St. Paul the Apostle icon

St. Paul the Apostle icon
© Cecilia Lawrence
July 14th 2017
4.5 x 6 inches
Ink, watercolor, gold leaf

“Holy Apostle Paul, preacher of Truth and Teacher of the Gentiles,
intercede for us with God, who chose you.”
~ Antiphon for the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul

“Paul, my grace is sufficient for you;
my power is made perfect in weakness.”
~ Antiphon for the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul

“And the Lord replied, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.
Get up now, and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you for this purpose,
to appoint you as a servant and witness of what you have seen and what you will be shown.
I shall deliver you from this people and from the Gentiles to whom I send you,
to open their eyes that they may turn from darkness to light
and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may obtain forgiveness of sins
and an inheritance among those who have been consecrated by faith in me.”
~ Acts of the Apostles 26:15-18

“I am the least of the Apostles;
in fact, because I persecuted the Church of God,
I do not even deserve the name.
But by God’s favor I am what I am.
This favor to me has not proved fruitless.
Indeed, I have worked harder than all the others,
not on my own but through the favor of God.”
~ 1 Corinthians 15:9-10

“If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love,
I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.
And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge;
if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, it is not pompous, it is not inflated,
it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered,
it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails. So Faith, Hope, Love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is Love.”
~ 1 Corinthians 13:1-2, 4-8, 13

It’s hard to limit oneself when picking out quotes for St. Paul! In any case, here is my depiction of the great Apostle of the Gentiles, robed in his traditional colors of green and red, holding a quill pen, an ornate book of the Gospels, and a sword. The quill pen signifies his role as a great Epistle-writer and teacher of truth while the Book of the Gospels represents his great preaching and missionary work in preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles. Christ is enthroned in the center of the book because Paul’s whole mission was oriented toward preaching Jesus Christ crucified, resurrected, and glorified at God’s right hand. The sword represents the martyrdom of beheading that St. Paul suffered in Rome during the Neronian persecutions. The Holy Spirit hovering over his breast signifies how his words and writings were the inspired Word of God.



:+: A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF THE SAINT :+:

Saint Paul the Apostle (c. 5 A.D. – c. 64 A.D.), also known as Saul of Tarsus was born in the city of Tarsus, on the coast of Asia Minor, to a devout Jewish family of Pharisees who were tent-makers by profession. His family was of the tribe of Benjamin, and his father additionally was a Roman citizen. Paul inherited this privileged citizenship from his father, which entitled him to certain legal and social privileges. Little is known of Paul’s family, except that he had a sister and a nephew (this same sister’s son), who later saved Paul’s life by revealing a plot to murder him to the local tribune (Acts 23:12-22). Paul also had relatives named Andronicus and Junia who converted to Christianity before him, and whom he greets by name in his letter to the Romans (Romans 16:7).

He was sent to Jerusalem as a young man to be educated by the famous and learned rabbi Gamaliel who was a leading teacher in the Sanhedrin. Under the wise teaching of Gamaliel, Paul excelled in his study of the Law of Moses and the writings of the Prophets. He also gained a broader secular education as well that included classical Hellenistic learning (especially philosophy and literature). Paul was still a young man when the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem began to persecute the followers of Jesus, and it was Paul who held the garments of those who stoned St. Stephen to death outside of Jerusalem. After the martyrdom of Stephen around 34 A.D., Paul zealously began to persecute the Church by dragging men and women out of their homes and throwing them in prison. Eventually, he went to the high priest and asked for letters to be given him so that he could arrest the Christians who had fled to Damascus. As he later wrote in his letter to the Galatians: “For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers” (Galatian 1:13-14).

Paul and his retinue had almost arrived at Damascus when, around noon, a great flash of light blinded him and he was thrown from his horse. He heard a voice speaking to him saying, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Paul answered the voice, saying, “Who are you, Lord?” and the voice replied, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city and you will be told what to do.” His traveling companions had seen the light but were thrown into confusion at the sound. They helped Paul get up and led him by the hand to Damascus. He had been there for three days without sight without eating or drinking when a Christian named Ananias was told in a vision to go and lay hands on him and restore his sight. When Ananias initially protested, saying how Paul was a great persecutor of Christians, the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” So Ananias got up and went to the house where Paul was, and laid his hands upon him, saying, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Paul’s blindness left him, and he was baptized.

A few days after his baptism, Paul began preaching that Jesus was the Messiah in the synagogue of Damascus, and quickly gained enemies there who tried to kill him. Paul escaped them by being lowered down over the walls in a basket and fled to Jerusalem. When he introduced himself as a Christian to the Church in Jerusalem, he was initially not believed until Barnabas took him to the apostles and told them the story of Paul’s conversion. Paul then began preaching in Jerusalem, until enemies attempted to kill him, and the apostles sent him to Tarsus. After some time, Barnabas went to Antioch to encourage the believers there, and then found Saul in Tarsus and the two went back to Antioch where they stayed for a year. And it was in Antioch that the followers of Jesus were first called “Christians.”

In Antioch, Barnabas and Paul were both commissioned to preach and so they set off on their first missionary journey, first to Cyprus, then to Paphos, and they eventually set sail for Perga in the region of Pamphylia. While in Antioch (in Psidia), Paul preached eloquently in the synagogue about the law and the prophets being fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and when his enemies out of jealousy contradicted him, he said, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you. Since you reject it and judge yourselves to be unworthy of eternal life, we are now turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying: ‘I have set you to be a light for the Gentiles, so that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’” The Gentiles rejoiced to hear this, but Paul’s enemies stirred up hostility against the apostles, and drove Barnabas and Paul out of the city so that the two instead proceeded to Iconium. The same thing happened in Iconium, so Paul and Barnabas went to Lystra and Derbe. While in Lystra, Paul healed a man who couldn’t walk, and this miracle stirred the people up in such a fervor that they mistook the two men to be Zeus and Hermes and wanted to offer sacrifice to them. Disturbed at these words, Paul and Barnabas shouted, “Friends, why are you doing this? We are mortals just like you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. In past generations he allowed all the nations to follow their own ways; yet he has not left himself without a witness in doing good—giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, and filling you with food and your hearts with joy.” Some of their enemies from Iconium pursued them and stirred up the crowds against them so that Paul was dragged out of the city and stoned and left for dead. When other Christians surrounded him, he got up and left for Derbe with Barnabas. They then returned to Antioch and stayed with the Church there.

Around the year A.D. 50, the apostles convened the Council of Jerusalem to discuss whether Gentile converts needed to be circumcised and follow the prescriptions of the Mosaic Law. After listening to Paul and Barnabas’ accounts of their preaching, the Apostles decided that it was not necessary for the Gentiles to obey the prescriptions of the Torah, but rather that: “It has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well.” Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch with the Council’s decision amidst much rejoicing. A few days later, Paul wanted to set out on his second missionary journey and re-visit all of the cities where they had preached before. Barnabas wanted to take along John Mark, but because the young man had left them when they left Cyprus, Paul refused to have him along. Instead, Paul and Barnabas separated, and Paul took Silas with him. The two left for Tarsus, then traveled to Derbe and Lystra and met Timothy there. Timothy was circumcised and joined Paul and Silas on their journey. In Troas, Paul had a vision in which a man from Macedonia begged him to preach there. Paul left Troas for Samothrace and was joined by Luke. After arriving in Neapolis, they went to Philippi where they met a holy woman named Lydia who invited them to her house. After listening to them preach, she and her whole household were baptized. While in Philippi, Paul cast a demon out of a slave girl who was a soothsayer and made her master a great deal of money. Her master was very angry at losing this income, so he had Paul and Silas seized and led before the magistrate, who had them flogged and then thrown into prison. Around midnight, Paul and Silas were chained in their cell singing hymns when a violent earthquake shook the prison the doors flew open and the chains came undone. The jailer, supposing all of the prisoners had escaped, was about to kill himself when Paul shouted to him to stop and reassured him that all of the prisoners were there. The jailer was baptized along with his whole household and tended to Paul and Silas’ wounds. The magistrate then had them released, and they went back to Lydia’s house.

Paul and Silas then traveled to Thessalonica, where, after preaching in the synagogue, their enemies stirred up a mob to attack them. They got away and the Christians there sent them to Beroea, where the Jews were much more receptive to Paul’s message. His enemies from Thessalonica followed them there and stirred up the crowds so much that Paul was sent to Athens, but Silas and Timothy stayed behind. While waiting for them to join him, Paul spent his time preaching in the synagogue and in the marketplace and was invited by a number of philosophers to expound his views at the Areopagus. Paul did so, and some listened, others scoffed, and some became disciples. Paul then departed for Corinth and met a man named Aquila and his wife Priscilla who shared the same profession of tent-making. While in Corinth, Paul preached in the synagogues and made a number of converts and stayed in the city for a year and a half. Paul then traveled to Ephesus and left Aquila and Priscilla there, and then went back to Jerusalem and then back to Antioch. Aquila and Priscilla met Apollos in Ephesus, and he became a powerful disciple of Jesus.

In the meantime, Paul left Antioch for his third missionary journey by traveling through Galatia and Phrygia and making his way to Ephesus. He stayed there for two years and worked many powerful miracles. However, a silversmith named Demetrius, afraid of losing his livelihood of making silver shrines for idols, stirred up a riot in the theater. Paul then left for Macedonia and then stayed in Greece for three months, and sailed to Troas on his way back to Jerusalem. While in Troas, Paul was speaking to the assembled Christians late into the night when a young man named Eutychus fell asleep and fell out of the window. When they rushed to him, they found him dead, but Paul picked him up and the boy miraculously revived. Paul then sailed from Troas to Miletus, and there he said his final farewell to all the Christians there, as he knew he would never see them again. With Luke, Paul sailed to Tyre where he stayed for a week, and then went on to Caesarea. While there, the prophet Agabus predicted that the Jews of Jerusalem would bind Paul and hand him over to the Gentiles. All gathered there wept, but Paul cried, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”

Paul arrived in Jerusalem and was visiting the Temple when a crowd was stirred up against him and seized him to kill him. When the tribune heard the uproar, he gathered his soldiers and ran down to suppress the commotion. He arrested Paul and demanded to know what the uproar was about, but since there was so much confusion, he had Paul carried to the barracks. Paul asked instead that he be allowed to speak to the people, and the tribune gave him permission. Paul spoke to the people in Hebrew and recounted his conversion and how Jesus had sent him to preach to the Gentiles, but once he mentioned this, the crowd began rioting, and the tribune has Paul taken to the barracks to be flogged. When Paul was being tied up, he asked the centurion if it were lawful to flog an uncondensed Roman citizen. When the tribune found out he was a Roman citizen, he released him, and instead had the Jews convene a council to present their charges against him. Paul announced to the council that he was on trial for believing in the Resurrection, and since his own enemies themselves were divided on this point, they began to debate each other. Pal was taken back to the barracks, but his enemies formed a plot to kill him. Paul’s nephew warned the tribune of this, and so the tribune had Paul sent under guard to Felix, the governor.

Paul was accused before Felix and made his own defense, but Felix postponed judgement until the tribune should arrive. Felix often sent for Paul but since Paul disturbed his conscience and wouldn’t give him a bribe for his release, Felix kept him in prison. When he was succeeded by Festus as governor, Paul remained in prison and his enemies were summoned to accuse him. They asked that he be transferred to Jerusalem where they planned to kill him, but Paul appealed to the Emperor’s judgement, so Festus had him sent to the Emperor, but after first conferring with king Agrippa as to what charges were presented against him.

Luke traveled with Paul as they sailed to Rome, but as it was winter, sea-travel was dangerous. A great storm came up as they sailed past Crete and after many days at sea the crew gave up hope of being rescued. Paul consoled them, saying that he had been reassured that no one would be killed, but that only the ship would be lost. They were shipwrecked on the island of Malta, and were treated kindly by the inhabitants there, especially after Paul had miraculously survived a poisonous snake bite. Paul also healed the father of Publius, the leading man on the island. After spending about three months on Malta, they set sail and landed at Syracuse for three days. Eventually they made their way to Rome, where Paul was warmly greeted by the Christians there. He lived for two years at Rome under house arrest awaiting trial.

Evidently, he was acquitted, for afterwards he went to Spain where he also preached and worked miracles. He made his way back to Rome and, with St. Peter, was the great co-founder and pillar of the Church in Rome. During the terrible Neronian persecutions that swept through Rome after the Great Fire of 64, many Christians were killed. St. Peter was crucified, and St. Paul likewise met his martyrdom under Nero by beheading. Pope St. Clement of Rome wrote this of St. Paul around the year 90:

By reason of jealousy and strife Paul by his example pointed out the prize of patient endurance. After that he had been seven times in bonds, had been driven into exile, had been stoned, had preached in the East and in the West, he won the noble renown which was the reward of his faith, having taught righteousness unto the whole world and having reached the farthest bounds of the West; and when he had borne his testimony before the rulers, so he departed from the world and went unto the holy place, having been found a notable pattern of patient endurance. ~ from the First Letter of St. Clement to the Corinthians

St. Paul’s body was buried along the Ostiense Way and currently resides in a sarcophagus in the Papal Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls.

“Paul, more than anyone else, has shown us what man really is, and in what our nobility consists, and of what virtue this particular animal is capable. Each day he aimed ever higher; each day he rose up with greater ardor and faced with new eagerness the dangers that threatened him. He summed up his attitude in the words: I forget what is behind me and push on to what lies ahead. When he saw death imminent, he bade others share his joy: Rejoice and be glad with me! And when danger, injustice and abuse threatened, he said: I am content with weakness, mistreatment and persecution. These he called the weapons of righteousness, thus telling us that he derived immense profit from them.

Thus, amid the traps set for him by his enemies, with exultant heart he turned their every attack into a victory for himself; constantly beaten, abused and cursed, he boasted of it as though he were celebrating a triumphal procession and taking trophies home, and offered thanks to God for it all: Thanks be to God who is always victorious in us! This is why he was far more eager for the shameful abuse that his zeal in preaching brought upon him than we are for the most pleasing honors, more eager for death than we are for life, for poverty than we are for wealth; he yearned for toil far more than others yearn for rest after toil. The one thing he feared, indeed dreaded, was to offend God; nothing else could sway him. Therefore, the only thing he really wanted was always to please God.

The most important thing of all to him, however, was that he knew himself to be loved by Christ. Enjoying this love, he considered himself happier than anyone else; were he without it, it would be no satisfaction to be the friend of principalities and powers. He preferred to be thus loved and be the least of all, or even to be among the damned, than to be without that love and be among the great and honored.

To be separated from that love was, in his eyes, the greatest and most extraordinary of torments; the pain of that loss would alone have been hell, and endless, unbearable torture.

So too, in being loved by Christ he thought of himself as possessing life, the world, the angels, present and future, the kingdom, the promise and countless blessings. Apart from that love nothing saddened or delighted him; for nothing earthly did he regard as bitter or sweet.

Paul set no store by the things that fill our visible world, any more than a man sets value on the withered grass of the field. As for tyrannical rulers or the people enraged against him, he paid them no more heed than gnats. Death itself and pain and whatever torments might come were but child’s play to him, provided that thereby he might bear some burden for the sake of Christ.”
- from a sermon by St. John Chrysostom

The Feast of St. Paul the Apostle is celebrated on June 29th.
The Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle is celebrated on January 25th.

St. Paul the Apostle is the patron saint of evangelists, missionaries, theologians, Gentile Christians, authors, rope-makers, Malta, and those suffering from snake-bites.

O God, who taught the whole world
through the preaching of the blessed Apostle Paul,
draw us, we pray, nearer to you
through the example of him whose conversion we celebrate today,
and so make us witnesses to your truth in the world.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.