~45-65 AD · Antioch, Turkey (departure point)
Missionary Journeys of St. Paul
A former persecutor of Christians spent twenty years crisscrossing the Mediterranean, planting churches from Syria to Spain and writing letters that became half the New Testament.
Saul of Tarsus had been present at the stoning of Stephen and was actively hunting Christians when he was knocked off his path — literally, according to Acts — on the road to Damascus around 33 AD. After his conversion, he spent roughly two decades on at least three major missionary journeys, traveling thousands of miles by foot and ship through modern-day Turkey, Greece, and Italy. He was shipwrecked, beaten, stoned, imprisoned, and run out of town repeatedly. He founded communities of believers in Corinth, Philippi, Thessalonica, Ephesus, and Galatia, among others. Then he wrote them letters. Those letters, dashed off to settle disputes about meat sacrificed to idols or arguments between church members, turned out to be some of the most influential documents ever written. Paul did not just spread Christianity geographically. He worked out what it meant theologically. His insistence that Gentiles did not need to become Jews first was the decision that turned a Jewish sect into a world religion. Without Paul, Christianity might have remained a movement within Judaism.
Why it matters
Established Christianity as a faith for all peoples, not just Jews, and produced the earliest written documents of the New Testament.
What Happened
Starting from Antioch around 45 AD, Paul embarked on a series of missionary journeys that took him across the eastern Mediterranean. He preached in synagogues first, then turned to Gentile audiences. He founded churches, trained local leaders, and moved on. When problems arose in his absence, he wrote letters — to the Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, and others. At the Council of Jerusalem around 49 AD, he successfully argued that Gentile converts did not need to be circumcised or follow the Mosaic law.
Why It Still Matters
Paul's letters make up thirteen of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament. His theology of grace, justification, and the body of Christ shapes Catholic teaching to this day. His decision to bring the gospel to Gentiles without requiring Jewish observance was the single most important strategic choice in Christian history. Every non-Jewish Christian in the world is, in a sense, a product of Paul's missionary work.