Who is Saint Paul? The Secret of the Great Transformation

We know about St. Paul’s fate from his letters and the Acts of the Apostles. St. Paul was born Saul, Saul- between 5 and 10 years old, in Tarsus, Cilicia. He died in Rome between 64 and 67. He came from a Jewish family with Roman citizenship. His father was a Pharisee. He knew Aramaic and Greek and was skilled in weaving tent cloth.

St. Paul was educated in Jerusalem. More precisely, in the school of the elder Gamaliel, where he studied Torah. From his youth, he was an opponent of Christians. He participated in the persecution of Christ’s followers in Jerusalem after the stoning of Stephen around 35 AD.

São Paulo. Conversion

Around 35/36th St. Paul was on his way to Damascus with an order to arrest Christians. On the way, Jesus Christ appeared to him. The encounter is described in the Book of Acts: “As he was near Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light flashed around him from heaven. As he fell to the ground, he heard a voice saying, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Are you the Lord?’ He said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Get up and go into the city, where they will tell you what to do.”

The people who were with him on the road were so shocked that they could not speak. They only heard the voice but did not see the person. Saul stood up from the ground and opened his eyes, but he saw nothing. So they took him by the hand and brought him to Damascus. For three days, he saw nothing and did not eat or drink.

This meeting led to his conversion and baptism by Ananias in Damascus. St. Paul stayed in Arabia for a while before returning to Damascus for three years, where he preached Jesus Christ as the Messiah. At about the age of thirty-seven or thirty-nine, he fled to Jerusalem. He stayed there for only 15 days, but there he met two of Jesus Christ’s apostles – Peter and James.

The Christians in Jerusalem remembered the persecutions that St. Paul had suffered and distrusted him, and when his situation began to become dangerous, he returned to his hometown of Tarsus. In his homeland, St. Paul remained there for several years and moved to Antioch around 43 or 44.

St. Paul – Missionary

In 45-49 he began his first missionary journey. St. Paul then visited Cyprus and the central region of Asia Minor. After returning from this trip, he attended the Council of Jerusalem. The provisions of the Mosaic Law were determined for Christians of pagan origin.

The saint began his second missionary journey. Paul was around 50-52, this time he went to Asia Minor, Macedonia and Greece. Between 53 and 58, as part of his third missionary journey, he was active in Ephesus.

Paul was arrested in Jerusalem in 58 AD. He spent two years in prison in Caesarea. In the fall of 60 AD, he set out for Rome. The journey took him three months. When he arrived in Rome, he was placed under house arrest for three years. When he was released, he probably went to Spain, Ephesus, and Macedonia, where he continued his missionary activities. However, this did not last long. In 64 or 67 AD, he was sentenced to death and beheaded in Rome.

Saint Paul’s Epistles

St. Paul is the author of as many as 13 letters in the New Testament. These are the letters to the Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, as well as Timothy, Titus, and Philemon.

Saint Paul had a huge influence on early Christian teaching. He believed that through missionary work, it would be possible for pagans around the world to convert to Christianity. That is why he is called the Apostle to the Gentiles. Saint Paul’s teachings focused on the cross of Jesus Christ, the Kingdom of God, and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. He preached baptism as a saving event that gave hope of eternal life.

The saint’s memorial is in the Catholic Church, where Paul fell on January 25 and June 29, and in the Orthodox Church, where he fell on June 29 and July 12.