Saint Pauline is the patron saint of Olomouc. She became her patron saint on 23 October 1623 after a severe plague plagued the city and a procession of prayers with her relics helped to extinguish the plague. The remains of St. Pauline are kept in the Church of St. Moritz, where her altar is located. The procession in honour of St. Pauline is held annually and is part of the town’s festivities.
St. Pauline came from Rome, where she was martyred together with her parents. For embracing Christianity, Father Artemisius was beheaded and Paulina and her mother Candia were stoned.
The Jesuit P. Nicholas Lancicius brought the remains of St. Pauline from the Roman catacombs to Olomouc in 1623. In 1623, when a terrible plague raged in the city, claiming over 7,000 victims, the city council, at the suggestion of the Archdeacon of the Cathedral, Julius Caesar Giannini de Pisauro, organised a procession of supplication with the relics of St. Pauline on Sunday 8 October 1623. The procession walked from the Jesuit college to the church of St. Moritz in the hope that the saint would pray for the relief of a fierce epidemic. Out of gratitude that this happened, the city council elected St. Pauline as the patroness of Olomouc on 23 October 1623. The Bishop of Olomouc, Cardinal Prince František Dietrichštejn (1599-1636), included her among the co-patrons of the cathedral. St. Pauline was then invoked in 1626, 1633, 1634, 1637, 1675 and 1715. The largest procession with the relics of St. Pauline took place in 1715 during the raging plague, which is still commemorated today by two columns – the honorary column of the Holy Trinity in the Upper Square and the Marian Plague Column in the Lower Square.
Her memory is commemorated on the fifth Sunday after the Holy Spirit, when a procession in honour of St. Pauline passes through the city and when Olomouc celebrates the City Festival.
