Ann_St.Paul

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St. Paul

St. Paul
Feastday: June 29

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 hindered
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.