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The saints

St. Paul

He hunted Christians, until Christ knocked him off his feet on the road to Damascus.

Feast: 25 January · died about 67 · The early Church · Tarsus, Damascus and Rome

Read the story 1 min read
Painting of St. Paul in a red cloak, reading a book and holding a sword.

Guercino. Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

Home / The saints / St. Paul

The road to Damascus

A young Pharisee named Saul is riding to Damascus with letters to arrest followers of Jesus.1

He had stood by approving while Stephen was stoned.2

A light from heaven threw him to the ground, and a voice asked why he was persecuting Him.

Patronage No official patronage we can cite yet. The Church honors him as the Apostle to the Gentiles; his conversion is kept on 25 January and his martyrdom with St. Peter on 29 June.

01St. Paul

Blind for three days

Saul got up blind and was led into Damascus by the hand.3

A frightened disciple named Ananias laid hands on him, his sight came back, and he was baptized.4

02St. Paul

Everything for the Gospel

He crossed the Roman world on foot and by ship, founding churches and writing the letters we still read at Mass.1

He was beaten, shipwrecked and jailed, and he kept going.5

Tradition holds that he was beheaded in Rome under Nero, around the same time as St. Peter.1

Live it this week

Write a letter like Paul

Paul built up whole churches with letters. This week, write a real letter (paper, envelope, stamp) to someone who is struggling, and tell them one specific way you have seen God at work in them.

Notes

How we know · 5 sources for this page
  1. Franciscan Media, Saint of the Day: “Conversion of Saint Paul”. franciscanmedia.org. franciscanmedia.org
  2. Acts 8:1, World English Bible. read the chapter
  3. Acts 9:8, World English Bible. read the chapter
  4. Acts 9:18, World English Bible. read the chapter
  5. 2 Corinthians 11:25, World English Bible. read the chapter

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: World English Bible, Catholic edition (public domain); Verse numbers are modern, with Douay-Rheims numbers in brackets where they differ. Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an errorCorrections.