St. Paul, the indefatigable
Apostle of the Gentiles, was
converted from Judaism on the
road to Damascus. He remained
some days in Damascus after
his Baptism, and then went to
Arabia, possibly for a year or
two to prepare himself for his
future missionary activity.
Having returned to Damascus,
he stayed there for a time,
preaching in the synagogues
that Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of God. For this he
incurred the hatred of the
Jews and had to flee from the
city. He then went to
Jerusalem to see Peter and pay
his homage to the head of the
Church.
Later he went back to his
native Tarsus, where he began
to evangelize his own province
until called by Barnabus to
Antioch. After one year, on
the occasion of a famine, both
Barnabus and Paul were sent
with alms to the poor
Christian community at
Jerusalem. Having fulfilled
their mission they returned to
Antioch.
Soon after this, Paul and
Barnabus made the first
missionary journey, visiting
the island of Cypress, then
Pamphylia, Pisidia, and
Lycaonia, all in Asia Minor,
and establishing churches at
Pisidian Antioch, Iconium,
Lystra, and Derbe.
After the Apostolic Council
of Jerusalem Paul, accompanied
by Silas and later also by
Timothy and Luke, made his
second missionary journey,
first revisiting the churches
previously established by him
in Asia Minor, and then
passing through Galatia. At
Troas a vision of a Macedonian
was had by Paul, which
impressed him as a call from
God to evangelize in
Macedonia. He accordingly
sailed for Europe, and
preached the Gospel in
Philippi. Thessalonica, Beroea,
Athens, and Corinth. Then he
returned to Antioch by way of
Ephesus and Jerusalem.
On his third missionary
journey, Paul visited nearly
the same regions as on the
second trip, but made Ephesus
where he remained nearly three
years, the center of his
missionary activity. He laid
plans also for another
missionary journey, intending
to leave Jerusalem for Rome
and Spain. Persecutions by the
Jews h indered him from
accomplishing his purpose.
After two years of
imprisonment at Caesarea he
finally reached Rome, where he
was kept another two years in
chains.
The Acts of the Apostles
gives us no further
information on the life of the
Apostle. We gather, however,
from the Pastoral Epistles and
from tradition that at the end
of the two years St. Paul was
released from his Roman
imprisonment, and then
traveled to Spain, later to
the East again, and then back
to Rome, where he was
imprisoned a second time and
in the year 67, was beheaded.
St. Paul untiring interest
in and paternal affection for
the churches established by
him have given us fourteen
canonical Epistles. It is,
however, quite certain that he
wrote other letters which are
no longer extant. In his
Epistles, St. Paul shows
himself to be a profound
religious thinker and he has
had an enduring formative
influence in the development
of Christianity. The centuries
only make more apparent his
greatness of mind and spirit.
His feast day is June 29th.
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