Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul

January 25th, we celebrate the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, the greatest of the early Christian missionaries, and this celebration is the only observance of the conversion of a saint found in our liturgical calendar.

St. Paul was born at Tarsus, Cilicia, of Jewish parents who were descended from the tribe of Benjamin. He was a Roman citizen from birth. To complete his schooling, St. Paul was sent to Jerusalem, where he sat at the feet of the learned Gamaliel and was educated in the strict observance of the ancestral Law. As a convinced and zealous Pharisee, he returned to Tarsus before the public life of Christ opened in Palestine.

Some time after the death of Our Lord, St. Paul returned to Palestine. His profound conviction made his zeal develop to a religious fanaticism against the infant Church. He took part in the stoning of the first martyr, St. Stephen, and in the fierce persecution of the Christians that followed. While the stoning of St.Stephen was done , they laid their cloaks at the feet of Saul, who kept them—a sign at the time for responsibility of the execution. Saints and theologians credit Saint Stephen’s intercession as one of the precursors to the Lord’s conversion of Saul.

While on his way to Damascus to make new arrests of Christians, he was suddenly converted by a miraculous apparition of Our Lord. As he was nearing Damascus, about noon, a light from heaven suddenly blazed round him. Jesus with His glorified body appeared to him and addressed him, turning him away from his apparently successful career. After this incident, he converted from a fierce persecutor and he became the great Apostle of the Gentiles. Paul’s conversion is first recorded in Acts 9:1-28, secondly to the Jews of Jerusalem in Acts 22:1-21, and finally to King Agrippa at Caesarea in Acts 26:4-23.

He was baptized, changed his name from Saul to Paul, and began travelling and preaching the Faith. He made three missionary journeys which brought him to the great centers of Asia Minor and southern Europe, and made many converts. Saint Paul went on to preach throughout the Mediterranean. Fourteen of his Epistles are found in the New Testament. He was beheaded in Rome around 66 AD and his body is kept in the Basilica of St. Paul near the Ostian Way.

The Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul was first celebrated in France in the sixth century and was introduced in Rome in the eleventh century and this miraculous event has been part of the Church calendar for more than 1500 years. St. Paul is the patron saint of missions, theologians, and gentile christians.

Prayer:

O God, who taught the whole world through the preaching of the blessed Apostle Paul, draw us, we pray, nearer to you through the example of him whose conversion we celebrate today, and so make us witnesses to your truth in the world.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

St. Paul, apostle whose encounter with the persecuted Christ changed the course of your life and Christian history—pray for us!