According to the teachings of the Orthodox Church, each person in holy baptism is given a guardian angel, who throughout his life guards him from the devilish machinations and directs thoughts, directing them to fulfill God's commandments. It is believed that among those born between August 24 and September 23, guardian angels are Saints Paul, Alexander and John. We will talk about the first of them in more detail.
Memorial Day of the faithful servants of the Lord
In his earthly life, St. Paul, the guardian angel of millions of Christians, was one of the most ardent followers of the doctrine brought to the world by our Savior Jesus Christ. For his service to the Lord, he, together with his closest associate, St. Peter, was named the First Apostle. The Russian Orthodox Church celebrates their memory annually on July 12. On this day, all those whom the Lord handed over under the protection of the guardian angel - St. Paul also receive congratulations. A photo with the image of his icon opens our article.
Christian conversion
It is known that the future Supreme Apostle Paul came from a noble Jewish family of the tribe of Benjamin, and by birth could apply for Roman citizenship. Having been educated in the circle of Orthodox Jews, with age he turned into an implacable persecutor of Christians, considering them a true embodiment of evil.
But it so happened that in the year 34 (that is, after the Crucifixion and Ascension of Jesus Christ), having received God's revelation, he was filled with true faith and entered the path of apostolic ministry. Having been baptized, he changed the name Saul given to him at birth to Paul. The future guardian angel Saint Paul began fulfilling his great mission by starting to preach the Savior’s teachings in squares and synagogues. More than once the angry crowds of Jewish fanatics tried to deal with him, but each time the Lord removed the hands of the murderers from him.
Savior of perishing souls
Even in the days of his earthly life, having become a guardian angel for many people, Saint Paul made long journeys, turning them to the true faith, and thereby saving them from the darkness of eternal death. Everywhere along the way, secret Christian communities appeared, from which thousands of martyrs subsequently went out for faith, on whose blood the building of the Christian Church rose.
The constant readiness to die for the name of the Lord gave him strength and helped meekly endure sorrows and hardships, and the gift of miracles sent from above made it possible to extraordinarily brightly affect the consciousness of the pagans surrounding him. And today, looking at the icons of the guardian angel St. Paul, one cannot help but notice his inherent expression of deep spirituality and the desire for self-sacrifice for the salvation of human souls.
Martyrdom
The earthly path of the supreme apostle Paul, according to Church historians, ended in 64–67. The exact date could not be determined. There is no consensus on the circumstances of his death, it is only known that he was beheaded in Rome by a sentence imposed by the emperor Nero. The reason, according to one version, was the help provided by Paul to St. Peter in his opposition to Simon the sorcerer and the conversion of the emperor’s two beloved wives to Christ.
However, there is reason to believe that he provoked an outbreak of anger by the fact that he managed to make the chief cupbearer a Christian. In any case, the future St. Paul, as a Roman citizen, was cut off with a sword head, which at that time was a kind of privilege. If he did not have citizenship, he would have been waiting for a long and painful death on the cross.
The glorification of the holy apostle
After the martyrdom, which became a worthy end to his life's journey, the soul of the newly departed soared to the Lord, and gained eternal bliss at His Throne. The great preacher of the teachings of Christ has become for their countless people their guardian angel. St. Paul was an example of how even the most ferocious persecutor of Christians, condemned to eternal torment, can, having received absolution from his sins, become one of the pillars of true faith.
In the IV century, after the Christian faith gained official status and became the dominant religion of the Roman Empire, two cathedrals were built in honor of the supreme apostles Peter and Paul, one in the capital itself and the other in Constantinople. Since then, the celebrations dedicated to them, which took place on the Julian calendar on June 29, have become so widespread that the Mediolan Bishop Ambrose, an outstanding religious figure of that era, wrote that the whole world was taking part in them.
Helpers and defenders of the human race
Before moving on to talking about how the guardian angel Saint Paul helps those for whom he is the patron saint of heaven, let us dwell on a brief description of those celestial forces to which he was ranked by the will of the Creator. Their existence is known from the words of Jesus Christ quoted in the 18th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. Pointing to the children around Him, He said that their guardian angels were looking at the face of Heavenly Father. Their mission is to help a person in good deeds, and to keep him from evil forces.
The value of the guardian angel of St. Paul, as well as all other ethereal spirits attached to people at the time the sacrament of Baptism is performed on them, is immeasurably great. According to the teachings of the Orthodox Church, an unbaptized, and therefore deprived of the intercession of heavenly forces man is in the power of demons - fallen spirits, servants of Satan. Often it is they who, overwhelming his heart with anger and hatred for his relatives, push them to reckless actions.
At the same time, next to all the children of the Church of Christ, who have found grace in the baptismal font, the messenger of the Lord invisibly abides, protecting them, and delivering them from the attacks of the enemy of the human race. One of such heavenly messengers is the guardian angel Saint Paul. He, like other celestial warriors, does not leave a person throughout his life, unless he himself drives him away by sinful deeds and thoughts.
Testimonies of the Church Fathers
The holy righteous John of Kronstadt, an outstanding figure in the Russian Orthodox Church, who left behind a rich literary heritage, wrote at the beginning of the 20th century that if it were not for guardian angels, the human race would certainly have been destroyed by demons, whose malice towards it would not knows the boundaries. In his writings, he repeatedly emphasized that the purpose of guardian angels is to preserve and preserve people who are God's creations, and must inherit eternal life, taking the place of fallen angels.
The Holy Fathers of the Church, who have been privileged to receive the revelations of God and have preserved them in their writings, teach that the ministry of the heavenly messengers does not end with the end of the earthly life of the one to whom they are given by the Creator of all things. Their great mission continues even after having separated from the body, his soul leaves the perishable world.
On the way to the gates of eternity
How does the guardian angel Saint Paul help a dead person? First of all, by the fact that accompanies his soul all the way through the ordeal. Together with the second angel, specially sent from the Hall of Heaven, he confronts the demons who seek to entrain her into the darkness of the underworld, a list of sins committed during his lifetime. In his hands the saint holds a book with notes of all her good deeds, and if they turn out to be more weighty than previous lawlessness, then the servants of darkness in powerlessness retreat.
From the works of the Holy Fathers it is also known that the help of heavenly messengers is unusually timely and active mainly because they are related to people by spiritual proximity. Moreover, many of them, before acquiring the crown in the Kingdom of God, have gone the way of earthly life. A vivid example of this is the holy guardian angel Paul. The prayer for healing offered before him honestly possesses extraordinary power precisely because he himself once suffered all the sufferings that afflict human flesh.
Do prayers offered to the heavenly intercessor help
Despite the fact that during the days of his earthly life, the Supreme Apostle Paul didn’t have personal contact with Jesus Christ and was not able to become one of His closest disciples, for his preaching and missionary work, thanks to which the peoples who were drowned in the darkness of paganism were illuminated by the light of true faith, he is revered as one of the main pillars of Christianity.
Truly great are his merits in saving human souls. Those for whom Saint Paul was a guardian angel became inaccessible to the forces of hell. The prayers offered to him by sincerely believing people did not remain unanswered. The only indispensable condition was their sincerity and conviction of the worshipers in the omnipotence of the Lord, before whom he constantly interceded for them.
The Adoration of the Holy Apostles on the banks of the Dnieper
The veneration of St. Paul in Russia began immediately after the light of a new faith shone over it from Byzantium. It is enough to say that his image was among the first brought to Kiev by the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir, and the first church consecrated in his honor was erected there.
His closest associate, Saint Peter, did not remain unknown. Over time, a great many temples dedicated to them appeared in Russia, under the arches of which specially written prayers sounded. The icons of St. Paul - the guardian angel, as well as the Supreme Apostle Peter, from time immemorial have been a mandatory accessory of any, even the smallest, church.
The temple in Novgorod and the cathedral on the Neva
At the beginning of the 16th century, a monastery was founded in their honor on the territory of Novgorod. Two centuries later, when the new capital of the Russian state, St. Petersburg, was built on the banks of the Neva, by the will of Tsar Peter I, the Cathedral of the Supreme Apostles Peter and Paul, erected on Hare Island, became its heart - this is the official name of this magnificent building. He gave the name of the fortress that surrounded him and the whole city, which was no accident, since the Sovereign considered the holy apostles his heavenly protectors. It is characteristic that this particular cathedral was subsequently destined to become the tomb of Russian tsars and members of the august family.
The name that has become popular
The name Paul in Russia has long been widespread and in holy baptism was often given to babies who were born, not only on the days indicated for this in the holy calendar, but also in other periods. The reason was the unusually high popularity of the saint among all layers of Russian society. It is known that it was worn by many people who left a bright mark in Russian history.
Among them were Orthodox saints, such as Rev. Pavel Kamelsky, Confessor Pavel Prusiadsky, Hieromartyrs Pavel Vierai and Pavel Filitsin, as well as many other representatives of the clergy. There were high-ranking statesmen and military leaders. But more often than not, it has always been encountered among immigrants from the common people, who firmly believed in the indestructible power of the holy guardian angel Paul. The icon on which he was depicted along with another First-Apostle - St. Peter, could be seen in the princely palaces and in simple village huts.
Prayer to the holy saint of God Paul
At the end of the conversation, it will be appropriate to stop at the ancient prayer offered to the Holy Apostle Paul both on the feast dedicated to his memory, and celebrated on July 12, and on other days.
Oh, holy supreme apostle Paul, the vessel chosen by Christ, the mysteries of heaven to the storyteller, all the languages of the teacher, the church trumpet, the proverbial veil, many misfortunes for the name of Christ undergoing, measuring the sea and circling the earth and turning us around from flattery! I beg you a cry to you: do not shun the foul one, make up the fallen one with sinful laziness, as if in the Listrech of the chromago from the womb the mother reproached you; and as if Eutychus was dead, the former revived thou, resurrect and less from dead works; and as your prayer the foundation of the dungeon once shook thou, and the prisoners permitted thou, thou shalt exterminate me to do the will of God. All this authority is given by Christ God, all glory, honor and worship are appropriate for Him, with His Fatherless Father, and with the Most Holy and Good and His Life-giving Spirit, now and ever and ever. Amen.
Its text is presented above. Printed in Church Slavonic in a modern font, it is not difficult to understand.
In this prayer, St. Paul is called the "vessel of God" and the "Orthodox Vitius." These and their accompanying metaphors emphasize the merits of the chief apostle in the affirmation of Christ's faith and the conversion of pagans to it. Further, prayers addressed to him for help in overcoming spiritual weaknesses that prevent a person from finding grace in the Kingdom of God follow. The prayer ends with an expression of confidence in the omnipotence of the saint, granted to him by the Heavenly Father.