Biographical note

Born at Tarsus in Cilicia, a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, a Pharisee, a Roman citizen, a tentmaker by trade, he was educated in the Sacred Law of the Jews at the feet of Gamaliel in Jerusalem. After taking an active part in the stoning of the first Christian martyr, Stephen, he placed himself wholeheartedly at the service of the Jewish authorities in their attempt to stamp out Christianity. On the road to Damascus, he was struck blind and received a vision from God in which he was given his mission to evangelize the Gentiles. He did so in at least four apostolic journeys, extending from Cappadocia and Galatia perhaps as far as Spain, establishing churches everywhere, and ever surrounded by dangers of all sorts: he was shipwrecked, imprisoned, flogged, stoned, banished from several cities, and persecuted. His epistles, addressed mostly to the churches which he founded, comprise a large part of what is now the New Testament. He was beheaded in Rome near the Ostian Way where the Church of Tre Fontane now stands. Liturgically he is honored with Saint Peter, on June 29, as the co-founder of the Roman church, while the feast of his conversion is celebrated on January 25.

(paraphrased from The Book of Saints : A Dictionary of Persons Canonized or Beatified by the Catholic Church. 5th edition. New York: Crowell, 1966.)

Alternate names

Paul of Tarsus, Saul, Saulus Tarsensis, Paulus