Paulinus of St. Bartholomew

Paulinus of St. Bartholomew [Paulinus a S. Bartholomaeo, Paolino da San Bartolomeo; known as Paulinus Paathiri; secular name Johann Philipp Wesdin.] (b. at Hoff in Lower Austria, 25 April1748; d. in Rome, 7 January1806) was an Austrian Carmelite missionary and Orientalist,

Life

Having entered the Carmelite Order, he was sent in 1774 as missionary to Malabar, India. There he was appointed vicar general of his order and Apostolic visitor.

Recalled in 1789 to Rome to give an account of the state of that mission, he was charged with the edition of books for the use of missionaries. On account of political troubles he stayed from 1798 to 1800 at Vienna. He returned to Rome as prefect of studies at the Propaganda.

Works

Paulinus wrote many learned books on the East, which were highly valued in their day, among them the first printed Sanskrit grammar. They include:

# "Systema brahmanicum liturgicum, mythologicum, civile, ex monumentis indicis musei Borgiani Velitris dissertationibus historico-criticis illustratum" (Rome, 1791), translated into German (Gotha, 1797);
# "Examen historico-criticum codicum indicorum bibliothecae S. C. de Propaganda" (Rome, 1792);
# "Musei Borgiani Velitris codices manuscripti avences, Peguani, Siamici, Malabarici, Indostani ... illustrati" (Rome, 1793);
# "Viaggio alle Indie orientali" (Rome, 1796), translated into German by Forster (Berlin, 1798);
# "Sidharubam, seu Grammatica sanscridamica, cui accedit dissert. hiss. crit. in linguam sanscridamicam vulgo Samscret dictam" (Rome, 1799), another edition of which appeared under the title "Vyacaranam" (Rome, 1804);
# "India orientalis christiana" (Rome, 1794), an important work for the history of missions in India. Other works bear on linguistics and church history.

References

*Giuseppe Barone, "Vita, precursori ed opere del P. Paolino da S. Bartolommeo (Filippo Werdin) : contributo alla storia degli studi orientali in Europa" (Napoli: A. Morano, 1888);
*Max von Heimbucher, "Die Orden und Kongregationen der katholischen Kirche", II (2nd ed., Paderborn: Schoningh, 1907), 568-69

Notes