Saint Paul the Apostle: Apostle to the Gentiles and Doctor of Grace

Saint Paul the Apostle, born Saul of Tarsus, is the apostolic missionary who carried the Catholic faith out of its Jewish homeland and into the Gentile world. Converted by the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, he undertook three major missionary journeys throughout the Mediterranean, founded churches across Asia Minor and Greece, and authored fourteen of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament. The Catholic Church venerates him alongside Saint Peter as a co-patron of the universal Church.

Early life and Pharisaic formation

Saul was born around AD 5 at Tarsus, a major Hellenistic city in the Roman province of Cilicia. He was a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, a Roman citizen by birth, and trained in the strictest school of Pharisaic Judaism under the renowned rabbi Gamaliel at Jerusalem. By trade he was a tentmaker, a craft he continued throughout his missionary career to support himself without burdening the churches he founded (Acts 18:3).

Before his conversion, Saul was a vehement persecutor of the early Catholic Church. He approved of the stoning of Saint Stephen the Protomartyr (Acts 7:58-8:1), and he received authorization from the high priest to arrest Christians in Damascus. It was on this errand that the central event of his life occurred.

The road to Damascus

Around AD 35, on the road approaching Damascus, the risen Christ appeared to Saul in a vision of blinding light. The narrative is recorded three times in the Acts of the Apostles (9:1-19, 22:6-21, 26:9-18), each time with slight variations of emphasis. The dialogue between Christ and the persecutor:

"Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" "Who are you, Lord?" "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting."

Saul was struck blind for three days, was baptized by Ananias of Damascus, and from that moment was a new man, with a new name (Paul) and a new mission. The Catholic tradition has read his conversion as the paradigmatic instance of divine grace breaking into a closed life.

The three missionary journeys

Between approximately AD 46 and AD 58, Paul undertook three principal missionary journeys, recorded in Acts 13-21. He preached in Cyprus, Pisidia, Lycaonia, Macedonia (founding the churches at Philippi and Thessalonica), Greece (the churches at Athens and Corinth), and Asia Minor (notably Ephesus, where he stayed three years). At Athens he addressed the philosophers at the Areopagus on the "unknown god" (Acts 17:22-31).

Throughout this period he wrote the great letters that bear his name: Romans, the two Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, the two Thessalonians, the three Pastoral Epistles (1 and 2 Timothy, Titus), and Philemon. The Letter to the Hebrews has been traditionally ascribed to Paul, though modern scholarship more often attributes it to a different first-century author within his circle.¹

Theology of grace and justification

Paul's principal theological contribution is the doctrine of justification by grace through faith, developed especially in the Letter to the Romans and the Letter to the Galatians. He taught that righteousness comes not from observance of the Mosaic Law alone but from grace, received through faith in Christ, and made fruitful in works of love (Galatians 5:6). The Catholic Church has read Paul's teaching in continuity with Saint James the Apostle and with the patristic tradition: faith and works together, animated by grace, constitute the Christian life. The Council of Trent (Sessions VI, 1547) formalized this synthesis in response to the Reformation controversies.²

Death and martyrdom

Paul was arrested in Jerusalem around AD 58 and, after a Roman trial, was sent to Rome under his appeal as a Roman citizen. He spent two years under house arrest in Rome (Acts 28:30-31), preaching the Gospel to all who came to him. Tradition records that he was released, traveled further, was rearrested, and was beheaded at Rome during the Neronian persecution (the Roman law prohibited the crucifixion of citizens), between AD 64 and AD 67. He was buried along the Ostian Way; the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome was built over his tomb.

Patronage and devotion

Saint Paul is patron of missionaries, evangelists, writers, the Catholic press, and tentmakers. With Saint Peter he is venerated on June 29, the joint Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. The Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul is celebrated separately on January 25.

The thirteen (or fourteen, including Hebrews) Pauline letters in the New Testament are the single largest body of writings by any individual author in the canonical Scriptures. Paul's Apostles' Creed language echoes throughout the Catholic liturgy, and his hymn to charity in 1 Corinthians 13 is among the most beloved Catholic texts.

For the broader Catholic teaching on apostolic mission and Marian intercession that Paul invokes implicitly, see What is the Communion of Saints? and Why do Catholics pray to Mary?.

Sources

For the Catholic theological reception of Pauline authorship, see the Pontifical Biblical Commission's Lettre sur l'authenticité des Épîtres pastorales (1913) and subsequent magisterial documents. The disputed letters (Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, 1-2 Timothy, Titus) are still received as Pauline in the Catholic canon. ↩
Council of Trent, Session VI (January 13, 1547), Decree on Justification. See also Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 1987-2029, on the doctrine of grace and justification. ↩