Horse? What Horse?: A Closer Look at the Conversion of St. Paul

“Now Saul, still breathing murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, that, if he should find any men or women who belonged to the Way, he might bring them back to Jerusalem in chains. On his journey, as he was nearing Damascus, a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” He said, “Who are you, sir?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Now get up and go into the city and you will be told what you must do.” The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, for they heard the voice but could see no one. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him to Damascus.”

—Acts 9

Today marks the feast of the conversion of St. Paul—famously struck down while traveling to Damascus to further his persecution of Christians. The most familiar depiction of this event is the painting by Caravaggio (shown above), which includes the horse Paul must have been riding en route.

It’s an iconic moment from scripture that has been interpreted and reinterpreted in art for centuries—and it almost always includes a horse.

[img attachment=”88892″ align=”aligncenter” size=”full” alt=”conversionStPaulEscalante” /]

[img attachment=”88893″ align=”aligncenter” size=”full” alt=”1280px-La_conversion_de_Saint_Paul_Giordano_Nancy_3018″ /]

But there’s just one problem: the account in Acts doesn’t mention Paul on horseback.

A few years ago, Hector Molina at Catholic Answers wrote that the Biblical descriptions of Paul’s blinding indicate that it happened at midday, so:

Every day at noon, pious Jewish men recited prayers while standing on their feet and facing toward Jerusalem as was their custom (see Dan. 6:10-11). As Catholic author Dr. Taylor Marshall suggests in his book: “The Catholic Perspective on Paul”, it is quite possible that Saul, the zealous Pharisee that he was, observed midday prayer on that day as he traveled along the road to Damascus. This would have meant that he was likely standing erect and facing south to Jerusalem when he was blinded by the light of Christ and fell to the ground.

Nonetheless, the horse continues to play a prominent supporting role in the story.

This morning I stumbled on this dramatic contemporary reworking of Paul’s conversion: a painting by artist Ernest Vincent Wood III that gives a new spin to this event:

[img attachment=”88897″ align=”aligncenter” size=”full” alt=”EVWIII – Conversion of St Paul” /]

The actual event was probably closer to this depiction, from a statue outside Our Lady Queen of the Universe Shrine in Orlando—one of the few I’ve seen showing the saint on his feet:

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Images: Wikipedia / evwiii.com / Deacon Greg Kandra