St. Paul the Apostle

Our saint for today is for my nephew, Raiden Paul, who along with the rest of his family has been fighting a stomach bug. I usually don't do posts on the Saints everyone already knows, but because it is for Rai ...

St. Paul was a Jew born in the city of Tarsus and was also a Roman citizen from birth. He studied under the great Rabbi, Gamaliel, and was very learned in the Jewish law and the Scripture.
We often have an image of Paul as a middle aged man with a wrinkled face and a beard, but at the time of his conversion, he was probably only in his early twenties. After his conversion on the road to Damascus, Paul spent much time in prayer and meditation as well as learning from Peter and the other apostles before setting out to evangelize the Gentiles.

Paul wrote a large portion of what we now call the New Testament. Of course, when he was writing, he did not know that his letters would continue to be read in churches for 2000 years. I like the parts of his letters that say things like, "See, I write to you in my own large handwriting!" Gal 6:11 because it really reflects his humanity. Paul's feast day is Jun 29.