<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong>Patronage &ndash;</strong></span> Against Snakes, Authors, Cursillo Movement, Evangelists, Hailstorms, Journalists, Lay People, Missionary Bishops, Musicians, Publishers, Reporters, Public Relations Personnel, Rope Makers, Saddle Makers, Tent Makers, Numerous Dioceses&nbsp;</p> <p>St. Paul was born at Tarsus, Cilicia.&nbsp; He was born into a Jewish family who were decedents from the tribe of Benjamin.&nbsp; He was a Roman citizen from birth, and was a young man at the stoning of St. Stephen, and an old man when writing Philemon.&nbsp; This places his birth around the beginning of the Christian era.&nbsp; He was educated in Jerusalem in the strict observance of the ancestral Law.&nbsp; He was trained in the practice of disputation, and returned to Tarsus before the public life of Christ began in Palestine. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>After the death of Our Lord, St. Paul returned to Palestine.&nbsp; He had a profound conviction that made his zeal develop to a religious fanaticism against the Infant Christian Church.&nbsp; He even took part in the stoning of the first martyr, St. Stephen.&nbsp; He played an active role in the persecution of the Christians that followed.&nbsp; He was commissioned to go to Damascus to arrest the Christians there and bring them back to Jerusalem.&nbsp; He was to heading Damascus, when a light from heaven suddenly blazed around him.&nbsp; Jesus, with His glorified body appeared to him and addressed him, turning him away from his evil ways of persecuting the Christians.&nbsp;</p> <p>St. Paul had an immediate transformation that settled in his soul.&nbsp; In an instant, he was converted heart and soul to the Christian Faith.&nbsp; He was soon baptized and had his name changed from Saul to Paul.&nbsp; He began to travel and preach the faith, to any and all that would listen.&nbsp; We know he became a great Apostle of the Gentiles, and made three missionary journeys, which brought him to Asia Minor and southern Europe.&nbsp; St. Paul has fourteen of his Epistles that are found in the New Testament.&nbsp; We know that he was martyred as an Apostle in Rome around the year 65.&nbsp; He was beheaded in Rome and his body is kept in the Basilica of St. Paul near the Ostian Way.&nbsp;</p> <h1><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong>Practical Take Away</strong></span></h1> <p>St. Paul was born Saul and was from Tarsus.&nbsp; He was educated in the strict Jewish Law, and did all in his power to violently persecute Christians.&nbsp; He was there and participated in the first martyred Christian, St. Stephen.&nbsp; From that point he worked diligently to persecute the Christians.&nbsp; One day on his way to Damascus, Our Lord appeared to him, and he was instantly transformed.&nbsp; He was baptized and dedicated the rest of his life to promoting Christianity, and became a great Apostle to the Gentiles.&nbsp;</p>