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CHAPTER XIV.
THE CONVERSION OF SAINT PAUL AND THE PART TAKEN
THEREIN BY MOST HOLY MARY; OTHER HIDDEN
MYSTERIES.
248. Our mother the Church, governed by the divine
celebrates the conversion of saint Paul as one of
Spirit,
the greatest miracles of grace for the consolation of sin
ners ; for, from a virulent and blasphemous persecutor of
the name of Christ, as saint Paul calls himself (1 Tim. 1,
13), he was changed to an Apostle obtaining mercy
through divine grace. As in obtaining it our great Queen
bore such a prominent part, this rare miracle of the Om
But its
nipotent must not be passed over in this history.
greatness can be better understood if the state of saint
Paul as a persecutor of the Church at the time of his
calling is explained, and when the causes, which induced
him to signalize himself as such a strong champion of the
law of Moses and bitter persecutor of Christ, are known.
249. Saint Paul was distinguished in Judaism for two
reasons. The one was his own character, and the other
was the diligence of the demon in availing himself of his
naturally good qualities. Saint Paul was of a disposition
generous, magnanimous, most noble, kind, active, cour
ageous and constant. He had acquired many of the
moral virtues.
He glorified in being a staunch professor
of the law of Moses, and in being studious and learned
in it ; although in truth he was ignorant of its essence, as
he himself confesses to Timothy, because all his learning
was human and terrestrial ;
like many Jews,
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he knew