Before his conversion, Saul was fervently anti-Christian. In the book of Acts, we see that Saul was present for the stoning of the first Christian martyr, Saint Stephen. In fact, Acts 8 begins with the words, “And Saul approved of their killing him.” In the fury of his zeal, he applied to the high priest and Sanhedrin for a commission to take up all Jews at Damascus who confessed Jesus Christ and bring them bound to Jerusalem, that they might serve as public examples for the terror of others. But God was pleased to show forth in him his patience and mercy: and, moved by the prayers of St. Stephen and his other persecuted servants, for their enemies, changed him, in the very heat of his fury, into a vessel of election, and made him a greater mall in his church by the grace of the apostleship, than St. Stephen has ever been, and a more illustrious instrument of his glory.  Read More