SERGIO PAOLO. - Roman proconsul in Cyprus during the first missionary journey of s. Paolo (Act. 13, 7-12).
Luke praises his intelligent prudence. S. summoned Paolo and Barnaba. A Jewish magician, Bariesu (v.), sought to turn him away from the faith; but a miracle of Paolo removed all hesitation. He is the first Roman authority whose adherence to Christianity is recorded.
The identification of this S. P. with his namesake, who supplied Pliny with information on natural history (cf. Nat. hist., I. De auctoribus), or with a Lucio Sergio Paolo, superintendent of the banks of the Tiber (cf. CIL, VI, 21.545), is undocumented. Probably false is the hypothesis that the Apostle changed the name Saulo to that of Paolo following the conversion of the proconsul, although it is found in ancient writers (cf. Gerolamo, Comm. in epist. ad Philem., 1: PL 26, 640-41; Agostino, Confess., VIII, 4: CSEL, 33, p. 177) and also in recent ones (cf. H. Dessau, Der Name des Apostels Paulus, in Hermes, 45 [1910], pp. 347-68).