Paul (originally known as Saul) was born in Tarsus, a rich city in southern Turkey. His parents were Jewish, but were Roman citizens. He went to Jerusalem a year or so after the crucifixion of Jesus.

At first Saul persecuted [tracked down and punished] all Christians. He went out to battle the new Church with a sword in his hand and a troop of soldiers at his command to pursue the Christians who had fled Jerusalem.

The military unit was the gift of Caiphas, high priest of the Jerusalem Temple. Saul meant to search the land as far north as the great desert. He promised Caiphas he would bring back, bound [tied up] and captive, every Christian that he found.

But for many days and nights he rode without finding a single follower of Jesus, until he was near to Damascus. Saul suddenly swayed in his saddle. Everything he could see and hear and feel all around him underwent a change. A blinding light was shining on him from the heavens and the roar of great waters roared in his ears.

Saul clutched at the reins, but his hands could not hold them. He had no strength. He fell to the ground and lay there helpless. Then the roaring sound ceased and he heard a Voice:

"Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute Me?"

Groaning, not daring to lift his face from the earth, Saul replied:

"Lord, who are you?"

And the answer came:

"I am Jesus, whom you persecute."

Saul felt very helpless. Trembling and astonished, Saul asked:

"Lord, what will You have me to do?"

The voice of the Lord replied to the man lying face down in the dust:

"Arise and go into the city and there it shall be told you what you must do."

Saul raised his head, sat up, and shook himself. He was blind! Then two of the soldiers raised him to his feet.

Saul has had a complete change in life. In that one blinding, falling moment Saul became another man. The hunter of Christians, wanted to become a Christian.

Saul let his soldiers lead him slowly to Damascus. He was going into the city, as the Lord had commanded him, to wait to be told what next he must do.

For three days, Saul stayed in the house of a Christian. His host knew that Saul was the Christians' worst enemy. He also knew that Saul had met with some sudden accident outside the city gate.

For three days and three nights the soldiers of Saul stood guard over Saul. Doctors were called, but none of the advice or the prescriptions of the Damascus doctors were of help. Saul was blind. He ate nothing and he drank nothing.

After three days, a man came to him. "The Lord Jesus has sent me," the man said, "that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost."

Rising up, Saul was baptized. His sight returned. Saul had become truly, a new man. He was born again.

Wherever the Christians were hiding in the underground, the word went out that Saul, the persecutor, had been stricken blind near Damascus; had seen the Lord Jesus and heard His Voice, had been healed of his blindness by a Christian, and that now he was himself a Christian.

To mark that transformation, he shed the Hebrew name Saul, and chose to use his official Roman name, Paul.

Many people laughed at this story. They dismissed Saul's conversion [change in beliefs] as an epileptic fit. They were still suspicious of him. But this "fit" truly changed his life.

Immediately after his baptism St. Paul retired for two years of meditation in the desert, after which he returned to Damascus. It was not until three years had passed that he went up to Jerusalem to confer with [to talk with] the Apostles [the close followers of Jesus], and after that he retired once more to Tarsus. There is thus a period of about ten years (34-44 A.D.) during which St. Paul is almost lost to our sight, and it must have been then that he created a bridge between Judaism and Christianity, Hebrew and Gentile. He preached that Christianity and salvation were for anyone who believed in Jesus; they didn't have to be Jewish to become Christian. He began preaching throughout the Mediterranean area and starting colonies of Christians wherever he went.

In journey after journey, he evangelized Cyprus, Asia Minor (Turkey), Macedonia and Greece, and even Rome. Wherever he went there sprang up a little center of Christianity. And in a dozen years or less (45-57 A,D.) he had changed what had been little more than a Jewish sect into the beginnings of a world-religion.

Then, in 57, he returned to Jerusalem. His friends implored [begged] him not to. They knew how bitterly he was hated by the Jewish leaders of the Sanhedrim and how little the church could do to protect him. Then came a riot, and only the intervention of the Roman soldiers saved Paul from being lynched [hung]. Two years of imprisonment followed.

Paul was released from prison and he was sent to Rome. The ship was caught in a storm and wrecked on the coast of Malta. It was not until the spring of the next year (60 or 61) that the party at length reached the capital, where St. Peter was already established, and thereafter St. Paul once again fades into the shadows.

About his further travels, probably to Spain and certainly back to the near East, we have little information. Even the date and manner of his martyrdom are uncertain. Tradition, supported by some internal evidence, speaks of a second and more rigorous imprisonment under Nero (the first emperor to make Christianity a crime) and tells us he was beheaded [his head was chopped off] about 66 A.D.

Many of Paul's letters to Christian communities (such as Acts, Romans, Galatians, Philippians, Corinthians, Ephesians, etc.) are now part of the New Testament of the Bible.

Mosaic of St. Paul

Learn more about St. Paul The Road to Damascus (Catholic Encyclopedia) St. Paul (article which shows Paul's view of Christianity also for non-Jews vs. Christianity as a Jewish sect) St. Paul, the Apostle to the Nations (this shows maps of his journeys)

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