A Marytyred Apostle’s Shrine – The basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls was built over the tomb of the missionary Apostle Paul, founder – along with St. Peter – of the Roman Church. His memory has been honoured in this basilica as St. Peter’s in his – throughout two millennia of Christian history.
THE MISSIONARY APOSTLE
Two very Oriental palm trees stand in the courtyard before the basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls. This exotic suggestion – as palm fronds in medieval mosaics evoked far-away Jerusalem – eases the pilgrim beyond the initial disappointment to a hint of the modern building’s origins in the early days of Christian martyrdom. For the basilica was originally constructed in 324, upon the express desire of the first Christian Emperor, Constantine, to commemorate the burial place of the martyred Apostle St. Paul.
We know much about Paul (Saul), a Jew born in Tarsus and trained as a Pharisee, from the Acts of the Apostles and from his own Epistles. Intense and ambitious, he first persecuted Christians with fanatic determination, and even participated in the stoning of St. Stephen in Palestine. Later, after his conversion on the road to Damascus, the new Apostle (by virtue of his personal vision of and ‘calling’ by Christ, as he himself wrote) pursued his worldwide evangelizing mission with the same boundless energy with which he had hunted down Christians. Less appealing than the fallible, lovable Peter, Paul’s tireless missionary efforts and great theological contributions nevertheless gave Christianity its universal momentum.
