips. 1686, 8vo), with ample notes of Juretus, Barthius, Gronovius, and Daumius. To the works of our Paulinus were subjoined in this edition the Eucharisticon of Paulinus the Penitent, or Paulinus of Pella, and the poem on Jonah and the Ninevites, ascribed to Tertullgan. See Hist. Litteraire de la France, 2:469, etc.; Cave, Hist. Litt. ad ann. 461 (Oxon. 17401743, fol.), 1:449; Fabricius, Biblioth. Med. et Inf. Latinitat. 5:206, ed. Mansi; Tillemont, Memoires, 16:404; Oudin, De Scriptoribus et Scriptis Eccles. volume 1, col. 1288, 1289.