St. Paul

St. Paul, born Saul of Tarsus in Cilicia, was a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, a Roman citizen, and a zealous Pharisee trained under Gamaliel. At first a fierce persecutor of the Church who consented to the stoning of St. Stephen, he was struck to the ground by a blinding light on the road to Damascus, where the risen Christ asked, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" That encounter made the persecutor into the greatest of missionaries, the Apostle to the Gentiles.

Across three great missionary journeys he carried the Gospel throughout Asia Minor and Greece, founding churches and shepherding them through his letters. Thirteen New Testament epistles bear his name, and his teaching on justification by faith, on the Body of Christ, and on charity in the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians has shaped Christian thought ever since. Brought at last as a prisoner to Rome, he was martyred there under Nero, by tradition beheaded, about the year 64 or 67. He is celebrated with St. Peter on 29 June.