PAUL, Apostle, Saint. - Apostle who spread Christianity among the Gentiles, b. at Tarsus (v.) in Cilicia in the first decade of the Christian era and martyred at Rome under Nero, in all probability in 67 A.D.
I. LIFE
1. Youth
By birth P. inherited the right of Roman citizenship (Acts 16:37; 22:25-28) and a deep attachment to the Mosaic Law. He glories in being "a Hebrew, born of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee" (Phil. 3:5); elsewhere he calls himself "a Pharisee, son of Pharisees" (Acts 23:6) and recalls his almost fanatical zeal "for the traditions of his fathers" (Gal. 1:14). It is possible that in the intellectual city of Tarsus, P. attended Greek schools, but the traces of a Hellenistic education are extremely faint and debatable (cf. Acts 17:28; 1 Cor. 15:33; Titus 1:12), whereas his rabbinic formation is undeniable; to perfect it he went as a young man (A.D. 14-20?) to Jerusalem. There he studied "at the feet of Gamaliel" (Acts 22:3), a doctor quite well known in Jewish traditions and of a serene and balanced spirit (cf. ibid. 5:34 ff.).
The fruit of his attachment to the Mosaic religion was his participation in the first persecution against the nascent Church. P. appears for the first time at the stoning of Stephen (v.). It is difficult to specify the part he played in it. The text limits itself to saying that during the gruesome action the stoners, in order to be freer, laid down their garments "at the feet of a young man named Saul" (by this name he is always remembered until his first missionary journey). It is certain, however, that immediately afterward this "young man" took a very active part in the persecution (Acts 26:9-11).
2. The conversion
While P. was carrying out this anti-Christian activity with a sure conscience (cf. 1 Tim. 1:13), an unforeseeable event happened to him, which revolutionized his entire life. Near Damascus, where he was heading as an envoy of the Sanhedrin against the Christians, the risen Jesus appeared to him. The supernatural phenomenon was noticed by his companions, who fell stunned (Acts 9:3-7; 22:7-10; 26:14-18); it produced, as a physical effect, a blindness of a few days in the protagonist and, as a moral-psychological consequence, his complete transformation from persecutor to most convinced follower of Jesus. This is the most salient point of P.'s life and, therefore, the preferred object for historical-religious studies.
For rationalists it constitutes a formidable stumbling block; theories have multiplied, usually exaggerating or inventing physical or physiological or historical-psychological or purely psychical-religious elements, but so far no hypothesis has been able to claim to have solved the enigma. With a sense of melancholy it has been concluded that "no analysis, whether psychological or dialectical, is capable of scrutinizing the intimate mystery of the act by which God revealed his Son to P." (F. C. Baur, Das Christentum und die Kirche der drei ersten Jahrhunderte, 2nd ed., Tübingen 1880, p. 45). In such an event "history can only show the sudden change" (C. Weizsäcker, Das apostolische Zeitalter der christlichen Kirche, 3rd ed., ibid. 1902, p. 75).
3. At Damascus and in the desert
Having recovered from the deep impression and having received Baptism from the hands of Ananias (v.), P. was immediately transformed into a Christian missionary; but his first result was a disappointment (Acts 9:20 f.). He then thought of withdrawing into the desert to meditate and deepen the truths perceived with supernatural intuition at the moment of his conversion. For almost three years he lived "in the desert" (Gal. 1:17 f.), that is, in Arabia Petraea not too far from Damascus. After this retreat P. made another apostolic attempt, again without success, at Damascus (Acts 9:23); then he went to Jerusalem to meet with the Apostles, particularly with Peter (Gal. 1:18; Acts 9:26 ff.). The reception was rather cold, given the terrible persecutor he once had been. The levite Barnabas (v.) helped to dispel this distrust, but even in Jerusalem no prospect opened up for the zeal of the convert. There were even attempts at conspiracy on the part of Hellenistic Jews. "When the brothers learned of this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus" (Acts 9:30), where he remained about four years, until Barnabas came to fetch him to lead him as a missionary to Antioch (Acts 11:25).
4. First missionary journey
In the city on the Orontes P. remained four or five years, carrying out a secondary activity in the shadow of his friend Barnabas, who took him along with him to Jerusalem to bring there the subsidies collected in anticipation of the famine (Acts 11:30) foretold by the prophet Agabus (v.). Having returned from Jerusalem, P. in 45-46 was assigned to an apostolic mission on a large scale. A prophet designated him together with Barnabas; the leaders laid their hands on them and entrusted them to the Grace of God for the ministry assigned to them. The young Mark, cousin of Barnabas, joined the two. The first stage was the Island of Cyprus, Barnabas's homeland. The three landed at Salamis and, having crossed the whole island, reached Paphos (v.), seat of the governor. That office was held by the proconsul Sergius Paulus, who converted to Christianity, especially following P.'s victory over the magician Bar-Jesus (v.), who was left blind after the Apostle's command (Acts 13:1-12). From this moment P. moves to the forefront and is almost always named by his famous name, not assumed as a remembrance of the converted proconsul but probably received from birth together with that of Saul.
From Paphos the missionaries sailed for Pamphylia in Asia Minor. After a very brief stop at Perge (v.), they reached Antioch on the borders between Phrygia and Pisidia and therefore called "Antioch of Pisidia." There one Sabbath, in the synagogue, P. delivered a discourse to the Jews and proselytes assembled (Acts 13:16-41), which is an admirable example of primitive catechesis and a summary of Pauline theology. The effect was encouraging; P. was officially invited to speak at the meeting the following Sabbath. Then, however, the hostilities of the Jews also began, who, making use especially of certain proselyte women, forced the missionaries to leave the city (ibid. 13:50). They headed east and reached Iconium in Lycaonia, where they carried out a brief apostolate until they were driven away by Jewish opposition. At Iconium many of the events described in the apocryphal Acts of P. (v.) took place. At Lystra (v.) P. obtained a greater success through his miraculous healing of a lame man; but soon he had to take refuge at Derbe, where he carried out a serene and fruitful activity, but about which little is known (Acts 14:21). From Derbe the missionaries began the return journey, confirming the converts and establishing a certain ecclesiastical hierarchy in the communities. At Perge they embarked for Antioch of Syria, thus ending the first missionary journey, in all probability in A.D. 49.
5. Assembly of Jerusalem
Without doubt the most delicate question that troubled the nascent Church was its relation to Judaism. The problem, unknown in Palestine where the converts loved to preserve their Mosaic practices, manifested itself with all its difficulties in Antioch, where clear-sighted figures such as Barnabas and P. had not required of the Christians who were former pagans any submission to strictly Jewish precepts. The arrival of certain emissaries of the Church of Jerusalem with the precise idea of imposing such norms produced no small disturbance among the faithful. They insisted first of all on the necessity of circumcision (Acts 15:1), a rite that repelled the great majority of the gentiles.
To resolve the problem, Paul and Barnabas were sent to Jerusalem to confer with the Apostles. They also brought Titus (v.) there with them, an uncircumcised Christian. In Jerusalem the two missionaries were received with signs of esteem and mutual brotherhood; nevertheless some zealots did not fail to demand of Paul the circumcision of Titus, according to the most probable interpretation of the intricate passage of Gal. 2:3. Paul not only did not yield to this demand, but he defended so well the thesis that the Mosaic Law no longer bound anyone that in practice his opinion triumphed in the assembly. Peter championed his cause, and James too, "the brother of Jesus," much venerated by the Jewish Christians, adhered to it, requesting only a few practical concessions from the Gentile Christians, such as abstinence from eating blood, from fornication, and from meat offered to idols.
It was the year 49 or 50 A.D.; the decision was of the greatest importance for the nascent Church. It was the triumph of Paul, who joyfully brought it to Antioch, insisting on communicating these decisions on the abrogation of the Mosaic Law to the faithful. When, shortly afterward, Peter in Antioch would assume an uncertain attitude, avoiding contacts with the Gentile Christians so as not to irritate the touchy Judaizers, Paul would not fear to publicly reprove his dangerous conduct (Gal. 2:11-14).
6. Second missionary journey
Once this question was settled, Paul began his second journey, which turned out to be much longer than the first. Barnabas proposed taking along again his cousin Mark, who on the first journey had abandoned them at Perga in Pamphylia (Acts 13:13). Paul opposed this energetically, even renouncing the company of Barnabas, who departed with Mark for Cyprus (ibid. 15:39). Barnabas's place was taken by Silas (v.) or Silvanus, who had excellent qualities besides the privileged status of Roman citizenship (cf. ibid. 16:37). The journey's first destination was the Christian communities of Derbe, Lystra and Iconium. In the second of these cities Paul found a new collaborator, who would become his disciple and beloved companion, the young Timothy (v.). From Pisidian Antioch the three headed north through Phrygia and "the Galatian country" (ibid. 16:6), interpreted by some as practically equivalent to Lycaonia and Pisidia, while others, with better foundation, see in it the authentic region of Galatia (v.). Probably the missionaries reached Pessinus and Dorylaeum; then Paul proposed heading west, where the important cities of the province of Asia stood; but the Holy Spirit disapproved of this plan. The attempt in the opposite direction, toward Bithynia to the northeast, obtained the same result (ibid. 16:6, 7). Then the three headed northwest until at Alexandria Troas Paul received the clear revelation that his mission was to be carried out in Greece. The first city evangelized on the European continent was the important Roman colony of Philippi (ibid. 16:12-15). As at Lystra, so too at Philippi a miracle worked by Paul provided the occasion for stubborn opposition against the missionaries. Some, whom the Apostle had deprived of a convenient source of income by freeing a slave girl from diabolical obsession, accused him as a disturber of public order. Paul, together with Silas, was flogged and imprisoned; but the next day the magistrates, frightened at having inflicted such a penalty on Roman citizens, set them free (ibid. 16:16-39).
Having left Philippi, whose small Christian community was entrusted to the care of Luke (v.), who had joined the three missionaries at Troas, Paul went to Thessalonica (today Salonica) on the Thermaic Gulf. Among the converts in this city it suffices to mention Jason, who at his own expense received the missionaries (ibid. 17:5, 9), and Aristarchus and Secundus, who later became companions of the Apostle (ibid. 20:4). To escape the hostility of the Jews, Paul went to Beroea, where he carried out a serene and fruitful activity, until agitators arrived from nearby Thessalonica. Then Paul moved on to Athens (ibid. 17:16-34), where he delivered an interesting speech on the Areopagus (ibid. 17:22-31); but the result was rather meager. The philosophers mocked Paul as a deluded dreamer, while ordinary people, it seems, took no interest in him. A few, however, were converted; among them are remembered Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, and Damaris.
Much more fruitful, even though accompanied by grave sorrows and hardships for the Apostle, was the long activity carried out in the capital of Achaia, at Corinth. There Paul converted, among others, the ruler of the synagogue Crispus (ibid. 18:8). This aroused the resentment of the Jews, who summoned the Apostle before the tribunal of the proconsul Junius Gallio (v.), brother of the philosopher-poet Seneca. This magistrate did not act against the accused, who was thus able to continue his apostolate for "many days" longer, perhaps until the autumn of 53, when he headed east to revisit the mother Church of Jerusalem and the other Christian communities of Asia.
7. Third missionary journey
Paul departed from Corinth with a "vow" (ibid. 18:18), that is, almost certainly as a Nazirite (v. NAZIRITE). He went to Jerusalem (Acts 18:22; ἀναβὰς καὶ ἀστασάμενος τὴν Ἐκκλησίαν); then he went to Antioch, from where in the spring of 54 he began his third missionary journey. After a brief visit to the communities of the province of Galatia, evangelized on the first and second journeys, Paul made an extraordinarily long stay (about 3 years, cf. ibid. 20:31) at Ephesus. In that city a rudimentary Christianity had already been spread by the Alexandrian Apollos (v.). Paul completed the instruction of the few adherents and, aided by numerous collaborators, carried out intense activity also in the neighboring cities (ibid. 18:24 - 19:40). The effectiveness of his preaching is shown by the agitation of the silversmith Demetrius, who saw his trade in statuettes of the goddess Artemis compromised (ibid. 19:24). At Ephesus Paul likewise suffered much and will say metaphorically that he had to fight with wild beasts (I Cor. 15:32); a real imprisonment (v.) is more than probable, perhaps reflected in the letter to the Philippians. A brief visit to Corinth also appears debatable, but very probable, where the Apostle would have received a hostile reception from one of his enemies (cf. II Cor. 2:1-5). Finally, after a visit to the communities of Macedonia, Paul went to Corinth, where he spent the three winter months (57-58). His stay in the capital of Achaia was shortened because of the plots laid against him by some Jews (Acts 20:3). To escape an assassination attempt, Paul changed his itinerary on his way to Jerusalem, where he intended to bring the collection he had diligently gathered for the poor of that city (cf. II Cor. 8-9; Rom. 14:31). Passing again through the various Churches of Macedonia and the Asian coast, he reached Jerusalem for Pentecost of 58.
8. Imprisonment of Paul
In the holy city, where he was received with joy by the dignitaries, Paul was invited to render public homage to the Mosaic prescriptions to silence the grumbling of the Judaizers. He associated himself willingly to four Nazirites, who had to fulfill
their vow, bearing the not inconsiderable expenses. He was, however,
immediately arrested by the Roman garrison following
an attempted lynching on the part of the Jews, who
slanderously accused him of having introduced into the Temple the
Gentile-Christian Trophimus of Ephesus (Acts 21:27 ff.).
The tribune Lysias subjected him to scourging, which
he had stopped as soon as he learned of the accused man's Roman
citizenship; then, having come to know of a
Jewish plot against the prisoner's life, he hastened
to have him transported to Caesarea to the procurator Antonius Felix. There, after a vain attempt at
accusation by the Jews, P. was left under military
custody for two years with a relative freedom. The successor of Felix, Porcius Festus, intending to resolve with
dispatch the strange case of the prisoner, proposed a
trial in Jerusalem, since these were religious
questions; but P. refused, appealing to the tribunal of
the Emperor as a Roman citizen (ibid. 25:12).
In the autumn of 60 P. set out, under escort, for
Rome. On the coasts of Malta the ship was wrecked; but
the passengers and the crew were saved, not without
a particular intervention of divine Providence.
On the island there was a forced stop of three months,
during which P. acquired great popularity with
his miraculous healings. Only in the spring
of 61 did he enter the City, welcomed with great veneration by the Christians. There, while remaining for two years
in the condition of a prisoner, P. obtained a fairly ample
freedom, which he used for a fruitful
Christian propaganda (ibid. 28:31).
9. The martyrdom
From the letters of the imprisonment
(Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon and, perhaps, Philippians) and from the
pastoral letters (I and II Timothy and Titus) it appears clear that P. regained complete freedom and continued his
intense apostolic activity. In all probability he
was in Spain (cf. Rom. 15:24, 28; Clement of Rome,
Ad Cor., 5, 7; Muratorian Fragment). Then
he returned to Italy and to the East, stopping at Ephesus
(I Tim. 1:3), at Miletus (II Tim. 4:20), at Crete (Tit.
1:5), in Macedonia (I Tim. 1:3) and in Epirus (at
Nicopolis, cf. Tit. 3:12), where he was probably
arrested again. Brought to Rome, in 67, according
to the traditional date, he ended his eventful
life, beheaded at the Aquae Salviae, in the locality
currently called "Tre Fontane," according to the
apocryphal Acts.
P., the most eminent personality in the apostolic
period, was a man of action as dynamic as could be,
a tireless missionary and a fighter, but more
than all he was a mystic and an apostle with a heart
filled with love and zeal for "Christ."
II. EPISTLES
Of P., besides the various discourses summarized in the Acts, tradition has preserved 14 letters (it is not excluded that some of his writings have been lost [cf. I Cor. 5:9; Col. 4:16]). According to the usual order, neither chronological nor logical but dictated by extrinsic criteria, the Pauline letters are: Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews (v. the respective entries). The most probable chronological order is the following: Thessalonians (A.D. 51), Galatians (54), Philippians (?) during the Ephesian sojourn (54-55), Corinthians (55, 57), Romans (57-58), Philemon, Colossians, Ephesians and, according to the most common opinion, Philippians at the time of the Roman imprisonment (61-62), Hebrews (64), I Timothy (65-66), Titus (66), II Timothy (66).
The various writings often differ in subject, style and length. Although the appellation of "letter" suits them all, in tone or literary genre they present great difference. Some, like the note to Philemon, are strictly personal and confidential, while others (like Romans, Ephesians, Hebrews) differ very little from a doctrinal "epistle."
Literarily these writings of P. are distinguished by a wholly particular elegance. The language, fairly pure, belongs to the koine or "common" dialect: semitisms are rare, if compared with those of other New Testament works; but there is no lack of even bold anacolutha, which make the reading difficult and forbidding at first. The charm of the Pauline letters is not the effect of studied art, but of the depth of thought and the vehemence of P.'s affections for Christ, for his neophytes, for the entire Christian Church.
III. DOCTRINE
It is difficult to summarize in a few lines the teaching of P., which constitutes the granite foundation for many points of Christian theology. Although he has most felicitous Trinitarian expressions (cf. Rom. 8, 9-11. 14-17; 15, 15. 16; I Cor. 6, 11; 12, 4-6; II Cor. 2, 21; 13, 13; Gal. 4, 6; Eph. 1, 3-14; Tit. 3, 4-6), P. presents an eminently Christocentric doctrine. In the revelation at Damascus the risen Christ had identified himself with his followers: "Saul, Saul, why dost thou persecute me?" (Act. 9, 4). From this concept P. derived, as most important elements of his catechesis, the idea of the Resurrection, the ultimate consequence of the redemptive work, and that of the Mystical Body: Christ, head of the Church, who vivifies and sustains the whole marvelous edifice constituted by the various faithful. Another cornerstone of Pauline doctrine is the universality of the Redemption, which, while not annulling the privileges of the Jewish people, is offered without distinction to all the nations. This is the great hidden mystery, dimly illuminated by the ancient prophets, but inconceivable for the great majority of contemporary Jews; P. glories in being destined to proclaim it (Eph. 3, 8, 9).
1. Christology
For P. the newness of Christianity consists in the revelation of the Word "the mystery of God, the Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col. 2, 2, 3). To the fragmentary revelation of the ancient prophets God has substituted the perfect one through his Son, "through whom also he created the worlds, who, being the radiance of his glory and the imprint of his essence and sustaining all things by the word of his power, having accomplished purification, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much superior to the Angels, as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs" (Hebr. 1, 2-4): here twice over are summarized the principal prerogatives of the Son of God in his eternal preexistence, in his historical existence and in his glorified survival. The Son of God, principle of union and coordination of all created things (cf. Col. 1, 16), centers and recapitulates (ἀναχεραλαιόακαθαι), as principle of elevation to a supernatural order, all things in himself (Eph. 1, 10).
By such a prerogative Christ is the antithesis of Adam. Both, though in different form and with different functions, were constituted heads of humanity. The second by his sin brought separation from God and a series of punishments and sorrows, among which first of all death. The first repairs in a superabundant manner the evil caused by the second, bringing the life of Grace and vanquishing sin (cf. Rom. 5, 12-21). This presupposes man's capacity to receive the communication of divine life, that is, Grace, the universal salvific will of God (cf. ibid. 3, 21-31; 8, 15; Eph. 1, 3-14), together with the absolute necessity of a redemption for fallen humanity (cf. Rom. 1, 18-3, 18). By virtue of the Redemption the kingdom of sin is succeeded by that of Grace, the tyranny of the Mosaic Law, which manifested itself as an unconscious instrument of sin with its multiplicity of precepts without the intrinsic help for their observance, is succeeded by the freedom of the children of God, the dominion of the flesh and of concupiscence is succeeded by the possibility of living "according to the spirit" with the capacity to produce fruits of righteousness: the kingdom of death is succeeded by that of life and of the Resurrection (cf. I Cor. 15, 12 ff.). In short, to the forms of a rudimentary religion (στοιχεῖα τοῦ κόσμου, cf. Gal. 4, 3) and to the imperfect "economy" of the Old Testament, according to the terminology dear to the Greek Fathers, is substituted a new "economy," based on the salvific work of Christ, on the dominion of Grace and on the ineffable reality of the Mystical Body. Soul of all these marvelous events is Christ, the one and eternal priest who regulates the relations between God and humanity (cf. Hebr. 2, 17; 4, 14; 5, 5 etc.): he is the only mediator (I Tim. 2, 5).
2. The Holy Spirit and the Mystical Body
Christ is the center of all creation and the head of the Mystical Body, but the Holy Spirit is its vivifying soul (cf. I Cor. 6, 19; Rom. 8, 2, 11; II Tim. 1, 14). It is the source of the charisms, which had so much importance in the primitive Church (cf. I Cor. 12, 4). The revelation of the divine mysteries is the work of the Spirit (ibid. 2, 10). The impulses of Grace come from the same Spirit. The Christian, therefore, must "walk in the Spirit" or "be moved by it" (Rom. 8, 4, 14), which generates the whole complex of all the virtues (Gal. 5, 22). The faithful must consider himself as a temple of the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 6, 19). To this is attributed sanctification, because through its means "the love of God is poured out" in the hearts of believers (Rom. 5, 5).
Nevertheless this task is also exercised by the glorified Christ as head of the Mystical Body. For this reason it would be easy to point out Pauline texts that refer the same prerogative now to one and now to the other divine Person, who acts in conformity with the predestination of God the Father (Rom. 8, 29, 30). Moreover, even in ordinary language the various vital phenomena are referred very easily to the head or to the soul of an organism. In the theological field the truth is more evident inasmuch as Christ is able to pour out the fullness of the Spirit (I Cor. 15, 45); sanctification is attributed to the Holy Spirit sent by the Son.
To the concept of the Mystical Body is connected that of the intimate solidarity among the faithful, as members of one and the same organism, and therefore that of the Communion of saints (cf. I Cor. 10, 17; Eph. 4, 4-6).
3. The Sacraments
Among the means of Grace P. recalls in a special way Baptism, which marks the birth of the Christian. More than on the necessity of the rite (cf. Act. 19, 5), P. insists on pointing out its symbolism; it represents also externally death to the world and the incorporation of the new creature into the Mystical Christ (cf. Rom. 6, 3; Gal. 3, 27; Eph. 3, 6). The Apostle recalls at length the Eucharist (I Cor. 11, 20-32). He speaks of Holy Orders, pointing out its capacity to confer Grace (Act. 20, 28; I Tim. 4, 14; II Tim. 1, 6). Finally he insists on noting the symbolic character of Christian Marriage, which represents the intimate union between Christ and his Church (cf. Eph. 5, 32); and he descends to practical cases to regulate the use of Marriage, declaring its lawfulness but subordinating it to the more esteemed state of virginity (I Cor. 7, 2-40).
4. Ethics
Moral theology finds a more modest harvest in the writings of P. who, while in the letters to the Romans and to the Galatians he solemnly declares the end of the Mosaic Law as a whole, is less explicit in showing in what "the law of Christ" (Gal. 6, 2; I Cor. 9, 21) or of Grace (cf. Rom. 6, 15) consists. Nevertheless he vindicates the binding force of the natural law and of the dictate of conscience (ibid. 2, 14, 15). Finally in the letters lists of long moral recommendations are not rare (cf. I Thess. 5, 14, 19-22; Rom. 12, 8-15). In general, however, P. insists much more on the positive side of ascetics and mysticism than on the negative one of sin to be avoided. The commitment of the Christian is to form "a new creature" perfect and to live "in Christ." This can be realized only with the acquisition of the various moral virtues under the vivifying and unifying action of "charity" (cf. I Cor. 13, 1-13), which is "the bond of perfection" (Col. 3, 14).
The Christocentric idea of his theology also dominates the ethics of P., who loves to speak of moral "death" and "resurrection" (Rom. 6:4, 6, 11; Col. 2:20-3:8), of the necessity of "putting off" the old personality (= Adam) in order to "put on" the new (= Christ; cf. Rom. 13:14; Eph. 4:20-24; Col. 3:9-11). Just as in Christology P. dwells at length on liberation from the tyranny of the flesh, so in the moral field he insistently demands the renunciation of the flesh in order to follow the impulses of the Spirit, who dwells in the hearts of the faithful (cf. Gal. 5:16-26; Rom. 8:4-10).
With regard to society, P., while pointing out its many vices (cf. Rom. 1:18-32), does not set himself up as a revolutionary reformer; he aims first of all at individual transformation. Even when writing to Philemon on behalf of Onesimus, a runaway slave, he delicately avoids any statement that might lend itself to incendiary actions. He does not condemn slavery, but dwells with satisfaction on the duty of "charity" and presents analogies suited to directing the thoughts of Christian masters toward other ideas (common slavery with regard to Christ, 1 Cor. 7:22; danger of a slavery of sin, Rom. 6:6, 16). In politics, a subject constantly avoided, P. does not appear at all the "revolutionary" identified by some contemporary Jews (cf. Acts 16:20, 21; 17:6, 7; 24:5, 12) and by certain modern historians. He invites his readers to respect the law of the State; but even in this field he points to a higher authority, God, to whom everything must be subordinated, including every human dignity (cf. Rom. 13:1-7; 1 Tim. 2:2; Titus 3:1).
5. Eschatology
For this subject the two letters to the Thessalonians are fundamental, along with certain passages of those to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 15:12-55; 2 Cor. 5:3) and to the Romans (13:11 ff.). While in certain texts P. seems to long for a speedy end of the world with the corresponding beginning of a blessed life with Christ (cf. 2 Cor. 5:3, 4; Phil. 1:6, 10; 3:20; 4:5), in others (Rom. 11:25) he posits as necessary the prior spread of the Gospel and the conversion of the Jews, which should precede the complex events of the parousia (revelation of the Antichrist and second coming of Christ). Speaking of the afterlife, P. dwells on the final resurrection, which had its meritorious and formal cause in that of Christ, head of the Mystical Body (Rom. 4:25; 1 Cor. 15:12-58). The Universal Judgment follows (cf. 2 Cor. 5:10; Rom. 2:16; 2 Tim. 4:1). The fate of sinners is barely touched upon (cf. 2 Thess. 1:5 ff.) by P., who dwells so much on the happiness of the just. The protagonist of these final events will again be Christ, who, having finally completed his work, "will hand over the kingdom to God the Father" (1 Cor. 15:24-28).
IV. "PAULINISM". - By this term is often meant the entire theological doctrine of P., who would have vivified or, rather, altered the teaching of Jesus with foreign elements, drawn from Judaism or Hellenism, according to the preferences of the various authors. The question is made more complicated by the fact that "criticism" regarding the Pauline personality is influenced by often antagonistic positions concerning the authenticity and reliability of the sources, concerning the relations between P. and Jesus, concerning primitive Christianity and other elements connected with the history of religions.
The importance of P. not as an apostle, but as the creator of a Christian theology or even as the founder of Christianity, has been so exaggerated as to make felt the need for a return to the simplicity of the Gospel. "Let us free ourselves from P." (Los vom Paulus) or "Back to Christ" is the watchword that still guides certain students of Christianity. In reality such an invocation is explicable only after the violent separation of P. from Jesus, of whom the former always considered himself a devoted follower and imitator (cf. 1 Cor. 11:1).
After the timid attempts of L. Usteri (1824) and of certain other authors, "Paulinism" began to be a favorite theme from the time of the Tübingen school. Its founder, F. C. Baur, following the philosophical conception of Hegel, described the teaching of P., which would derive from Hellenism, as the antithesis of the Judaizing thesis (= Petrinism). Among the more or less direct followers of this school, it suffices to recall A. Hilgenfeld, O. Pfleiderer, C. Holsten, H. J. Holtzmann, C. Weizsäcker, F. Ferrari. The basis of their reconstruction, at least originally, is the recognition of the authenticity of only 4 letters (Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians). For the notorious Dutch school (A. Pierson, W. C. van Manen, S. A. Naber, D. Völter, etc.), which denied the authenticity of all the epistles, "Paulinism" would be the late doctrine (2nd cent.) of a progressive Christian group, which intended to place its own ideas under the aegis of P.
Such an absurd position of criticism caused a lively reaction in all circles. As effects of this reaction one may point to a greater respect for tradition concerning the authenticity of the Pauline writings, a certain skepticism concerning the claim to identify the teaching of P. in a single mother-idea, a greater interest in the life of P., as well as in his doctrines, and the almost total abandonment of the simplistic manner of explaining "Paulinism" by deriving it from Hellenism. For this reason the relations of P. with the Old Testament, with contemporary Jewish literature, with the teaching of Jesus and of the other Apostles were investigated with greater acumen. From such an investigation it has emerged that the primitive orientation of Protestant exegesis, which generally posited as the foundation of "Paulinism" the idea of the "justice of God," drawn from the letter to the Romans, is untenable. In general the importance of the Redemption or soteriology is now emphasized. The quintessence of Pauline thought would be the redemptive work of Christ.
Regarding the sources of "Paulinism," once the exaggerated influence of Greek thought (Tübingen school and followers) and of the mystery religions (R. Reitzenstein, P. Wendland, H. Böhlig, J. Weiss, F. Cumont, A. Loisy,
V. Macchioro, etc.) is excluded, the claim of a Judaic explanation (O. Pfeiderer, M. Brückner, A. Schweitzer, W. M. Ramsay, G. B. Stevens, H. Windisch, A. Scott) is also to be rejected. This shows that P. remains an insoluble enigma if he is separated from his natural framework. His teaching derives from the Old Testament and in the first place from direct revelation. Contact with the other Apostles and his profound mystical experience, together with the contingent needs of the various communities, will help to explain certain particularities or the different importance attributed to individual elements.
Bibliography39 works
Doctrine, Catholics: F. Prat, La teologia di s. P., 2 vols., Paris 1908-13, Italian trans. by G. Albera of the 7th French ed., Turin 1941; A. Lemonnier, Théologie du Nouveau Testament, Paris 1918; C. Lattey, Thèses Paulines, Rome 1923; J. B. Colon, Paul, in DThC, XI, cols. 2330-2400; L. Tondelli, Il pensiero di s. P., Milan 1928; P. Monier, Avec Paul, apôtre du Christ-Jésus, Paris 1939; G. Thils, Pour mieux comprendre et Paul, ibid. 1941; F. Amiot, L'enseignement de St Paul, 2 vols., ibid. 1944; J. M. Bover, Teologia de s. Pablo, Madrid 1946; J. Bonsirven, L'Évangile de Paul, Aubier 1948. Non-Catholics: L. Usteri, Entwicklung des paulinischen Lehrbegriffes, Zurich 1824; O. Pfeiderer, Der Paulismus, Leipzig 1873; G. B. Stevens, The pauline theology, New York 1892; H. J. Holtzmann, Lehrbuch der neutestamentlichen Theologie, II. Der Paulismus, Freiburg im Breisgau 1897; C. Holsten, Das Evangelium des Paulus, Berlin 1898; P. Feine, Theologie des Neuen Texts, Leipzig 1910; A. Schlatter, Die Lehre der Apostel, Tübingen 1910; 2nd ed. Stuttgart 1922; id., Die Botschaft des Paulus, Velbert 1928; W. Morgan, The religion and theology of St. Paul, Edinburgh 1917; H. A. A. Kennedy, The theology of the Epistles, London 1923; B. W. Bacon, The apostolic message, New York 1925.
On the history of "Paulinism": V. Courdaveaux, St Paul d'après la libre critique en France, Paris 1886; A. Schweitzer, Geschichte der paulinischen Forschung, Tübingen 1911; Th. S. Kepler, Contemporary thinking about St. Paul, New York 1951; F. Prat, Paulinisme, in DFC, III, cols. 1631-54. For particular questions (Christology, pneumatology, angelology, etc.), since the bibliography is very abundant, reference is made to two lists that are easy to consult, even if not very recent: F. Prat, Teologia di s. P., II, Paris 1912, pp. 447-51; P. H. Höpfl-B. Gut, Introductions specialis in New. Test., 4th ed., Rome 1938, pp. 322-26.
Angelo Penna
V. LITURGICAL FEASTS
The cult of the two Princes of the Apostles, unlike that paid to the other members of the Apostolic College, which preserved for a longer time its local sepulchral character, soon acquired universal diffusion.
In the East the feast of Peter and P. began by being celebrated after Christmas, as is evident, for example, from St. Gregory of Nyssa (Homilia in laudem s. Stephani:
PL 46, 725; in laudem fratris Basilii: ibid., 780); from the Syriac Martyrology (Dec. 28: ed. H. Lietzmann, Bonn 1911, p. 8); from the Calendar of Oxyrhynchus of the years 535-36 (Dec. 27: ed. H. Delhaye, in Anal. Boll., 42 [1924], pp. 85, 92) and from the dissident Armenian one (Dec. 30). However, from the 3rd-4th centuries onward in the West, a usage later also adopted among the Byzantines, the Syro-Jacobites, the Maronites, the Chaldeans, the Malabarese, the Copts and Ethiopians, the principal feast of the apostle P. was fixed together with that of Peter on June 29 (for the origin of this feast v. PETER). The apostle P. has two other minor feasts in the Calendar of the universal Church: the Conversio s. Pauli (Jan. 25) and the Commemoratio s. Pauli (June 30); moreover P. is always commemorated in the proper feasts of Peter and vice versa.
The Conversio is not of Roman origin; it is in fact absent from the ancient Roman liturgical books, with the exception of the Auxerre recension of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, which calls it Translatio s. Pauli or also Translatio et conversio s. Pauli (Martyr. Hieronym., pp. 61-62). This second title has led De Waal, Duchesne, Lietzmann and others to think that it concerns the commemoration of the translation of the Apostle's relics from the cemetery "ad Catacumbas" to the Basilica on the Via Ostiense. Others have made Translatio a synonym of Conversio (Kirsch). Be that as it may, in Gaul, where the feast originated, the intention was truly to commemorate the fact of the Apostle's conversion and vocation. It suffices to cite for this purpose the "post nomina" prayer of the "Missa in conversione s. Pauli" of the Missale Gothicum: "Deus qui apostolum tuum Paulum insolentem contra christiani nominis pietatem coelesti voce cum terrore perculsum hodierna die vocationis eius mentem cum nomine communi" (ed. H. M. Bannister, London 1917, pp. 46-47). Msgr. Kirsch places the institution of this feast (6th century) in close relation with that of the Chair of Peter on Jan. 18, also of Gallican origin, which commemorated the vocation of St. Peter and his Primacy. The Pauline feast of Jan. 25 passed into the Roman liturgical books of the 10th-11th centuries through the influence of the Gelasian Sacramentary of the 8th century, beginning with the Sacramentary of Angoulême of the end of the 8th century, in which it appears with the same object as in the Gallican books (cf. P. de Puniet, Le Sacramentaire Romain de Gellone, extract from the Eph. liturgicae, Rome [1938], pp. 20-21). In the late Middle Ages in not a few dioceses of France, Germany and especially England this feast was of obligation and its office took precedence even over the Sunday office, provided it was not the Sunday of Septuagesima (cf. Ordo XV, cap. 103, of Pietro Amelio [d. 1389]; ed. J. Mabillon: PL 78, 1340). The abbot of S. Paolo, on the occasion of Jan. 25, by a privilege granted by Innocent III (June 13, 1203) and reconfirmed by Benedict XV (Jan. 14, 1915), celebrates Mass on the papal Altar.
The Commemoratio s. Pauli of July 30 is instead a Roman feast, instituted to give the faithful an occasion to go in great numbers to the Basilica of S. Paolo on the Via Ostiense, as on the preceding day to the basilica ad corpus of St. Peter. It is worth citing in this regard an anonymous Sermon of the 6th-7th century in which we read that the feast of St. P. was transferred to the 30th: "Ut sicut in b. Petri aula universa convenit multitudo, ita in eius coapostoli ecclesia eadem pariter annexa conflueret populi congregatio, aequalisque omnibus inesset laetandi devotio" (Sermo XVII under the name of St. Leo the Great: PL 54, 513 and 56, 1138-39). This feast appears in the ancient Gelasian and Gregorian Sacramentaries (cf. De Puniet, op. cit., pp. 116-17). On the occasion of the prelatial chapel of the archbishops and bishops assisting the Throne on June 30, an archbishop assisting the Throne celebrates at the papal Altar by concession of Gregory XVI (1841).
Bibliography6 works
A. Pietro Frutaz
VI. ARCHAEOLOGY
St. Paul was beheaded on the Via Ostiense, according to the apocryphal Acts, in the locality "ad aquae Salvias," and buried in an area belonging to a certain Lucina, under the open sky (E. Stevenson, L'area di Lucina sulla Via Ostiense, in Nuovo bull. arch. crist., 4 [1898], p. 60 ff.). The works for the widening of the Via Ostiense near the Basilica brought to light in 1917 a grand pagan burial area in use from the 1st to the 3rd century (G. Lugli, Scavo di un sepolcreto romano presso la basilica di S. P., in Notiz. degli scavi, 1919, pp. 285-354). In 1838, while the papal altar was being redone, the marble slab was discovered (2.12 × 1.27 m), in four pieces, with the inscription: PAULO APOSTOLO MART, with three quadrangular openings joined to one another and descending to the levels of 0.59, 0.32 and 0.20. In one of them the censer was placed during the nocturna diligentia, into the others brands were lowered. H. Grisar attributed the inscription to the Constantinian age, but the characters rather reveal the Theodosian age. On that occasion the architect Vespignani (H. Grisar, Die Grabplatte des Apostels Paulus, in Röm. Quartalschr., 6 [1892], p. 127 ff.; id., Le tombe apostoliche, in Studi e docum. di storia e diritto, 13 [1892], p. 321 ff.; id., Le tombe apostoliche al Vaticano ed alla Via Ostiense, in Anal. Romana, I, Rome 1899, pp. 259-73) made a drawing of the loculus fitted with iron gratings that enclosed the Apostle's area; this was inside or in contact with a cell in opus reticulatum with brick bonding (fig. 1: ibid., p. 267), which according to Lanciani would have been a columbarium (R. Lanciani, Delle scoperte fatte nel 1838 e 1850 presso il sepolcro di P. apostolo, in Nuovo bull. di arch. crist., 23 [1917], pp. 7-27).
The Apostle's tomb was venerated already in the 2nd century, since Eusebius reports the testimony of the "vir ecclesiasticus" Gaius, who points out the trophies of the Vatican and of the Via di Ostia (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., II, 25, 7) of the two apostles Peter and Paul, founders of the Church of Rome.
The basilica erected by Constantine over the Apostle's tomb soon proved too small to receive the multitudes of the faithful; therefore three emperors, Valentinian, Theodosius and Arcadius, wrote in 386 to the prefect of Rome, Sallustius, that "contemplatione venerationis antiquitus iam sacratae" they had come to the determination "basilicam Pauli apostoli pro sanctimonio religionis ornare, pro quantitate conventus amplificare, pro studio devotionis attollere" (Epistolae imperatorum et pontificum, ed. O. Günther, in CSEL, XXXV, Vienna 1898, p. 46); the whole, however, was to be examined "cum venerabili sacerdote," that is, with the pope Siricius, whose name recurs on a base ("Siricius episcopo, tota mente devotus," in H. Grisar, Roma alla fine del mondo antico, Rome 1908, p. 285, fig. 80). An inscription calls it the basilica of the three Emperors: "trium dominorum nostrorum" (G. B. De Rossi, Bull. arch. crist., 3rd series, 3 [1878], p. 67 and pl. 1). The Basilica was completed under Honorius, as is read in the mosaic inscription of the triumphal arch: "Theodosius coepit, perfect Honorius aulam, doctoris mundi sacratam corpore Pauli." Prudentius at the beginning of the 5th century already describes its splendor of mosaics and polychrome marbles (Peristephanon, XI). But the building was severely damaged by the earthquake of 443; Leo the Great restored it, replaced the ruined columns and redid the roof. John VIII (872-82) fortified the basilica and the monastery, so that the place took the name of Giovannipoli. Repaired several times over the course of the centuries and, especially, under Innocent II (1130-43), Honorius III (1216-27) and Sixtus V (1585-90), it survived until the fire of 17 July 1823, which reduced it to ruin. Leo XII began its rebuilding, continued under Gregory XVI and completed under Pius IX.
The invocations to the two princes of the Apostles scratched between 258 and the beginning of the 4th century in the memoria in Catacumbas, both in Greek and in Latin, sometimes name Paul first (P. Styger, Il monumento apostolico della Via Appia, in Dissert. della Pont. accad. rom. di archeol., 2nd series, 13 [1918], pp. 58, 59, 61, 62, 64, 65-67, 69, 71, 73, 74, 76, 78 ff.).
Bibliography8 works
Enrico Josi
VII. CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY
1. Ancient
Ancient Christian iconography for the most part depicted St. Paul together with the prince of the Apostles; his type is constant from the 4th century, with a high forehead, aquiline nose, elongated face, pointed beard, and dark in painting, as Nicephorus describes him. The Vatican medallion published by Bolidetti, in which his bust appears together with that of St. Peter, is a genuine forgery of the 16th-17th century, established following the chemical examination carried out in the scientific laboratory of the Vatican Museums (E. Romagnoli, in Conferenze della Società dei Cultori dell'arch. crist., in Riv. arch. crist., 21 [1944-45], p. 323). Together with St. Peter or with the other Apostles he appears in 4th-century frescoes of the Christian cemeteries of Rome, as in Domitilla (Wilpert, Pitture, pls. 153,2; 154, 1; 155, 2; 181, 2; 182; 248), in Pretestato (pl. 251), in the cemetery known as that of Marcus and Marcellinus (pl. 249, 1). St. Paul is also portrayed in the cemetery known as that of St. Januarius in Naples, with St. Lawrence offering him the crown (H. Achelis, Die Katakomben von Neapel, Leipzig 1936, pl. 41, pp. 48 and 70).
Christian sarcophagi depicted especially the scene of his martyrdom, both in Rome (Museum of the Lateran, St. Sebastian) and in Gaul (e.g., at Marseille, in the Boreb Museum); the best example of this scene is in the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus, found near the confessio of St. Peter in the Vatican, now in the Vatican Grottoes; the Apostle is the pendant to St. Peter in the sarcophagi in which the traditio legis is represented, which also occurs in a fresco of the cemetery ad decimum of the Via Latina, dated by G. Wilpert to the end of the 4th century (Mosaiken, pl. 132), and in a graffito marble slab from Rome, now in Anagni, near the church of Sts. Cosmas and Damian.
According to G. Wilpert, Paul and St. Peter would be portrayed before Nero in the Spanish sarcophagus of Berja, near Almería (Sarcofagi, p. 167 and pl. 151, 2). In the Ravenna sarcophagi the two princes of the Apostles approach the Redeemer, each bearing a crown. In a fragment of a sarcophagus lid, found in 1897 in the basilica of St. Valentine on the Via Flaminia, a bearded man with the name PAULUS inscribed beside him holds the tiller and steers the mast of the ship on whose side is written THECLA. O. Marucchi saw in this an allusion to the legendary relations between Thecla and St. Paul (Una nuova scena di simbolismo sepolcrale cristiano, in N. bull. arch. crist., 3 [1897], pp. 103-12, and pl. IV, better in M. Simon [L'apôtre Paul dans le symbolisme funéraire chrétien, in Mélanges d'archéol. et d'hist., 50 [1933], pp. 156-82]). G. Wilpert published a Frammento di una lapide cimiteriale con il busto di s. Paolo (mid-4th century) found in the cemetery of St. Agnes, in N. bull. arch. crist., 7 (1901), pp. 257-58 and pl. 9; instead the name "Petrus" is written on it; it recalls other similar types in the Lateran such as the epitaph of Asellus (O. Marucchi, Monumenti del Museo cristiano lateranense, Milan 1910, pl. 57, p. 42) and therefore it must also have contained the bust of St. Peter.
In gold glasses he appears with the usual iconographic type or together with Peter only, as in Roman examples in the Museo sacro of the Vatican Library (R. Garrucci, Vetri ornati di figure in oro trovate nei cimiteri dei cristiani primitivi di Roma, Rome 1857, pl. 10, nos. 2, 4, 5, 6; 12, 3-6) and in one from Regensburg (E. Ebner, Altchristliche Denkmäler Regensburg's, in Römische Quartalschrift, 6 [1892], p. 158 and pl. 9); or he is alone, as in Roman glasses (Garrucci, op. cit., pl. 14, nos. 5-6); at Cologne (H. Vopel, Die altchristlichen Goldgläser, Freiburg im Br. 1900, p. 116); or with anepigraphic figures at the corners (id., ibid., pl. 25, 7). He is found further with Jesus Christ placing a crown on his head and on that of St. Peter (J. E. Liebersdorf, Christus und Apostelbilder, Leipzig 1902, p. 75, fig. 34), together with Peter and Mary (Garrucci, op. cit., pl. 9, nos. 6-7), with Peter and Lawrence (id., op. cit., pl. 20, 7), with Peter and Agnes (id., op. cit., pl. 21, nos. 1, 4), with Peter, Sixtus and Damasus (id., op. cit., pl. 23, 1), with Peter, Luke, Julius, Sixtus (id., op. cit., pl. 17, 5). In a terracotta lamp now at Cologne, but found at Akhmim, with the two princes of the Apostles, Paul has the cruxiferous nimbus and grasps the sword (R. Forrer, Die frühchristlichen Alterthümer aus dem Gräberfelde von Achmim Panopolis, Strasbourg 1893, p. 6 and pl. 5, 2).
In mosaics Paul appears in all the scenes of the traditio legis to Peter, as in the mausoleum of St. Constance in Rome (Wilpert, Mosaiken, pl. 4); of his figure only the lower part remains in the mosaic of the baptistery of Naples (id., ibid., pl. 32); in the apse of the Vatican Basilica (id., ibid., pp. 361-63 and fig. 114). Likewise he is together with Peter at the sides of the throne, in the triumphal arch of St. Mary Major, as he will later be in the chapel of St. Zeno in St. Praxedes. In the scene of the traditio clavium, on the tomb of the martyr Adautus in the cemetery of Commo-
(phot. Alinari)
PAUL, APOSTLE, saint - Interior of the basilica of St. Paul. Reconstruction by L. Poletti and others after the fire of 16 July 1823.
dilla, the Apostle approaches the Lord seated on the globe with his volumes of the Epistles (Enc. Catt., IV, cols. 63-64). Always together with St. Peter, Paul appears as protector or advocatus to welcome the deceased into eternal happiness.
In ivories there are three scenes of his life in a 5th-century diptych in the Bargello Museum in Florence (Venturi, I, fig. 385); in another from Rouen (H. Leclercq, Diptyques, in DACL, IV, 1, p. 1149, fig. 3770) and in a third from Tongeren (id., ibid., p. 1153, fig. 3772).
The conversion of St. Paul was depicted in a basilica in Spain, probably in Saragossa; the illustrative distich by Prudentius is known (Dittochaeum, no. 48). According to G. B. De Rossi the martyrdom of St. Paul was represented in the basilica of St. Peter in Chains, given the distich transcribed there: "Laetus procubuit Paulus cervice secanda, cui caput est Christus despicit ipse suum" (Inscriptiones christianae Urbis Romae, II, Rome 1888, p. 110, no. 68).
Enrico Josi
2. Medieval and modern
The episode of the Apostle's life destined to enjoy the widest fortune is certainly that of his conversion. To it is dedicated the entire fol. 82 of the manuscript of Cosmas Indicopleustes, of the 7th century, in the Vatican Library; and the narrative unfolds in four different moments: Paul leaves Jerusalem (the latter represented in the left corner of the folio). At the divine Revelation the Saint prostrates himself on the ground. On the right, beneath the walls of Damascus, he converses with Ananias, instructing himself in Christian doctrine. The cycle concludes, at the center, with the image in glory of the Apostle, who holds the evangeliary. The manuscript of Cosmas Indicopleustes is also to be considered the prototype of the cycles dedicated to the history of the Apostle, which would flourish in the Romanesque age, but already widespread in the Carolingian age, as attested by the depictions of the beautiful Bible of the abbey of St. Paul in Rome.
In Byzantine art, and in those manifestations influenced by it, the Saint is for the most part represented with Peter and with the other Apostles: thus, for example, in a relief of the church of Etchmiadzin, in the mosaics of the Roman basilicas of St. Cecilia and of St. Praxedes (817-24), in the frescoes of S. Martino ai Monti, of S. Clemente (9th century), of S. Maria in Via Lata, of S. Pellegrino in Naumachia (10th century), which, in Rome itself, had had early Christian precedents in the mosaics of S. Costanza, of Sts. Cosmas and Damian, of S. Lorenzo and S. Teodoro (6th century) and in frescoes of S. Maria Antiqua (8th century).
(by courtesy of prof. E. Josi) (from P. Stuyer, Römische Marmorgeografie, Berlin Bibl)
Outside Rome, analogous depictions are found in S. Elia at Nepi, in S. Silvestro at Tivoli, in S. Pietro at Tuscania (11th century), in S. Pietro at Civate (12th century), in S. Maria infra portas at Foligno, in an almost innumerable series of works, which extends as far as the cycle of the mosaics of Monreale, to the Tuscan painters of the 13th century, to the frescoes of S. Bevignate at Perugia, in the chapel of S. Silvestro at the SS. Quattro Coronati (Wilpert, Mosaiken, pl. 268), to the 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 Sacro Speco at Subiaco, of the cathedral of Anagni, etc., by then in the full Romanesque age. Singular is the scene of St. P. accompanying the various classes of the dead, priests, monks, rich men, plebeians to the judgment, in the panel of the end of the 11th century 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 celebrated Giottoesque triptych of Card. Stefaneschi in the Vatican Pinacoteca.
From the end of the 13th century through the whole 14th century, representations of the Apostle multiply: from the frescoes of Cimabue at Assisi, to the sculpture of Arnolfo di Cambio in the ciborium of S. P., from Torriti, from Rusuti, from Cavallini to Duccio, to Simone Martini, to Lippo Memmi, to Ambrogio Lorenzetti, to Taddeo Gaddi, to Bernardo Daddi, it is a whole artistic flowering which, realized in panels, not rarely reaches the highest masterpieces, while the iconography too changes from the 13th century onward, and the sword appears, symbol of martyrdom.
Outside Italy, mention is made of a statue in the Museum of Toulouse, a panel in the Museum of S. P. at Worms (of the 13th century) and reliefs at Tournai, at Aachen, etc. Decapitated, holding his head between his hands, he appears in a martyrology of the Library of Stuttgart.
Cycles. - The most important cycle dedicated to the history of the Saint was found, as is natural, 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 irremediably lost in the fire of 1523 and in the restorations consequent upon it, and replaced by 38 19th-century frescoes. In the same fire the mosaics of the triumphal arch were damaged, while the fresco of Antoniazzo Romano was saved in an entrance passage to the sacristy, in which the Apostle appears, with the open book and the long sword. Equally destroyed in the building renovations of the 16th century were the other frescoes with the life of St. P. in the Vatican Basilica: executed under Pope Liberius, they were restored by Pope Gregory IV and by Formosus (891-94) and repainted, according to Vasari, at the end of the 13th century and in the 14th century, by Cavallini and by Giotto. The panels of the great mosaic cycle of Monreale, however, have been preserved intact, with the following episodes: journey to Damascus, conversion, blinding at the gates of the city, conversation with Ananias, Baptism, dispute with the Jews, flight from Damascus, delivery of the letters of Timothy, meeting in Rome with St. Peter, decapitation.
The 16th century, besides numerous depictions of individual episodes, offers the cycle, due to Raphael, in the celebrated tapestries now in the Vatican Pinacoteca with the Conversion of St. P., the Blinding of Elymas, the Sacrifice at Lystra, the Sermon on the Areopagus and the Imprisonment. Holbein the Elder too gave a complex representation of several episodes, according to the legend of Jacopo da Varazze, in the panel now in the Gallery of Augsburg, of 1504. In it are the scenes of the Conversion, of the Baptism, of the Imprisonment, of the Delivery of the letters, of the Sermon (which Thecla attends), of the Meeting with St. Peter, of the Decapitation, of the Miracle of the three springs and of the Finding of the head of the Apostle, depicted according to the Flemish modes of continuous narration. Forment, in the altar of S. P. in Saragossa (1516-24), presents eight scenes, some of which were iconographically rare (Resurrection of a young man fallen from the window, Prayer between 2 lions and 2 bears, Judgment before Nero).
But in the modern age the representations of individual episodes are above all widespread. The imprisonment of the Saint, for example, frescoed by Michelangelo in the Pauline Chapel; then two paintings by Rubens (in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum of Berlin and in the Pinacoteca of Munich) and an engraving by Dürer. The conversion, among others, is in the canvas of Caravaggio in S. Maria del Popolo. The Apostle moreover appears in the Dispute over the Sacrament of Raphael in the Room of the Segnatura, in the Vatican.
In the rebuilding of the Ostian Basilica the iconography of the Apostle was enriched with various plastic representations that were placed alongside the wooden statue of the 13th century venerated by the pilgrims who carried off splinters from it. Of these, mention is made of the gigantic work of Revelli and that for the altar of the Saint, by Tenerani. - See pls. LI-LIII.
Bibliography4 works
Eugenio Battisti
VIII. APOCALYPSE of P
Apocryphal writing (v. APOCRIFI, LIBRI), which narrates what the Apostle would have seen in a journey to the underworld. After a brief historical and parenetic introduction follows the account of the rapture of St. Paul (cf. II Cor. 12, 2-4). Under the guidance of an angel, P. contemplates the death of a just man and of a wicked man with their respective particular judgment. Then begins the journey through the place of the blessed, populated by the patriarchs, the prophets and other saints of the Old Testament. Having passed to the place of torments, he contemplates the punishments of the damned, among whom are discerned, with notable anachronism, also members of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. The journey ends in the Earthly Paradise, where the tree of good and evil and the tree of life still sprout and where the meeting with the Virgin Mary takes place, surrounded by a group of just men of the Old Testament.
From the theological side, note is to be taken of the affirmation of a diminution of the eternal punishments or rather of their suspension during Sunday in memory of the Resurrection. This heterodox statement is omitted in the Syriac recension. The writing is not only precious for its cosmological ideas, but also as a source of the tradition, gathered by Dante (Inferno, II, 28), of a journey of St. Paul into the kingdom of the damned. The diffusion of the Apocalypse of P. is attested by the many recensions in different languages, some of which appear in multiple redactions. Down to our own day there have come the Greek, Latin, Syriac, Armenian, Coptic, Arabic recensions, besides various medieval reworkings in modern languages (Italian, French, German, Anglo-Saxon).
The oldest allusion to the book is found ca. 416 in a sermon of St. Augustine (Tract. in Ioan., 98, 8: PL 35, 1884-85). Sozomen too (Hist. eccl., VII, 19: PG 67, 1477-80) around 440 speaks of it as of a recent work. In the Syriac recension (§ 52) it is said 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 century.
Bibliography8 works
Angelo Penna
IX. ACTS OF PAUL
An apocryphal work, originally a single whole, now known through three fragments, which present themselves with their own characteristics and in a form complete in themselves: the Acts of P. and of Thecla, the (apocryphal) correspondence between P. and the Corinthians (v.) and the Martyrdom of P. In the first, the life of P. is narrated independently of the Acts of the Apostles; there is found in it 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 woven around questions of faith. Finally the Martyrdom of P. narrates in the minutest detail the end of the Apostle at Rome.
The Acts of P. present themselves as anonymous. Nevertheless the author does not claim to pass for a companion of the Apostle, as often happens in such apocryphal writings. From the doctrinal point of view he was undoubtedly hostile to the various Gnostic currents, which he has P. refute anachronistically. Although some expression concerning chastity might give rise to the suspicion that he was an Encratite (v. ENCRATITES), the author is orthodox. Only his enthusiasm for virginity drives him to lay on the colors. 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 Περδος, 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 degraded. St. Jerome (De viris ill., 7: PL 23, 651) with very little plausibility has him condemned by the apostle St. John himself.
The testimony of Tertullian and of Origen (De principiis, I, 2, 3: CB, V, p. 30; In Ioannem tom. XX, 12: CB, IV, p. 342) places without question in the 2nd century (perhaps in 160-70) the composition of the primitive writing, which has come down to us somewhat reworked in its three parts. Contrary to what happened with other apocrypha, in antiquity great benevolence was shown toward it, and it had a wide diffusion, especially on account of its edifying account concerning Thecla (v.).
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Angelo Penna
X. PREACHING OF PAUL
An apocryphon whose existence is known only through the testimony of the anonymous De rebaptismate. There a puerile and evidently heretical account concerning the Baptism of Jesus, drawn from a Pauli praedicatio, is cited with harsh words.
Jesus, after having confessed his sins, would have been compelled by Mary to receive the Baptism of John, which would have been administered with water and with fire, miraculously appearing on the water. There is also mention 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 a literary relationship with the Acts of P. (v.), and the hypothesis of Hilgenfeld, who connects it with the Preaching of Peter (v.), is problematic.
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Angelo Penna