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FEAST DAY – 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.
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