The first mention of the Apostle Paul in the Bible is in Acts of the Apostles 7:59 – 8:3 at the stoning of the first Christian martyr, St. Stephen. He was mentioned as the man who “approved the killing of Stephen, intending to bring great harm to the church and arresting both men and women and sending them to prison.”
A chance (or was it planned?) encounter with “the One whom he was persecuting”, being blinded and weakened for 3 days and subsequently healed by Ananias converted this man from being the chief persecutor of the Christians to the staunchest defender of Jesus and all the disciples (Acts 9:1-19).
Paul was born circa 2 A.D in Tarsus, Cilicia (modern-day Turkey) as Saul of Tarsus. He was a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin. He received the name Saul at the time of his circumcision, but being a Roman citizen, he also had another name, which is Paul (see Acts 13:9) by which he was known when he began his apostolate among the Gentiles. He was sent to study under Gamaliel to study the Law and observance of ‘our ancestors’ as he put it, and according to a rabbinical custom, he learned the trade as a tent-maker (see Acts 22:1-3). He was the son of a Pharisee and was himself a Pharisee.
The account of his captivity is given in Acts 21:27; 28:31. In the year 59 AD, the Jews seized him on the false charge of having admitted Gentiles to the Temple (this is in fact forbidden in the olden days of the Old Testament. ref. Ezekiel 44:9). He was imprisoned in Caesarea for two years, sent to Rome in 62 AD where he spent two years ‘proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching the truth about Lord Jesus Christ with complete fearlessness and without any hindrance from anyone’. During this period of confinement and trial the epistles to the Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon, and later to the Philippians were written.
The facts of his second arrest are obscure, though it probably took place at Troas. According to Saint Athanasius, the manner of his death was revealed to him by Christ and, consequently, he came willingly to meet it. He was brought to Rome and was beheaded near the Ostian Way in 65 AD.
In representations of the Apostles in early Christian art Saint Paul is shown as the man of intellect, bald, with a long dark beard; this type has persisted to the present day. He is also the patron of tent-makers, and rope-makers and always invoked against poisonous snakes.
His body is in the Basilica of Saint Paul on the Ostian Way; his head is in the Lateran Church. Feast day is on the 29 June with Saint Peter, commemoration of his conversion on the 25 January, and his feast day is on the 30 June.
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