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Consider this an exercise in getting an assignment in under the wire. For the rest of this week, it is still the Year of St. Paul. (St. Paul is a worthy man to have a year for, but do you get the feeling that from now until the Second Coming the folks in the Vatican will declare every year to be the Year of X?) So, in honor of the Apostle to the Gentiles, I have decided to transcribe the major events of his life. In the Patriarchal Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls (also known as the Ostian Basilica), there are 36 paintings that depict the life of St. Paul. They begin with scene #1 (Saul’s participation in the martyrdom of St. Stephen) to the immediate right of the apse and line the nave down the right side, cross the middle, and line the left side of the nave until scene #36, the martyrdom of St. Paul, which is to the immediate left of the apse. In other words, the apse of the church is flanked by the martyrdom of St. Stephen, to which St. Paul consented, to the right and the martyrdom of St. Paul to the left. The entire story of St. Paul’s conversion is defined by these two acts of witness. There is a side-chapel to St. Stephen (below the relevant painting?); I have read that St. Augustine attributed St. Paul’s conversion to the prayers of St. Stephen.
But I digress. Below I have recorded the Latin captions that accompany each painting. Except for the last few scenes, I have included the passage from the Acts of the Apostles that narrates the event in question (#18 is particularly choice). I’ll try to provide some English translations later on, but enjoy cutting your teeth on the Latin for the time being!
1. Saulus erat consentiens neci. Acta Apostolorum 8:1-3
2. Ego sum Iesus quem tu persequeris. 9:1-9
3. Dominus misit me ut implearis Spiritu Sancto. 9:10-18
4. Saulus visum recepit et surgens baptizatus est. 22:12-16
5. Praedicabat et confundebat Iudaeos Damasci. 9:19-21
6. Per fenestram in sportam dimissus sum. 9:22-25
7. Barnabas apprehensum Paulum duxit ad Apostolos. 9:26-30
8. Imponentes eis manus dimiserunt illos. 13:1-3
9. Sergius cum vidisset factum Eliimae credidit. 13:5-12
10. Sedaverunt turbas ne sibi immolarent. 14:8-18
11. Traxerunt extra civitatem existimantes mortuum esse. 14:19-20
12. In Troade visio per noctem ostensa est. 16:8-10
13. Praecipio tibi in nomine Iesu Christi exire ab ea. 16:11, 16-18
14. Scissis tunicis eorum virgis caesi sunt. 16:19-24
15. Crede in Deum et salvus eris tu et domus tua. 16:25-34
16. Quod ignorantes colitis hoc ego annuntio vobis. 17.22-31
17. Manebat in Corintho apud Aquilam et Priscillam. 18.1-4
18. Contulerunt libros et combusserunt coram omnibus. 19.1, 11-12, 18-19
19. Nolite turbari anima enim ipsius ipso est. 20.7-12
20. Procumbentes super collum Pauli osculabantur. 20.17-38
21. Virum cuius est zona haec sic alligabunt Iudaei. 21.10-14.
22. Narrabat quae Deus fecisset per ministerium ipsius. 21.17-25
23. Trahebant eum extra Templum. 21.26-30
24. Stans in gradibus annuit manu ad plebem. 21:40; 22:1-5, 17-21
25. Hominem Romanum et indemnatum licet vobis flagellare. 24.22-29
26. Constans esto sic te oportet et Romae testificari. 23:11
27. Audiam te cum accusatores tui venerint. 23:34-35; 24:22027
28. Amissio nullius erit ex vobis praeterquam navis. 25:9-12; 27:15-20, 37-39; 28:1
29. Escutiens viperam nihil mali passus est. 28:3-6
30. Cum imposuisset manus patri Publii salvavit eum. 28:7-10.
31. Occurrerunt nobis usque ad Forum Apii. 28:12-15
32. Docens quae sunt de Domino Iesu Christo. 28:16-20, 30-31
33. Raptus ad coelum audivit arcana verba. 2 Cor. 12.1-5
34. Custodes ad fidem conversi baptizati sunt. Acta Sanctorum, Iulii die 2, 270b-c
35. Et cognoverunt gratiam Dei. Acta Beatorum Petri et Pauli 5.24
36. Reposita est mihi corona iustitiae. Acta Beatorum Petri et Pauli 79-80, 87-88
St. Louis-Marie de Montfort,
Pope St. Pius X,
St. Joseph,
St. Ambrose of Milan,
St. Thomas Aquinas,
St. Francis (and St. Clare),
St. Catherine of Siena,
St. Alphonsus Ligouri,
St. John Chrysostom,
Thank you, Bonifacius, for transcrbing the captions. I have planned to visit this major Roman basilica some time during one of my several visits to the City, but I have yet to do so. You have helped me to make a visit to it of sorts.
The citation for painting 25 above should be Acts 22:25, and the caption should be a question, and not a statement, i.e., “[si] hominem Romanum et indemnatum licet vobis flagellare?”
It is wonderful how God used Paul’s Roman citizenship to help spread the Gospel.
Thanks, Peregrine. I can explain why the caption for #25 appears the way it does. I have transcribed it as it appears in Rome, where there is no question mark and no “si.” The mistaken citation from Acts is the one provided on the poster I have, which provides pictures of each painting with its caption. I do not vouch for any of the citations and do not have time to verify them.
You also make a very good point about how God made use of St. Paul’s Roman citizenship. The evangelist and apologist Adam Miller (of Tower of David Ministry) notes in one of his books that the Acts of the Apostles begins with Pentecost in Jerusalem and ends with St. Paul under house arrest in Rome. The story of Acts thus is the transferal of the seat of Christianity from Jerusalem to Rome.
Miller’s observation is an interesting one. One must keep in mind, however, that Peter, and not Paul, “transferred” the seat of Christianity to Rome, so to speak, if one means by “seat” the capital or chief bishopric.
Right, but Miller was advancing a strictly Scriptural argument for the supremacy of Rome that would make sense to a “sola Scriptura” Protestant. He based this particular argument on the Book of Acts, which charts St. Paul’s path to Rome, not St. Peter’s. One way or another, the story of Acts is the story of a journey from Jerusalem, the seat of the Old Covenant, to Rome, the seat of the New Covenant.