On January 25 the Church commemorates the conversion of St. Paul, struck down on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-19). The persecutor of the Church became its apostle to the Gentiles; the voice that said "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" made him, in his own words, the "least of the apostles" (1 Corinthians 15:9) and yet the one who carried the Gospel furthest.
The traditional site of the vision is the Chapel of the Conversion, on the road from Jerusalem to Damascus, but the feast's principal shrine is Rome. The Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, built over the apostle's tomb on the Via Ostiense, is one of the four major basilicas. The tomb lies under the high altar, beneath a Gothic ciborium signed by Arnolfo di Cambio, and the basilica's medallions of every Pope from Peter to Francis run around the nave — a visible chain of succession that begins with the man Paul became.
Paul's chains, kept in the basilica on the feast of his conversion, are venerated each January 25. The Pauline Jubilee years close on this feast, and pilgrims who come to Rome for the day walk the same road that Paul walked to his trial — the road that began on the road to Damascus.
