Peter and Paul

are illustrious Martyrs, leaders of Martyrs, princes of the Apostles, two great luminaries placed by God in his Church, like two shining eyes.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux

May the Pauline Year, which ends today, continue in your mind and heart!

Paul did not recklessly run into dangers,

or relapse into timidity and flee. Life was very dear to him because of the opportunities for good which it afforded him.

St. John Chrysostom

St. Paul lived the whole Christ:

he plumbed the profound mysteries of his doctrine, of his heart, of his holiness, of his humanity and divinity.

Bl. James Alberione

[Paul] labored to make his thought clear...

twisting and reshaping a phrase as if it were iron melting in a flame, so that he, the artisan, seems to sweat over his exertions.... He gathers his thoughts and he strikes, so that they seem to spring like sparks from every side of the anvil.

Igino Giordani
St. Paul, Apostle and Martyr

He teaches the equality

of Jew and Greek, of Greek and Barbarian and Scythian. This was the surest way to solicit the insults of Jew and Greek, Barbarian and Scythian together.

Giuseppe Ricciotti

Both disciples [Peter and Paul]

seemed to radiate something divine from their persons. They were so filled with grace and the Holy Spirit that the faithful who merely glanced at them felt a certain mysterious movement to do good, which led them to conform their way of life to the faith they professed....

Nicephorus

The splendor of the Risen One

left him blind; presenting also externally what the interior reality was, his blindness in regard to the truth, to the light, which is Christ.

Pope Benedict XVI