As if he were the common father of the whole world,

[Paul] emulated the love of earthly fathers, or rather, he surpassed them in ... love and concern and expended his money, his words, his body and soul, his all, for those he loved.



St. John Chrysostom

Whoever comes close to Paul

is transformed, bit by bit, and learns to live as he did, and to pray as he did.

Bl. James Alberione

Paul had no fear of suffering.

Since he must reproduce Christ in himself, it was not surprising that he should repeat Christ's sufferings.


Igino Giordani
St. Paul, Apostle and Martyr

By the same grace of God,

and at the same time, Paul was called by Him to the grace of the faith and to the apostolate.

Cornelius A' Lapide, SJ

There has probably seldom been

anyone at the same time hated with such a fiery hatred and loved with such strong passion as Paul.

Adolf Deissmann

The Risen One spoke with Paul,

called him to the apostolate, made him a true apostle, a witness of the resurrection, with the specific charge to proclaim the Gospel to the pagans, to the Greco-Roman world.

Pope Benedict XVI

[In Paul] we see a determination

that is explained only by a soul truly fascinated by the light of the Gospel, enamored of Christ, a soul sustained by a profound conviction.

Pope Benedict XVI

[Paul's] one and only object

was the salvation of those that heard and saw him.

St. John Chrysostom

Keep before you, also,

the example of St. Paul working so hard and suffering so much in the exercise of his mission. In the face of everything, he remained tireless, up to the time when he declared: ‘I have finished my course.’

Bl. James Alberione

No one ever wept

with as much feeling over his own misfortunes as Paul wept for the woes of others.

St. John Chrysostom

In his greatness

he was more ardent than any flame of fire in the crown of all virtues, namely, charity. Just as iron thrust into fire becomes all fiery, so Paul was consumed with charity and became charity incarnate.

St. John Chrysostom

Paul took delight

only in that which was above all else: the love of Christ.


St. John Chrysostom
Homily 2 In Praise of St. Paul

He would rather be in chains,

on a ship adrift at the mercy of the waves, in a city obsessed by pride and dissolute by evil living, than not to be an Apostle.


Igino Giordani
St. Paul, Apostle and Martyr

The pilot is proven

in the storm, the soldier in battle. The deep-rooted tree is never displaced even t hough the winds may buffet it. So, too, the Apostle Paul...spoke of not being downhearted but rather of being made better by adversities...

St. Cyprian of Carthage

Paul also feels that he is

a true apostle and it seems clear, therefore, that the Pauline concept of apostolate is not restricted to the group of Twelve.

Pope Benedict XVI

Having opened himself to Christ

with all his heart, he became able to engage in a wider dialogue with all, he made himself everything to all. Hence he could really be the apostle to the pagans.

Pope Benedict XVI

Just as a fire grows as it catches

on to different materials and gains increases from what it comes in contact with, so the words of Paul converted to himself everybody that encountered them..

St. John Chrysostom

Paul made every member of the faithful

an apostle, so that all endeavored to increase Christ's glory, to spread the faith and lead parents, children, relatives...to embrace it.

Cornelius a Lapide, SJ

Paul attained

higher perfection every day. He longed for greater hardships, greater struggles, greater dangers, and greater sufferings for Christ, in the same way that fire in a forest spreads until the entire forest is ablaze.

St. John Chrysostom

No one like Paul,

has demonstrated how the proclamation of the cross of Christ appears as 'a stumbling block' and 'foolishness,' to which many react with incomprehension and rejection.

Pope Benedict XVI

Paul shows the way that leads there,

Peter unlocks the door of Heaven.
They stand against the enemy as two armed fortresses;
Towers of faith, whom the city, head of the world, contains.


Venantius Fortunatus

Paul scorned honors, riches, glory

and all earthly goods.... [for] his mind was accustomed to dwell constantly upon heaven.


Cornelius a Lapide, SJ
The Personality of St. Paul

The Apostle, since he concurs with God

for the building up of the Mystical Body of Christ, regards his work as similar to the maternity of Mary who gave life to Christ.

Igino Giordani
St. Paul, Apostle and Martyr

At the root of everything

lies the fact that he [Paul] is inseparable from Christ.



Carlo Cardinal Martini
The Testimony of St. Paul

Why do you wonder if Paul,

when he calls some to himself, does not think it beneath his consideration to be concerned for their temporal welfare and makes reference to this in an epistle?

St. John Chrysostom