The Epistle (Acts of the Apostles 9. 1-22) is the account of the conversion of him who, to the Church, is the very type of apostle, whose wonderful teaching she continually puts before us. Surpassing all his equals in zeal for the Jewish law and their traditions, which he thought the cause of God, Paul became the most outrageous enemy of Christ. He was one of those who combined to murder St. Stephen and by keeping the garments of all who stoned that holy martyr, he is said by St. Austin to have stoned him by the hands of all the rest; to whose prayers for his enemies he ascribes the conversion of St. Paul. “If Stephen,” he said, “Had not prayed, the church would never have had St. Paul.” He became, the apostle who, for love of Christ, was to throw himself into the task of converting the Gentiles. “All nations,” says St. Ambrose, “were to learn through him that Jesus is the Son of God and the Savior of the world.”