PAOLINO OF SAN BARTOLOMEO. — By birth Filippo Weszdin, a Discalced Carmelite, missionary, and Orientalist, was born on 25 April 1748 in Hof an der Leitha (Lower Austria) and died in Rome on 7 February 1806.
From 1776 to 1789 he worked in the Malabar mission as a missionary, then as rector of the seminary for indigenous clergy, and later as vicar general of the bishop and apostolic visitor. He acquired such extensive knowledge of the languages, customs, and religious opinions of those peoples that, through his works on these subjects—especially his grammar of the Sanskrit language (the first published by a European)—he became renowned as a true pioneer in making India known to Europe. Recalled to Rome in 1790 to oversee the printing of Malabar books, he became professor of Oriental languages at the Seminary of the Missions (1790), prefect of the Urban College of Propaganda Fide, and subsequently rector of the aforementioned Seminary (1803).
His principal works include: *Systema Brahmanicum liturgicum mythologicum civile* (ibid. 1791); *Alphabeta Indica* (ibid. 1791); *Centum adagia Malabarica cum textu originali et versione latina* (ibid. 1791); *Examen historico-criticum codicum Indicorum Bibliothecae S. Congr. de Prop. Fide* (ibid. 1792); *Musei Borgiani Velitis codices manuscripti Avense, Peguani, Siamici, Malabarici...* (ibid. 1793); *Mumigraphia Musei Obicani* (ibid. 1799); *Monumenti indici del Museo Naniano illustrati* (ibid. 1799); *Vydacarana, seu locupletissima Samscridamicae linguae institutio* (ibid. 1804); *Vitae synopsis Stephani Borgiae, S. R. E. cardinalis...* (ibid. 1805).
Ambrogio of Santa Teresa