This one conversion [of St. Paul]

marvelously puts before us both the great extent of mercy and the effectiveness of grace.

Bernard of Clairvaux

We see that the Doctor of the Gentiles

...was a true athlete of Christ, instructed by him, anointed and made holy by him, transfixed on the cross with him, glorious in him in the broad arena of this world, in which he became a public wonder both to the angels and to mankind...

Augustine of Hippo

And if such a secret were offered to you

by a mortal on this earth,
I would not want you to marvel at it:
the one who saw it here above revealed this
(and much more, besides, of the truth of these circles)...

Dante
Paradiso 28: 136-139

For Paul apostleship was no empty 'office'.

He sought to replicate Christ as he represented Christ, for example, in 'meekness and gentleness.'

Paul Barnett
Paul, Missionary of Jesus

The only thing St. Paul really wanted

was always to please God. The most important thing of all to him... was that he knew himself to be loved by Christ. Enjoying this love, he considered himself happier than anyone else.

St. John Chrysostom

The one who studies St. Paul

finds the Disciple who knows the Divine Master in his entirety.

Bl. James Alberione

Today we commemorate

not the history of St. Paul, nor his Martyrdom, but his wonderful Conversion. Every season of his life is full of wonders, and admits of a separate commemoration, which indeed we do make, whenever we read the Acts of the Apostles or his Epistles.


John Henry Cardinal Newman

Even though a prisoner,

Paul stood undaunted before the governor and judge...and preached about that Christ for Whom he was in chains.



Cornelius a Lapide, SJ
The Personality of St. Paul

He was flexible enough

in all that was unessential such as food, the Nazarite vow, and circumcision, but he was most uncompromising for truth.... He repudiated all legal formalism and rationalistic paganism.

Igino Giordani
St. Paul, Apostle and Martyr

St. Paul was the singer,

the proclaim our of the glory of God, the promoter of the worship of God, the one set apart by God, the prisoner for Christ who lived in Christ.

Blessed James Alberione

"God's power rests on my weakness."

In this affirmation Paul formulates the great law of the apostolate: the absolute primacy of God over the human instrument.

Renato Perino

It is not sufficient to observe

that Paul is concerned for the community as distinct from the individual, whether that community be described as the Church, Israel, or the entirety of humankind. Paul's theological horizon is nothing less than the cosmos itself which is in need of deliverance ...

Beverly Roberts Gaventa
Our Mother St. Paul

The Pauline year

constitutes a further incentive to deepen the knowledge of St. Paul and assimilate his apostolic ardor.

Rev. S. Sassi
Superior General of the Society of St. Paul
(letter to Benedict XVI)

One does not have the impression

that the pre-Damascus Paul was a man of played a conscience. Paradoxically, Paul becomes fully aware that he was ' in Adam' (a sinner subject to death) only when he became a man 'in Christ"

Paul Barnett
Paul, Missionary of Jesus

When one says "the Apostle,"

it is understood as referring to St. Paul, so high above the ordinary is he exalted.

Blessed James Alberione

If we desire to look in depth

at the mystery of mission understood as a mediating and sacramental action through which the Lord saves the person through the human instrument of the apostle, we cannot ignore St. Paul, the theologian of mission.


Renato Perino

St Paul's conversion

begins in humility. He turns to God in his nothingness: "What do you want me to do?" Prayer for all humility is the nourishment and root of his conversion; persevering humility is what completes it.

Blessed Timothy Giaccardo

Paul preached with equal frankness

to philosophers, kings and tyrants alike, as though he were their teacher and superior; he fearlessly admonished, reproached and punished them.



Cornelius a Lapide, SJ
The Personality of St. Paul

He draws from his interior life

the most varied sentiments in order to awaken, to teach and to convince.

Igino Giordani
St. Paul, Apostle and Martyr

Paul is the most faithful interpreter

of the Gospel, presenting it to all humanity, and applying it in practical terms to individual, family and social necessities.

Blessed James Alberione

As to thy last Apostle's heart

Thy lightning glance did then impart
Zeal's never-dying fire,
So teach us on Thy shrine to lay
Our hearts, and let them day by day
Intenser blaze and higher.


John Keble

You who were a vessel of election for Christ,

...pray for us.
You who were made preacher, apostle and doctor of the Gentiles in truth, pray for us.
You whose apostolate was confirmed by marvels and wonders, pray for us.


Litany of St. Paul

Who can altogether despair

over the enormity of any crime whatever when they hear that Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the Lord's disciples, suddenly becomes a vessel of election?

Bernard of Clairvaux

The Apostle Paul,

an exceptional and virtually inimitable yet stimulating figure, is before us as an example of total dedication to the Lord and his Church, as well as of great openness to humanity and its cultures.

Pope Benedict XVI

[Paul's] mind was

like some instrument of music, harp or viol, the strings of which vibrate, though untouched, by the notes which other instruments give forth, and he was ever, according to his own precept, 'rejoicing with them that rejoice, and weeping with them that wept'."

John Henry Cardinal Newman

Greatly admiring our Redeemer

we sing the marvel of the Savior,
of his mercies and clemency.
Christ chose him to be leader of His flock
who had once raised the cross for the Lamb.

Sequence for the Conversion of St. Paul

The lamp his holy words display

Hath filled the world with glorious rays,
and doubt and error are o'erthrown
that truth may reign and reign alone.

French hymn to St. Paul

St. Paul was consecrated by suffering

to be an Apostle of Christ; by fastings, by chastisements, by self-denials for his brethren's sake, by his forlorn, solitary life, thus did he fill up day by day those intervals of respite which the fury of his persecutors permitted.

John Henry Cardinal Newman

Paul, transcending the things of earth

and lifted above its tumults, enjoyed great peace and tranquility of soul in times of adversity as well as in times of prosperity.


Cornelius a Lapide, SJ
The Personality of St. Paul

No one who has studied him

has been able to escape his magnetism, even those who, like Renan, have hated him and in many respects have misunderstood him.

Henri Daniel-Rops

They could beat him, stone him,

and nearly tear him to pieces in their attempts to lynch him, but as soon as he left their hands, he calmly adjusted his tunic, wiped the blood and sweat from his face, and began to speak to the first person he met, not of himself, but of Christ.


Igino Giordani