PAOLO, APOSTOLO, santo - Complete and detailed full-scale cast photographed from the "fenestella confessionis" of the inscription placed on the Apostle's tomb (4th cent.) - Rome, basilica of S. Paolo.
(courtesy of Msgr. A. P. Frutaz)
Outside Rome, similar depictions are found in S. Elia near Nepi, S. Silvestro in Tivoli, S. Pietro in Tuscania (11th cent.), S. Pietro in Civate (12th cent.), S. Maria infra portas in Foligno, in an almost innumerable series of works extending up to the cycle of the mosaics of Monreale, the 13th-century Tuscan painters, the frescoes of S. Bevignate in Perugia, in the chapel of S. Silvestro at SS. Quattro Coronati (Wilpert, Mosaiken, pl. 268), at SS. Giovanni e P. (id., ibid., pl. 270, 2); scenes from the legend of Pudens are in a chapel in S. Pudenziana (id., ibid., pl. 262, 2) and in the frescoes of S. Francesca Romana in Rome, of the S. Speco in Subiaco, of the cathedral of Anagni, etc., by now fully in the Romanesque period. Singular is the scene of s. P. accompanying the various classes of the deceased—priests, monks, the rich, plebeians—to judgment, in the late 11th-century panel in the Vatican Pinacoteca (D. Redig De Campos, in Rendiconti Pont. Accad. rom. di archeol., 11 [1935], p. 139 ff.). His martyrdom is represented in the famous Giottesque triptych of Card. Stefaneschi in the Vatican Pinacoteca.
From the late 13th through the entire 14th century, representations of the Apostle multiply: from the frescoes of Cimabue in Assisi to the sculpture of Arnolfo di Cambio in the ciborium of S. P., from Torriti, Rusuti, Cavallini to Duccio, Simone Martini, Lippo Memmi, Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Taddeo Gaddi, Bernardo Daddi, it is an entire artistic flowering which, realized in panel paintings, not infrequently achieves supreme masterpieces, while iconography also changes beginning in the 13th century, with the appearance of the sword, symbol of martyrdom.
Outside of Italy, one may recall a statue in the Museum of Toulouse, a panel in the Museum of S. P. in Worms (13th cent.), and reliefs in Tournai, Aachen, etc. Decapitated, holding his head between his hands, he appears in a martyrology of the Stuttgart Library.
Cycles. - The most important cycle dedicated to the history of the Saint was naturally located in the Basilica built over his tomb, and had been executed by Cavallini between 1280 and 1292 in two superimposed tiers of the left nave, unfortunately irretrievably lost in the fire of 1523 and subsequent restorations, and replaced by 38 19th-century frescoes. In the same fire the mosaics of the triumphal arch were damaged, whereas the fresco by Antoniazzo Romano in an access corridor to the sacristy was saved, in which the Apostle appears with an open book and a long sword. Likewise destroyed in the 16th-century architectural remodeling were the other frescoes depicting the life of s. P. in the Vatican Basilica: executed under Pope Liberius, they were restored by Pope Gregory IV and Formosus (891-94) and repainted, according to Vasari, in the late 13th and 14th centuries by Cavallini and Giotto. On the other hand, the panels of the great mosaic cycle of Monreale have been preserved intact, featuring the following episodes: expedition to Damascus, conversion, blinding at the city gates, dialogue with Ananias, Baptism, dispute with the Jews, flight from Damascus, delivery of the letters of Timothy, meeting in Rome with s. Peter, decapitation.
The 16th century, in addition to numerous depictions of single episodes, offers the cycle by Raphael in the famous tapestries now in the Vatican Pinacoteca with the Conversion of s. P., the Blinding of Elymas, the Sacrifice at Lystra, the Preaching on the Areopagus, and the Imprisonment. Holbein the Elder also provided a complex representation of multiple episodes, according to the legend of Jacopo da Varazze, in the panel now in the Augsburg Gallery, dated 1504. In it are the scenes of the Conversion, Baptism, Imprisonment, Delivery of the letters, Preaching (attended by Thecla), Meeting with s. Peter, Decapitation, Miracle of the Three Springs, and Discovery of the Apostle's Head, depicted according to the Flemish modes of continuous narration. Forment, in the altar of S. P. in Zaragoza (1516-24), presents eight scenes, some of which were iconographically rare (Resurrection of a youth fallen from a window, Prayer among 2 lions and 2 bears, Judgment before Nero).
In the modern age, however, representations of single episodes are especially widespread. The imprisonment of the Saint, for example, was frescoed by Michelangelo in the Pauline Chapel; followed by two paintings by Rubens (in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin and the Munich Pinacoteca) and an engraving by Dürer. The conversion, among others, is the subject of Caravaggio's canvas in S. Maria del Popolo. The Apostle also appears in Raphael's Dispute of the Sacrament in the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican.
In the rebuilding of the Ostiense Basilica, the iconography of the Apostle was enriched by various plastic representations alongside the 13th-century wooden statue venerated by pilgrims who chipped off fragments of
II. Among these, the colossal work by Revelli and that for the altar of the Saint by Tenerani should be mentioned
See pls. LI-LIII.VIII. APOCALISSE di P
Apocryphal writing (v. APOCRIFI, LIBRI), which narrates what the Apostle purportedly saw during a journey to the afterlife. A brief historical and parenetic introduction is followed by the account of the rapture of s. Paul (cf. II Cor. 12, 2-4). Under the guidance of an angel, P. contemplates the death of a righteous man and of an ungodly man, together with their respective particular judgments. Then begins the journey through the place of the blessed, populated by the patriarchs, prophets, and other Old Testament saints. Passing to the place of torments, he contemplates the punishments of the damned, among whom one notices, with a notable anachronism, even members of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. The journey ends in Terrestrial Paradise, where the tree of good and evil and the tree of life still sprout, and where the meeting takes place with the Virgin Mary, surrounded by a group of Old Testament righteous.On the theological side, one must note the assertion of a reduction of eternal punishments, or rather of their suspension on Sundays in memory of the Resurrection. This heterodox report is omitted in the Syriac recension. The writing is precious not only for its cosmological ideas, but also as a source of the tradition, gathered by Dante (Inferno, II, 28), of a journey of s. Paul to the realm of the damned. The circulation of the Apocalypse of P. is attested by many recensions in different languages, some of which appear in multiple redactions. The Greek, Latin, Syriac, Armenian, Coptic, and Arabic recensions have come down to us, alongside various medieval reworkings in modern languages (Italian, French, German, Anglo-Saxon).
The earliest allusion to the book is found c. 416 in a discourse by s. Augustine (Tract. in Ioan., 98, 8: PL 35, 1884-85). Sozomen as well (Hist. eccl., VII, 19: PG 67, 1477-80) around 440 speaks of it as a recent work. In the Syriac recension (§ 52) it is stated that its existence was revealed at the time of the Emperor Theodosius (379-95). Everything, therefore, concurs to place its date at the end of the 4th cent.
IX. ACTS OF P
An apocryphal work, originally unitary, now known through three fragments that present their own characteristics and a complete form in themselves: the Acts of P. and Thecla, the (apocryphal) correspondence between P. and the Corinthians (v.), and the Martyrdom of P. The first narrates the life of P. independently of the Acts of the Apostles; it contains a long account of the conversion of Thecla at Iconium, of her decision to remain a virgin, of the persecutions she suffered, and above all, of her heroic attachment to the Apostle. The correspondence between P. and the Corinthians is poor in biographical information, being constructed around questions of faith. Finally, the Martyrdom of P. narrates in the most minute detail the end of the Apostle in Rome.The Acts of P. are anonymous. However, the author does not pretend to pass himself off as a companion of the Apostle, as often happens in such apocryphal writings. From a doctrinal standpoint, he was undoubtedly hostile to the various Gnostic currents, which he has P. anachronistically refute. Although some expression concerning chastity might raise the suspicion that he was an Encratite (v. CARAITI), the author is orthodox. Only his enthusiasm for virginity leads him to lay the colors on thick. Such orthodoxy is already affirmed by Tertullian (De Baptismo, 17: CSEL, XX, p. 215), who reports that the author of the Acts of P., or Periodoi as he more properly calls them, had been a priest of Asia, who intended in this way to honor the memory of the Apostle. Convinced of his historical falsification, he was deposed. St. Jerome (De viris ill., 7: PL 23, 651), with very little verisimilitude, has him condemned by the apostle St. John himself.
The testimony of Tertullian and Origen (De principiis, I, 2, 3: CB, V, p. 30; In Ioannem tom. XX, 12: CB, IV, p. 342) unquestionably places the composition of the primitive writing in the 2nd century (perhaps in 160-70), which came down somewhat redacted in its three parts. Contrary to what happened with other apocrypha, in ancient times people were very benevolent toward it, and it enjoyed a wide circulation, especially Thecla (v.).
X. PREACHING OF PAUL
An apocryphal work whose existence is known only through the testimony of the anonymous De rebaptismate. In it, a childish and evidently heretical account of the Baptism of Jesus, drawn from a Pauli praedicatio, is quoted with harsh words.Jesus, after confessing his sins, would have been forced by Mary to receive the Baptism of John, which was said to have been administered with water and with fire that miraculously appeared on the water. Mention is also made of other absurdities (absurde ac turpiter dicta) of the work (De rebaptismate, 17: CSEL, III, p. 90). It does not appear that this apocryphal writing had any literary relation to the Acts of P. (v.), and the hypothesis of Hilgenfeld, which connects Peter (v.), is problematic.