whom a small island
on the coast of Vennes is called Enes-Caduad. St. Cadoc flourished in
the beginning of the sixth century, and was succeeded in the abbacy of
Llan-carvan, by Ellenius, "an excellent disciple of an excellent
master," says Leland. See the Acts of St. Cadoc, in Capgrave; Usher's
Antiquities, c. 13, p. 252. Chatelain's Notes on the. Martyr. p. 399.

JANUARY XXV.

THE CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL.

See Tillemont, t. 1, p. 192.

THIS great apostle was a Jew, of the tribe of Benjamin. At his
circumcision, on the eighth day after his birth, he received the name of
Saul. His father was by sect a Pharisee, and a denizen of Tarsus, the
capital of Cilicia: which city had shown a particular regard for the
cause of the Caesars; on which account Cassius deprived it of its
privileges and lands; but Augustus, when conqueror, made it ample amends
by honoring it with many new privileges, and with the freedom of Rome,
as we read in the two Dions and Appian. Hence St. Paul, being born at
Tarsus, was by privilege a Roman citizen, to which quality a great
distinction and several exemptions were granted by the laws of the
empire.[1] His parents sent him young to Jerusalem, where he was
educated and instructed in the strictest observance of the law of Moses,
by Gamaliel,[2] a learned and noble Jew, and probably a member of the
Sanhedrim; and was a most scrupulous observer of it in every point. He
appeals even to his enemies to bear evidence how conformable to it his
life had been in every respect.[3] He embraced the sect of the
Pharisees, which was of all others the most severe, though by its pride
the most opposite to the humility of the gospel.[4] It was a rule among
the Jews that all their children were to learn some trade with their
studies, were it but to avoid idleness, and to exercise the body, as
well as the mind, in something serious.[5] It is therefore probable that
Saul learned in his youth the trade which he exercised even after his
apostleship, of making tents.[6]

Saul, surpassing all his equals in zeal for the Jewish law and their
traditions, which he thought the cause of God, became thereby a,
blasphemer, a persecutor, and the most outrageous enemy of Christ.[7] 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;[8] to whose prayers for
his enemies he ascribes {217} t