This feast is purely Western; it is neither celebrated in the East nor was it kept in the Latin Church of Africa. Its date falls within the octave of the ancient feast of the Chair of Saint Peter in Rome, a Gallican-origin feast, which suggests that today’s celebration has a different origin.
The Martyrologium Hieronymianum announces it with the words: “Romae translatio sancti Pauli” (“At Rome, the translation of Saint Paul”). Some scholars think that conversio (conversion) may have been an interpretation—intentional or not—of translatio. But the idea of a transfer of Saint Paul’s body on January 25 is a puzzle for historians.
Be that as it may, by the 6th century the title conversio sancti Pauli was already in use, and the Latin Church came to celebrate on this day the conversion of Saul at the gates of Damascus. The Roman Martyrology notes that this took place in the second year after the Ascension, though most modern chronologists do not consider this dating reliable.
