Icon of the

"Apparition of the Risen Lord to Saint Paul in the Temple"

This icon was commissioned at Mount Angel Abbey, and is enshrined in the abbey church during the jubilee year to help commemorate the second millennium of the birth of Saint Paul, formerly known as Saul of Tarsus.

The image illustrates an event that is described in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 22, verses 17-21 :

"When I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance and saw the Lord saying to me 'Make hast and get quickly out of Jerusalem, because they will not accept your testimony about me.' And I said, 'Lord, they themselves know that in every synagugue I imprisoned and beat those who believed in thee. And when the blood of Stephen thy witness was shed, I also was standing by and approving, and keeping the garments of those who killed him.' And he said to me, 'Depart; for I wil send you far away to the Gentiles.'"

This vision is significant for several reasons. First, while Saint Paul had heard the Lord's voice on the road to Damascus, and this led to his conversion, it was important that Paul actually see the Lord with his own eyes, in order to have an experience of Christ's Sacred Humanity, as well as to see the wounds he bore in his body for our sake. Paul would come to understand how he, and we, bare these wounds in our bodies along with the Lord.

Second, Saint Paul is at this time given the commission, directly from the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, to go afar off the lands of the Gentiles, and carry the Gospel to them, preaching it in season and out.

Third, as a good and pious jew, Saint Paul prayed in the Temple whenever he went up to Jerusalem. But when the Lord appeared to him there, Paul realized that it is the body of the Lord himself that is the New Temple, which, as he prophesied, was torn down and raised up again in three days. From that day forward, Paul would never again pray in the Temple of Jerusalem, but would worship God in Spirit and in Truth in the Temple of the Mystical body of the Lord Jesus Christ.