Feast day: January 25

The Conversion of St. Paul

Feast · 1st century

Patron of Missionaries

On the road to Damascus to arrest Christians, the zealot Saul was struck blind by a vision of the risen Christ and rose as Paul, the Church's greatest missionary.

The feast of January 25 does not mark a saint's death but a single overwhelming event: the moment a fierce enemy of the Church became its greatest missionary. Saul of Tarsus was a devout and learned Pharisee, present at and consenting to the stoning of the first martyr, St. Stephen, and afterward 'breathing threats and murder' against the followers of Jesus, going from house to house to drag them to prison.

The Acts of the Apostles records that as Saul neared Damascus, armed with letters authorizing him to arrest the Christians there, a light from heaven suddenly flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice: 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?' When he asked who spoke, the answer came, 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.' Blinded, he was led by the hand into the city.

For three days Saul neither saw nor ate, until a disciple named Ananias, overcoming his fear, was sent to lay hands on him; 'something like scales' fell from his eyes, and he was baptized. The persecutor at once began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God, to the astonishment of all who had known his reputation.

The Church keeps this day because it shows, more vividly than almost any other story, that no one stands beyond the reach of grace. The man who had set out to destroy the faith became the Apostle Paul, who carried the Gospel across the Roman world and wrote a large part of the New Testament. His turning is celebrated as the close of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

The Church doesn't mark his death today but his turning — proof that no one is beyond the reach of grace, not even a persecutor of the faith.

“Lord, what do you want me to do?”
— The Conversion of St. Paul