St Paul's Conversion

Here is today's post from Patrick van der Vorst, seminarian at the Beda, my seminary in Rome, from his site ChristianArt.

"Today the church celebrates the Conversion of St Paul. Saul, the former instrument of terror, cruelty and persecution, becomes Paul, the chosen instrument of God. Over the centuries the Conversion of Saint Paul has always been one of the favourite topics to paint. So there is a myriad of paintings to chose from. Today I am sharing with you this painting by Pieter Breughel the Elder, as you may not be familiar with it. Breughel shows Saul's army on its way to Damascus in contemporary dress and with sixteenth-century armour and weapons. The saint himself is depicted in the centre right (to the right of the tree) in blue dress (click on picture to enlarge). He has just fallen off his horse. Bruegel places the principal figure, Saul, in the middle distance, almost lost amongst a mass of small figures. This is a familiar device he uses, intending to tease us, the viewers, and draw our eyes deep into the pictorial space in search of the principal subject. By doing so, we become part of the crowds, we become part of the picture, we become prime witnesses to the story.

As the tomb of Saint Paul is literally across the road from our seminary here in Rome, I have somehow lived with Paul for the past year and a half. Nearly every day I go to visit his tomb. Little by little I get to know him. He is a man who inspires me, a man whom I sometimes fear, someone I trust, someone I look up to, someone who challenges me, someone to offer my daily worries to… He has become very real and present to me, that’s all I can say… someone I have grown to love a great deal…

Paul’s encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus provided the catalyst for his mission to spread the Christian faith. Please pray for us seminarians especially on this Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, that he may guide us and inspire us on our own mission to ‘Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News to all creation’, as in our Gospel reading today. 

I will pray for all you Christian Art readers too, later today at the tomb of Saint Paul…"