In the Footsteps of Saint Paul: Missionary Journeys

Barnabas and Saul, as Paul is still called, cross southern Cyprus and reach Paphos, where the Roman proconsul Sergius Paulus is converted after Saul rebukes the sorcerer Elymas. Acts first calls him Paul here. Paphos still shows a pillar where, tradition says, Paul was tied and whipped. The ancient city of Nea Paphos is a UNESCO World Heritage site, managed as the Paphos Archaeological Park.

Location precision: The pillar is a traditional marker, not a proven spot; the pin marks Kato Paphos near it.

Visitor guidance: The Paphos Archaeological Park can be visited.

Paul's sermon in the Jewish synagogue here caused a great stir among the citizens, but the conflict that followed got him and Barnabas expelled. Below a ruined Byzantine church that claims to mark the sermon site, archaeologists found a first-century building that may have been the synagogue. The nearby Turkish town is called Yalvaç, which means Prophet.

Location precision: The synagogue is not securely identified; the pin marks the ancient city.

Visitor guidance: The site lies by the town of Yalvaç in Isparta province.

On the second journey Paul, with Silas, Timothy and possibly Luke, is believed to have preached for the first time on European soil in Philippi. Lydia, a purple textile merchant, was baptised. After Paul cast a spirit out of a servant girl, her angry masters had him and Silas jailed. A mosaic inscription identifies the Basilica of Paul in the ruins.

Location precision: The exact spots of the preaching and the jail are not known; the pin marks the excavated city.

Visitor guidance: The archaeological site can be visited.

In Athens Paul gave his Areopagus sermon, the scene in Acts 17 that led to the conversion of Dionysius the Areopagite. Scholars are unsure whether he spoke on the rocky hill or before the council in the agora below. The council likely no longer met on the hill by Paul's day, but in the agora or the Stoa Basileios, so the hill is the traditional setting.

Location precision: It is unclear whether Paul spoke on the hill itself, so the pin marks the hill as the traditional setting.

Visitor guidance: The hill is a public site in central Athens.

Paul lived in Corinth for eighteen months, working as a tentmaker with Priscilla and Aquila. Gallio, the proconsul, presided over his trial. Paul wrote both letters to the Corinthians: the first from Ephesus, the second from Macedonia. The New Testament mentions Corinth often, largely because of Paul's mission there after Caesar's refounding of the city. The ruins can be visited today.

Location precision: Acts places Paul in the city, not at one named building; the pin marks the ancient city.

Visitor guidance: The ancient city is an archaeological site near modern Corinth.

On the third journey Paul stayed in Ephesus for about three years. After three months in the synagogue he moved his base to the school of Tyrannus. He wrote 1 Corinthians from here, and Ephesus later became one of the seven churches of Asia in Revelation. The ruins lie by modern Selçuk.

Location precision: The school of Tyrannus has never been located; the pin marks the ancient city.

Visitor guidance: Ephesus is a large open-air archaeological site.

On the way to Rome as a prisoner Paul was shipwrecked on Melita, present-day Malta. The islanders showed him unusual kindness and lit a fire against the rain and cold. The town of St. Paul's Bay takes its name from the wreck, and Malta marks Paul's arrival on 10 February as a public holiday.

Location precision: Tradition ties the wreck to this bay, but the exact landing place is not proven.

Visitor guidance: St. Paul's Bay is a busy seaside town you can walk around.

Paul reached Rome about 60 AD and spent two years under house arrest, preaching from a rented home while awaiting trial. Tradition says he was buried along the Via Ostiense in land owned by a woman named Lucina. Constantine's basilica was later built over the site. His suspected tomb lies in the crypt under a slab reading PAULO APOSTOLO MART.

Location precision: The tomb is only suspected to be Paul's; the pin marks the basilica built over it.

Visitor guidance: The basilica is a working church; the tomb is below the altar.