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“It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20). In these words of Saint Paul lies the mystery of a life completely transformed by grace. From a persecutor of Christians to an tireless proclaimer of the Gospel, Paul is one of the greatest witnesses of the Christian faith, the one who carried the name of Christ beyond the borders of Israel to the heart of the ancient world.
TARSUS. Saul is born in Tarsus, in Cilicia, present-day Turkey, into a Jewish family of the tribe of Benjamin, but also enjoys Roman citizenship. He receives a very broad cultural education: he knows the religious tradition of Israel, but also the language and thought of the Greco-Roman world. He also learns his father’s trade, tent-making, according to the custom of Jewish masters to combine study with professional preparation.
Young, zealous, and rigorous, Saul is a faithful observer of the Mosaic Law. Trained in the school of the great master Gamaliel in Jerusalem, he considers the followers of Jesus a danger to the purity of the faith of the fathers. For this reason, he becomes one of the most fervent persecutors of the early Christian community.
The Acts of the Apostles present him as he approves the death of Stephen, the first martyr of the Church, and while he seeks to scatter the disciples of Christ. But God prepares a completely new path for him.
As he heads towards Damascus with the intention of arresting Christians, the decisive encounter occurs: a light from heaven envelops him and a voice says, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”. To the question “Who are you, Lord?”, the answer shakes his life: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting”. At that moment, the persecutor understands that Christ lives in his disciples and that fighting the Church means fighting the Lord himself. He remains blind for three days, a sign of his inner death and the birth of a new man.
In Damascus, the disciple Ananias, obeying God’s command, lays hands on him: Saul regains his sight, receives baptism, and begins a new existence. From that moment on, his name will be Paul, and his life will be completely dedicated to the mission received: to proclaim Christ to the nations.
After a period of preparation, he meets the apostles in Jerusalem and is welcomed into the Christian community. Together with Barnabas, he begins an extraordinary missionary work. Paul travels thousands of kilometers, facing difficult journeys, persecutions, imprisonments, shipwrecks, and dangers of every kind.
He travels through the cities of Asia Minor, Macedonia, and Greece, founding Christian communities. He preaches in synagogues and squares, speaking to the simple and the wise, the poor and the rulers. His message is passionate and profound: the center of his proclamation is Christ, dead and risen, the only salvation for mankind.
His thirteen letters preserved in the New Testament are among the foundational texts of the Christian faith. In them, Paul delves into the mystery of grace, the Church as the Body of Christ, charity, and the new life in the Holy Spirit. His famous statement on love in the First Letter to the Corinthians remains one of the highest pages of Christian spirituality: “Charity is patient, it is kind… it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
Paul finally arrives in Rome, the center of the Empire, where he witnesses the Gospel even in trial. Arrested during Nero’s persecution, he is brought before the Roman court. Being a Roman citizen, he does not suffer the crucifixion reserved for slaves, but is sentenced to be beheaded. According to tradition, he dies a martyr in the year 67, around the same time that Peter gives his life for Christ. The blood of the two great apostles becomes the foundation of the Church of Rome.
Saint Paul is called the “Apostle of the Gentiles” because he understood that the Gospel does not belong to a single people, but is a universal gift from God. His life shows that no story is too far from mercy: the one who once persecuted Christ becomes the one who more than anyone else proclaims His love. His existence remains a symbol of conversion, mission, and total fidelity: a man won over by Christ and willing to lose everything to make salvation known to the world.
