orig. Saul
born AD 10?, Tarsus in Cilicia
died 67?, Rome
Early Christian missionary and theologian, known as the Apostle to the Gentiles.
Born a Jew in Tarsus , Asia Minor, he was trained as a rabbi but earned his living as a tentmaker. A zealous Pharisee , he persecuted the first Christians until a vision of Jesus , experienced while on the road to Damascus, converted him to Christianity. Three years later he met St. Peter and Jesus' brother James and was henceforth recognized as the 13th Apostle. From his base in Antioch, he traveled widely, preaching to the Gentiles. By asserting that non-Jewish disciples of Christ did not have to observe Jewish law, he helped to establish Christianity as a separate religion rather than a Jewish sect. On a journey to Jerusalem, he aroused such hostility among the Jews that a mob gathered, and he was arrested and imprisoned for two years. The circumstances of his death are unknown. Paul's ministry and religious views are known largely from his letters, or epistles, collected in the New Testament , which are the first Christian theological writing and the source of much Christian doctrine. It was due to Paul more than anyone else that Christianity became a world religion.